Two Journeys

God has set before each individual Christian and each Christian church two infinite journeys. The internal journey of sanctification or growth in holiness and godliness, little by little becoming more and more conformed to the image of Christ, imitating him in every way. The external journey of worldwide gospel advance, of making disciples to the ends of the earth. We are to glorify God by making progress in each of these journeys until the day the Lord takes us out of this world. This is what we are to do, this is what the Lord left us in this place to do.

And you see both of these infinite journeys in the text, this famous text that we're looking at today. The internal journey is in the words “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Any of you that knows how comprehensive are those commands, you know that that's an infinite journey of growing more and more conformed to Christ in the pattern of his laws, in the pattern of his commands. We'll be doing that until the day we die. And then the external journey is in this Great Commission of going to the ends of the earth and preaching the gospel and making disciples of all nations. Now, you've heard all that before, you're gonna hear it again from this pulpit and from other forms of ministry in this church. This is what we are to do.

For me personally, this is an exciting morning, this is my 152nd sermon in the gospel of Matthew. I wouldn't know that except that Tom Knight told me that. So thank you, Tom, for doing that calculation for me. Praise God for that. I am grateful for the journey. I began preaching in the Gospel of Matthew December 20th, 1998. Now, those of you that are newcomers to the church, no, that's not all I've been doing for the last 15 years from the pulpit. In which case, you would all be rejoicing 10 times as much that this was my last sermon in the gospel of Matthew, and excited about another biblical text coming up. But it's been an incredible journey as we have looked at this, and I think what a fitting end to this glorious gospel, ending in, I think, probably the most famous verses in the gospel of Matthew, although the Lord's Prayer is probably close, maybe better known, but certainly the most influential of all of the verses that Matthew penned, the Great Commission.

All of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, end in some version of the Great Commission. The book of Acts begins with a version of the Great Commission. The Lord intends to send us, to send his church, to the ends of the earth, empowering us with his Spirit, making disciples until the end of time. And that's what we have in front of us today.

My desire is to use just a careful going through this text to unleash individuals into patterns of service that the Lord has prepared for them to do. For we are his workmanship and we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance that we should walk in them. And I want this church, FBC, to be a launching pad for world missions. I want us to be active, aggressively active, in challenging the boundaries of Satan's dark kingdom and seeing the advancement of the kingdom of the beloved Son, and I want each of us to be involved in that. I don't want any of us to have any regrets concerning the Great Commission on Judgment Day when at last we give an account for our lives. And so may God use this sermon, may God use again these incredible verses, to unleash us into patterns of ministry for his name's sake.

And we begin by looking at the foundation for the Great Commission, the finished work of Christ, and we come to the end of the Gospel of Matthew. And I wanna give you a bit of an overview of the Gospel as a whole, as I generally do when I come to the end. The overarching theme of the gospel of Matthew is the King of the kingdom of heaven. We focus on Jesus, it's about Jesus, but it's also about this recurring idea of the kingdom of heaven that we have again and again. Jesus is the King of the kingdom of heaven. And so, the beginning of Jesus' preaching ministry in Matthew 4:17, it says, “From that time on, Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” And so the kingdom comes with a claim on us as human beings, as sinners, calling on us to repent and to believe the good news. 

The Gospel gives us, the Gospel of Matthew gives us the purpose statement for Jesus coming into the world. In Matthew 1:21, Joseph was told this by the angel: “She, Mary, will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” That's why Jesus came into the world, to save his people from their sins. Much later in Matthew, in Matthew 20:28, Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

And so as the gospel unfolds more and more, we see Jesus Christ presented as the King of the kingdom of heaven. It begins with the shortest genealogy in the Bible. In Matthew 1:1, it says, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” And so right away, Jesus is presented as the fulfillment of the Davidic promises, that he is the King in the Davidic pattern, he is the fulfillment of all the promises made to David. He is the King of David's throne. He's also a son of Abraham, he is the fulfillment of all that God was doing in the Jewish people, and so he's presented that way. After that comes a longer genealogy with 42 names, not as long as Luke's genealogy, which has 76 names, but all of that's establishing the right to rule. Jesus has the right to be the King.

He is presented by the angel, predicted by the angel, to Joseph. His purpose is given, as I've already given to you, then he's presented to the Magi as the King, they came to worship him as the King of the Jews, and they gave him those gifts. And then he is persecuted by Herod, as Herod unleashes the power of the state, the power of his soldiers to try to kill him, and God protects him, but many suffer and die as a result of the birth of Jesus at that time. And then he's presented and proclaimed by John the Baptist as John came baptizing and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven from the desert and getting ready for the coming of Jesus.

And then he is predicted by the prophets as one prediction after another is lifted up for us again and again in Matthew's gospel. The life in the ministry of Jesus is lined up against scriptures, and it's saying, “This happened to fulfill the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah,” etcetera. Again and again, the predictions of the Old Testament. Jesus is the one that fulfills all prophecy, everything pointing toward Christ.

And then he is proved by his miracles and by his teaching, the signs and wonders, a river of signs and wonders done establishing the credentials of Jesus as the King of the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 4:23 and following, it says, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, the epileptics and the paralytics, and he healed them all.” We have these summary statements of huge populations coming to Jesus and he healed them all. There has never been a wonder worker, a miracle worker like Jesus. A river of miracles, signs and wonders pointing to the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

And then we have his amazing teachings. Just no one ever taught like this man. I love it in another gospel where they send some men to arrest Jesus and they come back starstruck and dumbfounded and empty-handed. Do you remember? And his enemies said, “Where is he? Didn't you go to arrest him?” And they said, “No one ever spoke like this man.” And they're so frustrated. “What? Has he captivated you too?” “Yeah, he has, he's captivated us by his incredible teachings.” He taught them as one who had authority and not as the teachers of the law. We have the magnificent Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the Beatitudes. Most important one, right from the beginning, “Blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” You want the kingdom of heaven? Then just be a spiritual beggar. Know yourself to be destitute. You have nothing to offer. You are poor and destitute because of your sins, and God is willing to give it to you free. He's willing to give you the kingdom for free. If you'll just beg him for it, he will give it to you.

And then from there, he unfolds the magnificent teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, and then we have later in the gospel the parables that Jesus taught. The parables of the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of heaven is like... It's a man who went out to sow seed, or it's like a great net that was let down into the lake, or it's about a woman that mixes flour into a large amount of dough, all these marvelous parables that end up dividing people. Some people think he's insane, they don't make any sense of it. But others, they get it, they get the insights because God has granted it to them to understand what he is saying. Magnificent teachings.

And then he began to prepare his disciples. He began to get them ready and to shape them and mold them and send them out, calling disciples to follow him. Twelve he designated to be apostles, and he trained them to preach and to heal and to drive out demons and to raise the dead. And he sent them out in Matthew 10, and they go out and they preach and they begin to advance the gospel, and they come back and he trains them and shapes them and gets them ready. And he reveals himself to them fully and they understand in the words of Peter, Simon Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus says, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”

And then he prepares them for suffering. If they're gonna advance the Gospel, they need to be willing to suffer. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” What would it profit someone to gain the whole world and lose their soul? Or what would someone give in exchange for his soul? And so he gets them ready, and he gets them ready for the end of the world. In Matthew 24 and 25, he gets them ready for the second coming of Christ and for Judgment Day. In Matthew 25, it says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory and all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he's gonna put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And in the end, he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ He will say to those on his right, to the sheep, ‘Welcome, you who are blessed, into the eternal kingdom prepared since the foundation of the world by your Father.” And so he gets them ready for Judgment Day and for all of these things.

And then, and then he goes and pays for it. He goes up to Jerusalem and he suffers many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and then he's turned over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. And in this way, he gives his life, as we've already said, as a ransom for many. He laid down his life; he suffered in our place. As we've studied very carefully, while Jesus was up on the cross, he cried out “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” And Jesus stood in our place and he took our penalty, he took our punishment because of that great exchange that the Apostle Paul made so clear later on. God made him, Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And so he suffered and died under the wrath of God. And at the moment that he died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

And the book of Hebrews makes it plain that by that, we have a new and living way opened up for us into the presence of a holy God. And we have a holy God now saying, “Come and draw near to me to the throne of grace, that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” And so as a result of his death, we now have an open way into the presence of a holy God.

But God did not leave him dead, he didn't leave him in the grave. On the third day, God raised him from the dead, and we've been celebrating that in the last few weeks, the resurrection accounts. The women go early on the first day, long before it's dawn, to prepare a corpse, but they don't find a corpse. Instead an angel comes down from heaven, radiant, bright-shining like lightning, and he goes to the tomb, and he moves this boulder completely away, and he sits on it, and the guards shook with fear and became like dead men. And then he says to the women, “Fear not, for I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he is risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen.”

And as they're on their way, they have the greatest evidence of the resurrection, a personal encounter with the living Christ. And they see him and they run up and they grab hold of him. I picture them falling on the ground and grabbing hold of his feet. And he says to them, “Greetings.” Good morning, how are you? It's so good to see you. Hello. Greetings. And then he says, “Fear not, but go and tell my brothers to go ahead of me into Galilee. There they will see me.” That's the review. I would have done more, but you can listen to the 152 sermons if you'd like, they're online.

But we come now to the actual final words in this gospel. “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. And when they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” So we have the eleven apostles. Now, of course, Judas has committed suicide, so he is dead. The eleven that are left obey and they go to Galilee to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. They are, humanly speaking, going to be the foundation of the church that Jesus Christ will build. As it says in Ephesians 20, “The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” 

And so they make the trip up to Galilee, it's the very thing that Jesus had predicted would happen in Matthew 26 the night before he was crucified. He said, “This very night, you will all fall away on account of me. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” It's the very thing he had predicted he would do, and it's the very thing the angel told them to do. “Go to Galilee,” and there they will see Jesus.

That was their home base where they were from, it's where they first met Jesus, they had their first encounters with him there. As they were fishing by the Sea of Galilee, four of them, Peter, John, James, and Andrew, and they were casting nets into the lake, for they were fishermen, and Jesus passing by said, “Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men.” And so now the time has come, they've had their training, they've had their preparation, their sins have been paid for, they have resurrection power, they're going to receive the power of the Holy Spirit poured out on them.

And now he's gonna give them his commission to do precisely that, to be fishers of men to the ends of the earth. And that's what it is.

But the fundamental issue here is worship. It says, “When they saw him, they worshipped him.” And so again, they're just on their faces, they're just in awe of Jesus. And frankly, isn't that the whole point of everything anyway? It is that we can be instruments of the living God to seek true worshippers who will worship the Lord in spirit and truth, for they are the kind the Father is seeking, John 4. The Father is actively seeking people to worship him. He sent his Son into the world to seek and to save the lost, and the essence of their salvation is that they've turned away from sin and self to the living God to worship him forever. And so the purpose of the Great Commission is worship, as John Piper made it very plain in Let The Nations Be Glad. The ultimate end is not missions; it's worship. When all of God's people are worshipping up in heaven, missions will be done, we won't need it anymore, but worship is eternal.

And so the point is just an advancing kingdom of worshippers, worshippers, more and more worshipers. So they go to the mountain and let's just worship now, amen, and so they worship the resurrected Christ, they worship him. And yet some doubted. Isn't that amazing? “When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.” I'm not trying to be disrespectful to us when I say this, what poor building materials the Lord uses to build his church. Amen. Poor building materials, low quality. We are the bruised reeds that he will not break, we are the smoldering wicks he will not snuff out, and yet they're there and they're worshipping and they're doubting, and they're not sure what they see. Luke's gospel speaks more about these doubts. It says, “While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ And they were startled and frightened thinking they saw a ghost. And Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you troubled and why do doubts rise up in your minds?’” You're doubting the evidence of your own eyes.

And so he has to give them many convincing proofs that he's alive. As it says in Acts 1:3, he saw them over a period of 40 days and gave them many, I like the translation, “infallible proofs.” Convincing proofs. Like this one in Luke 24, “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. And when he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it for joy and amazement... “ That's the quintessential, it's-too-good-to-be-true moment in the Bible. It's just too good to be true that Jesus could have defeated death, and so they couldn't believe because of joy and amazement.

And while they're struggling with that, he says, “Do you have anything here to eat?” And the best they can do is broiled fish. How much better it's going to be in the kingdom of heaven. Come and talk to me about that privately afterwards. But he takes it and he eats it, proving he has an actual physical body. Many infallible proofs. Who was there at that time? I don't know. But could it be that this is the time where 500 people saw him like Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15? Five hundred eyewitnesses. So I don't think it's just the 11 that are there, I think there might have been a mountain of people seeing him, 500 people with the evidence, and this is the foundation. This is the foundation of the Great Commission, the finished work of Jesus Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ, that is the mission.

So now let's talk about the authority for the commission, overcoming all obstacles. Look at verse 18. “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’” Now, what is authority? Authority is the right, the God-given right, to command. All true authority comes from God, as Romans 13 teaches us. So it is the right to command, that's what authority is. Now in our day and age, and frankly in every day and age, we sinners struggle against authority. We don't like it. But the fact is, it's the best news there has ever been. We are entering a kingdom and there is a King, and his laws are good, and he is good, and he is our provider and our protector, our benefactor. And it is a good thing that we are entering, we are living in a kingdom. 

And so he has this authority. Now, this initial message of authority should be understood in two lights. First, the overarching theme of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is the King of the kingdom of heaven. And so we should understand that as his right to rule. More on that in a moment. He is not a usurper, he has the right to rule. Secondly, we should understand the authority of Jesus as necessary to overcome all the obstacles to the spread of his kingdom. So he has all authority to advance his kingdom. And we're going to need it. We'll talk more about that in a moment. I wanna talk briefly about five facets of Christ's authority that flow from this text.

First, it is a submissive authority. It is a submissive authority. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” Do you see it? So Jesus doesn't speak as one who has independent authority from God the Father. There is no such thing. He received his authority from his Heavenly Father. As we saw in Gethsemane, Jesus is perfectly submissive to the will of the Father. Perfectly submissive. He said in Matthew 26, 39, “My Father, if it is possible for this cup to be taken away, may it be removed. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” That is a submissive man. He is perfectly submissive to the will of his Father.

So now also Jesus' authority is a submissive authority, he is submissive to the King of the universe who is Almighty God his Father. And so he has received this authority from the Father and he's going to use it to bring everything back to the Father and make it submissive to the Father. As Paul teaches in I Corinthians 15:24-28. Paul writes this, “Then the end will come when he, Jesus, hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion authority and power. For he, Jesus, must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he ‘has put everything under his feet.’ Now, when it says that ‘everything’ has been put under him, Jesus, it is clear this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When Jesus, he, Jesus has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.”

So since the fall, since Satan's rebellion and human rebellion, the universe has been like a fragmentation grenade blown out, scattered away from the Father. Jesus is bringing everything back under the authority of the Father so that God may be all in all. So this is a submissive authority that he has, he's on mission from the Father.

Secondly, it's an absolute authority over all of creation, “all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” That's everything, friends. That's everything. Every created being is under Jesus. How awesome is that? Meditate on that. “All authority in heaven and earth…” That reminds me of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Reminds me also of Colossians 1:15-16, speaking of Jesus, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him, and for him. He is before all things.” So this is comprehensive authority Jesus has.

So Jesus, especially, rules over spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. He rules over Satan and his demons. He's in authority over them. Satan is called “the ruler of this age” or “the god of this world.” These kinds of titles that scripture gives to him. He has tremendous power over his slaves who are slaving him or serving him in sin and death. But by dying and rising again, Hebrews 2 tells us that Jesus has destroyed him, Satan, who held the power of death. And has freed those who, all their lives, were held in slavery by their fear of death. He set us free, and he has destroyed the king of that dark realm.

Jesus also rules, not only over all heavenly forces, but he rules over all earthly forces as well. That's every government, every human institution. Jesus rules over them all. He's sovereign over every one of them. There is not a political or military or religious or educational power on earth that can stop the spread of the gospel. I love what Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘mine!’” he owns it all. It's his by right. So we should keep in mind that every part of this planet belongs to Jesus Christ. He is not the usurper, Satan is. And his satanic puppets, sitting on thrones in communist countries or Muslim countries or atheistic countries that use their power and authority to forbid the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ and make it illegal, they are the ones who are illegal. Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth, and he will take over everything. So when Saudi rulers make Christianity, the spread of Christianity, illegal in Riyadh or in Mecca or Medina, it is not Jesus who is the usurper there. We should not have any pangs of conscience about these things. Now, there's obviously a lot of suffering that has to go in reclaiming some of these dark places, but we are not the usurpers. When a communist government in Asia makes house churches illegal, we should have no pangs of conscience concerning this. The usurpers are those who would stop the spread of the gospel, they are the puppets.

We should not say, “Well, it's their country. They can make the rules.” When an educational institution sets up policies and threatens lawsuits and makes it difficult for Christian workers to spread the gospel on their campus, it's not Christianity that's the usurper, they are the usurpers. Oddly enough, most of those institutions were begun as seminaries. So who's the usurper there? Just know history friends. Just look them up. Go and find out why Harvard was started, or Yale was started, or Princeton was started, or Duke was started. Just find out why and you'll know. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me,” said Jesus.

Number three, this gives us as Christians reason for obedience concerning this Great Commission. The authority of Jesus overcomes the obstacles of the church. Psalm 110 says, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Verse 2, “The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, you will rule in the midst of your enemies... “ Listen to Psalm 110:3, “Your troops will be willing in the day of your battle.” Are we? Are we willing in the day of Jesus' battle? Are we willing to take part in the advance of his kingdom, the spread of his scepter from Zion out?

Two things we should keep in mind when we come to the Great Commission. Jesus has the right to tell us what to do with our lives. And Jesus has made a promise to be with us every step of the way. And so your stuff isn't your stuff, your life isn't your life, your money isn't your money, your education isn't yours to do with as you please. Jesus has the right to command you. So look at the link. Look at it. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” Because of that authority.

Insight number four on authority: the center of the message. The center of the message is the authority of Jesus. That's the message we're bringing. We're preaching Christ as King. It's the essence of the gospel that we're preaching. And so at the core of it comes a different, perhaps slightly different, understanding of a beautiful invitation verse in Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” What's the next part? “Take my yoke upon you.” Take my yoke upon you. What is that yoke? It is submission to his kingly authority. He has the right to command you. He's saying, stop fighting me, stop rebelling against me, stop being stiff-necked. Take that neck and yield to my yoke. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

John said the same thing in I John, “His commands are not burdensome, they are delightful.” His commands are wonderful. Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself, those are his commands. They are delightful. So take his kingly yoke upon you. That's the message we're taking to the ends of the earth.

And then fifthly, we have a guarantee, with this statement, “all authority in heaven and earth,” we have a guarantee of ultimate success. And we'll need it too, won't we? It's a difficult journey that's still ahead of us but we have a guarantee of worldwide success. Because all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus, this Great Commission cannot possibly fail. Isaiah 14:26-27 says, “This is the plan determined for the whole world, this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back?”

There's not a single elect person, chosen by God before the foundation of the world, who will fail to hear the gospel with faith, repent, believe, and enter the kingdom, not one. They're all going to hear, and they're all going to repent, and they're all going to come and Jesus is gonna raise them up on the last day. For he says in John Chapter 6:37-39, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.” We're gonna succeed. We're on the winning team. We're gonna win, we're gonna win. I think that's awesome.

And what it means is that Jesus, he, Revelation 3, he's one who holds the keys in his hand. And what he opens, no one can shut. What he shuts, no one can open. So when he opens the door for ministry, no one can shut it. He has that kind of power. So what does that mean? It means, it could be a town, it could be an institution of higher learning, a college, could be a university, could be a country, a closed country. The king's heart is like a watercourse in the hands of the Lord. He directs it whichever way he pleases. And so the king is gonna make decisions that will help the gospel, even though they hate the gospel.

Now, you may scratch your head and say, “How could that be?” It just is, it's been going on for centuries. And he is just turning hearts whatever way he chooses to advance his gospel. We're going to win friends, we're going to win. Now, the key question is, for the church, see the kings, those hate-filled opposers of Christianity, God is turning them against their will to help Christianity. We should love and embrace this commission and do it out of joy and delight not out of obligation. Jesus said, “If you love me you'll obey what I command.”

And what is the goal of the commission? It is to make disciples for Jesus. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” So the goal of the Great Commission is to make disciples. A disciple is a dedicated follower or learner of a master.

The beginning of that relationship is repentance and faith. As they repent and believe the good news, they become disciples of Jesus. And that discipleship relationship is deep and rich and full, it's more than being a pupil in a class. It's a whole life transformation. It's people leaving the tax collector's booth or the fishing nets and following Jesus and having no place to lay their head and just saying, “I wanna be like you.” And being just totally transformed by Jesus.

The command is plain for us, “Go into all the world and make disciples.” Now, the central verb here is “make disciples,” the “going” is the participle that supports it. So as you are going, make disciples. So everyday life you could be making disciples. Everyday life disciple-making is generally called evangelism. There's no cultural barrier you have to cross, there's no language you have to learn, you just have to have the courage to share your faith with other people that are of your same language and culture. And there'll always be more of that to do. And that's vital, evangelism.

But there's also implied, go into all the earth: missions. And that has to do with something else. That has to do with crossing cultural barriers. Learning languages. Taking the gospel across those barriers to people who cannot understand any other way. That's what we call mission. Usually, not always, but usually you have to get on a plane to do it or some transportation to bring you to a distant place. So we have a distant vision, to the ends of the earth, for making disciples. And that's what we call missions.

And notice that this discipleship is church-based. I say that as a church pastor, but I think baptism implies that. Most parachurch groups do not baptize. We understand this is a church ordinance, this is how you become a member of a local church. So you make disciples and you baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so I think parachurch ministries are phenomenal. I was brought to faith in Christ through Campus Crusade for Christ. But they didn't baptize me, a church did. And so that's something that we, I think, embrace. The International Mission Board of Southern Baptists embrace church planting. We're not just trying to make converts, we're not just trying to make people who pray a sinner's prayer or something like that. We're trying to plant churches and establish those churches in the ordinances like baptism and the Lord's supper.

Notice, also, I think the Baptistic conviction of a certain chronological sequencing here, you make disciples, baptizing them, and then teaching them to obey everything. And so first they become disciples of Jesus, then they get water baptism, and then they get comprehensive life training. So we would not reverse the order, we wouldn't have baptism first and then later they become disciples of Christ. So I think first, they become believers and then they are baptized.

And then this discipleship is comprehensive. It is wrong for any mission agency to say, “We do not have time for careful meticulous Bible teaching. There are souls being lost every day.” You hear this kind of thing. You run around mission circles enough, you hear this kind of thing, “We don't have time for that. For the precision and the minutiae of doctrine. We need to save people.” Friends, they need to go back and read the Great Commission. Because part of it is a meticulous teaching of a whole life observation of everything Christ has commanded.

So what all has Christ commanded? How long do you have? Is it true that all of the commands, the times that the apostle Paul or apostle Peter urges something on their readers, that Christ is commanding us? Is it Christ that's commanding us in Ephesians 4:2, “Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love”? I think so; Paul would say so. So we've got comprehensive learning to do.

Therefore, every healthy church must have a comprehensive teaching ministry. Careful preaching from the word, careful teaching of disciples, we do not shrink away from proclaiming anything that's true and helpful and Biblical. We know there are central doctrines and lesser doctrines, we understand that. So we'll preach the central ones as pillar doctrines, but we're gonna try to teach everything the Bible says. 

And notice that we're not just trying to teach for an information dump. What we wanna do is we're teaching for life transformation. We want people to obey everything Christ has commanded. And so elders must shepherd toward obedience, shepherd toward life transformation. It's not enough just that we dump the information. People need to have their lives changed or transformed. This is where I would try to maybe shrink away from the verb, “observe,” “teaching them to observe everything commanded.” English has changed some since the KJV era. “Observe” means, “I'm aware of it.” That's what it means now for us. It wasn't that way back in the 17th century, but for us, I like “obey.” “Teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded.” 

And what is the extent of the commission? Well we're going to the ends of the earth, and we're going to the end of the age. “Go and make disciples of all nations … and surely I will be with you always, even to the very end of the age.” Now, what I have here are three pages of Old Testament verses that talked about how God always intended to save the entire world. There you go. Come afterwards and talk to me and I'll share with you some of those things. How from the very beginning, God intended this gospel to bless all families of nations on earth. He called Abraham in Genesis 12:3, to that, he said to Jesus in Isaiah, “It is too small a thing for you to save the Jews only. I will make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” This has always been what God intended.

And it's going to go to the end of time, because he says, “Surely I'll be with you always, even to the very end of the age.” This isn't just for the apostles, this is for all of us.

And what is the power of the commission? This one statement, “And surely, I will be with you. I am with you. I'll be with you every step of the way.” This is, it must certainly be linked with Acts 1:8, “You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” He is the Spirit of Christ. And by the Spirit of Christ, Jesus is with us to the end of the age.

It's the very promise that God gave to Moses when Moses didn't wanna go to Pharaoh, remember? Kept saying, “Oh, please send someone else.” I love it when he says, “Oh Lord, send the one you choose.” That's a Hebraism for “Someone else, not me.” Alright? I have chosen you. And he says to him, “I will be with you.” And it's a fascinating exchange there. Remember how he says, “Who am I? Who am I that I should go and speak to Pharaoh?” And the answer is, “I will be with you,” which, if you really think about it carefully, he didn't answer the question. Who is Moses that he should go to Pharaoh? Oh, he answered the question; it doesn't matter who you are. It's never mattered who you are, what matters is who I am. And I am the I am. And I will be with you.

And Jesus says the same thing to us. You can look inward and say, “I can't go to a closed country, I can't go to a Muslim nation in the 10/40 window, I can't go to some hostile people group in India or in China. I can't go, I mean, who am I?” It's never been about who you are, it's been about this one thing, surely I will be with you always by the power of the Holy Spirit. So let me say something that I said to my Sunday School class, Bible for Life class.

The two infinite journeys are linked, they're just, they're linked. You wanna make progress in the internal journey? Embrace the external journey. If you detach yourself from evangelism and missions, you'll stop growing very much. If you wanna really know Christ, then step up into the suffering and the labor and the sacrifice that the Great Commission calls for.

Philippians Chapter 3, the apostle Paul said, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Could it be that the reason we know him so little, in his resurrection power, is that we risk so little of his death on the cross? Could it be we don't know him like Paul did because we're shrinking back from suffering?

And what is the status of the Great Commission? Where do we stand? Well, I got a bunch of statistics here, I'm gonna go to my favorite one. According to the IMB's research wing, there are 3,100 unengaged people groups. Now, a people group is defined, generally, by language, somewhat, by culture, it's the biggest group that the gospel can travel without hitting a significant barrier or a boundary, linguistically and culturally. That's a people group. There are about, either, between 11,000 and 16,000 of them in the world. There are only 3,100 un-engaged. There's nothing going on amongst them, no church being planted, no mission agency working with them, 3100.

That may seem like a large number, but there are perhaps as many as 700 million evangelical Christians in the world. So that means each unengaged people group could have 250,000 Christians dedicated to reaching them. Or, I like this one: There are 4.5 million Christian congregations in the world. If you divide 4.5 million by 3,100, you get about 1,500 congregations per unreached people group. So all we have to do is go find about 1,500 other like-minded churches in North Carolina and band together to reach the Northern Bai in Central China. What do you say? Now they'll be overwhelmed by our love and interest, I think. Overwhelmed by 1,500 congregations seeking to reach them.

Friends, this is doable. That number's been cut in half in the last 20 years. Now, when we get to the end of the 3,100 and Jesus still hasn't come back yet, let's find another way to define the task and keep going. What do you say? We're gonna keep reaching out until the Lord returns. But I'm telling you, we're making incredible progress and it's exciting.

Alright, what application? First, what's the point in talking about missions if it could be there's someone here that's lost right now? If there's someone here that's unregenerate? Someone here that knows, you know you're on the outside looking in? I'm just urging you, don't stay that way. Because the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory and he's going to gather everyone in front of him. And someday he's gonna separate everyone and he's gonna separate into two categories and only two, believer in Christ and non-believer. Today is the day of salvation. Flee to Christ, you've heard the gospel today. That Christ, the Son of God, Son of Man, died on the cross in the place of sinners. Repent and believe in him, come to Christ.

For those who are already Christians, members of FBC, let's make FBC a launching pad for missions. Amen? Let's send them out, let's double the number of missionaries sent out and double it again. Those of you that are still young, not quite sure what God's calling you to do, go seriously before the Lord and say, “Lord, are you calling on me to be a career missionary, to reach one of those un-engaged, 3,100 un-engaged people groups?” Of course it's gonna take suffering. In the 10/40 window it's nothing but those Satanic puppets that are saying, “You will not come in here.”

Yes. But Christ is sovereign. Let's make FBC a launching pad. Let's pray more diligently than ever before for unreached people groups. If any of you have smartphones, I would urge you to upload the JoshuaProject.net app, and they'll give you a people group, an unreached people group, to pray for every day. Every day. Many of them are in India and China, day after day, India and China. Not only there, but mostly there.

Let's give to Lottie Moon, it's coming up soon. Let's be generous and let's meet our goal, whatever it's gonna be, 130, 140,000, whatever it is. Every year, it's amazing how faithful God is. But I'm urging you to be sacrificial in giving to missions more than ever. And let's support our career missionaries better than ever before. Each home fellowship has adopted one of those folks I prayed for. Let's enrich those relationships, let's use technology, Skype, other things. Let's use jet travel and go visit and encourage them as they think best. Whatever would be encouraging mostly to them. 

Let's realize we have opportunities for practical training. We have a BFL class that Ron Halbrooks is about to start on church planting. Be part of that, learn more about church planting. Matthew Hodges is gonna talk to us about a City Outreach Conference on November 23rd, where you can learn how to reach out to people right here in our surrounding community. That's part of the Great Commission, what we're doing.

We have practical opportunities through our ESL, our burgeoning ESL ministry. We have tons of people coming into our church every Wednesday learning English language, they are maxed out. Not from room, but from laborers. We need more workers. And they're bringing their children with them, and they have a focused need. And so we'd like people that would take on those ESL students’ kids and minister to them and maybe lead some of them to Christ. You have opportunities right here, right now, you don't have to get anywhere. I said usually you have to get on a plane to do cross-cultural missions, but not when it comes to ESL. And so it's happening right here in our church.

Close with me if you would, in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things we've learned from Matthew's gospel as a whole. I thank you for the, just, almost 15 years on and off, that I've had, of walking through this incredible book. I thank you for the culmination here and the Great Commission. I pray that you'd help each of us to be faithful to what you have commanded us to do in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. When John Calvin, the 16th century reformer, was making a defense for why yet another commentary in Romans was needed, he talked about the ones that were out there and he wanted to write, he always had a desire to write, a commentary that was characterized by lucid brevity. Lucid brevity. That means being really, really clear and being short. Well, I'm hoping you're gonna get clarity, I don't know about brevity today, dear friends. I have no idea. We'll see. But this text brings, at least has brought me into the consideration of the issue of apologetics and the defense of our faith against the lies that Satan spreads concerning the resurrection, and this is a huge topic.

And so my desire as I've labored all week and gotten into conversations with staff guys and called them on the phone and bugged them, and we've just been talking and talking about the role of apologetics, what it is, how we can defend our faith. My thinking is still in process and probably will be even after I'm done preaching the sermon, but I'm hoping for at least some clarity because I've been told by those that are experts on preaching that a mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew. So my desire is to be as clear as I can so I can help you as well.

And now I begin by asking this question: What if...? What if…? It's actually the name of a book, an edited collection of essays by prominent historians on counterfactual history. The idea is that you choose some moment in history in which some significant thing happened, and they asked, “What if that thing hadn't happened? What if it had gone a different direction?” For example, in the first battle that Alexander the Great ever fought against the Persians, he was struck from his horse and was on the ground, and a big, huge Persian was about to put an ax through his head, and one of Alexander's body guards killed this guy right before the stroke fell. What if he had died at that point? How would history be different? Now, those of you that are in Seminary studying Greek, you may have wished that Alexander had been killed at that moment 'cause you wouldn't be studying Greek right now, but it was the Lord's will for him to live.

What if? What if George Washington's army, his continental army, had been trapped in New York City in the summer of 1776, as it almost was? It was very, very close, and only a fog allowed him to escape. What if Hitler had never invaded the Soviet Union and just been content to protect what he had already conquered by that point in 1941? Various questions of counterfactual history, very popular with history buffs. It makes it interesting to kind of wonder, historical speculations. History is a tapestry, different fabrics weaving together to make an incredible picture, and what if that moment had gone a whole different direction, what different colors would have been woven?

But the most important counterfactual ever asked is actually asked in Scripture, in 1 Corinthians 15. What if Jesus Christ had never been raised from the dead? What if? What if the resurrection didn't happen? Paul makes some very strong assertions about this issue in 1 Corinthians 15, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,” listen to this, “our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. More than that, we are found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; and you are still in your sins.”

We believe that the resurrection is essential to all of human history, it's essential to our faith, to Christianity. There would be, should be, no Christianity without a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We proclaim a God who rules over all of history, and we believe that before the foundation of the world, God had woven out in his own mind the complexities of redemptive history before he said, “Let there be light,” all of it worked out in his own mind, with the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the culmination of that redemptive history, the high point of all that God was doing.

So therefore, all evangelists and all missionaries begin their work as they go to a lost people, and they preach a biography, really a history of Jesus, of his birth and of his life and his miracles, his teachings, of his substitutionary death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection from the dead. Their hearers will be saved if they believe these things are true. Saving faith always moves in two stages. First, stage one: belief that, and second stage: belief in. So we move from belief that, that the facts are this way, this is how it is, it's an actual historical record, that it's true, into a personal saving faith in Jesus Christ, who's at the center of this story. And faith in the resurrection is essential to salvation. Without that, you cannot be saved. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So you must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to be saved from your sins.

Now, because of the importance of this, Satan has been active from the very first day, from that day, active in sowing seeds of doubt and lying about the resurrection. And that's what we see in the text that you heard Nathan read for us just a few moments ago. From the very beginning, Satan has been spreading lies and alternate explanations so that people will not have certainty about the resurrection and then they will not be saved.

Skeptics have mocked the preaching of the resurrection from the early stages of the spread of the gospel. Just read, for example, in Acts 17, when the apostle Paul was in Athens, the intellectual center of the world, some of the most brilliant people who ever lived lived around that time and there are philosophers and thinkers there in Athens, and Paul presented the gospel to them on Mars Hill, and he culminated with a clear proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And it says in Acts 17:32, “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.” That's just mockery. That's pure mockery. They sneered. “But others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’” So there were some people that were intrigued and interested, but others just mocking.

Since that time, many intellectuals throughout history have sought to come up with plausible theories for the resurrection and for the elements of our faith other than a bodily resurrection. And it's really almost humorous if it weren't so deadly serious, it's humorous to try to find out what some of these theories have been. In no particular order, because they're all junk, but I'll go ahead and share with you some of them.

For example, this one: the fake death theory. I hadn't heard this one until just a few days ago. The theory goes: This was a German skeptic, Carl Fredrik Bahrdt, in 1780 he lived. According to this theory, Jesus was fed certain drugs by the physician Luke and went unconscious on the cross. The soldiers were convinced he died, and they took him off of the cross, and he was later revived by Joseph of Arimathea who got him out, and he resumed his life in ministry.

That's closely related to 20 years later, by Karl Venturini, the swoon theory that some of you have heard before. I have a hard time believing anyone ever thought this could even be possible, but many did, they're looking for something. Again, similar to this, that Jesus became unconscious, but not dead on the cross, and the soldiers just thought he was dead. I don't know how much of the biblical story we'll take here, but he had a lance shoved up into his side and all that, survived that. Was put in the tomb, was wrapped up with all the sticky linens, and inside the tomb, the cool air and the spices revived him, he came to, swung his legs around, took off the wrapping, pushed the boulder out of the way, walked through the guards and then convinced his disciples that he was alive and had been raised from the dead and Christianity started that way. What do you think of that theory? Again, I have a hard time believing that intelligent people would ever think this, but this was actually presented as a possibility. 

Or that the authorities maybe moved the body, like Pilate did or the Sanhedrin moved the body. The problem with that is, why in the world would they do that? What motive would they have for doing that? And once the preaching of the resurrection started, why wouldn't they just produce the corpse? Or that the tomb was never visited or they went to the wrong tomb. The women went to the wrong tomb, or they just didn't know where it was.

The most common now, as I've been trolling around in atheistic websites, and I'll be glad to stop doing that now that this sermon time has come, but just reading what they're saying out there. The most common now is just general skepticism about almost whether Jesus ever lived. And if he did, I guess we'll take some of the story and he was crucified and thrown in some common burial ground, which is what the Romans would have done, and so any argument from the empty tomb makes no sense. There wasn't an empty tomb, they wouldn't have really even been able to find the body. And then stories about the resurrection came up as legends or myths do much later, decades later, etcetera, and none of it ever happened.

Or perhaps the post-resurrection appearances were mass hallucinations caused by people intensely desiring something and then somewhat producing them. Or, I like this one, the case of mistaken identity. They thought it was Jesus, but it really wasn't. Because of this some liberal theologians claiming to be in the Christian camp have tried to so-called “demythologize” Christianity, tried to strip it of its myths, the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And frankly, in the end, everything is gonna come down to those.

Friends, we don't know anything about Jesus apart from the written word of God. Every true statement, everything we really do know about Jesus has come to us by Scripture. God intended it that way, and I'm gonna end up kind of ending up there. But they try to strip it of myth. In 1950, psychologist Carl Jung linked Christianity with the Egyptian myth of Osiris, the dying and rising God myth, you're gonna hear a lot of that. And so they attempt to strip down the myths, get away from it and find the historical Jesus.

The problem with that is that it just doesn't line up with how the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John present themselves to us. They don't read like myth. Do you remember during Jesus' life, at one point, they thought Jesus was insane, he was possessed by a demon? Do you remember how some of the people at that time said, “You know, these are not the sayings of a demon-possessed man. He's not acting like, he doesn't sound like, someone who's insane.” And Matthew, Mark, Luke and John don't read like myth, friends. There are supernatural elements, but what ends up happening is that the skeptics are just exposing their own predisposition.

It's interesting how they say, “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all wanted you to believe, so therefore their accounts are not valid.” But they want us not to believe; why should their writings be valid? Do you see what I'm saying? They're coming to it not believing, and in the end, they expose their own hearts. They cannot believe in any supernatural things in these histories, and so therefore there can't be any explanation for it other than these that I've given. And it neglects the way that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John present themselves to us, as carefully written out history. Like Luke 1:1-4, it says, “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who were from the first eye witnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,” listen to this, “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”

Primarily, my ministry to you who are believers here today could be summed up in those words. I want you to know the certainty of the things you've been taught. I want you to have an absolute certainty of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I want you to take that with you to the hospital, if you go to the hospital this week. Or to a Christian funeral. I want you to take that certainty with you. As you minister in this hurting, sin-cursed, suffering world, I want you to know the absolute certainty of the things you have been taught. And so Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John do not read like myth. They do record supernatural things, but they don't read like myth. And frankly, if you can accept Genesis 1:1, you can accept miracles, can't you? If you can believe that an intelligent being, God, created heaven and earth, then I don't think a resurrection is too difficult to imagine. So if God can create all things, he can make someone walk on water and he can certainly raise the dead.

Other skeptics have investigated carefully Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Acts, other things, early documents, 1 Corinthians 15. They've looked at it trying to debunk Christianity and they've been caught by it. Jesus said, “I'll make you fishers of men,” and they end up getting caught and becoming one of Jesus' fish. I love it when that happens, like Frank Morrison who wrote Who Moved the Stone? It's just a pen name for Albert Henry Ross, and he was trying to debunk it and trying to get to the historical Jesus, he ends up converted and becoming a genuine believer in the resurrection. Malcolm Muggeridge was the same. Josh McDowell did the same thing. He eventually wrote Evidence That Demands a Verdict trying to debunk it.

Lee Strobel, who wrote this book that I carried up here with me, The Case for Easter. He was a reporter, hardboiled, skeptical, of a Jewish background. His wife converted to Christianity, he wanted to investigate it so he could show her the truth of it. He ends up getting drawn in and believing in Christ. And The Case for Easter, and there's a bunch of them out there that Kyle Mercer put out there, they're free, take them. So take them and read them or give them out to people, there shouldn't be any left. As a matter of fact, if it's like 12:45, 12:50 and you're there and there's like 15 of them left, take all 15. Give them out to people. We mean to give these things out. But Lee Strobel was just drawn in by the evidence, the evidence.

Now, in our account today, we have the account of the bribing of the guards, Satan's strategies, lies and money and murder. That's what Satan is going to try to do. He's gonna entice people and try to bribe them away from the truth, try to get them to lie. If they don't go his way, then he'll start to beat them up, incarcerate them, take their freedoms away, eventually kill them. That's what he's tried to do to stop the spread of this story of the resurrection. These are Satan's strategies. And so plausible theories, explaining away the resurrection, this is just the first of many, many attempts there have been. “The disciples came during the night while we were sleeping and stole them away.”

And so this brings us to the topic of, how do we answer that? How do we understand apologetics? That's just from the Greek word “to make a defense for.” How do we make a defense for our faith and what role does it play? And I've asked a lot this week, what are the limitations of it? There are certain limitations to apologetics, so I've been just wrestling with that.

First, I wanna tell you as a Christian, from one Christian to another, God commands us to do this kind of work. He commands us to do apologetic work. 1 Peter 3:15, he says there, “But in your hearts set apart” or sanctify “Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you, give a reason for the hope that you have.” Now, I don't think there's anything wrong in the context of today's sermon to take the word hope and just link it to resurrection. I have hope in a resurrection. I know that this world is not all that we're gonna experience. I will live forever. And even though worms devour this body, yet in my flesh, I will see God. And I believe in that. That's my hope. If someone wants to say, “Well, give me a reason for that,” you should be ready for that. It is a reasonable thing that I have this hope, it's reasonable, it's not insane, it's not irrational, it's reasonable for me to believe in the resurrection, and I wanna give you a reason, so part of it is to help you folks be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have.

In 2 Corinthians 10, it says the weapons we fight with are powerful to the demolishing of strongholds and we demolish arguments, we are in the word business. Unlike other world faiths, Christianity hasn't advanced on the edge of the sword, true Christianity hasn't. We advance by the truth, by proclaiming the truth, and by being willing to die for it. That's the way that martyrs advanced and conquered, really, the Roman Empire. How powerful is that? And so we have arguments and we're destroying arguments, and we're making a case, we are making a case. It says in Philippians 1:7, Paul's in chains, he says, “For the defense and confirmation of the gospel.” He's defending the Gospel there. Jude 3, the author Jude writes, “I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”

One of the central ministries of an elder or a pastor is a defense of the faith, and we do it according to Jude 22, to be merciful to those who doubt. We wanna lift up those who are flagging and failing and struggling in their faith. I'm trying to do that for you today. If you're a Christian and you struggle with the idea of the resurrection, I wanna bolster your faith. So therefore, one of the requirements in Titus 1:9 for an elder candidate, for somebody who's gonna be an elder, is this: “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” So that's just part of being an elder, you need to be able to give a refutation just to give a defense.

So there is a purpose, ours is a historical and reasonable faith. It's historical, it's rooted on actual events in history. It's not a myth, it's not a legend. It's historical and reasonable. So I was working on this sermon last night, I usually don't work on sermons on Saturday nights, but I was just - I said to my wife, “It's like I'm baking a cake, and all the ingredients are out and the cake isn't baked yet.” And so I was working on it last night. And this was in my mind, I woke up this morning, my alarm went off, and the first words in my mind were straight from scripture. I didn't know the reference, I looked it up. It was from Acts 26:25, and there the apostle Paul on trial before Agrippa and before the Roman Festus, says these words in Acts 26:25. Festus, after he proclaimed the resurrection. Festus said, “You're out of your mind, Paul, your great learning is driving you insane.” He said, “I'm not out of my mind, what I am saying is true and reasonable.” Those were the first words in my mind this morning. So I figured the Holy Spirit was saying, put that in the sermon. So here it is. I wrote it out along the side, it wasn't in the printed thing, but... “What I am saying is true.” What does that mean? It actually happened, it's historically accurate, really happened, and it is reasonable, it's not insane to believe in these things. And then he says, “These things were not done in a corner.” These things were done in a very famous place in front of lots of people, lots of eye witnesses to this,

And then he appeals directly to the Jewish King Agrippa. He says, “Do you believe in the prophets? I know that you do.” And so what's he doing there? He's saying look at the scriptures, ultimately that's what's gonna cinch the deal. Only by believing in the Word of God will you come to a genuine faith in the resurrection. So that brings me to the limitations of apologetics. Our text, which talks about what John MacArthur called “the lie that proves the resurrection.” We'll get to that in a minute. But it's also a lie that proves the limits to apologetics, there's a limit to it. It will only bring you so far. What do I mean? Well, none of us here that are alive today will ever have the kind of access to the physical evidence of the resurrection that the Sanhedrin and the Roman guards did, and they didn't believe. But concocted a lie.

So how do you put all this together? I remember I was just reading a lot of Evidence That Demands a Verdict and all that. I was a relatively new Christian, graduated from college, I was trying to be a workplace witness, trying to evangelize, and there was this guy there named Larry, and so I was like, I gotta share with Larry, I'm gonna get Larry, I'm gonna... I'm gonna bring him in. Apologetics, we're gonna do it. And so we sat down and I wanted to talk to him about evidence for the resurrection. He probably thought we're gonna talk about the Red Sox, but we talked about evidence for the resurrection, the empty tomb. And so I was gonna zero in on this one thing. What explanation could there be for the empty tomb?

And so I went step by step by step by step. I feel sorry for the guy now, I don't know what happened, he was probably just eating a sandwich saying, “What is this?” It was an interesting moment, but we got done and I said, “What do you think happened to the body?” And he shrugged and said, “I don't know, I guess Jesus rose from the dead.” Is that it? End of the line, Jesus rose from the dead. But there was no faith, no love, no regeneration, nothing. You can't checkmate people into the kingdom of heaven, friends. I liken it to basically Elijah on Mount Carmel, and you can build the altar and you can get the wood and you can put the animal and you can pour water on it, but then you need to wait for fire from heaven. And so what this does is it assembles everything needed for faith, and then the fire has to come from heaven and that person will be saved, because faith is a gift from God, it says in Ephesians 2:8, but it's based on that which is historical and rational, and it's our job to get that history out and that reason out, and that's what we're doing.

So we have physical evidence for the resurrection, we talked about it, and I'm harkening back at this point to the first part of the chapter. If you look at Matthew 28, we have the account, which I preached on last week from, of the empty tomb. You have the empty tomb, you have the angel coming down, we'll get to all of that in a minute, but then you have the statement by the angel to the women: “Come and see the place where he lay.” You see that he's inviting them to investigate the evidence. So in effect, that's what I'm doing. Now, I'm saying this to believers. Notice he doesn't say it to the Roman soldiers, first of all, they were unconscious, I think at that moment, they shook with fear and became like dead men. It says in verse 4, but he didn't come for them. He's saying to the believers: “Come and look at the evidence.” It's for you. The evidence is for you. The unbelievers are just gonna explain it away. But the evidence is for you, so come and see the place where he lay.

Well, it's better described for us in John's gospel, in John 20, you have the stone moved away from the entrance entirely lifted up and moved away. You have the grave clothes there, undisturbed in their original position. I don't know if that's like a chrysalis or something like that, or if he was unwrapped. Commentators go different directions on that, we don't know. Greek just says, “keimai,” just “set there.” And then you've got the head covering folded up separate by itself, it does not speak of a grave robber, does not speak of haste at all. It just speaks of a logical, rational process where somebody folded it up and set it aside. And best of all, of course, no body, there's no corpse. There was one before and now it's gone. So it leaves that question of the empty tomb, where is the missing body, what happened to Jesus? 

Then, even better, in the account last week as you remember we have personal encounters with the resurrected Christ. Post-resurrection appearances, and there are many of them. Eleven separate accounts in the four gospels, probably also including Acts as well, of post-resurrection encounters with Jesus, one after the other, I'm not gonna list them for you, but they're one after the other.

Paul lists who receives such post-resurrection encounters. In 1 Corinthians 15, “What I received, he said, I also passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,” and now come the appearances, “and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve, and after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all of the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born.”

Lots and lots of post-resurrection appearances, 500 of them, God spread them out throughout Palestine, and they became the original witnesses to the Jews in that region of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Christianity was built on their testimony, and the eyewitness testimony it sprang up out of those witnesses, out of those eye witnesses, read about it in Hebrews chapter two, it talks about eyewitnesses of the word, and they talked about that. Paul mentions it in Acts 13, these were now, these eyewitnesses, were now giving the witness to our people, the Jews. So this is overwhelming, the eyewitness accounts.

Now we come to the text, the lie that proves the Resurrection as John MacArthur calls it, I like that statement. Look what it says, “While the women were on their way,” they have this encounter with Jesus and they're on their way, “some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened, when the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, ‘You are to say “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.” If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.’ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” 

So there we have the account. First of all, isn't it marvelous how the enemies of the resurrection sealed their fate by posting the guard? It would have been better for them if they had not done it. Do you understand why? Because it's just a lot easier to say, the disciples stole him with the guard not there. The guards make it difficult for them. And so I think that's beautiful. Remember in chapter 27 verses62 and following, this is what it says, “The next day, the one after preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘We remember that while he was still alive, that deceiver said, “On the third day, I will rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.’ Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.’ So Pilate answered, ‘Take a guard, go make the tomb as secure as you know how.’ So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.”

Now, the whole thing is blowing up in their face. They just ended up being hostile witnesses indirectly to the actual resurrection. It's not what they wanted. And isn't it beautiful, how God turns Satan's weapons against himself. The clearest example of that, is the crucifixion of Christ itself, he meant to kill Jesus because it was Satan that entered into Judas, and in killing Jesus, he destroys his own dark kingdom, and it's been a 2,000-year destruction. Slow-mo destruction, I love that. Step by step, Satan's kingdom being destroyed by the preaching of the gospel, isn't that marvelous? But he did it to himself by crucifying Jesus. And now by the posting of the guard, they actually ended up being hostile witnesses to the fact.

Now, first of all, the guards couldn't stop the resurrection, how could they? This is the second person of the Trinity. This is Almighty God taking on a resurrection body, this is the centerpiece of all that God's doing in the world. There's no way the Roman guards could have stopped that. And you know the account of what happened. “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,” this is Matthew 28:1-4, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb, and there was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow, the guards were so afraid of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men.” So the guards were there to keep some tricky, conniving disciples from stealing the body, but instead God sends an almighty powerful angel, radiant, glowing like lightning, and he moves the stone and sits on it and they're out, they're done, and they could not stop the resurrection.

So fundamentally, the guards failed in their mission, they couldn't stop the preaching, the ultimate mission is, let's stop the preaching of the resurrection, there's no way they could stop that. They failed to do it. And isn't it beautiful that some day Jesus will return from heaven, come to earth, and no earthly power will be able to stop that either? Nothing can stop that. Well, at that moment, what happens is really a spiritual tragedy, that the guards, some of the guards, not the whole group, but some of the guards went back to the Sanhedrin to the chief priest and reported what had happened. They told the story, they told what I just read Matthew 28:1-4, they told about the angel, the appearance of the angel, his clothes like lightning, the rolling back of the stone, the fact that - I don't know if they said, “Then we went unconscious,” I don't know if they included that. But when they came to, they looked in and the body was gone, and then they went and reported all of this.

Now, let me ask you a question, what should the Jewish leaders have done at that moment? Well, I'll tell you what they should have done, they should have fallen on their faces and worshipped Jesus as the Son of God, the resurrected savior of the world. That's what they should have done. That was the right thing to do. It was predicted by the Old Testament prophets, it's the very thing he said he would do. It was the sign that he gave to that generation, you remember they asked him for a miraculous sign? “A wicked and an adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign,” Jesus said Matthew 12, “but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish. So the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” That was the sign to the Jews, but they did not believe. They would not believe; it was their regular pattern. This is the limitation to apologetics. It's not seeing is believing, it's believing is seeing to some degree. Now we have the history first, but then there's the evidence, and you will only see it if God gives you faith. They didn't have faith.

We saw it with the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, you remember that? And then Lazarus was going around testifying to the resurrecting power of Jesus, and so the Jewish authority said, Now we have to kill him too. I would have suggested repent and believe in Jesus. But nothing was going to convince them. and Jesus knew it. He wasn't under any illusions about this.

You remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus? Remember that? And the rich man gets sent to hell in the parable, in Jesus's parable. And he's suffering there, and he wants to warn his brothers who are still alive, so that they don't end up in this place. He wants to leave and go warn them. But Abraham, Father Abraham, says, “You can't leave, there's a great gulf, you're there, and nobody can come over to you.” “Well, then send Lazarus to go warn my brothers.” Abraham says, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” Then comes the answer, from hell, “No.” See, that's the whole thing. It's gonna come to Scripture, if you believe the scripture, you'll have eternal life. If you're gonna say “no” to Moses and the prophets, there's nothing that can be done for you. “No, father Abraham. But if someone rises from the dead, they will listen.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.” Jesus said those words before he was crucified. He knew they wouldn't believe.

And so we see their hardness of heart and their rebellion, they confer together, it's an official meeting of the Sanhedrin, it's a Greek word that implies they had an official meeting. They all came together and they came to a three-fold conclusion. First, bribe the soldiers, “a large sum of money,” the text says, I don't know how much that would have been, but it would have been a tidy sum. They bought off Judas for 30 pieces of silver, but the Romans, I'm sure each one of them would have cost a lot more than that. And we don't know how many guards there were, only some of them went, so my guess is lots and lots of silver went. Large amounts of money to bribe them.

Secondly, they fed them the lie, this is what you are to say. The disciples came and stole his body while we were asleep. Thirdly, they reassured the guards that if this report got back to their governor - because they were Romans, their governor - they would satisfy him and keep them out of trouble. Well what trouble? Well, how about execution for falling asleep on guard duty? How are they gonna do that? How are they gonna satisfy him? They're gonna tell him what really happened. They're gonna say, an angel came down. What could they do? Alright, fine then we won't kill them.

That's the three-fold decision of the Sanhedrin, and Matthew tells us the story has been circulated to this very day. We see therefore, as I've pointed out, the limited impact of evidence. Do not put all your eggs in that basket. Tell the truth. Give the evidence. And let the Lord work. Apart from that, there is no conversion, there's no salvation, and so these folks had all the evidence, they still didn't believe.

And the story has been circulated to this very day, so that it implies maybe a number of decades has passed, Matthew writes his account, and he says, it's still going on. Well, according to Patristic study of church fathers, there was a church father named Justin Martyr, and the story was still circulating a century and a half later. The Jews were still using it, because it's actually... It's at least a plausible explanation for a big problem, and that's what happened to the body, all the other things don't answer what happened to the body, and so at least we have some explanation for what happened to the body.

But Justin Martyr said, “You Jews selected men and sent them into all the world proclaiming that a certain atheistic and lawless sect had arisen from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb and deceived men by saying that he is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.” So the story was still going on.

But there are all kinds of problems with this lie, aren't there? There's problems with the Jewish leaders. If this is really what happened, why didn't they make a search for the corpse? If he was under Peter's mother-in-law's bed or something, I don't know what they would have done with it. What do you do with the corpse of Jesus? But don't you think the authorities could have found it, wasn't it in their best interest to produce the corpse? But they made no effort, there's no record of them making any effort to search for the body.

There's problems with the Roman guards. How could those Roman guards be such heavy sleepers that none of them woke up, especially during the moving of the boulder? I mean, I've had some people, there were some guys in college, you couldn't wake them up if you lit their feet on fire, it was unbelievable. So I know there's some heavy sleepers, but my goodness, the moving of a huge boulder, somebody would have woken up. And they were trained soldiers. You don't fall asleep on guard duty, you understand that the life, the survival of the entire army depends on some people staying awake through the night. So that's why they executed people for falling asleep on guard duty. So if you happened to meet one of these Roman guards and they say this to you, just say, then why aren't you dead - actually, they would be dead by now, wouldn't they? But if you had been alive back then, say, why didn't they kill you, why are you still alive? Because you fell asleep on guard duty. Can you explain that to me?

And then there's the lie itself. There's the lie itself. Can you sniff this one out? “The disciples came while we were asleep.” Look, Don't say that. Can I give you a coaching on lying here? What you should have said is, “We fell asleep, when we awoke, the tomb was empty. We have no idea what happened to the body.” That's a better lie. Would you guys all agree that's a better lie? If you're gonna do the lie, say that. Say “the disciples,” what, did you have one eye shut and the other eye... “Oh it was the disciples who did it.” Could have been the Jewish leaders, could have been Pilate, who knows? It could have been the Swoon Theory, I mean, a lot of other explanations, they knew it was the disciples.

The whole thing just doesn't work, and worst of all, the disciples themselves. Why would they do it? What did they get for it? There's gotta be motive. There's motive and opportunity. What do they get for it? Could they have done this? Would they have done it? They were running for their lives. Peter denied Jesus three times that night. You don't have a bunch of courageous, conniving, scheming powerful guys trying to take over the world. You have people that just probably wanna go back to the tax collector's booth and the fishing net at this point; they are not believing in a resurrection. They didn't think it would happen, and they're terrified. And they don't wanna die. So why would they do it? And what did they get for their troubles? They got persecution - every one of them but John, martyred, and he exiled. That's what they got for their trouble. It just doesn't make any sense. There is no motive.

So this brings me to three powerful questions. Anyone following the outline in the bulletin? Good thing this sermon wasn't in two weeks, there would have been like six powerful questions or something like that, but I'll just give you three, and this is what I want you to hang your hat on. These are the apologetic issues that the skeptics have to deal with, they are three. These are the three strongest issues.

Number one, how do you account for the empty tomb? What happened to the body? Number two, how do you account for the eyewitness accounts of personal encounters with the resurrected Christ, of which there are many, many, many? And number three, how do you account for the beginning and spread of Christianity? A version of the third is, how did these folks get so courageous as to preach a resurrection in downtown Jerusalem when their lives were in danger if they should continue preaching, and they kept preaching every one of them even when they were being killed for doing so? How do you account for that? The incredible courage and boldness.

So how do you account for the empty tomb and the tomb was empty. We have these accounts, we have the Acts sermon in which Peter's preaching Psalm 16, “you will not let your holy one see decay.” And then he says, “David's tomb is here to this day, but he was a prophet, and he predicted that Jesus would rise and he has risen, we are witness to the fact.” Now, they say there's no reference to the empty tomb there. I find a reference there, David's tomb is full, Jesus rose again. Go check the tomb. It's empty.

Now, as I was swimming, unfortunately in a sea of skepticism this week, not my own skepticism, but that of other people. They said, “You can't use part of a story to prove the rest of the story.” It's a valid observation. For example, can you use the yellow brick road to prove that there is a Wizard of Oz? Or as one guy said, he comes up with a story, this is just like a parable or something like that. I live in China, my friend Joe shows up from Southern California. He tells me it's unbelievable, but a dragon burned the city library to the ground last week. I'm skeptical as I hear it and say, What proof do you have? And he says to me, What other answer is there for the burned library? And you're like, I didn't even know the library was burned, you're the one telling me the story. How much of the story are we gonna accept, how much are we gonna disbelieve? That's the whole thing that's difficult. I think you accept it all or you really accept nothing. Accepting part of it is really the mark of liberalism, that's where you start picking and choosing what you're gonna believe, what you don't. I understand some apologists have to kinda say, “Well, these things we can work with,” and they'll argue from that to prove the resurrection, but the fact is the whole account not only testifies to a tomb and a burial, but it also testifies to a resurrection. You get the whole thing.

So I think it's valid, but still we have this issue: what about the empty tomb? How do we deal with it? How do we deal with the account in Matthew and in John of the empty tomb, and the fact that the resurrection was preached in the place where Jesus was killed, why didn't they produce the corpse?

Secondly, the eyewitness accounts, how do you account for them, one after the other? What do we say about them? These are valid accounts of not hallucinations, etcetera, but over many times, Thomas putting his finger in the wound, all of these things, these are not hallucinations.

And then very powerfully, where did Christianity come from? How did it spread? How is it that they're preaching so boldly and they're completely unafraid? I love Peter and John in Acts four when they're arrested for doing a miracle, remember that? And they say, “If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel. It is by Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead that this man stands before you healed?” How were they so courageous? It's because they'd seen the resurrected Christ.

So fundamentally, I wanna say to the skeptics this: treat our historical records the same way you treat everybody else's historical records, and don't discount them because they have miracles in them. If you do, you're showing your predisposition and your bias. If you say it’s at least possible that there is a God who can do miracles, let's look at the history as it is. Simon Greenleaf, Harvard professor of law, said this, “All that Christianity asked of men is that they would be consistent with themselves, that they would treat its evidences as they treat the evidence of other things, and that they would try to judge its actors and witnesses as they deal with their fellow men when testifying to human affairs and actions and in human tribunals. The result would be an undoubting conviction of their integrity, ability and truth.” That's the way they read. They read like history.

So applications: first and foremost, I don't know all of your spiritual situation, you may be here visiting today, I thank God that you are. I prayed for you today, I don't know your names, but I prayed if there would be any people here that had not yet made a commitment to Christ, that the Lord would bring them. And that they would repent and believe in him. Look again at Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” You may be asking, saved from what? Saved from your sins, saved from eternal death in hell, saved from judgment and condemnation by Almighty God. Saved by confessing Jesus is Lord and believing in the resurrection.

If you're a Christian already, I want you, as I said from Luke, know the certainty of the things you've been told - ours is a historical and rational faith - and let it feed your faith. It says in Acts 1:3 Jesus over 40 days gave his apostles many infallible proofs of his resurrection. We're not eyewitnesses. We get their record as we read it. Feed your faith on it.

Understand thirdly, the indissoluble link between scriptures and faith in the resurrection. If your faith in the resurrection is waning, I wouldn't urge that you read Case for Easter, I'd urge that you read John 20 or Matthew 28. Rekindle your faith by reading scripture, strengthen your faith. The scriptures are written to give us faith. Faith comes by hearing.

Fourthly, Christians get ready to make a defense for what you believe. Three things, alright? Empty tomb. Eyewitness accounts. Where did Christianity come from? How did it spread so fast? How did the Emperor Constantine declare himself to be a Christian, three centuries after Christ rose from the dead? How did that happen? How did Christianity win? It's by the proclamation of the resurrection. So get ready to make a defense.

Get this book, don't let any of them be left there. I'm gonna say it to my family, if I haven't gone out there yet, and there's still some left, pick them up, please, because I'll feel terrible if there's still some books there, I think people aren't listening to me. Pick up these books. They're free, you can't beat the price. They're right out here in the north tower, you walk through that door. They're on the table, get them. But now that I've been so strong on it, if you're the first one there, just take one or two, alright? 

And finally understand and let's get at the true significance here. What's the significance of the resurrection? If you're a believer in Jesus, you will live forever. Do not fear death. Do not fear death. Not from a heart attack. Not from cancer, not from a car wreck. Don't fear death at all. Live fearless. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus said, “he who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” Rejoice, you're going to live forever.

Secondly, the resurrection of Christ is a picture of the spiritual life of triumph you should live. Because we're united with him in his death we're united in his resurrection, and by the Spirit, we can live a holy life. We're not slaves to sin and death anymore, and we can live a holy life. And let's encourage one another with these words, let's build each other up. We have suffering people in our congregation, let's build each other up with the resurrection.

Close in prayer, please. Father, thank you for the time we've had. I hope that I've been clear. I pray, oh Lord, that you take all of this and press it to our hearts that we would know the certainty of the things we've been taught and be filled with joy and power for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.

Christ has risen. Now, it's not Easter, I know, but Christ has risen. Amen. Amen. I was thinking about that. I get to preach today on the happiest day in history, the happiest thing that's ever happened, the most joy-producing, the most joyful event that's ever happened in history. This is the great answer to the problem of sin and death, and law and condemnation. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the consummation of everything.

Now, as I was driving in, I had this thought. I'd never had this thought before. And I haven't worked it all out, so I'm a little nervous, but I'm gonna run with it here. This is the closest I'll ever get to base jumping right here, right now. I'm gonna run and jump. And we'll see what happens, but it has to do with this one concept and I'm working it through, and it's very, actually, very powerful and very pastoral, if you think about it. It has to do with something that you hear frequently connected with a joke, and it goes like this: stop me if you've heard this one. Stop me if you've heard this one. Alright, stop me If you've heard this one: Christ has risen from the dead. And I thought, that's not right. No, encourage me if you've heard this one so I can preach the resurrection.

The issue here is why is it that grand glorious news like the empty tomb loses its impact on us, so that we're not as joyful now as we were earlier in the resurrection of Christ? What happens to us because we've heard this one already, what new things can I say to you about the empty tomb that you haven't heard before? And if they're really new, they're almost certainly heretical, so I'll try not to say them. I'm not trying to say anything radically new here. What happens to us? It's a deep question actually. It's a deep question. Ecclesiastes 1:8 may have an answer. I looked that up right before I came in here. “All things are wearisome, more than one can say.” That's life under the sun in the book of Ecclesiastes, it's that vanity of vanities. All things are vanity, vain, in this world, we feel that acutely.

But It was this past week putting this thing together like a puzzle. It was like, wait a minute. Isn't that the last word in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter? “Be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not,” what? “In vain.” The resurrection is the answer to the book of Ecclesiastes. And the emptiness and weariness that this life pushes on us. And I don't minimize it, I know you're going through trials, I know, I've looked in your faces over the last couple of weeks, I've sat with you, I know what you're going through, I'm not minimizing it. Death and sickness and cancer and treatments, and broken relationships and hurt and pain, and I know therefore that “Christ has risen” doesn't have the same impact every day that it does at other times, but it ought to. For I consider that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with the glory that Christ is gonna give us through His resurrection, it's not even worth comparing with it. It does not matter what you're going through. The resurrection trumps every card in a million decks.

So, it's my privilege through the Holy Spirit to try to re-kindle in your hearts again whatever greatest joy you ever had in the resurrection, and then go beyond it. I don't think I've ever heard of any joy in the resurrection, perhaps in history that I've heard in the history of missions, as in that video EE-Taow, which talks about the Zooks as they ministered in Irian Jaya, and they've been patiently unfolding redemptive history, they got to the life of Christ patiently unfolding, they did solid work for months with these folks, then Jesus was crucified and the people were shocked, this stone-age tribe, they couldn't believe that he would die. And then they preached the resurrection and they just went nuts. At last, they could see everything, their redemption, their own forgiveness, their own eternity in heaven, and they celebrated, they cut loose for three hours. They were throwing the Zooks up in the air, up and down and up and down. Finally like, “Okay, put us down over here.” And they went on and the celebration went on. I wonder if that tribe is still celebrating at that same level. Probably not, but they ought to be. They ought to be. They could through the Spirit. Amen.

I'm not minimizing the trials we go through, but didn't the Apostle Paul say sorrowful. Perhaps maybe we could say, “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” Like a compass needle returns to its true north, we return to joy in the resurrection, that's what you have. And so Daniel just sang, “There is a fountain filled with blood.” I would say, and I know he'd agree, there is a fountain filled with joy there too. And every time we go to the cross and the empty tomb, we can realize our sins are forgiven, God has adopted us, we have eternal life, we're going to heaven when we die, and God is gonna see us through all of our trials, it doesn't matter what we're facing, he who gave his only begotten Son and raised him up from the dead, he will get you through this life and he will bring you on into eternity. So that's the stuff I hadn't prepared. Alright, but as I was thinking about it, I just said, that's the burden. But the joy of preaching the resurrection, there's nothing new to say. But there's so much to say.

So today, I get to preach on the historical, one of the historical accounts of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. I get to preach on the answer to the problem of death. This is the problem that entered into the world, and it causes grief all over the world, there's not a nation exempt, there's not a community exempt, there's not a family or individual exempt from this curse of death. The wicked tyrant Joseph Stalin said this, “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” Well, that's the way he thought. No, a million deaths is a million tragedies. Death itself is a tragedy. Death itself is a curse from God on the human race because of Adam's sin, and that's the theology. It may be something we struggle with, we try to understand, but how it is that we are held accountable. But in the wisdom of God, Adam was our representative. And it says in Romans 5:12, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.” And in this way, death came to all men because all sinned. We all sinned in Adam. We all die in Adam. He represented us.

And since that time, there's been an indissoluble link between sin and death. The wages of sin is death. Ezekiel 18:4 says, “The soul who sins will die.” And we also sinned not only in Adam positionally as being human beings, but we also sinned actually as soon as we understood the law. As soon as the law came, sin sprang to life. And we died, we sinned and died. But in Jesus Christ, the death penalty has been paid, and we are clear of it forever. Now, we will die physically if the Lord doesn't return in our lifetime, but we will not die eternally, the second death, the death penalty has been paid. And that's the significance of the resurrection, by Christ's resurrection, it says in Romans 4, we have been justified.

We've been vindicated, we will live forever, and Satan, the one who held the power of death has been destroyed. He has been defeated at the cross and by his resurrection. He could not stop the resurrection of Christ, and therefore we have freedom from fear of death, it says in Hebrews chapter 2.

Now, this was predicted, this was prophesied, that there would come a death-conqueror. In the garden, the serpent was told, “I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and hers. He will crush your head. You will bruise his heel.” So by his death, by Jesus' death he crushed Satan and sin and death. And God promised it again and again in his scriptures, I love Isaiah 25:7-8, there it says, “On this mountain, he the Lord, will destroy the shroud that unfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.”

How powerful is that? He's going to destroy death. Well, now for us, he has destroyed it. Christ Jesus, the one born of woman, the seed of woman, has been born at the right time in the fullness of time, he lived a sinless life under the law of God, fulfilling all of its precepts and its commands on our behalf. He was obedient for us, so that he could win for us a perfect righteousness, a perfect obedience to the law of God, and transfer it to us through our union with him by faith; and our guilt transferred to him, our substitute. He dies in our place, and we stand righteous and uncondemned by that union we have with Christ.

Now, all of church history looks back at this event. It's been 2000 years. 2000 years, the good news of the empty tomb has been proclaimed in nations around the world, almost every tribe and language and people and nation has been told. The message of 1 Corinthians 15, “What I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and after that, he appeared to many eyewitnesses.” And this is our hope. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Praise God.

So that's just the intro. Let's look at the text and look at what it says in these marvelous 10 verses, we begin in verse 1-3 with a loving errand and a supernatural interruption. Now, just as we do this, this points again to the historicity of our faith, the historical roots of our faith. This is a historical account of some women who went to the tomb and the things that happened to them. We believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical event. It really happened. We do not look at the resurrection as a myth or a fable, or an inspirational story, or certainly not a lie; it is history. It actually happened in space and time, and this account, these 10 verses is part of the historical record.

Look at verse 1, “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.” In Mark 16, we have this parallel account, it says, “When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Salome brought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb.” Luke 23 and 24 gives us this, “The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee, followed Joseph of Arimathea, saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and then prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.” Then in Luke 24:1, it says, “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.”

So that's a fuller picture of what is going on with these women, what's happening. It's a loving errand that they have, but there is mingled with it a measure of unbelief. It's a loving errand, they love Jesus, but there is mingled here a measure of unbelief. The Sabbath is over now, they're free now to resume work, they were interrupted by the Sabbath, and the women wanted to finish what they started doing, which is burying Jesus, they wanted to finish with the spices, they wanted to finish wrapping up his body.

Now, there's no doubt about the love and the loyalty these women have for Jesus, and that's based on faith, they believed in the things he said, they believed in what he did, I'm sure they were confused by his death, deeply grieved by it, but they just wanted to finish the work they had started, and the Sabbath had interrupted it, so they're hurrying there early.

Now, as they come, they're bringing these spices, and the spices are there to mask the stench of corruption, to mask the stench of decay, that's why they're done. They're not going to have an encounter with the living God, they're not going there to have an encounter with Jesus, resurrected from the dead. They're going to care for a corpse. They're not expecting a resurrection. None of them were. And all of this, despite the fact that Jesus had repeatedly told them that he was going to be raised on the third day. Again and again, they don't have to go to Isaiah 25. Jesus himself told them what was going to happen to him. So he said in Matthew 12:40, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

And then Matthew 16:21, “From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day, be raised to life.” And then again, Matthew 20:17 -19. “Now, as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is going to be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death, and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life.’” He has been very clear about this, and frankly, the text gives us indication from that time on, he began saying to them, so he's saying it again and again.

Clearly, they did not understand from the Scriptures that Jesus had to rise from the dead. This is the very point that John makes in John 20:9, is the very point that Jesus makes with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. “How foolish you are,” he said, “And how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and the prophets in the Psalms, he explained all things that were written about himself.” It was there, they didn't understand these things from scripture, and they didn't understand these things from Jesus' plain statements about himself. 

And so they come with their mixture of love and loyalty and unbelief. Some faith. Some unbelief. Isn't that us? Isn't it? Aren't we able to say like the father of that demon-possessed boy, “I do believe. Lord, Help my unbelief!” We're all like that. We have a mingling, that's why the resurrection is not as exciting today as whatever is the number one most exciting time you've ever had with the resurrection. It's because we're mingled, we don't have a pure faith, it's a mingled experience. And yet, isn't it marvelous how Jesus loves us anyway? And he cares for us and protects us and he's loyal to us Anyway? “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” He's gonna take the smoldering wick of your faith and he's gonna kindle it into a flame, and that's his love for us.

And so there they are, they walk to the tomb, it seems in the darkness, and as they approach the tomb, one thought dominates their mind: who's gonna move the stone? There's this huge, just huge boulder that had been rolled in front of the entrance to the tomb weighing thousands of pounds, I'm sure. And these women have, they just have no idea: how are they gonna move the stone? And so that's a big problem, they wanna go there, but they don't know how they're gonna get to the corpse, so they have a problem. Well, God took care of the problem at every level. No need to move the stone, no need for the spices and no corpse. Amen. Hallelujah. The whole mission's changed. Everything is changed, radically changed.

So who moved the stone? In the famous words of Frank Morison, the apologetic writer, “Who moved the stone?” Well, God did through an angel. God moved that stone. We're gonna talk more about Morison and other apologetic writers next week. I wanna do a lot on apologetics next week, not this week, about how to take these truths and speak them to an unbelieving world that needs to hear about these things. But this one I just wanna work through just the historicity of the text, and Morison was a guy who set out to debunk the accounts of the resurrection and ends up being converted. How many times has that happened? Again and again, people read these accounts and say, “This is the truth. There's no way I can wrestle with this, I can't turn my back on it, Christ has risen.”

But it's very clear, the answer to the question, who moved the stone? Look at verse 2 and 3, “Behold, there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow.” Now, the gospel accounts are powerful and clear, especially John about what happened to the stone. John is very clear in the Greek that the stone was lifted up and removed from the entrance. It was just entirely removed, not just rolled up in its little trough and propped up. It was just lifted and moved, you don't wanna mess with an angel. Let me tell you something. They can do awesome things. And so this angel just picks it up and tosses it aside and then sits on it, it's this awesome picture here, so he lifts it up and moves it.

What is the significance of the moving of the stone? Well, let me say plainly it wasn't to let Jesus out. Amen. I mean, picture that, how terrible would that be. I'm waiting, waiting. Or he's knocking from the inside. Jesus is gone! He's been raised from the dead. Jesus could have moved the stone himself, he didn't need any angelic help in that assistance, but he didn’t need the stone moved. He didn't need it moved. He came up out of those sticky linen grave clothes anyway, moves out of that, moves right through the stone wall. And he's gone.

How can that be? How do we understand that, it's not easy to understand. What is a resurrection body? What is it? What is involved in that? The best chapter on that, as I've said, is 1 Corinthians 15, and there the Apostle Paul, verse 42 and following, says, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.” And this is the key phrase, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Which is somewhat of a contradiction in terms, but it just shows the mysteries around the resurrection itself, it is a spiritual body, continuing. “So it is written, ‘the first man, Adam, became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural after that, the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man was from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. and just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.”

So there's enough information in there to say, we're talking about a glorious, powerful, spiritual body that is not flesh and blood in that sense, but still it's not a ghost or a spirit. So he can say in Luke, “Touch me and see; a ghost or a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as you see I have.” And he's able to eat boiled fish, so he says, Jesus says, “I am not a spirit,” but Paul calls him “a life-giving spirit.” Spiritual body, that's the best I can make of it. And you're saying, “Pastor, you're just confusing us.” Well, that's as far as I can go. This resurrection body could do some astonishing things. It could just go through walls, it seems.

Jesus frequently didn't look like his normal self, he had to reveal himself to people who knew him well. He's sitting there with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he's sitting there breaking bread with them. Their eyes are open, they realize who he is, and he disappears. Bodies don't do that, normal bodies, but Jesus has this resurrection body. And Jesus in John 20, though the doors are locked for fear of the Jews that day and a week later, he comes and stands among them and says, “Peace be with you.” Now, Wayne Grudem in his excellent systematic theology is at pains to be sure, we're not dualists, thinking, spirit, good, body, bad, Jesus had a real physical body, so he says there's no evidence that Jesus passed through walls. I just wanna know how he got out of the tomb? Not the upper room, I'm saying the tomb. Was he waiting for the angel to let him out? How'd he get out of the sticky grave clothes? So I appreciate what brother Grudem is saying about the dualism. He had a real body, it's just a mysterious body and can do amazing things. And so there it is.

So why then was the stone moved? Not to let Jesus out, but to let us in, come and see the place where he lay, that's why it was moved. Come and see the evidence, come and see the place where he lay. And based on that evidence, the first generation, the apostles believed. John 20:8, John says, “He saw and believed.” So his faith in the resurrection was based on the grave clothes, the head covering folded off by itself the stone removed the missing body, no corpse. He saw the physical evidence and believed, but the next statement is more important. “They still did not understand from scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” That's what we get. We don't get to touch the grave clothes, we don't get to see the moving stone, we get scripture. And that's all you'll ever get, but that's enough, isn't it? It's enough. We read the scripture and we believe in the resurrection, amen. But the physical evidence was there for the eyewitnesses, for those that saw his glory and preached. 1 John, what they saw with their eyes, what they touched with their hands, what they experienced. Thomas could have, I don't know that he did, put his finger in the nail holes, it was physical and there were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. Christ is risen. Now, we go into all this history because it's very plain that if Christ has not been raised, our faith is worthless, there is no Christianity. So history matters, and so we go into these details.

So what happened? Well, there was an earthquake and there was an angel. A violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. Behold, I like the “behold,” NIV tends to leave “beholds” out, I put them back in. Sometimes I even write them in. Behold, the angel suddenly comes and the earth shakes. And isn't that awesome? That's the second earthquake, great earthquake, in connection with Jesus' death and resurrection, the first happened after he died. The earth shook and rocks split, it says, and now we have this other earthquake.

This is an earth-shattering experience. The earth is moving under our feet here with the crucifixion and the resurrection. And it's pointing to, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, to the new heavens and the new earth, when everything will be transformed. I like to use the word resurrected, when the earth will be resurrected, similar to Jesus, and we will be given a new heaven and a new earth. The removal of all the things that can be shaken, they'll be removed, all of them removed, and eternal things will be set up that will never be shaken. And we're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably.

And so there's such a joy in this, and so the angel does it, and this angel is mighty. He caused the earthquake. The text implies that, “there was an earthquake, for an angel came down from heaven.” So the angel is shaking the earth, these are mighty beings. What was the touch-down? I always think they're like Apollo 11, the eagle has landed. So the angel comes down and touches down somewhere away from the tomb and moves over to it, so he lands, earthquake, and he moves over, picks up the stone mightily and moves it aside, and then, this my favorite part: sits on it. Like with angelic legs dangling. I just get that picture of complete ease. He's in the presence of Roman warriors, not intimidated at all by them, they're very intimidated by him. He's just sitting there comfortable, joyful and saying, “This is a happy day, this is the happy day.” And he's just waiting to talk to the women, don't need to worry about the stone, don't need to worry about the corpse, he is risen.

And so there he is, and look at his appearance, blinding light, this radiant glory from heaven, God the Father, giving some of his glory to the angel, and the angel radiating this blinding light from heaven. Just as Jesus' birth when he was born, and the shepherd saw the angel and he descended in the glory of the Lord, shone around and they were terrified. And so also these Roman soldiers, terrified at his glory. Angels are there ministering, angels are there at his birth, angels are there in his temptation, when he was in the desert and angels came and strengthened him. Angels were there in Gethsemane when he was sweating great drops of blood, and an angel was sent to strengthen him, and angels are there now at his resurrection, and they'll be there at his second coming, Amen. When the son of man comes in his Father's glory and all the angels with him, they'll all come for the second coming glory.

And so he is glorious, he is powerful. Here in this account, there's just one angel, but putting all the accounts together, there's definitely more than one angel, there's a good number of angels that are involved here. In Luke, it says, “Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them, and in their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” In John's Gospel, they're inside the tomb, sitting one at the head, one at the foot. And Mary looked in and saw them sitting there where Jesus' body had been, one at the head, one at the foot.

Now, in verse 4-6, we have terror and assurance. First the terror, In verse four, “The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen, just as he said, come and see the place where he lay.’” So we have terror first, and then the assurance that the angel gives. 

Look at the reaction of the guards, these are Roman soldiers who had conquered the world in the name of Caesar, fearless warriors, and they are utterly paralyzed at one angel, utterly paralyzed. And frankly, they had every reason to be, every reason to be. They are terrified of him, and they're trembling, the Greek word for “shook” is the same as what happened to the earth, the angel made the earth shake and he made these men shake, and they're terrified and they end up paralyzed. They can't move.

The glory of this angel, and they can do nothing, and the angel just disregards them, doesn't say anything to them at all, his mission is for the women and for the believers. And so he speaks a word of reassurance to the women, calming their hearts, and he said, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus who was crucified.” In other words, “You have nothing to fear from me because you're in a right relationship with him.” Right? You have nothing to fear. If you are in a right relationship with Jesus, you have nothing to fear from Jesus. But if you're not, you have every reason to be terrified.

He is an incredible friend. What a friend we have in Jesus, but he's a terrifying enemy. And he's the Lord of host, he's the Lord of armies, and so this is one of the soldiers in his army, this heavenly warrior. So he just ignores the Roman soldiers and he says to the women, he says, “Do not be afraid. Fear not, for I know that you're looking for Jesus and why you're here, and I understand your relationship with him. I'm here for you. So don't be afraid.” And then he says, “He is not here, he has risen, just as he said.” 

Now, in Luke's gospel, I think it's clear that there's a little bit of a stronger rebuke for them, actually. You get a little bit of it here, “He has risen just as he said.” But it's clear, in Luke, listen to this, “In their fright,” it said, “The women bowed down with their face to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?’” Why are you acting like he's a corpse? He's not a corpse, he is not here, he has risen. And then he's even clear, “Remember how he told you while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered in the hands of sinful man, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered Jesus' words.” So it's a bit of a mild rebuke, read the scriptures, believe the scriptures, it’s all laid out. Feed on God's word. Strengthen your faith in God's word. And I think that's a link to the very beginning of this sermon, if your joy isn't what it should be, get back in the word and strengthen your faith, and your faith will lead quickly to your emotions and to your joy. Remember what he said. They should have known.

The angels say the same thing in John toward Mary Magdalene. Remember, she's weeping, weeping, weeping. I just love it, weeping on the happiest day in history. It's the same thing with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. I preached an Easter sermon entitled, “Downcast Walking with the Risen Lord.” Depressed and with the resurrected Jesus, how can that be? And he rebuked them for it. Why are you so downcast and discouraged? Read the scriptures. And so the angel says in John 20:13, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they have put him.” He's not being put anywhere, he's going where he wants. Alright, just so you know. He's not put anywhere. And so he's risen. So why are you weeping? Same thing Jesus said to her when he began talking to her, “Why are you weeping?”

And what should be the basis of their joy? The empty tomb. Look what the angel says, “He is not here, he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.” Now, you can only do that by faith, in your mind's eye, but go ahead and do it. Come now by faith and see the empty tomb. Come and see the place where he lay, and let your faith be strengthened by that, come by faith in the word and see. He is not here, he has risen. And so that's it. Just the body is gone.

Now, as I said in John's gospel, there are angels where the body was, and you have the grave clothes described, and you have the angel at the head and at the foot, I love that. As one commentator put it so beautifully, it represents the cherubim who were on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament. That's where the Lord said he would meet with Israel and in a glory cloud above the Ark. In the mercy seat between the cherubim, there in the glory cloud, he spoke to Israel. And that's where the atoning blood was poured on the day of atonement, there on the mercy seat between the wings of the cherubim, and so I think the position of the angels, one at the head, one at the foot and John's gospel tells us, this is the new mercy seat. This is where God will speak to you. The empty tomb, the crucifixion and resurrection, is where God will speak his final word to the human race. That's where the blood was poured for the atonement of our sins. It's all been fulfilled.

Well, then their joyful ministry begins, verses 7 and 8, “Go quickly and tell his disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.” And I like this part. “Now, I have told you,” meaning, I have nothing more to say, get going. It's like that Jewish way of expression, it's in the Old Testament a lot. “Have I not told you?” In other words, there's nothing more to say, you have your orders. And so they're given a very, very clear ministry, a mission to go and tell the disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee and there you will see him.

And so they began running away, they're running, they're hurrying, they're afraid still, but filled with joy. Again, that mingling. That's just who we are. Afraid, what are they afraid of? Just look at it, is there anything to be afraid of at this moment? I tell you, no, there's nothing to be afraid of. If God is for us, who can be against us? Who cares? But they're still that mingling in our hearts, but still they are filled with joy, and so they go to tell the disciples that Christ has risen.

And isn't it marvelous how God chose to do it? Back then in the culture that they had back then, a woman's testimony wouldn't be accepted in the court of law. This is part of the evidence of why scholars in the 21st century, 20th century think this rings true. Because if you're gonna concoct or craft a fable, you wouldn't do it this way. So many elements of the Bible are that way, you just wouldn't show the sins of David and Peter. You wouldn't be so open, you'd try to cover that up. The Bible doesn't cover anything up and here the Lord willed that these women should go and tell the apostles concerning the resurrection, and it's a marvelous thing. And so they hurry away from the tomb, afraid and yet filled with joy.

Now, we know from John's Gospel, Peter and John went and saw for themselves as well, based on what they had heard from the women. I never found out, we'll never know, I guess, until we get to heaven what happened with the spices? I think they were probably left in there, like the Samaritan woman left her water pitcher. Doesn't matter, I don't need the spices anymore, we don't need a water pitcher, and they're running filled with joy to go like the Samaritan woman to tell the whole village, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did, could this be the Christ?”

And these women running to tell the disciples that Christ is risen, but they have one more beautiful perfect surprise that morning, one more. Better evidence than an angel, better evidence than the empty tomb, better evidence than the grave clothes. How about a personal encounter with the resurrected Christ? And that's where our account ends, the highest evidence, verse 9 and 10, “Suddenly Jesus met them.” That's what you can do in a resurrection body. Suddenly there he is, and he just appears and he's there. And he says, and I love this, “Greetings.” That's a kin to, “Morning.” It's so understated. It's so ordinary. “Hi. Here I am.” And again, there's, behold out of nowhere, he comes and their reaction is beautiful, it's priceless, frankly, it's the point of everything. It really is. It's the point of the crucifixion, and it's the point of the resurrection. 

They fall down at his feet and they worship him. As John Piper put it very plainly, in Let the Nations Be Glad, “Missions exist because worship doesn't.” That's the purpose of all of this, so that we would fall on our faces and worship the Lord, that we would worship the resurrected Christ. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

I think there's a little more to it though, because they're holding on tightly, and Jesus has to say, “Stop holding on to me.” Alright, in another account. “Stop holding,” so I think they're saying, “Look, we let you go before and look what happened, we're not doing that again. We're gonna hold on.” And Jesus says, “You can't hold on to me. I'm here for just a short time, 40 days, I'm gonna get the apostles ready to do their ministry and then I'm going to ascend to heaven. So don't hold on to me because I have to ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.” But it's so beautiful, how Jesus calls them brothers, “Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me.”

And so that's that beautiful, beautiful thing. It's the most surprising, the most spectacular aspect of the whole Gospel, J.I. Packer summed up the gospel in three words, “Adoption through propitiation.” Let me say it very plainly, we are adopted as the sons and daughters of living God, because Jesus shed his blood in our place for our sins. That sums it all up. Adoption through propitiation. We are brothers and sisters of the resurrected Jesus Christ, and he's not ashamed to call us that, he's not ashamed. We're sometimes ashamed of him, though we should never be, but he's never ashamed of us. And he is not ashamed to call us brothers. And so he says, “Go tell my brothers that they will see me.”

So what applications can we take from that? Oh my. How long do we have? Not long, 'cause we have the Lord's supper, we have the Lord's supper. But be certain of your faith, be rock solid, certain that Christ has risen from the dead. Be certain about the scriptures, testimony, Old testament and New to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Be certain about these things. The word of God is perfectly true and reliable, and Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. He is completely vindicated, and his blood shed on the cross is sufficient for your sins and for mine. And if we repent and believe in him, we will have eternal life. So repent and believe in him and trust in him. And if you have already done that years ago, continue to repent and believe and to trust and to stay close to him, because he is the vine and you are the branches.

And if I can just say, allow your joy to be rekindled, rejoice and be happy, in the Lord, rejoice even in the midst of your suffering. In Acts 9:39, some women were standing around Peter weeping and showing him some articles of clothing that a woman named Dorcas, Tabitha, had made for them, and they're weeping, they're crying, why? 'Cause she's dead. And Peter sent them all out of the room, knelt down and prayed, and then raised her from the dead. Was it inappropriate for them to be weeping? No, no, you know why? Because she was gone now, there was no certainty she would be immediately raised from the dead, and life's hard and Dorcas made life easier and better, and so it's right for us to grieve. But not as those who have no hope. And so that's why I say sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. Sometimes we have to be sorrowful, but this message, the truth behind this message is an eternal fountain of joy for all of us.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had in the word, and as we prepare our hearts now, O Lord, to receive the Lord's Supper, I pray that you would send forth again in fresh affusions, the Holy Spirit, to take these bear emblems, to take this experience here of the Lord's Supper, and to make it very powerful. Thank you for what we've just heard in the word, and we ask, O Lord, that you would use it and multiply it. I pray for any that are here that walked in in an unregenerate state, that they are lost, they're apart from Christ, that they would even now, repent and trust in Jesus. I pray these things in your name. Amen.

This morning, God-willing, you're gonna hear a sermon on the burial of Jesus Christ. I think it's possible you may have never heard a sermon, a whole sermon, on the burial of Christ, but this is the joy and delight of taking passages verse by verse and looking at them. A number of years ago, I was just remembering this a few moments ago in the pew. I think it was 16 - It was, sorry, 1985. I'm not that old. That's terrible. 1985, there was the 300th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the classical radio station up in the Massachusetts area played 300 consecutive hours of Bach's music, never playing the same thing twice. That's unbelievable, you think about the amount of music that poured through that genius. And everything he did, he wrote “To the glory of God alone” at the bottom, and he just desired to take his musical gifts and use them for God.

But the last piece that that classical station played was the final movement of St. Matthew's passion, which is the text we're looking at this morning, and it's what Leonard Bernstein called a grand exalted lullaby as they laid Jesus to rest. And what's so interesting, Bach was always putting symbolic things in his music. He's always doing tricky, interesting things, if you knew what to look for, and I don't, but I read about it and they tell me what to look for. But that piece ended, St. Matthew's passion ended with a terribly discordant note that was held on for a long time, so it was really a screeching way to end one of the most beautiful pieces of music that's ever been written. And what Bach was doing is he's saying the story isn't over yet with the burial of Jesus, there's more to come. And so then he wrote Easter Oratorio, and come next week and we celebrate Easter. Now, it's not Easter, I know that, I'm aware of the church calendar.

But the burial of Jesus stands as a significant link between these two hugely significant moments in redemptive history, namely, of course, the cross, the death of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus. And so we have the opportunity to see how God orchestrated, in minute detail, the timing of Jesus' death, the elements of his burial, all of those things, the quiet witnessing of the place of burial by the women that were there. He orchestrated and moved Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, at a key moment, to be involved in the burial of Jesus. He even orchestrated Jesus' bitter enemies to achieve the exact opposite of what they were trying to achieve. They wanted to shut down any testimony to the resurrection, and frankly by posting a guard to try to stop what no power in heaven, Earth, or under the Earth could ever stop, the resurrection of Jesus, they just played right into God's hands. Amen. Hallelujah. And they become hostile witnesses, but for the case of the resurrection of Jesus, we'll talk about that more in the future.

But how powerful is it that God providentially rules over every tiny detail, even over those who love Jesus and those who hated him, to bring about the exact burial of Jesus that the Lord had planned to bring about. And so we can worship a God who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and all of the peoples before him are like grasshoppers, and he does, as Nebuchadnezzar said, as he pleases with the powers of heaven and with the kingdoms, the peoples on earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

So, last week we saw, in that text, God the Father interprets the cross of his son, Jesus Christ. We looked at various amazing, astonishing things that the Father did to tell us how to think about the death of Jesus. And how he orchestrated, supernaturally, an eerie darkness that came over the entire land, which you don't get from the Scripture, but from other contemporary accounts, that it was so dark that they could see the stars. So it's almost like it became night in the middle of the day while Jesus was on the cross. And how the fulfillment of prophecy was the Father's way of teaching us the significance of Jesus' death, how Jesus quoted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And how that was a fulfillment of prophecy, the clear testimony in Psalm 22 of the crucifixion. And also the spiritual significance of Jesus' mysterious alienation from the Father, and how he was, in a very mysterious way, talked about this last week, as our sin bear alienated from God, and the wine vinegar being there that Jesus drank in fulfillment of prophecy.

And then the tearing of the curtain in two, from top to bottom, signaling the free access that we all have right into the presence of God, which I urged you, as believers in Christ, to take away is the central application last week. You have free access to Almighty God any time you want. I certainly hope you walk through that curtain, spiritually, again and again and again, this past week. Coming near to the throne of grace to receive mercy. And how at the moment of Jesus' death, there was a terrifying earthquake that shook, it seems like the whole region, not just right there, but an earthquake felt as far away as Bithynia and other places, just an amazing shaking of the earth. And then the resuscitation, as I called it last week, of holy people that had been dead but came back to life and appeared to many. And so the Father, just by many, many ways, testifying to the significance of the crucifixion of Christ.

Now we get to the account of the burial, as we finish Matthew chapter 27. As we come to the burial of Jesus, we come to a very significant event, I think often overlooked. So I wanna talk about the burial of Christ in prophecy and in the proclamation of the gospel. Let's start with the proclamation, how the burial of Jesus Christ is essential to the proclamation of the gospel, as Paul gives us a summary of the historical foundation of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. He says there, “For what I received, I also passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures.”

So there you have crucifixion, resurrection, and then this clear statement of the burial between the two. We also have the Apostle Paul using the burial very plainly to speak of our spiritual status in Christ, we who have been baptized into Christ. In Romans 6:4 Paul says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” And then Colossians 2:12, “Having been buried with him in baptism, and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”

And we're gonna talk more about this at the end of the sermon. But there I'm gonna say very plainly, and what Paul says in Romans 6, you should consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So the idea of Jesus' dead body buried in a cave is a picture of your old nature, your old person in Adam, dead now forever. The person you were in Adam is dead. You are now a new person in Christ. And so, that's a beautiful picture, and Paul uses the burial of Jesus to give us a picture of how dead we should be, and are, to sin. So we'll talk more about that at the end.

We also have the burial of Jesus not only proclaimed in the preaching of the gospel, and we'll talk also about Acts 2 and the Pentecost a little bit later, but we also have it predicted in prophecy, the burial of Jesus predicted. First, the manner of the burial, details of the burial predicted in Isaiah 53:9. There it says, “They made his grave with the wicked and with the rich man at his death, though he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.” So we have one key noun and two adjectives in this prophecy that are vital, the word “grave,” the Hebrew word translated there means grave, sepulchre, a place where a dead body is placed. And this is very significant because this is the suffering servant passage, there in Isaiah 53, of this individual who grew up before God like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground, had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Who is this individual?

And “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Well, yes, but it's not until later in verse 9 that we have the word “grave.” So it's clear that not only was Jesus wounded, pierced, struck, or crushed. He was killed, he died. So, only dead people need a grave. And so it's very clear that it's only by the death of the suffering servant that our sins are atoned for.

And so Jesus clearly died and he was laid in a grave, it would be predicted that he was laid in a grave, but then there's some more details in the prophecy. “They made his grave with the wicked, and he was with the rich in his death.” Putting it together, it seems that the verse indicated that the suffering servant, we know to be Jesus, would die and would be assigned, I think that's the best way to understand it, a grave with the wicked - but, in the end, he would be buried with the rich. And so, after the fact, we can look back and see the precision there.

The burial with the wicked was undoubtedly in that Jesus was considered to be a criminal, considered to be wicked by those who killed him, and they would like nothing better than to have made an example of his body, perhaps putting his dead body up or leaving it on the cross for days maybe. The Romans did this kind of thing as a warning to others that they would not follow this pattern of rebellion against Caesar, and the birds picking at the flesh and all that, perhaps that was the intention. Or that he would be buried in a common grave, and not be able to be identified from any other criminal. He was crucified with two others at the time.

So he was numbered among the transgressors, he was numbered among the wicked in his death, but he was with the rich in his death. Now, in our account here in verse 57, we have “a rich man,” it says, “named Joseph of Arimathea, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.” And in John 19, he was accompanied by Nicodemus and together they brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds worth. These things were very expensive, very costly, and so both Joseph and Nicodemus, undoubtedly very wealthy men. And they brought, basically, ingredients for the burial of a king, it was at a kingly level they were treating his body. And so incredible details there in that one verse concerning the burial of Jesus.

Also Jesus gives us some insight concerning the timing of his burial. You remember how evil people came to Jesus and asked, after a river of miracles that he'd done, after so many healings, came and asked him to show them a sign. Again, another miracle. And Jesus said to them, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a large fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” That's Matthew 12:40. So the timing of it, we'll talk more about that in a moment, but the timing of it, according to Jesus, laid out. Now, again, I don't think we would have read the story of Jonah and gotten the burial of Jesus out of that, but Jesus is the one that said that's the timetable. And so three days and three nights, the timetable.

We also believe that the burial itself is essential to the early apostolic proclamation of the resurrection. They relied very heavily on the physical evidence of the empty tomb, physical evidence. If the Romans had been able to bury Jesus in a common grave, there would have been no physical evidence of his resurrection other than appearances that Jesus would make to individuals, that would be ample physical evidence, but Jesus did not intend to show himself to everyone, but just to some eyewitnesses. And so the physical evidence of the empty tomb was going to be a strong part of the proclamation, the apostolic proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

I think you get this very plainly in John 20:1-9, listen to that text. You don't have to turn there, but just listen, in John 20. Here's the account of the resurrection of Jesus, and it begins not with an appearance of Jesus, but with the physical evidence of his resurrection at the empty tomb. So there it says, “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance, so she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!’ So, Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there,” or set there, I think, interesting word there, set there, “but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen set there as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside.” Now, listen, “He saw and believed.”

He saw and believed. So what John is saying there, he's speaking of himself there, John is saying, “My first indications of the resurrection came from the physical evidence of the empty tomb.” Without the burial, you don't have that. Now, he goes beyond that to speak to the rest of the world and the rest of redemptive history, the rest of 20 centuries of Christians who would come along long after the fact, and not get to see the strips of linen lying there, not get to see the head covering, folded up separate, not get to see the stone removed from the entrance, or the empty tomb itself.

John 20:9, very significant statement, “They still did not understand, from Scripture, that Christ had to rise from the dead.” Now, you and I, that's what we believe, right? We've never seen Jesus. We've not had an encounter with the resurrected Lord. How many of you - Don't raise your hand - How many of you believe that Jesus has been risen from the dead? All of you Christians have. You have to believe in it. Well, on what basis? On the basis of Scripture alone. That's all you've got. That's all I've got, but it all started with physical evidence.

The apostles were eyewitnesses of the physical evidence, and it was vital, absolutely vital. And so, in 1 John 1:1-2, the Apostle John says, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at, and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” Do you think they touched the strips of linen lying there? I often imagine it, and the Greek supports this somewhat, I think, of somewhat of a cocoon there. With those strips of linen, with that sticky myrrh there and the spices, and Jesus just having passed through the linen, like he would then pass through the walls of the tomb itself, just moving right through. I think, in an interesting way, he passed through and then took the head cloth off and folded it up neatly, and put it in another place, just another touch of conscious, unhurried, careful dealing there that grave robbers would never have done, but unable for them to do. There's no way they can get the dead body out of those sticky cloths there, that's sorta just physical evidence.

And so John just says, “This is resurrection.” There is no other way to explain it. There's no other way to explain it. The body came right out of these strips of linen and the head cloth, went right through the wall, the angel came down, we'll get to this next week, God-willing, the angel comes down, moves the stone and lets the world in to see, but Jesus is already gone. He's already risen. He's out. Death no longer has mastery over him. Amen. And so, all of that: vital.

And so, in the day of Pentecost, 40 days later, the apostles are in downtown Jerusalem and they're proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. And if you listen to what Peter preaches there, there's no doubt that the empty tomb stood under the proclamation of the resurrection, in a way that it can't for us. We can't do what the first hearers of that gospel message could do. What do I mean? They could go to the empty tomb and look at it. It became, I'm sure, a source of embarrassment to the chief priest and the Pharisees. What are we gonna do about this empty tomb? I don't know what they did with the empty tomb. There's no record of it.

All I know is that, in effect, Peter stands up there at Pentecost, and this is what he says: “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by signs, wonders, and miracles which God did among you, through him, as you yourselves know this man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, have put him to death, nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him,” Psalm 16, “David said about him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest in hope because you will not abandon me at the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’” Then Peter, that's Psalm 16, Peter then preaches the gospel.

This is what he says: “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his grave is here to this day.” What is he inviting them to do? Go see the bones of David, isn't he? Isn't that, in fact, what he's saying? “Go see the bones of David.” You know why? 'Cause David wasn't writing about himself in Psalm 16. He died and decayed. Well, who is he writing about who died and didn't decay? Who died and didn't decay? Only one, only one, Jesus. And so he says go look at the tomb. “But David was a prophet, and he knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on the throne. Seeing what was to come, seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.” What is he inviting them to do there? Go look at the empty tomb. Go look, that tomb is empty. Do you not see now then how vital the burial was? You can't preach like that if there's no identifiable burial. You can't preach like that if he's thrown in a common grave. And so the physical evidence of the resurrection was essential, and therefore, the burial was essential.

Well, let's talk about some details of this. Let's talk about the precise timing of the burial. Look at verse 57, it says, “As evening approached.” Now, just stop there. Remember what I said? Now, I don't think we get the idea of the stars being visible at midday in the Bible, but there are other accounts from Tertullian and others that said that the stars were visible at midday in Bithynia and other places. So I always thought it was just kind of like a really dark, cloudy day, but it may have been that God just shut down the sun. But by the time Jesus dies, the sun comes back on again, and then the sun goes down as always. And so evening approaches. It's really powerful, when you think about that, how eerie must that have been, daytime, nighttime, daytime again, and now the sun goes down, just as it always does. So, evening's approaching, the Sabbath time is approaching. And so there's issues here. Jesus spoke his last words from the cross and yielded up his spirit. “Into your hands, I commit my spirit. It is finished.” And he's gone. He's able just to die at will. He's able to lay down his life anytime he chooses. We can't do that, but he did it, talked about that last time.

Now, Sabbath, the Sabbath, began at sundown, what we call it like roughly 6:00 PM, and so it was essential for Jesus to be buried before the Sabbath, before sundown. It was essential at a couple of levels. First, Jewish law required that no one be left hanging there overnight, Deuteronomy 21. And so John tells us that the Jews demanded that Pilate break the bones of the victims to hurry up the death process so that they could get these men dead, so they could get them buried before the sundown, so they wouldn't be working on the Sabbath. So the timing is absolutely vital here.

Jesus has to die at exactly that moment, because if he'd waited any longer, they would have shattered his bones, and that would have violated the typical prophecy of the Passover, not a bone will be broken, not a single bone will be broken. And so the Passover, Exodus 12:46, you can't break one of the bones of the lamb, and that's just one of those little indicators God put, why not? Break the bone of the lamb, the marrow will be exposed to the broth, and it'll be richer, and all that. God said, “Don't break the bones.” Why? It's just identifiers pointing to Jesus, that's all. So don't break a bone of the sacrificial lamb, and Psalm 34:20 says, “He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”

So, Jesus had to die so they wouldn't break his bones. He also had to die so that they would pierce him with a lance. And so the Roman, trying to absolutely be certain, he knew he was dead, these guys were experts at death, but just to give clear evidence, he takes this lance and shoves it up into Jesus' side, and water and blood flows out, clear evidence that he's dead. No slumping, no jerking. This water, probably from the heart, flows out. And he's dead, no doubt about it, but that fulfills or sets up a fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 12:10, “They will look on the one they have pierced.” Now, in Zechariah 12:10, that looking is a look of faith, and it's the spirit of grace that's poured out on the whole house of Judah and Jerusalem. And so that, I believe, is referring to a future fulfillment where all Israel be saved. I'm gonna get into a whole different sermon now. I gotta be careful. But at another time in the future, the Jewish nation will look on the one they have pierced and they will grieve for him, and they will turn to him and believe. But again, the timing, he had to die so that they would pierce him in that way.

And as we mentioned, the prophecy of Jonah had to be fulfilled, three days and three nights. Now, we tend to look at it kind of post-scientific revolution, and we're very precise and I like precision. I've got stopwatches that go to the 100th of a second. What's a 100th of a second? Means something to Usain Bolt, but it doesn't mean much in everyday life. But at any rate, we are very precise. People are like, I don't see how Jesus could die at such and such a clock on Friday, and be raised really before sunrise on Sunday, and you get three days and three nights out of that. But it just had to do with the way the Jews reckoned a day and a night, and really from the very beginning in Genesis 1 “There was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

So, any part of any day was called an evening and a morning. And you know what I'm talking about, when you go to a parking garage - Have you ever done this? It's like however many dollars an hour, and you're one minute into the second hour? Whole hour. Or you return a rental car a minute late? Whole day. Try arguing that one with Avis or Hertz. They're not gonna listen to it. You had to have it back by 3:00 in the afternoon, and you didn't. “Oh, I have 3:01.” “I've got 3 o'clock.” Alright, it matters what they think. Any part of that next day is a whole day, and that's the three days and three nights. But again, he had to die before sundown. You understand? Had to do with the reckoning, so that he could be raised on the first day of the week as a picture of the new creation. The first day, the new creation. Not looking back to the old creation, but on the first day, looking ahead to the new creation. Everything's been worked out. So that's the timing and prophecy, all of that. 

Along with this, God has to raise up some witnesses, friendly witnesses and unfriendly witnesses to the burial. First, let's talk about the friendly witnesses to the burial, the women and Joseph. Look at verses 55-56, “Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.”

So women were there out of love for Jesus. There's a long track record of this in the gospels. There were women that cared for Jesus, and in Luke 8:3 meeting Jesus' needs financially out of their own resources, and just following him around and caring for him. John's gospel alone tells us that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there as he died. It's unclear that she's still there at this point, at the burial, we don't know, but she was certainly there as he was dying. It's quite possible that John took Mary home right at that point. We don't know. It is interesting that the other two women are also named Mary, it's from the Hebrew Miriam, which means bitterness, and you get it out of when Naomi said, “Don't call me Naomi, which means pleasant, but call me Mara, which means bitter, because my life's bitter now.” But these women, they're named Mary. And so you have Mary Magdalene there, who is a woman that Jesus had healed from demon possession, you have Mary, the mother of James the Lesser, and then the mother of Zebedee's sons as well.

The text indicates, actually, many women were there watching. And G. Campbell Morgan, I love what he said about these women, powerful, describes the mental state of these women. “These women,” he says, “were hopeless, disappointed, bereaved, heartbroken, but the love he had created in those hearts for himself could not be quenched even by his dying; could not be overcome even though they were disappointed; could not be extinguished even though the light of hope had gone out. And over the sea of their sorrow, there was no sighing wind that told of the dawn.” So they weren't believing the resurrection. Even when they went to finish Jesus' burial on the first day of the week, they weren't believing in the resurrection at that point. But they certainly loved Jesus. And they were vital, because they were the ones among Jesus' followers who knew where the tomb was on that first day of the week.

We also have Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy man, predicted by Isaiah. And isn't it amazing the supernatural work that God did on Joseph's heart and Nicodemus' heart at a key moment, supernatural work. Now, we have, in John 19:38, “Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jews.” Same thing with Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night and wasn't flying his full colors during Jesus' lifetime. Now, the indication in the text there was that Joseph was actually discipled by Jesus. It's a verbal form there, not just a disciple, but he was actually discipled by Jesus. So it seems that Joseph spent some time being trained by Jesus, but again, secretly.

Now, he was a very prominent member, according to Mark 15:43, of the council, an important member, not just a council member, but a leader. And it says, in Mark 15:43, “he was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, and he went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body.” It's a fascinating statement, Mark 15:43, “went boldly to Pilate.” Why did it take boldness? Jesus was the condemned leader of, apparently, the official news was he's king of the Jews, leader of an insurrection. Anyone who came and showed any favorable connection to Jesus was likely to be arrested and condemned himself. So Joseph risked everything.

Now, this is the amazing thing with both Joseph and Nicodemus. They risked everything when Jesus' evidence, the evidence that he was, in fact, the Messiah was at the lowest it had been in years. He's dead now. Many of them wondering, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we had hoped he was the one but now we don't think he is. Why? 'Cause he died under a curse. That's not a Messiah. Messiahs don't die under curses. Where did Joseph get his courage? Where did he get his boldness at this key moment? Same place you and I get our boldness for a witness, amen? From the power of God working on our reluctant hearts. He suddenly didn't care anymore what his brother Jews thought about his loyalty to Jesus. He didn't care what Pilate might do to him. He is filled with boldness and goes and asks for Pilate's body. Now, you think, this is no big deal. No, this was a huge deal. I do believe the Romans probably would have made an example of Jesus' body if he hadn't gone for it. 

And the timing is huge because he apparently went before the enemies went. They probably would have demanded things done in reference to Jesus' body. And he had to be a prominent member, because if he was just a regular, ordinary individual, I don't think Pilate would have even seen him. But because he was a council member, he let him in and he said, “Alright, take his body.” Sovereignty of God. Sovereignty of God. Proverbs 21:1, “The king's heart,” Pilate's heart, “is like a water course in the hands of the Lord. God directs it whatever way he pleases.” And he raises Joseph up, and he raises Nicodemus up. And they're not afraid of death anymore, and they're not afraid of losing their position or their money anymore. They go boldly and they ask for Jesus' body.

And so we have physical aspects of the burial. “Then Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.” Every word is vital.

First of all, the wrapping of the body, we have from John 19, with Nicodemus. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes. As we mentioned, myrrh is a sticky resinous kind of substance, somewhat like pine tar, only aromatic. And so they would scrape it off of certain trees that came from the Arabian Peninsula. And they would dry it out for three months, and it was very aromatic. It shows up at three times in Jesus' life: at his birth, when the Magi brought it as a gift, myrrh being one of the gifts. And then twice at his death, once mixed with wine as a sedative and he tasted it but refused to drink it, and then here in terms of the burial. Again, it was sticky, and so it would have held the strips of linen together in a sticky, kind of, it would make it almost like a unit altogether. Again, a powerful physical evidence of the resurrection after Jesus rose from the dead.

And they're treating him with tremendous respect. They're wrapping him like a king, they're rich, and they're gonna lavish 75 pounds of this substance on Jesus. That's like a king's ransom. It's expensive stuff, and it smelled beautiful. And that was to mask the stench of decay. Unneeded. Unneeded. He's the one that would die but not decay, but it still smelled nice, even though Jesus would not decay at all.

And Joseph had a new tomb providentially right near where Jesus died, carved out of a rock, a cave, picture a cave. And there was a stone in front of it, this would be the setting for the account I read earlier in John chapter 20, this is the empty tomb. This is the place where it would be. No one had ever been laid in it before. I wonder if no one was ever laid in it again. I'm sure Joseph wouldn't have wanted to lay anyone else. That was the empty tomb. How powerful is that? Conversely, in a way, you could say, “I wanna be in that tomb, because just as Jesus rose from the dead, I know I'm gonna rise too.” Either way, that was his tomb, and no one had ever laid in it. 

And that large stone, that would be the first visible evidence of the resurrection. Heavy disc, I picture it like a coin, thick though, heavy, rolled down into a trough, so that no grave robbers could come in, no wild animals could disfigure the body. And it was there, and a block, but in the resurrection, clear evidence because it was removed. 

And then, verse 61, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, sitting down there opposite the tomb. They knew exactly where it was, and when it was dark, on the first day, they would know exactly where to go. No doubt about it. All of that: vital.

So those were the friendly witnesses and the physical aspects of the burial. What about the unfriendly witnesses? You have the Jewish officials and the Roman guard. Verse 62, it says, “The next day, the one after preparation day, the Chief Priest and the Pharisees went to Pilate.” Now, the chief priest and the Pharisees are relentless in trying to squash Jesus' movement. They wanna just crush it and get rid of all memories of Jesus. Interestingly, that they would do anything at all together because the chief priests were almost universally Sadducees. And the Pharisees and Sadducees were bitter enemies in the politics of the Jewish religion and state, but on this one thing, they could agree, they hated Jesus, hated him, and so they got together. 

Also, it's odd that the Greek indicates that they went right into Pilate's council chamber. They went right into the place where ordinarily they would never go. And what is their mission? Well, look what it says, verse 63-64, “‘Sir’ they said, ‘We remember that, while he was still alive, that deceiver said, “After three days, I will rise again.” So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead, and this last deception will be worse than the first.’” 

So they're afraid. Isn't it amazing that none of Jesus' disciples seemed to have remembered Jesus' teaching that on the third day, he would rise again? But his enemies did, they remembered. Now, they didn't believe it. I don't think that the disciples were believing in a resurrection at that point, but they wanted to stop the disciples from deceiving the people, preaching a fraud, preaching a fraud. Now, I'm not gonna go into great detail on how this played exactly into God's hands, 'cause I wanna preach that at a later sermon, but they did, they played exactly into God's hands.

I wonder if, in years later, they regretted doing this, posting the guard. I wonder if they did. We'll get to that. I'm gonna save all those comments for the next time I preach, not next week, but the one after it, God-willing. But I think they had cause to regret posting that guard. Now, some question whether it was a - it depends on the translation. To some degree, it could be said, “You have a guard, you post him,” but I think the NIV has it right here, “Take a guard and make the tomb secure, as you know how.” I think why would they go to Pilate? And he doesn't need you to tell him you already have a guard. And the soldiers who were there after the resurrection were very afraid what Pilate would say. And if they were just the temple guard, I don't think they would be as afraid of what Pilate would say. I think these were Roman guards, and I think the seal also points to that. So I think these were Romans.

And so, finally, verse 66, we have the seal. “So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.” The guard’s posted. It's there to stop the disciples from getting in. Any of those disciples gonna try to get in? What do you think? You know the disciples, where were they? They ran for their lives. Where were they? In the upper room with the doors locked, for fear of the Jews. Are they gonna try to get in? No. But Jesus is gonna get out. And he's not gonna just try to get out. He's going to get out. And there's gonna be an angel that's gonna come down, and those guards are gonna shake with fear and become like dead men. If I'm not careful, I’ll go ahead and preach next week's sermon right now. But they posted the guard and they put a seal on the stone. 

Now, what was the seal? The seal was the official symbol of the Roman government of Pontius Pilate on behalf of Caesar, saying whosoever moves this stone will be condemned by the Roman government. That's the seal. 

And we know that the Bible teaches us that all human authority is established by God, and we must submit ourselves to the human authorities, but angels are not subject to that, are they? And neither is God. God is the King of Kings, and he's the Lord of Lords, and he'll break any seal he wants to. Amen? So I picture the seal being between the movable stone in the wall, so that, if you break it, you've broken the law. And so we'll talk about who broke that seal, but we know who it is. It's a limit of human power, there's nothing the government could do to stop the resurrection of Jesus. And there's nothing the government can do to stop the proclamation of the resurrected Jesus. And that's a powerful thing, isn't it?

It also fulfills a little type that maybe you have missed. Typical prophecy, has to do with things acted out in Old Testament history, that give us foretaste and indications, generally, of Christ especially. So, types are things acted out, like Abraham almost sacrificing his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, a picture of the Father giving Jesus for us. All animal sacrifices were typical prophecies, types acted out in history. Many types. But in Daniel chapter 6, we have an interesting type. There, Daniel is thrown in the lion's den for having his quiet time, basically. And they put a stone over it, and they sealed the stone. And it's the same message, whoever moves the stone before morning comes, the power of Darius and of the Medo-Persian empire will come down on your heads. And so it was, in the end, Darius himself who broke the seal, and moved the stone, and found out that Daniel was still alive. And Daniel came up out of that hole in the ground alive, a picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So what applications can we take from this? Well, first and foremost, do you not see how vital history is to the gospel? These things matter. We are a historical faith. It matters whether Jesus really lived. It matters whether he really died. It matters whether he was really buried and whether he really rose again. It really matters to us. This isn't just a myth or a story, a religious inspirational fable. We are a historical people. History matters to us more than any other religion in the world.

And if Christ has not been raised, then we are still in our sins. We have physical bodies. We commit physical sins. We are physically aging and physically hurting, and we are physically dying, and at the end, we will be physically dead if the Lord doesn't return. Does it matter whether this stuff physically happened or not? You better believe it does, because Jesus has made us a promise: “Because I live, you also will live.” And that's a physical promise. And so you need to know the certainty of the gospel, Christ has died, and he has been buried, and he has been raised from the dead.

Trust in him. Trust in him, I plead with you. If you have come here today and you came outside of Christ, you're not a Christian, I plead with you, trust in this gospel, believe in him for the forgiveness of your sins. Don't leave here still under the judgment of God. Christ died. He did all of this for sinners like you and me. Trust in him. And for us as witnesses, let's preach this. This is exciting. It's exciting for me to talk about the empty tomb, and I'm grateful for all of the physical evidence that God has given us.

Now, speaking to you Christians, if I can go back, harken back to Romans 6:4, it says, in Romans 6:4 that we were buried with Christ through baptism into his death, and raised into newness of life. I want you to live out that life, consider yourselves dead to sin, consider yourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus. Picture a corpse and say, “That's who I was in Adam. That person I was in Adam is dead. I'm not under sin anymore. I'm not under law. I'm not in Satan's kingdom anymore. I can say no to any temptation that comes my way, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I can see all of my temptations dead at my feet. I can be a mighty warrior for holiness in my life, I don't have to ever sin again the rest of my life. I'm gonna consider myself buried with Jesus, dead to sin.” Picture that burial. That's what Paul gives you both in Romans 6:4 and in Colossians 2:12.

Thirdly, stand in awe at the meticulous accuracy of the providence of God, every little detail, the timing, the prophecies, everything down to the detail. And realize the same God is watching over your life, filtering your temptations, filtering your struggles and your suffering. He is orchestrating good works for you to do. He is orchestrating every little detail of your life. And if you're going through vast and deep suffering right now, understand God is the one who's bringing it into your life because he loves you, not 'cause he hates you. And he is working a glory in you that far outweighs any trial you're ever going through. So, trust in the sovereign providence of God, everything's orchestrated down to the detail, even including your life.

And isn't it beautiful, fourthly, how God is able to move his servants out of their pit of fear and selfishness and worldliness, like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, to move out and serve him. So, I would urge you, look at your life. If you have been living a worldly life, you've been living caring too much what non-Christian people think about you, caring too much about your position in your company, in your career, like Joseph of Arimathea cared about his career too much, and he wouldn't fly his colors for Jesus until finally God moved him out. You can't, by the strength of your own will, move out of that, it's too strong, but God has the power to do it. “You will receive power when my Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses.”

Don't live a life of fear. Live a life of witness. And if you've been fearful to witness, fearful to get involved in missions or to live openly for Jesus and say, “Father, by the same power that moved Joseph and Nicodemus out when Jesus was cold dead, please give me that power to preach the gospel and share with coworkers, neighbors, friends and family.” 

Alright. Those are the easy applications. Now we get to the hard ones. I wanna talk about the manner of burial. Okay, let's say it plainly. I wanna talk about cremation, it's not an easy topic because it's sensitive. I acknowledge that this topic can be painful for some. I also believe there's good times to talk about it and not good times. So for me, as a pastor, it's not a good time to talk about it in the office, at Hall-Wynne Funeral Home. That's not a good time. “Oh, we're planning on cremating Grandma, what do you think about that?” That's not a good time for us to talk about it. Let me tell you what I think about that.

First and foremost, I believe it's a matter of Christian freedom. I don't think you sin if you decide to be cremated or cremate a loved one. There are no clear prohibitions, there are no clear commands either way, but I don't think that's all we should say about this topic. I think there's more to say about it, and I think this may be a good time to say it.

Cremation, secondly, in no way hinders the cremated believer from having an awesome resurrection body. I hope you believe that God is able to raise cremated people into awesome resurrection bodies. Or else how could people who die in other conflagrations, plane crashes and others, be resurrected? So, God is able to do this. He's not hindered at all.

But the issue for me is the symbolism involved in funerals. The symbolism involved in funerals, that's the issue for me. Are funerals symbolic? Yes. Do they have lots of symbolic elements? Yes, they do. Consider, for example, a casket covered with an American flag, what is the symbolism of that? Well, this individual served in the armed services. That's what it symbolizes. So there's lots of symbolism that goes. I've been to lots of funerals. We have members of our congregation that were in this ministry, this industry. There are so many symbolic elements.

So what are we saying by cremation versus what are we saying by burial? I think, simply put, I don't think that we want to say what the Bible generally says when dead bodies are burned. Consistently in the Bible, when dead bodies are burned, it's a symbol of divine judgment and wrath. For example, Sodom and Gomorrah, for example, Achan, who sinned in Joshua 7 and he and his family and all his possessions, all of it burned to ashes. It's a symbol, generally, of divine rejection.

Conversely, what are we saying when we carefully love the body, wrap it up, take care of it, as they did with Jesus, and plant it in the ground? Aren't we testifying to our belief in the resurrection? And are we fitting into the language of 1 Corinthians 15, “The body that is sown is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it's raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it's raised a spiritual body.” So I think the sowing of the body, it pictures the planting like a seed, not the scattering like dust to the wind.

Also regularly, in the Old Testament, we see careful treatment of the body shows faith in the unfulfilled promises of God. For example, didn't Joseph give commands concerning his bones that they be carried out of Egypt with the exodus into the Promised Land and buried in the Promised Land? Yes, he did. Why? Because he was saying, Hebrews 11:13, the promises of God haven't been fulfilled yet, and we died in faith believing that they would. And so the careful treatment of Joseph's bones shows that we believe there's yet to come more.

So even more then for us, we believe in a resurrection. So we desire to give respectful, careful treatment of the body as a testimony to the resurrection from the dead. If you have any questions about this, if you have any thoughts about it, I don't mind talking to you, etcetera. But I would just urge you to consider this one question: in the issue of symbolism, what are we symbolizing by cremation, versus a careful, loving, respectful treatment of the body?

And then, second difficult question, Christ's descent to hell. See, I don't have to do these things, but I think it's helpful to you. Do you know what I mean by Christ’s descent to hell? Well, we don't read the Apostles Creed very often, but there it says, in the Apostles Creed, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty maker of heaven and Earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.” So it's a chronological, historical, and the chronology is huge. He was crucified, dead and buried, descended to hell. You see? So it's not so much that he endured hell on the cross, as I believe, it's that he died and was buried and descended to hell. 

What do we say about that? I don't have time to go into all the scriptures that talk about it. I would just say this, the scriptural evidence for Christ’s descent to hell is flimsy, at best, flimsy. It has to do with how you translate a Hebrew word “sheol,” in the KJV frequently “hell,” but generally just “grave” or “tomb.” It has to do with Ephesians 4, saying that he descended to the lower parts of the earth or “lower regions of the earth,” again, KJV, but other translations, just “he descended to the earth,” which is lower than heaven.

And again, the sense of ascended and led captives in his train, a sense that he went down and rescued some Old Testament saints, generally, or something like that, who were languishing in some kind of prison, and then brought them up, it gets into a whole kind of theology that isn't supported anywhere else. Frankly, I think Moses and Elijah were up in heaven, and then came down and visited Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Amen. Hallelujah. So, they were up there, I think he said to the thief on the cross, “Today, you'll be with me,” Where? “In paradise.” He says, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.”

I don't think he descended to hell, but either way, I'll tell you this, it shouldn't have been in the creed. What do you put in a creed? The milk, basics, stuff everybody believes in, stuff that there's absolutely no doubt about it whatsoever in scripture, that's what you put in a creed. So, whether Jesus descended to hell or not, I think it shouldn't have been in the creed, or there would have been more scriptural evidence to it.

So, as we look at this text today, all I can say is praise God for the gospel. Amen? Praise God that Christ died. Praise God that he was buried. And praise God, and we'll talk about it next week, he was raised from the dead on the third day. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for all the things that we have learned and can learn from Scripture. Teach us more. Strengthen our hearts, O Lord, in the faith. Help us, O Lord, to follow you day by day, and especially for us, as believers, help us to consider ourselves dead and buried to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, by the power of the Spirit. In your name, I pray. Amen.

For those of you who don't know me, so my name is Andy Davis, I'm senior pastor of this church. At least I used to be, I haven't heard anything otherwise. I was gone all summer on sabbatical and delighted to be back and especially eager to preach this sermon to you. Especially eager. Paul said in Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2, which you had the privilege of hearing from the elders all summer and from our staff and just some great messages, how he said, “I resolve to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” And so we should do that in every text, whether from Isaiah, from the book of Genesis, from any book, we should, but it's especially easy when you're preaching from this text, which openly describes and depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and so I've been eager to preach this. Because the crucifixion of Christ, Christ's death on the cross, and his bodily resurrection is the central event of all history. I really take them together, I never separate them, I know it's appropriate from time to time to talk about the crucifixion or the resurrection, but they absolutely, completely go together. Christ was crucified and he was resurrected on the third day. And they go absolutely together.

But today we're gonna have the privilege of looking at the cross, and I'm gonna say just at the beginning, you will see nothing in the cross, none of the glory, none of the truth, none of the love, none of the radiance, you'll see none of it if you have no faith, all of the things I'm going to preach today, you must perceive by faith and by faith alone. But the beauty of the gospel is that it has the power under the Holy Spirit to give you faith. The word of God has the power to birth faith inside your heart. So if you came in here today as an unbeliever, or perhaps you were invited, perhaps you haven't been to church in years, or ever, or maybe you go regularly, but you still know yourself to be lost, you're unconverted, my prayer for you and others’ prayer has been that you'll hear the gospel, you'll see with your mind's eye with the eye of faith, Christ crucified today. It says in Galatians, before your very eyes Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. And so I wanna do that today. But only by faith will you be able to see the truths that are just gonna stream from the text today that you heard Ashok read so beautifully.

Now, it's a bit odd, this kind of interruption, I'm a verse-by-verse expositor, passage-by-passage expositor, and I'm just parachuting right in the middle of what could be seen to be a two-part sermon on the crucifixion of Christ from Matthew. That's really what it was, interrupted by months and months. But you folks have awesome memories, don't you? You know exactly what we were doing last time, ordinarily, I would say last week, but it's been months. But last time as we were looking at Matthew's gospel, Christ is on the cross, and we have the way that Matthew wrote the account, the human perspective on the cross, you have ground up and specifically that perspective of lost people looking at the cross and not seeing there what really was going on. Four different groups of people misinterpreting the cross, that was last time.

Just by way of reminder, the soldiers who mocked Jesus in the Praetorium, and who put a purple robe on him, and put a crown of thorns on his head and mocked him and had no sense of his majesty and his glory. And then you had the Jews who were just walking by Golgotha, they're just walking by wherever they're going from one place to the other, seeing him there and hurling insults at him: “You, who were going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, then save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you're the son of God.” And then you had the religious leaders who were heaping insults on Jesus as you remember. “‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can't save himself! He is the king of Israel, so called. Let him come down now from the cross, and we'll believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God.”’” The mockery.

Even the thieves on the cross, both of them mocked Jesus, though they were under the same sentence as he was, both of them heaped insults on him, until one of them was miraculously converted. And we'll see him in heaven. One of the most awesome and spectacular displays of grace in all of redemptive history, that thief on the cross, but still we have all of them misinterpreting the cross of Jesus Christ. They did not understand it, they did not see it properly. And so it is today, we live in a world of people who know some things about the cross of Christ, but misinterpret it, they don't understand it properly. They do not know who he was, and the significance of what he was doing, they don't know how they relate to it, all of it.

The apostle Paul ran into this mockery, this sense of mocking when he was preaching the gospel in Athens on Mars Hill, you remember. And he was reasoning with the philosophers who were there in the Areopagus. And he reached the culmination of his gospel presentation there, speaking of Christ crucified and resurrected. And when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, they sneered, that's the world's reaction to it, the sneering of the world, the mockery of it. And for this reason, Paul wrote these words, 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.” Amen? And that's what you're gonna get today from me, God willing, the message of the cross. He said further, “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

And so, throughout history, unbelievers have mocked the cross, they've sought to mythologize it as though it was a myth, others have somewhat as the expression goes, “damned by feigned praise,” some have found some positive attributes in the cross, short of a full understanding. And so they'll see in Jesus someone who laid down his life for a cause he really believed in, have you ever heard this kind of thing? And just showed a tremendous amount of love. Friends, without substitutionary atonement, there is no love at the cross, there's perhaps insanity, there's no love. Without Jesus as our sin bearer he's not displaying love, he's either a victim or some kind of odd insane person if he isn't dying in our place. And so, this is the approach that people like Mohandas Gandhi and others have taken, in seeing some value in the death of Christ short of understanding his deity, his incarnation, his full humanity, his substitutionary death. And so they wrongly interpret the cross of Christ.

So where are we gonna get a true interpretation of the cross of Christ? How are we going to understand it properly? Well, I would contend from the text today: from the Father alone, ultimately. God the Father will interpret the cross for us today. Amen? He's going to tell us what to think about the cross.

Now, William Cooper, a marvelous hymn writer from the 18th-19th century wrote a hymn called “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” and he was seeking to encourage people who were going through severe trials, they can't understand what God's doing. And he was a man who struggled with mental illness, with other things, and went through terrible trials. And yet his faith kept rising up again and again. And so God providentially can bring you through terrible trials, you've heard some of the things I've prayed for that are going on even in our congregation but there are others that are of different sorts. And so Cooper, trying to minister to people going through trials, says look, God moves in a mysterious way, his purposes to perform. We don't, and we're not able to understand always what he's doing. And he wrote these words, “Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain.” Friends, there is no more mysterious way ever in redemptive history than the cross of Christ. It's the most mysterious thing God ever did.

And so we need him to be his own interpreter today, alright? To tell us what to think about the cross. And he will. In our text today, we're gonna see how God acted as the interpreter of the cross in some astounding ways. We're gonna see an eerie, supernatural darkness that he caused to go over not just that region, but I think over perhaps the whole earth. There's some indications that it went as far as Rome. We're gonna see it in the detailed fulfilled prophecies that are there at the cross, we're gonna see in the significance of Christ's statement, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and the significance of that. We're gonna see it in the tearing of the curtain from top to bottom. We're going to see the interpretation in this supernatural earthquake that rocked the earth, when Jesus died, and in the resuscitation, resurrection, of many holy people who came to life because Jesus died at that moment.

And in all of these things, my desire is to point to the final verse of our text, in verse 54, how we have this centurion looking up and saying, “Surely this man was the Son of God.” I'm gonna actually improve a little bit on it, 'cause I think the centurion knows the truth of it now and in a very positive way, “Surely this man is the Son of God.” He was, he is, and he will be forever. And so my desire is to bring you to that point, I want all of this evidence, all of what God was doing at that time, to bring you to the point of intense strong faith. And I mean that whether you're a believer or not. If you've been a believer for decades, my desire is to make more intense and vivid than you've experienced in days, weeks, months, years, a sense of what Jesus was doing at the cross. What the Father wants you to think about the cross. It will do you good. Amen? It will do you so much good to be refreshed and renewed. But if on the other hand, you're an unbeliever, you walked in the building today as an unbeliever, my desire, I'll just lay my cards on the table, I want you to believe in Jesus for the salvation of your souls, that you would know eternal life through that.

So let's get busy. Do you think I have any hope of getting through these seven points? I think I might just move this clock back here, wait a minute. I'm sorry, I'll just leave it. Jack, I left it, I didn't touch it, I just left it. It's just how it was. Let's start.

The Father withdraws the daylight, and what I'm gonna do in each of these, I'm gonna take something from the text and then I'm gonna put a kind of a spiritual interpretation on it, okay? That's what you have in your bullets in there, so the Father withdraws the daylight for sin is darkness. Verse 45, “from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land.”

So what are the facts of the darkness? They're given right there, “from the sixth hour to the ninth hour,” that would be about from noon to 3 o'clock. So midday, brightness of the sun, the brightest part of the day, from that until the ninth hour, three hours later, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, darkness. Now, according to Mark 15:25, Jesus' crucifixion began at around 9:00 in the morning, so Jesus had been on the cross for hours when this eerie darkness began.

What is the extent? Well, in the text, it says that “darkness came over the whole land.” The Greek word for land might be translated to “earth.” So you could see it this way: “the darkness came over the whole earth,” it's possible. Christian apologist Tertullian, writing in the second century, had this to say, called it a “cosmic” or a “world” event, this darkness. Evidently, it was visible in Rome and many other places around the Mediterranean. He challenged his non-Christian adversaries with these words, “At the moment of Christ's death, the light departed from the sun and the land was darkened at noon day, which wonder is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day.”

The Greek writer, Phlegon, writing around that time, or writing in 137 AD reported that around that time, “The greatest eclipse of the sun occurred, it became night in the sixth hour of the day, noon, so that the stars even appeared in the heavens.” He wrote it was during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there was “a complete solar eclipse,” he called it, at full moon, a “solar eclipse at full moon,” he said, “from the sixth to the ninth hour.” Eusebius, writing a little bit later in his history, he said, “A great eclipse of the sun occurred at the sixth hour that excelled every other that has ever been before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in the heavens, and the Earth moved in Bithynia toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea.”

Now, what was the nature of this darkness? We don't know, these accounts are not biblical, we don't have the idea of the stars but that probably was true. It was that dark. During the time of Moses and the Exodus, they spoke of “a darkness that could be felt.” Those words aren't used here, maybe that's so, but the cause of the darkness, well, the Gentile writer said it was a solar eclipse, but he said it happened during full moon, but that's astronomically impossible. Because the Jewish Feast of Passover occurs during full moon, solar eclipses can only happen during the new moon. Lunar eclipse would not have explained such a total failing of light implied by the Greek, nor would such a total darkening effect have lasted for three hours.

So I think friends, this is a supernatural act of Almighty God. The sunlight streams across millions of miles of space to us like water flowing through a pipeline, and God just shut it down, and there was no sunlight, it seems, for a period of time. That's what it seems as you put all of these accounts together, a supernatural act of Almighty God.

Why would he do it? Why would he do it? Well, you know God's first words in the Bible were, “Let there be light.” Those are the first things God says in the Bible, and “God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.” So light then becomes in the scriptures a metaphor for God and his goodness, his holiness. 1 John 1:5, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.”

Now, on the fourth day of creation, God created the sun, the moon and the stars. He created the sun to shine on the earth, he gave light to the earth, and we know just from biology that that's essential, that photosynthesis is essential to all vegetative life and therefore to all animal life too. It's essential to life and so light is life for us as well. When Jesus entered the world in John chapter 1, it says in verse 4 and 5, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not understood it.” Jesus said, “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Now, when Jesus entered the world, it was attended by supernatural light. You remember how the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds outside Bethlehem, and the glory of the Lord shone around, and so the night became like day at that point. So also we have this supernatural moving star that led the Magi on a journey and stopped over the place where the baby Jesus was, and so it was when Jesus entered the world, we have this supernatural light, it shouldn't surprise us then when Jesus leaves the world through death, we have darkness. Darkness. “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the earth.”

But it goes deeper. The darkness becomes a symbol of Satan and his realm, a symbol of the darkness of Satan and of the entire earth that's under his power, his wicked realm. Jesus said in Luke 22:53, “But this is your hour now - the hour of darkness.” It's said, when Judas took the piece of bread in John 13, Satan entered into him. Jesus said, “what you're about to do, do quickly.” And he said, “and he went out, and it was night.” That's not just telling us the time of day, that's John saying this is the time of darkness. This is the time when darkness is ruling over the earth. Satan's kingdom is the dominion of darkness, and our battle, Ephesians 6, is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly realms. And so while Jesus is hanging on the cross, God supernaturally blocked the sunlight to testify to Jesus as the light of the world, and Satan's dark realm.

So what is the future of darkness? The future of darkness, judgment will come on the whole earth for its sins. There's something called the day of the Lord, and the day of the Lord is coming. And it says in Amos 5:20, “Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light - Pitch-darkness, without a ray of brightness?” That's Amos 5:20. So to some degree, you could argue that it was the day of the Lord then as Jesus was dying for his sheep, that that was our day of the Lord, and so there was a darkness and not light as Jesus was dying. 

And so the coming day of the Lord, the coming judgment day, is going to be also a day of darkness and not of light. In Isaiah 13, it says, “Behold the day of the Lord is coming - a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger - to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sins.” Jesus in Matthew 24, talking about his second coming, he said, “Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”

Revelation 8:12, “The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon and the third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.”

But even that's not the ultimate future of darkness, not at all, because the wicked, the unregenerate, the unsaved, the unbelievers are going to be cast out into utter darkness, outer darkness. Jesus said in Matthew 25:30, “thrown outside,” that's the word outside, “into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Conversely, the children of God, the believers will live in a realm of endless light, we ourselves will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father, and there will be no sun or moon or stars or the light of the lamp, because the glory of God is going to radiate that whole world, and we will bask in its light forever and ever. And so the Father withdrew the light of the sun because sin is darkness.

Secondly, the father withdraws from the son himself, for sin breaks fellowship with God. Verse 46, “About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

Here, at this moment, we are just stepping into sacred ground into infinite mystery, infinite mystery. I can't capture in words adequately, the infinite mystery of the Trinity, the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Spirit. It's an infinite mystery. But there's some things we have to say here. The Doctrine of the Trinity is infinitely mysterious. Then the Doctrine of the Incarnation, infinitely mysterious, and they come together at this moment. How can we comprehend the concept of the Trinity? Of one God and only one God, infinitely separate from his creation above all things, perfectly holy above everything he ever made? One God, but eternally existing in three persons the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God, but the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father.

How can we understand these things? We can't fully grasp them, but we accept them. This is the orthodox doctrine we've been entrusted. And this one God, this triune God is eternal, he never changes. In his essential being, he never will change. He never has changed, he never will change. He cannot change. It's impossible. Dear friends, if the Trinity for a moment ceased to exist as such, the universe would stop existing, and the Father's love for the Son is perfect and unchangeable, he loves the son with a love we can't fathom. It's an intense love, the intensity of it is similar to the raging fire of the sun, that we see every day up in the sky, that's how much the Father loves the Son only infinitely more.

Well, then what's going on here? “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Well, now we have the Doctrine of the Incarnation. Jesus, 100 percent God, is also 100 percent human. 100 percent human. And as a human being, he was our sin bearer at this moment, He took on our sinfulness; while he was on the cross, he was completely sinful and wicked positionally, though he himself had committed no sin.

And so Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It's a cry of loneliness, of isolation from Almighty God because of his role as our sin bearer, and it's a cry from the pit of hell, really. Total abandonment by God, and deeper, a wrath being poured out on Jesus. And so it says in Isaiah 53: 10, “It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.” And so he's experiencing hell on the cross. Jesus, the focus of the infinite wrath and power of God directed against sinners, and we have the abandonment of a sinner in hell pictured here, as he says “why have you forsaken me?” God-forsaken.

God is the giver of every good gift there is, you know that, every good and perfect gift comes from God. Everything you enjoy in this life comes from God, whether you acknowledge him or not, all of them come from God. And in God alone is fullness of joy, perfection of joy. Psalm 16, “In your presence is the fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Earlier in that Psalm, in Psalm 16:2, it says, “You are my Lord.” “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord, apart from you, I have no good thing.’” That's hell, friends, hell. Apart from God, they have no good thing. So if you should ever meet a lost person, who says, “I'm eager to go to hell, that's where all my friends will be.” You should say probably with tears in your eyes, “I hope not. I hope all your friends won't be there, but if they're there, they won't be there as your friends. Friendship is a gift from God. That's what you're enjoying now, you won't enjoy friendship with anyone in hell. You'll be wailing and gnashing your teeth if that's where you go. Oh, flee the wrath to come. Flee the wrath to come.”

Now, it's important for us to acknowledge Jesus was sinless, he didn't commit any sins. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth,” 1 Peter 2:22. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” And this Isaiah 53, “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought him peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” That's why that cry happened right here, that's it. He himself sinless, but perfectly sinful, in God's sight, positionally as our substitute.

Without understanding that, you will not understand the cross. Infinite God, perfect God, yes, but human. Perfectly holy in himself, but a substitute, the transfer of guilt. And without that, you can't understand the cross. So this sermon is an attempt at God's interpretation of the cross, it's even better, just read Romans 3. How about that? Romans 3:23-25 will give you God's interpretation of the cross: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a propitiation through faith in his blood.” That's God's interpretation of the cross, propitiation, the turning aside of God's wrath by the giving of a sacrifice.

Thirdly, the Father fulfills a final prophecy, for Christ died according to the scriptures. “About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of those standing there heard this, they said ‘He's calling Elijah.’ Immediately, one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and then offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, ‘Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him.’”

Well, as I preached often before from this pulpit, Jesus is clearly quoting Psalm 22 there. He's not just saying something that came to mind, he's quoting the first verse of Psalm 22. To some degree, not only was Jesus crying out of the emptiness of his heart, in his broken relationship with the Father as I just described a moment ago, but he was also saying “hey, watching world, read Psalm 22.” Because there it was clearly predicted that Jesus would die by crucifixion.

Clearly predicted that Jesus would die by crucifixion, because it says in Psalm 22:16-18, “Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones, people stare and gloat over me, they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” They have pierced my hands and my feet. I know of no other form of death by which anyone could die other than crucifixion, in which your hands and feet are pierced. Clearly, Psalm 22 predicting the death of Jesus on the cross, God the Father spoke that a thousand years, a thousand years before Jesus came through the prophet, through David, as he wrote that psalm. Isn't it fascinating that Matthew literally quotes what Jesus said? He tried in the Greek language to try to get the Aramaic into our ears. That's how important this was. “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” you can't really get it across in Greek or in English, but he wants us to hear that.

Not only that, but there's a detail, there was this jar of wine vinegar there, and so they ran and got a sponge and filled it with wine vinegar and lifted it to his mouth for him to drink. This is also the fulfillment of prophecy, detailed prophecy, it's more highlighted in John's gospel, in John 19:28-29, later, it says there, “knowing that all was now completed, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled, he said ‘I thirst.’” I love this in John's gospel, “a jar of wine vinegar was there,” or we'll put it this way, “a jar of wine vinegar just happened to be there.” No, the Father put it there. I don't know what man or woman put it there, but it doesn't matter, the Father put it there. Why? So that he could fulfill the scripture. Why? So that you and I, reading it, could know that Jesus is the Christ and believing in him have eternal life. It's by the fulfillment of these detailed prophecies. What prophecy? Psalm 69:21, which says “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.”

Tiny detail, and yet these little details are so powerful in giving us a certitude of our faith. We can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Father put all this together. And yet the crowd misinterprets again. When he says “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” they think he's calling Elijah. Now, Elijah means “Yahweh is My God.” Eli is “my God, my God.” So it's there but they didn't hear it right. Please hear it right today. Jesus isn't calling Elijah there. And yet they're saying leave him alone, let's see if Elijah comes for him.

Fourth, the Father receives his son's spirit for the death penalty had to be paid. Verse 50, “When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.”

There it is, simply he gave up his spirit. You can't do that, neither can I. Jesus had a unique relationship with life and death, unlike anyone else that's ever lived. Now, it says “when Jesus had cried out in a loud voice,” it's Luke that tells us what he cried. He says in Luke 23:46, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.” So he's very Father-centered, and he says, “Father, I am giving you now my spirit.” The removal of the spirit from the body is called death. So “into your hands, I'm giving you this death, I'm presenting to you this death.”

Now, Jesus was in total control of this moment, absolute control of this moment. You are not, but he is. What do I mean by that? Well, Jesus said in John 10:18, “No one takes my life from me. But I lay it down freely of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back up again.” So in a kind of a mysterious way, the crucifixion didn't kill him, it didn't kill him. How long if Jesus had not willed to die, do you think Jesus could have lasted on the cross? He could still be there now if he wanted to, or they could shove as many spears into his side, they could shoot... I mean, if he didn't wanna die, he's not gonna die. He'll instantly heal himself all the time. It's just he doesn't... You can't kill him, he's almighty God. And if he wanted to stay on the cross, he would have. 

Actually, Pilate was surprised he was dead that quickly. Usually it'd take a long time, that's the whole point of crucifixion, it's just a very terrible way to die, and so in Mark 15:44, Pilate was surprised to hear he was already dead. So Jesus just dies. He just gives... Everything's finished, there's nothing at to do, and so he just dies, he gives up his spirit. “Into your hands I commit my spirit. “

Just as Jesus was in total control of his birth and neither were you. Neither were you. He said to Pilate, “For this reason I was born, and for this I entered the world, to testify to the truth.” None of us can talk like that. Why did you choose to be born and how did you make the choice on your parents?

You may say why did I make the choice on that set of parents? And they may be saying the same thing about you. You folks had no choice in the matter, alright? You were given to each other as a gift from God, alright? But you didn't make any choice. Jesus chose to enter the world and he chose to leave it.

Why though, why? Why did he die? Well because from the very beginning in the garden of Eden, there's been a link between sin and death. As it says in Romans chapter 5, “Just as through one man, Adam, sin entered the world and death through sin.” Death is a penalty for sin, “the wages of sin is death.” We all deserve to die, we're guilty sinners, and we die because we're guilty, because we're sinners. That's why we die. But there's this death penalty that had to be paid. And there's a second death, we've already talked about it, hell is the second death, and Jesus came to pay that infinite final death penalty. He had to die. And so in effect, by saying, “Father into your hands I commit this death, I commit my spirit,” he's saying the penalty has been paid. The justice of the Father has been satisfied. The wrath of God is done. Into your hands I've paid the penalty now. They, my sheep don't need to die the second death. Praise God.

Fifth, the Father tears the curtain in the temple for the way to God is now open. Oh, that you would walk through it. That's my prayer that you would walk through that opening that Jesus has made for you now and not stay on the outside. Look at verse 51, “At that moment, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

That curtain we're told, separated the holy place from the most holy place, or as I love it in the King James, “the holy of holies,” the place that only the high priest could enter once a year and never without blood. The tearing of the curtain then represents free full access to the holy God of the universe.

And it's said here that it was torn in two from top to bottom. First of all, this was a substantial curtain. Indications are that it was 60 feet long and 30 feet high, that's a three-storied building. Four inches thick, made up of 72 squares sewn together, so heavy it took 300 men to lift it. It was a heavy thing. Heavy barrier, okay? And the fact that it was torn from top to bottom shows that this was an action of God, only God could remove this barrier.

Now, I think there's only two ways we could know that it happened from top to bottom. If you came 20 minutes later and saw the thing rent asunder, you would think that someone did it, but they would have to have done it from bottom to top, right? Man does it from bottom to top. God does it from top to bottom, so there's only two ways we could know it: either God revealed it directly to Matthew as he wrote this gospel, and that's possible. Prophets get a lot of information directly, we'd have no other way of knowing, just God said it, that's possible.

But I like it better that just like many of the gospel writers got their information from eyewitnesses, could there be eyewitnesses of that it was torn from top to bottom? Yes. Who would they be? Believing priests. In Acts chapter 6, it says many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So we have believing priests that were standing there and it's like, “Wow. Wow.” And it must have been loud too. What a rip. What a rip. And they're standing there and “Wow.” From top to bottom, it's a miracle.

What did it represent? It represented the holy God saying to a sinful human race, the veil did, this far you may come but no further. I am a consuming fire and in all of your wickedness, if you come any closer, I will destroy you. 

It's what he said to Moses from the flames of the burning bush, you remember? First thing he said after “Moses! Moses!” Moses came over to look, the first thing he said is, “Do not come any closer.” That's the old covenant to me. No closer.

New covenant? You know, we have free access. We have free access. Hebrews 4:16. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Ephesians 3:12, “In him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” How sweet is that. How sweet is that.

And again, Hebrews 10:19-22, “Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place through the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, opened for us through the curtain, that is his body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Draw near to God in holiness. That's what he's saying. 

Now, let me make just a brief aside here, the essence of unbelieving Judaism is that some priests sewed it back up and put it back up. The sacrificial system went on for decades after Jesus died. Somebody sewed it back up. How would you like to be the person that sewed that back up? How would you like to face God and give an explanation for that?

And some time ago, I made this connection. You remember concerning marriage, Jesus said in Matthew 19, “What God has joined together, let man not separate.” Well, let me tell you when it comes to this curtain, what God has ripped apart, let man not sew back up again. Jesus said concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, “You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves don't enter, nor will you allow those enter who are trying to.” They sewed it back up. God then just destroyed the whole thing, when the Romans burned the temple. Now it's gone, it's gone. What God shuts, no one can open. What God opens, no one can shut. Praise God for that. So we have free access to almighty God because of the death of Jesus.

Sixth, the Father shakes the earth, for there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Look at verse 51, “The earth shook and the rocks split.”

Terrifying, monstrously huge earthquake. Some indications I’ve already given you that this was a worldwide earthquake, at least going as far as Bithynia, Nicaea and Rome. What does it signify? Well, it signifies that God is showing up. Again and again, when God shows up, he shakes the earth, he shakes the earth.

Think about Psalm 18:7-9, “The earth trembled and quaked and the foundations of the mountain shook; They trembled because God was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.” So God shows up there in Psalm 18 in wrath and anger, divine judgment, and the earth shakes. The earth also shook when God brought the Old Covenant to Mount Sinai, you remember it's the nation of Israel is around Mount Sinai. It says in Exodus 19:18, “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire.” So God descending, God descending. “The smoke bellowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.”

So that's God shaking the earth with the establishment of the Old Covenant, now he shakes the earth with the establishment of the new covenant. How sweet is that? How powerful is that? And once more, God will return and shake the earth again. Amen. He's going to shake the earth again, the end of the world, the judgment, God will descend in wrath on this earth, this sin-cursed world. In Revelation 6, it says, “I watched as he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake."

Revelation 16, “The Seventh Angel poured his bowl into the air and there was a severe earthquake, no earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the earthquake. The great city split into three parts and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains were removed.” So that's God pouring out judgement and wrath on the Earth and removing them. 

Now, it says in Hebrews 12:26-27, “At that time, his voice shook the earth,” Sinai, “but now once more he has promised, ‘Once more, I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.’ Now, the words ‘once more’ indicate the removal of what can be shaken - so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” Alright, what's gonna remain after he shakes the present heaven and earth? The new heaven and the new earth. So this was an earth-shaking experience, the death of Jesus, because it pointed to things that can be shaken so that what cannot be shaken will one day come. There will be a new heaven, and there will be a new earth.

And then seventh, The Father raises the dead for Christ is the resurrection and the life. “The tombs broke open, the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life, they came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

This is only found here in this gospel. It's not in Mark, Luke or John. It's an interesting detail here. Really, ultimately for us on the outside looking in, as we are on the outside, reading and trying to understand what happened with the death of Christ, this is the best part of all.

This is Jesus bringing his resurrection victory to us. That's a foretaste here. It's a foretaste, just a foretaste. The whole sermon has been God's interpretation of Christ's crucifixion. In God's eyes the whole reason for Christ's death was that God's people might be forgiven of their sins and raised from the dead and live forever, that's the whole reason for all of it, and so this is indications of that purpose that God had, that interpretation of the cross. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, he who believes in him will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in him will never die.

Now, I believe this was a resuscitation, not a resurrection. You know the difference? Well, the difference is resurrection, you're in your resurrection body and you'll never die again. This was like Lazarus being raised after four days. Does that make sense? Why do I say that? I think it's very important that I say this, 1 Corinthians 15:22-24, it speaks of Jesus “As in Adam, all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Listen, “But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come.” Do you see there's an order to things? Jesus is the firstfruits, and therefore he gets a resurrection body first.

These guys, they just get resuscitated, they come back into the same life they had before. And they went and saw some of the people they knew before, how would you like to have received such a visit? You thought grandma was dead. You thought your husband was dead, you thought your wife was dead, they were dead, and we don't know how long they were dead, they might have been dead for years. I have no idea. It's amazing, we have no indications. With Lazarus we know how long it was, but these people just came and they appeared to many people, it says. Wow. Wow.

So what application do we take from all of this? I'm gonna wanna give you three. First is just right from the text, verse 54, “When the centurion and those who were with him who were guarding Jesus saw that the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’”

So after all of this evidence, all these things going on... The centurion didn't have all that you guys have in this sermon here, he wasn't aware of the fulfilled prophecy, he wasn't aware of a lot of things, the significance of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But he's just looking at the physical stuff, the earthquake, the darkness and all that, watching how Jesus died, how he carried himself so differently. Maybe hearing him say, “Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.”

And you know what, I think that really is the key moment there for the Centurion, but what do you call it when Jesus addresses God and asks him for something? Isn't that prayer? What's Jesus' batting average on prayer? What would you imagine? How much of what he asks the Father do you think he gets? I think 100 percent. What do you say? Batting, in the baseball terminology, a thousand, he's batting a thousand, right? He gets 100 percent of what he asks for. All of it. Alright? Did he get that? Did they get forgiven? These that were crucifying him? And you could say, “Well, maybe they just got forgiven for the crucifixion, but not for all the rest of their sins.” What good is that? That's of no use. Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. And the first indication of that is this Centurion speaking faith, surely He was not a righteous man or a good man, but here in Matthew, the Son of God, God the Son. 

I guess the best application for you is look at all of this evidence and come to the same conclusion, look, look with eyes of faith at the crucified and resurrected Christ and say, “Truly, you are the son of God,” and if you can make that confession your sins will all be forgiven, all of them. And if you made that confession years ago, your sins are all forgiven and they will be forgiven and you'll die forgiven and you'll go to heaven forgiven, so rejoice and be glad in that.

But if you came in here and you're lost and you don't know him, I'm pleading with you, don't leave here unconverted, all you need to do is just call on the name of Jesus, just say “Jesus,” do in your heart right now. You don't have to speak any word, just say, “Jesus, save me, I wanna be saved. You know I'm a sinner, you know, I came here 'cause so and so invited me, but this is the gospel, I want to be forgiven. Forgive me, O Lord, because of the blood of Jesus.”

Secondly, if you have been a Christian for years and years, long time, can I just urge you go to Hebrews 4:16, and you don't have to turn there, but just listen. Again, I've already quoted it once, but I'll say it again, “Let us approach then the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” I prayed for people who are going through medical challenges, can I just urge you, approach the throne of grace every day. Ask that the Lord will sustain your faith. Feeding your faith.

And if you are the spouse of someone who's facing such a challenge, go every day to the throne of grace, go right through that rent curtain, and go right into the presence of almighty God and get what you need. If you're a student beginning school, maybe you're a freshman, maybe it's your senior year, you don't know what kind of job opportunities. Go through the opening in the curtain to get from God the grace you need. If you're struggling with sin, you're struggling with temptations, you're struggling with who knows what? Addictions, whatever. Go through the rent curtain to the throne of grace and get what you need from it.

And then thirdly, if I can just say very tenderly, especially of those who are gonna feel this pretty acutely, don't fear death. Amen. Don't fear it, the sting of death has been removed forever by the events that we covered today. The Father has interpreted the cross to you today by the Spirit. Take these interpretations up, treasure them and walk in them. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for speaking now through your word and through the Spirit. O Lord, take these truths and press them into our hearts. May we live in them, Oh Lord, may we get strength by them. May we walk in them. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Matthew 27:27-44. The main subject of the sermon is how humanity's corruption is revealed and resolved by Christ's redemptive work.

So we come at last, in Matthew's Gospel, to the account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We come to the message of the cross, and it says in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.” And so we are going to hear and see displayed before us, even today, the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes this message of the cross.

When Adam stood before the tree in the Garden of Eden, at that fateful moment in history, as he reached out his hand and he took the fruit from that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as he made that fateful choice to eat that fruit, in one way of thinking, you could say he decided to get an education. He decided to learn what evil really was. Now, he was in a world surrounded by good. Remember that God had made the world perfectly good, and God had declared the world very good, but there was that tree and there was that testing, that temptation. And the only thing that could have been added to him was the knowledge of evil. He would learn goodness, but because he ate from that fruit, the first Adam at the first tree, for millennia now, his progeny, his descendants have been learning evil.

And what a bitter education it's been. We could argue, the most costly education in all of history. And frankly, it's not just on a grand scale, all of history, the march of redemptive history, and just the learning of how great and wicked is evil, and how evil is sin. It's not just that, but that we ourselves, individually, as we go on in our lives, we are getting that same education, and we are learning to hate evil and to hate sin. And so the first Adam made that decision for all of us, and in him all of us sinned and became corrupt.

And now we have the account of a second Adam at a second tree, and the education continues, and isn't it amazing, how in this account, we're going to see the great wickedness of human beings really coming to its absolute lowest point, its nadir. This is the worst that human beings have ever acted. And yet, it was instrumental in our salvation, that it is by the sinfulness of humanity that Christ, the Son of God, was killed. We have that very powerfully displayed for us in Matthew's gospel today as we're gonna be looking at it. And so the message of the cross for us that I'm going to preach today is as it says, foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And so that's just a powerful statement for me. I am in the process of being saved, so I'm hoping to get power today from the cross for that process. And not only that, but I hope to give you some of that power, too. I want you to see in the cross of Christ, power for your own ongoing salvation. 

But we also see in another sense, and we're gonna see this very clearly in Matthew's Gospel, how it is foolishness to the world. We're gonna see four different groups of people in the account mocking Jesus, we're gonna see the soldiers mocking Jesus, we're gonna see the thieves on the cross mocking Jesus, we're gonna see the passers by, just the citizens of Jerusalem those walking by on the road, stopping and mocking Jesus. And we're gonna see the chief priest and the teachers of the law, the religious authorities mocking Jesus. And then we're going to see them all in one sense, collectively murdering Jesus.

And really, these are two of the great responses to the cross of the unbelieving world, mockery and then murder, foolishness. We've seen it again and again. On the day of Pentecost, when Peter is there filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching the gospel on that great day, some of the crowd mocked him saying that he was drunk, that they, the apostles, were drunk. And one of the first things Peter had to say is, “We're not drunk, it's only 9:00 in the morning,” I think maybe starting with a little bit of humor; it's too early to be drunk. But there's that mockery. 

And we saw it also in Acts 17, when the Apostle Paul was in Athens, and he's there on Mars Hill. And these philosophers were there who gathered every day to talk about and listen to the latest ideas. And they heard Paul preach the gospel very beautifully and powerfully. And when he got done, they sneered at him, they mocked at him.

And in the unfolding of the history of the church, the Romans mocked and misunderstood the gospel, they mocked Christians, and then they murdered them. And the Vikings mocked the military prowess, so to speak, of the monks at the monasteries. They mocked them. They were not worthy military adversaries, and then they murdered them and took whatever was valuable and burnt the rest. Voltaire mocked the gospel with his enlightenment philosophies and his humor and his satire. Thomas Jefferson mocked the doctrine of the trinity, he mocked the doctrine of the incarnation, he mocked the resurrection, he mocked all the miracles. Mark Twain mocked. And in our time, we see the mockery in television, these sitcoms that mock, we see stand-up comedians and talk show hosts mocking and making fun of Christianity. That's our age. Next stage is murder. That's what they do, they go from mockery to murdering. And we're gonna see that in our text as well.

So the cross is an exposition of human wickedness and human sin, and we're gonna see it in four different groups of people. After Jesus was born, at the beginning of his life, a godly man named Simeon blessed Joseph and Mary and Jesus, and then turned and said to Mary, his mother, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against. Listen, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.” And so in the crucifixion of Christ, we see the base motives, the heart inclinations of people exposed. And we know from Jeremiah, the heart is desperately wicked and beyond understanding. Who can comprehend it? We need a Savior, and thanks be to God, in the message today, we have the evidence of that salvation. We have the culmination of everything that Matthew has been trying to tell us about Jesus, and how at the very beginning, you will give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Here in this account, that's exactly what he's doing.

So let's look at these different soldiers, and it's a bit odd, the way I'm preaching today, I hope you noticed that, I'm not gonna be here for a while. It's gonna be about three months, and I only got halfway through the crucifixion. How odd is that? So I'm hoping and trusting that God will let me live and let me return to this pulpit and preach the other half of this sermon.

And it's really amazing how Matthew writes the crucifixion account. Really, it comes in two halves. We have the human perspective on the cross through all this mockery, and then in the second half of his account, we're gonna have God's perspective on the cross, and we're gonna see the supernatural power of God, even as Jesus is dying, with an eerie darkness that comes over the land and an earthquake and a curtain in the temple torn in two and dead people rising. That's God's reaction to the cross. But here on this half, we're gonna see that human mockery and wickedness and the exposition of human sin. And so at the cross of Christ, we have all of these major themes coming together, human sinfulness on the one side and the attributes of God on the other. And we're gonna have to wait a number of months to hear the second half, but actually, you can read it this afternoon and you can enjoy it, or you can read it while I'm preaching and enjoy it. You could do that too, whatever God leads you to do.

But let's look at these groups that were mocking Jesus. And first, we're starting with these wicked soldiers as they put their ignorance on display. Look at verses 27-31, “Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and they knelt in front of him and mocked him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews,’ they said, they spit on him and took the staff and struck him on his head again and again. And after they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him, and then they led him away to crucify him.”

So let's set this in context. Jesus has already been tried and convicted by the high priest and the Sanhedrin. Because of the Roman law at the time, they could not execute Jesus as they wanted, so they turned him over to Pontius Pilate. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of these charges, that it was only out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. And so he tries to set Jesus free. Again and again, he tries. He tried to placate the Jews by flogging Jesus, almost killing him in that way. He tries to exchange Jesus for Barabbas, but that doesn't work.

And finally, in a cowardly act, he gives into the crowd and the pressure they're putting on him as they threatened to go over his head to Caesar. And he washes his hands of the whole affair and hands him over to be crucified, verses 24-26, “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent to this man's blood,’ he said, ‘It's your responsibility.’ And all the people answered, ‘Let his blood be on us and on our children.’ Then he released Barabbas to them, but he had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified.” And so that's the context, and the soldiers took charge of Jesus.

And all of the soldiers of the governor's palace, the Praetorium, gathered around in large numbers. These Romans in a distant land filled with hatred and resentment toward the Jews took it out on Jesus. They're ignorant, they don't know who he is, they knew the charge against him, that he claimed to be king of the Jews, and I think that became the focal point of their mockery. They're gonna mock him as a king, but they didn't know who he was.

And if anything, their ignorance shows the coldness of their hearts and their wickedness just as human beings. You know how Jesus prayed, I think concerning them, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing.” I think he was really speaking of the Romans who were there executing him. They didn't know who he was, they didn't have any sense of the history, the prophecies, none of it. They were just ignorant, and yet very cold, filled with hatred, willing to get some sport at his expense, the coldness and the wickedness of their ignorance. 

And so they mock him, they humiliate him. They gather the whole company of soldiers, maybe dozens, perhaps even hundreds of soldiers gathered around to see Jesus. And they strip him of his clothing and they expose him, and he's humiliated in that way. And then they begin to mock him around the theme of him claiming to be a king. They put a scarlet robe on him, and they twist together a crown of thorns. And they put a staff in his right hand, and they kneel in front of him and they mock him. And they say, “Hail, king of the Jews.”

And we see the wickedness of their physical abuse. Even this mockery isn't enough, but in verse 30, it says they spit on him. This is the second time in the account of Jesus' passion that Jesus gets spat upon. As I said earlier, it's a sign of tremendous disrespect, stripping him of really, of his humanity. And then comes the physical abuse. They took the staff, imagine it like some kind of a rod of some sort, like a broom handle or something, some kind of lightweight wooden staff perhaps. And then they smash him on the head where the crown of thorns already is, smashing the thorns down into his scalp and causing blood to flow down his face, undoubtedly. John's gospel indicates they also beat him with their fists. So they're belting him, a defenseless man. Now, realize, he's already been flogged. So my guess is he's barely able to stand. Just the cruelty of the human race at its full exposure here. 

The thorns are a fascinating touch here. I think for us, we should see the symbolism and the connection back to what happened with Adam. You remember how when he sinned, God cursed the ground because of Adam. “Cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil, you'll eat of it all the days of your life, and it will produce thorns and thistles for you.” And again and again, in the prophetic books, in the book of Isaiah, the thorns represent the curse of God. And so here is Jesus, the very one who had said to his Father he would drink the cup that God had given him to drink, is immersed in the curse. The curse is just smashed into his head, smashed into his face, into his scalp, symbolically. Physically, really, with the thorns, but they represent the curse of Adam. And so here's Jesus, the second Adam, bearing the curse for us.

And so the soldiers mock him, and then they crucify him. Look at verses 31-37, the wickedness of crucifixion put on display, their cruelty, “After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him, and then they led him away to crucify him. And as they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. And there, they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots, and sitting down, they kept watch over him there. And above his head, they placed the written charge against him, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’”

So we come to this, the cruelest form of death that had ever been devised, crucifixion. According to Herodotus, it was developed by the Persians. Darius the Mede apparently crucified 3,000 Babylonians in 519 BC. Alexander the Great and the Greeks took it over and began doing it, the Romans probably learned it from them, and they employed it liberally. They considered it the worst possible punishment, the worst punishment there could ever be. Cicero called it “the most cruel and disgusting penalty” known to man. Josephus called it “the most wretched of deaths.” A Roman lawyer named Julius Paulus listed crucifixion in the first place as the worst of all ways to die.

Roman philosopher Seneca said this about crucifixion: “Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain, dying limb by limb, letting out his life drop by drop rather than expiring once for all and quickly? Can any man be found willing to be fastened to an accursed tree, long, sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly wounds on shoulders and chest, and drawing the breath of life amid long drawn out agony? He would have many excuses for dying even before mounting the cross.” And so this was the most despicable, the most humiliating and the most painful form of death that they could devise.

And so they lead him away up to Golgotha and they lay the cross on him. Again, you can imagine, weakened by the flogging, barely able to stand, how could he carry the weight of the cross? It's unclear whether it was the whole cross. Many scholars think so, or just the cross beam, but at any rate, a heavy piece of wood laid on him. And it seems he's unable to carry it any further. And so the Romans forced a man who was just walking by, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross.

Now, Cyrene was a Greek settlement, west of Alexandria in modern day Libya. Simon is a Jewish name, so this man was probably a Jewish pilgrim, come for the feast from Cyrene. It is possible, we don't wanna read too much into the text, but it is possible that this whole incident of him carrying Jesus' cross was instrumental in his own salvation and that of his family. In Mark's account, in Mark 15:21, it says, “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.” Clearly, Mark felt his readers knew who Alexander and Rufus was. Why bother mentioning them if they didn't? Mark wrote for a Roman audience, and it's very possible that this is the same Rufus that Paul mentions in Romans 16:13, where it says, “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother who has been a mother to me, too.” So Rufus' mother would have been Simon of Cyrene's wife, and it's possible that this whole thing might have been instrumental in the salvation of this family.

So at any rate, they arrived at Golgotha where the crucifixions were to take place. Literally, it means “the place of the skull,” probably because it was shaped like a skull. One commentator said it was because Adam's skull was there. How would you ever know that? After the flood and everything? Don't believe everything you read, even if they're really intelligent scholars. I don't know how anyone could ever know that. Some say it was because there were so many skulls there, but I don't think they would have just let skulls accumulate, it's probably because of the physical shape of the hill.

Now, the King James Version of Luke 23:33 gives us the only mention in any English translation of a very familiar word, and that word is “calvary.” You hear it again and again in songs, churches take their names, but it's actually a bit of an anomaly when it comes to translations. KJV is the only one because it's not a Greek word, and it's not an Aramaic word, it's not a Hebrew word, and it's not an English word. It's a Latin word. It comes from the Latin “calvaria,” which means skull. And so basically, for some strange reason, the King James translators decided to keep the Latin from the Vulgate “calvaria,” and they brought calvary over. And hence you have all these, even denominations, coming from this one rather interesting moment in translation history. But the fact of the matter is, this is the place where the crucifixions were done, and it was outside the city gates.

Now, the procedure of crucifixion is not in any way described here, and I find that fascinating. It's not described at all by the gospel writers in detail. They really just kind of accept it and assume it, and they describe other things that are going on. In verse 35, all it says is “When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.” Literally, the translation will be something like this, “The ones who had crucified him divided up his clothes,” so the focus, even in the sentence, was on the division of the clothes, not on the crucifixion.

Now, this was, of course, a direct fulfillment of Psalm 22:18, where it says, “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” But the crucifixion itself is only mentioned in passing. As a matter of fact, only from Thomas' comments about the nail marks do we even know he was nailed to the cross. Sometimes, they were latched to the cross with leather thongs, but he was nailed because it says, “I need to see the nail marks in his hands,” and Jesus showed him.

Now, non-biblical descriptions tell us what happened, Jesus would have been placed on the cross as it lay flat on the ground. First, his feet would be nailed, one nail through both feet, they would cross the legs, to the upright beam. And then his arms would be stretched out across the horizontal beam and nailed through the wrists just above the hands, allowing a slight bend to the knees when the body was extended. The cross would then be picked up and dropped into a hole. And I can't even imagine what the agony would have been like when that cross dropped down into its hole. The jarring would have caused unspeakable pain, agony to the wounds in the hands and the feet.

The sufferings of Jesus, physical sufferings, were immense and yet he refused to be sedated. He said to his Father in the garden that he would drink the cup that the Father gave him. And that meant in his mind not drinking the cup that was offered here at this point, which was a sedative. “They offered him wine to drink mixed with gall but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.”

Now, many have studied the medical aspects of the crucifixion, and you can read them, I'm not gonna take you through them, but it was an agonizing, an excruciating way to die. The biggest problem for the one being crucified was how to breathe; very, very difficult, especially to exhale. And so they had to push up on their feet to draw in breath and to exhale. And so everything that Jesus said from the cross, the seven different statements he makes from the cross would have been through really gulping breaths.

It would be all he could do to push up and to take in air and to speak those words, but infinitely beyond the physical suffering, because there were two other men that were going through the exact same physical suffering as Jesus was - and frankly, it was not uncommon, the Romans crucified a lot of people - but infinitely greater was the invisible spiritual suffering that Jesus was going through. And as I mentioned, God willing, I'll mention that next time. And Jesus alludes to it when he says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That's something Mel Gibson couldn't show in his film, but it is infinitely weightier and more powerful than anything you can show, namely the physical sufferings. Jesus was our wrath bearer, he was our propitiation, he was shedding his blood in our place, he was taking the lightning strike of God's wrath in our place that we might not have to suffer the destruction of hell. Jesus went through hell for us and that's what he was going through in the cross.

And so we see the wickedness of the soldiers in their mockery and in their murder of Jesus as they killed him by crucifixion. We also see the wickedness of the robbers. And this is a bit strange, hard to put it all together, but he was crucified with two robbers or thieves, verse 38, one on his right and the other on his left, Jesus in the middle. And in verse 44, at the end, the very end of the account we're looking at today, it says, “The robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.”

This, the fact that Jesus was crucified with these criminals is in direct fulfillment of prophecy, as it says in Isaiah 53:12, “He poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors.” So he was just crucified along with them as though he was nothing special.

Now, these robbers may have been insurrectionists. Most likely, they were just simply highway robbers who thought only about themselves, a threat both to the Romans and to their own countrymen, probably their neighbors, very selfish individuals who lived for themselves and were willing to break the law in order to do that. 

And at this point, all they want is to survive, they just wanted to survive. And they insult Jesus to the end that he might use his supernatural powers to save them. In Luke 23:39, “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him, ‘Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us.’” And so they're mocking him to some degree. Now, at that point, neither one of them feared God or saw Jesus with eyes of faith, but that's going to change. And it's gonna change magnificently. So at the end of this message, I'm gonna talk about the conversion of one of these two men as a trophy of God's grace, but still, he began his time on the cross mocking Jesus and insulting him. 

And thirdly, we see the wickedness of the crowd, the passers by, the citizens of Jerusalem, fickleness on display as you look at verse 39 and 40. “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You, who were going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God.’” Fickleness of the crowd, they're just walking by.

Remember, it's feast time, so there would have been hundreds of thousands of people crowded in the city. Their language comes almost, it seems, word for word from Psalm 22. If you compare this account in Psalm 22, it's amazing. Psalm 22:7 and 8 says, “All who see me mock me, they hurl insults, shaking their heads. ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him, let him deliver him since he delights in him.’”

Now, I don't know if these are the exact same people that a week ago were saying “Hosanna,” I don't know. I think both are just representatives. I think the ones that were outside the city gate shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna,” were representatives at that point of an aspect of the Jewish population who would have been ready to crown Jesus their king because of all of his miracles. But once the thing turned and he became an object of scorn and it didn't seem that he was any different than any other criminal, now we have representative Jews mocking and rejecting him as they pass by.

And here, we see the shame of the cross that the author of the Hebrews mentioned in Hebrews 13:12 and 13, “Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace that he bore.” Here is the disgrace, it's the mockery, it's the rejection, and it's the hatred and the insults.

And we see fourthly, the wickedness of the religious leaders, hypocrisy put on display. Look at verses 41 and following, “In the same way, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can't save himself. He's the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him for he said, I am the Son of God.’”

It's interesting how both the passers by, the population, and these rulers are doing the same kind of temptation that the Devil did, that Satan did out in the desert, which is to the effect, “Use your supernatural power to save yourself.” They're both saying the same, it's a Satanic, a demonic attack. Could he? Could Jesus have come down off the cross? Absolutely, he could have. He can do anything, there is nothing he cannot do. And yet, it was his love, his commitment to his Father's plan, his love for the Father and his love for his sheep that kept him on the cross.

And so all these four groups mocking Jesus. Mockery is a form of arrogance, isn't it? It's a display of arrogance and pride, it's a way of feeling superior to others, putting yourself above others. And how ironic is it that these wicked, low sinners felt they were greater than Jesus? And even at the time in which he is giving the greatest display of the glory of God there's ever been. And so we have mockery by the Roman soldiers, we have mockery by the thieves, we have mockery by the population, those that pass by, and mockery by the religious leaders. And yet, in the middle of that, we have the greatest display of the glory of God there has ever been.

A number of years ago, I preached the sermon called “The Cross: A Prism of God's Glory,” and how we have a triangular wedge of crystal able to break white light out into a beautiful spectrum, a rainbow of the various colors that there are already in the white light, but they have to be seen, broken apart to be seen. And so the cross does that, it takes the glory of God, the white light of the glory of God and breaks it out so we can see aspects of God's greatness, the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not able to overcome it.

And so we see God glorifying the Son and the Son glorifying the Father, and these attributes put on display. We see the grace of God put on display here, don't we? How it was God pouring out judgment and wrath on the substitute and not on us? 

It says in Romans 3:23 and 24, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” And so what is God's grace but a settled determination in the heart of God to do good to people who deserve his wrath and his judgment? And it's out of that determination inside God that every good gift you've ever gotten has come to you, all of it blood bought, paid for by Jesus' work on the cross.

And so we see the grace of God, we also see the love of God. Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It's a “how much more” argument. If when we were powerless, if when we were this wicked, he loved us this much, How much more now that we are adopted children of God, will we be saved by his love, will we be cherished and rewarded and brought into heaven by his love? I tell you this, all of us underestimates the love that God has for us in Christ, all of us do. You don't realize how loved you are; you don't realize how beloved you are in Christ.

And so in Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul prays that we would have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and that you would know that love that surpasses knowledge so that you would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. My prayer is right now, you would have a sense through the text and through the Spirit of God's outpoured love on you, and he has an eternity to show you that love.

And so we see, in the cross, a demonstration of the love of God. And we see also a demonstration of the kindness of God. And what's the difference between grace and love and kindness? I don't know, but they're all good things. And the Bible uses these various words to talk about what God's done for us. Kindness is in Titus chapter 3, it says, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

Kindness is a little bit different than love in one sense. I think it's just bringing in that other aspect that Paul's getting at. “If I give all that I possess to the poor, and I surrender my body to the flames, but I have not love,” you're like, “Wait a minute, wait. That's... How could that not be love? You're giving everything you have to the poor, even to the point of dying.” Yeah, but there's something missing, apparently. Maybe it's kindness that would be missing, you see? It's how you're doing, it's the demeanor, it's what the people are feeling as you're doing it for them. And so it is the Father's good pleasure to pour out his Son unto death for you, he's happy to do it. Now, that's a mystery that will blow your brain, but he is kind to you in Jesus, and he says, “Come in, welcome into heaven now that Jesus has died for you.”

We can see God wrongly. We can see him as a stern taskmaster. “Alright, I'll forgive you. Alright, I'll accept you, I'll atone for you but I'm not gonna like you very much.” That's not the kindness of God displayed for us in Christ. He is delighted to save you, he is delighted to adopt you as his sons and daughters.

We see also in the cross of Christ, the holiness of God put on display. God would rather torture and kill his Son than allow unholy people like you and me, unsanctified, unjustified into heaven. That's the measure of his commitment to holiness and justice and righteousness. So you could cluster all of those together and the cross' display of the holiness of God.

And we see, in Romans 3:25, God presented Jesus as a propitiation through faith in his blood to demonstrate his justice, a clear demonstration of the justice of God. And the word propitiation, a display of the wrath of God. I've said before, the two greatest displays of wrath there are in the Bible are hell and the cross of Jesus Christ. These are the two greatest displays. You wanna know how angry God is about sin, how much he hates it, how passionate he is? Look to the cross and look to hell. Those are the measurements of the wrath of God, but because of the cross of Jesus Christ, because he drank the cup of hell for us, we, his sheep will not ever suffer that wrath. There is no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus.

And we see the wisdom and power of God. In a few weeks, you're gonna hear a marvelous sermon in 1 Corinthians 1 on the cross, the power of God, and it says, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to Gentiles but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God stronger than man's strength.”

So here we see God's power and his wisdom, and we see his infinity, for it says in Zechariah, “I will remove the sin of the land in a single day.” How awesome is that, Zechariah 3:9? And we see all of these beautiful attributes flowing.

So yes, this account is a display of the wickedness of the human heart, it's a display of how wicked we are. And don't separate yourself, don't say, “I wouldn't have been like the soldiers. I wouldn't have been like the thieves, I wouldn't have been like the passers by on the road, I wouldn't have been like the religious people.” Don't kid yourself. Find yourself there because Christ didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick. Find yourself in those four categories. Say, “That's who I am, it's a display of my wickedness. That's what's going on in this account.”

And so what applications can we take from this? Well, come to Christ, believe in him, trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins. I just finished teaching a class on the Puritans at Southeastern, and I read an incredible sermon by John Bunyan, an evangelistic sermon. There is maybe nobody in history, no preacher in history, that was so effective at making passionate evangelistic appeals as John Bunyan. He was a tremendous pleader with people, tears coming down his face, pleading with people. He gave something like 15 applications to unregenerate people to come to Christ, that's only the Puritans can do that. But just one after the other.

And then it's a marvelous sermon. It comes from Jesus' statement in Luke 24 that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name, beginning at Jerusalem. And so the name of the sermon is “Jerusalem First,” and the logic of the sermon worked like this. In Bunyan's sermon, the way he thought of it was this way: These sinners in Jerusalem were the worst on the face of the Earth at that time. They were the most wretched, wicked sinners on the face of the Earth at that time, and God sent the gospel to them first. What can we learn from that? And he draws out one application after another from it, and it's powerful. Look it up, it's online. I think it's public domain, I don't think Bunyan's still getting royalties from it but at any rate, just see what you can find, but “Jerusalem First.”

And he uses a marvelous illustration. If you were walking by a swimming hole and you saw four kids and you sense that they were in over their heads literally and figuratively, they're not good swimmers, and they're in trouble, but one in particular is thrashing around and seems openly to be drowning, who are you gonna try to save first? The one that's openly in the deepest trouble. And so God sent the gospel to Jerusalem first.

And so what applications can you take from that concept? Well, if Christ can save the worst sinners that we've seen on display in the account today, if he can save the worst sinners, then learn by this, that Christ's heart is filled with love for wicked people. Look at the love of God and see it as a measure, say “If he can love wicked sinners like that, if he can say, ‘Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing,’ then he can love me.” If Christ can save the worst sinners, then how great are the merits of Christ? If they infinitely are greater than this kind of sin, then how great does the Father esteem the blood of Jesus? How precious is it if it can save sinners like this? If Christ can save the worst sinners, then this should be an encouragement to you if you think you're the worst sinner of all, and that Christ could never save you.

If Christ can save the worst sinners, then come to Christ because you'll never find a better savior than him. There's not gonna be any other Christs, this is it. There's not gonna be any other saviors making an appeal, there won't be any other name by whom your sins will be forgiven. Come to Christ, there's no other savior. If Christ can save the worst sinners, then why should you despair of salvation? Has somebody come back from the other world and told you you'll never be saved? Well, then, you're still alive. You're still drawing breath. There's still hope for you. Come to Christ. I'd love to hear Bunyan preach. Wouldn't that be great? But he's reaching out and he's saying while you live, there's still hope. Trust in Christ. Don't think that the gospel has passed you by. You're here today, you're hearing it, there is power for the salvation of sinners right here, right now in this room.

If Christ can save the worst sinners, then he can also save lesser sinners, too. Not everybody is the worst sinner. Now, every sin is worthy of condemnation, eternal condemnation. We should meditate much on the fact that all Adam did was eat a piece of fruit, and how great then is sin. And it metastasized, it didn't stay the same. So all sin is equally condemnable, but there are some sinners that are worse than others, there are some that are more hardened than others. And if Christ can save the worst sinners, he can save lesser sinners, too. Think about children. Think about children. They're not hardened in their ways. They're open, they're ready to learn, eager, somewhat humble, somewhat. God can save little children from their sins. Christ can say, “Let the little children come to me because if I can save great sinners like those Jerusalem sinners, I can save you.” And so if he can, Bunyan put it this way, “If a door is big enough for a giant to walk through, it's big enough for a dwarf.” What a great image that is. And so, how much more can he save you?

And if Christ can save the greatest of sinners, do you not see now why Satan orchestrates the mockery of the gospel in every generation? 'Cause he's afraid of it. Sometimes people mock things because they're afraid of it and they don't understand it. And so Satan orchestrates mockery because of the greatness of the salvation that is there.

I wanna finish by urging you to consider, please, the most, I think, the most astonishing conversion there ever was in the Bible, and that is the thief on the cross. Now, I'm asking your indulgence here from strict exposition because if all you had was Matthew's gospel, you'd think both of them would be condemned, because they both mocked Jesus. People who question inerrancy say you have a contradiction here. “In Matthew's account, they're both mocking, but in Luke's account, only one of them is mocking and another has some other things to say.” There's no difficulty for me harmonizing these things. I think they both began their time in the cross mocking, but only one of them ended his time mocking. And what do we call that but conversion, and how great is that conversion?

I've said before, those four great conversions worthy of meditation. Rahab, who was a Canaanite woman, apart from redemptive history, having heard rumors and stories of what God did in Egypt comes to faith, amazing. Nebuchadnezzar, most powerful man on Earth, filled with pride and arrogance, a murderous tyrant, mind changed into an animal and then changed from that into a sincere worshipper of God. Saul of Tarsus, who some of you will say, “I think that Saul is greater than the thief on the cross.” Well, listen, either way, they're in heaven, both of them. Breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, converted in a day.

But then we have this thief on the cross. Now why would I say this is the most astonishing conversion in the Bible? Well, it's because of what God apparently had to work with and the timeframe. What did he have to work with? Some stories about Jesus that the thieves apparently heard, “You're the Christ, save yourself.” So they knew some things about Jesus, they weren't starting from scratch. No one can call on someone they've never heard of, no one can believe in Jesus without some facts of his life. And so the thief had some facts, but he has a lot of contrary visual evidence, too. Here's Jesus bleeding out on the cross, looking absolutely horrible, looking weak and frail. And the timeframe, very short. We're talking about a matter of hours.

And yet, as it says in Luke 23, “The other criminal rebuked him” - the first criminal - “saying ‘Don't you fear God, since you're under the same sentence and we are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve but this man has done nothing wrong?’ And then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today, you'll be with me in paradise.’” How sweet and powerful is that interaction.

You remember how in Caesarea Philippi, Peter made that confession saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Do you remember what Jesus said to him? “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” Do you think the Father revealed Jesus to this thief on the cross? Yes, he did. And how quick was the Father's work, how powerful was the Father's work. God showed him his power to condemn sinners. The thief said, “Don't you fear God?” And not only to condemn them to a physical death, but you should still have fear for him, there's still more he can do to you. So he showed him the power of God to condemn sinners in hell. And he showed him the justice of God, “we deserve what we're getting for we have done evil,” the justice of God. And he showed him also, his own wickedness. “We are getting what we deserve,” and so he's humbled by the power of God.

Not only that, he revealed to this man the innocence of Jesus. This man has done nothing wrong. He's sinless, and he showed him the resurrection, the kingship of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. Why do I say that? “Remember me, Lord, when you come in your future kingdom.” Wow, what kind of faith is it that can look at an almost dead Jesus with blood coming down his back and his wounds and all that and says, “I see a king here.” Jesus, the King of the Jews? No, the King of the World. I see Jesus as the coming King. And he sees Jesus rightly as the powerful coming King. And he sees beyond the cross to the resurrection. This is not the end of Jesus' kingship, not at all. This is the beginning of it.

And beyond that, perhaps most amazing of all, God showed him his willingness to forgive him of his sins and bring him into that kingdom though he had nothing to offer, not the possibility of giving any money or doing any good works, nothing at all. Here, you have justification by works dying in this, that religion of works, this man had nothing to offer. And yet, he's got the faith to believe that he has a place in the coming kingdom. “Remember me,” he says, “when you come in your kingdom.” And so Jesus speaks a precious promise to him that must have comforted him, his physical suffering not abated at all, the death sentence still there, but a promise beyond, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”

So never give up on anyone in evangelism. Do you hear what I'm saying? Never. We may know who the elect are by how they react to the gospel, but we may never know who the reprobate are in this world. We never give up on anyone. Never. We keep preaching, keep hoping, keep trusting. Pray for your elderly relatives, pray for people you've shared with once, share a second time. Don't give up on people. Even to the end, go into the hospital room, go into the ICU, whisper the gospel into the ears of people as they lay there. There is always hope, even while there's breath. Never give up and just stand in awe of the grace of God to accept sinners like this thief, and let's be honest, you and me. Praise God for his grace. Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the display of the cross of Jesus Christ. We thank you for all that we can learn from it And we thank you for the display of the wickedness of human hearts. And Lord, we find ourselves there. We know that we are capable of mocking you and of not believing in you, but we also know, Lord, that you are capable through sovereign grace, through the spirit of saving sinners like us. Lord, I pray that you would speak directly to the hearts of unregenerate people here in this room right now, if there's any that are here that are outside the grace of God right now, that they would flee to the cross, and that they would trust in Christ. And I pray that we would as witnesses, not be ashamed of the cross, but go outside the city gate and bear the mockery and bear the disgrace that he bore. Help us to be effective evangelists. And God, thank you for the lesson of the thief on the cross, and how your sovereign grace is able, at any time, to step in and transform everything. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

So, we come to this text this morning; I was meditating on it, the phrase “The trial of the century” came to my mind. How many of those have there been? Our century is pretty young now, and already we've had two or three that I've read that have had that label. The Trial of Saddam Hussein, 2005-2006, had that label in some places.

Last century, there were lots of trials of the century. The Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925 was the trial of the century that pitted evolutionary convictions against scripture, very fascinating, in Dayton, Tennessee. Two years later, there was another trial of the century: Sacco-Vanzetti. Two Italian immigrants were tried and convicted of murder, many thought, unfairly, because of their anarchist convictions. Then, a few years after that, there was another trial of the century, that was the Lindbergh kidnapping trial, and that was very famous, and it captured the nation's attention. At the end of World War II, there were the Nuremberg war criminal trials for the Nazis, and that was captivating as just evil was paraded before the eyes of the world, and those Nazis tried to give a defense for the heinous things that they'd done. Of course, there was the OJ Simpson trial in 1995, also called the trial of the century. All of these have been sensational in their own way, they've all been significant in their own way.

Yet of far greater significance in redemptive history, as we come to the text today, is the trial of Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate. It’s significant in redemptive history, because Jesus is the most significant man in redemptive history, the most significant figure of the Bible, central towering figure of the Bible, presented as the only Savior of the world. And that is a very significant trial that happened once for all time in history.

But connected with this text today is a different kind of trial, intimately related to it, and it's a trial that individual sinners put Jesus on every day as they sit in judgment on Jesus and stroke their chins and try to figure out what they're gonna do about Jesus. And so, in that way, Pontius Pilate represents them, and they sit on the judgment seat while Jesus stands, God in the dock, God on trial before them, and they try to decide what to do with Jesus.

And that's a very significant trial for each individual person. He is on trial every day, every hour, before the watching world. We could make an argument in that vein that he is the most tried man in history. He's been on trial more than anyone else in history, again and again, the watching world. And so, at that point, the phrase, “Trial of the century” just shrinks into insignificance. This is more than just the trial of the millennium, this is the trial of eternity, the trial of all ages. This is the trial of Jesus Christ as he stands before a human judge.

And it's interesting how the Scripture, in some sense, in the New Testament, presents this as good and right. Jesus said in John Chapter 7, “Do not judge me - Do not judge by mere appearance but make a right judgement.” He said two chapters earlier in John chapter 5, he lays out evidences, John the Baptist was a witness, shining and testifying. The works Jesus was doing were testifying in his name. Jesus himself testified, the Father testified, and the Spirit testifies. And so, in some ways, this is appropriate. To some degree, Jesus invites us to do this very thing.

Now, how fascinating is it that, at the end of all things, it will be 100 percent reversed, and Jesus will sit on his judge's throne, and he will judge every single human being that has ever lived. And that trial will settle the eternal destiny of every single person that stands before him. So, for a time, Jesus allows us to judge him, but in the end, he is the judge of all the Earth. Now, shortly after I became a Christian, I read a book by Josh McDowell called Evidence that Demands a Verdict. And so that really pulls into this idea of a court trial, and it's an apologetics book, and it lays out various forms of evidences. One of my favorite parts of that book are the various prophecies, the fulfilled prophecies, that testify to Jesus as the Savior of the world. And they're listed out in an insert there, and you can take that, and you can memorize those 25 prophecies, or you can just get a sense of the overwhelmingly clear testimony of the prophets to Jesus. 

The Spirit of Jesus, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of the prophets, and they point again and again to Jesus, how he was called Immanuel, God with us, in Isaiah Chapter 7, the same chapter that predicted he would be born of a virgin. How his birthplace was predicted in Micah 5:2 to be Bethlehem, Ephratah. How his national origin as a Jew, the Son of Abraham, predicted by Genesis 12:3. How his descent from the tribe of Judah was predicted in Genesis 49:10. How his descent from King David, in particular, his family, his house, predicted in 2 Samuel 7:13. His sinlessness predicted in Isaiah 53:9. His miracles, predicted in Isaiah 35:5 and 6. His parables, predicted in Psalm 78:2.

His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey in Zechariah 9:9. His betrayal by a friend for 30 pieces of silver, predicted by Psalm 41:9 and Zechariah 11:12. His rejection by the leaders, the builders of the nation of Israel, predicted by Psalm 118:22. The plucking of his beard, the spitting in his face, his being smashed in the face with a rod, his flogging, all of them predicted in various places, mostly in Isaiah. His condemnation by a Gentile ruler, predicted in Psalm 2. His death by crucifixion, his hands and feet pierced, predicted by Psalm 22. His burial in a rich man's tomb predicted by Isaiah 53:9. His body not experiencing decay, predicted in Psalm 16:10. And his glorious resurrection victory predicted in many places in the Old Testament, but specifically, Isaiah 25:8. All of this is overwhelming evidence that demands a verdict from us, the watching sinful world, as we sit on that judge's throne and we stroke our chin and try to decide what we're gonna do with Jesus, try to figure out whether Jesus really is both the Son of God and the Son of Man.

Now, the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all wrote what they wrote to give us further detailed evidence, to help us make the right judgment, to judge with right judgment, as Jesus said, and make a right decision. I think the clearest statement of that is made by John when he writes, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name,” John 20:31. Having done all that, then Jesus sent out witnesses into the world. Clearest verse on that is in Acts 1, in verse 8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth.” Jesus had said in John chapter 16, “You must testify, and the Holy Spirit will testify.”

And so this trial is going on, it's going on right now, it's going on all over the world, this trial of Jesus before human judges. And the issue is, what will we say about Jesus? “Who do you say that I am?” as he said in Caesarea Philippi. “What about you?” Matthew 16:15, “Who do you say that I am?” Picture the sinner trying to decide, well, how he's gonna answer that question. What is the answer to that question? Will he make with Peter that incredible testimony, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Will he be able, like doubting Thomas, who was doubting no longer when he saw the evidence before his eyes or the resurrection of Jesus, will he be able to say, “My Lord and my God!” and make that testimony? And if you can make that testimony by faith now, based on this evidence, you will live forever in his presence. And you'll be learning, as I prayed a moment ago, forever of his greatness and his glory in heaven.

But some day, all of that's going to be reversed. Jesus is gonna come back in glory, and he's gonna sit on a throne in glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people, one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he's gonna consign some of them to hell, and he's gonna bring others of them to heaven. And he will have the right to do this because he is the judge of all the earth. So that's what's in front of us.

But there's another level to this that I want you to see. It says, in Galatians 2:20, the Apostle Paul said this, “I have been crucified with Christ.” And that testifies to the fundamental doctrine of our union with Jesus. And so we, as sinners saved by grace, should see in Jesus our substitute, how Jesus took our place. Now, we know, we're gonna talk about later, without the shedding of blood, there could be no forgiveness. The Son of God, the Son of Man's blood could have been shed any one of a number of ways. He could have been knifed in an alley. He could have been stoned to death or pushed off a cliff, as his enemies wanted to do at various times. But God wanted to put him on display. He wanted a show trial, to some degree. That's what a trial of the century is, it's a show trial. He wanted him up on display.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl. And so Jesus, very famously, was going to be put on trial before the Jewish nation, that's already done now, in our account, but then before the Gentiles as well, the ruler of the Gentiles, in this case, Pontius Pilate, so that the entire world would try and convict and reject the Son of God. But for us, we need to see this, see God's hand in all of this. We need to look at the sufferings of Jesus and say, “I, the sinner, deserve that.” I deserve to be in chains. I deserve to be in bonds, standing before a judge, and have the judge decide my fate. I deserve to be flogged. I deserve to be beaten. I deserve to be spat upon. That's my suffering that he went through. He is my substitute. I deserved all that. I'm a sinner. Jesus stood trial in my place, and with Christ, I was tried, and with Christ, I was convicted, and with Christ, I was condemned, and with Christ, I died. We know it doesn't end there, Amen? With Christ, I rose again, vindicated before God. He is our substitute. We are united with Christ by faith. Those are the levels that we have to see this at, and that's just the introduction to the introduction. We have no hope of getting out of here at any normal time, so just settle in and let's just look at this account and see what we can learn.

It begins with the charge made against Jesus as he stands silent before Pontius Pilate. Look at verses 11-14, “Meanwhile, Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Yes, it is, as you say,’ Jesus replied. When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate asked him, ‘Don't you hear the testimony they're bringing against you?’ But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge, to the great amazement of the governor.”

So Jesus is now arraigned by Pilate. The religious trial is over. Annas, Caiaphas, the council, Sanhedrin has condemned him. Look at verse 1-2 of this chapter. It says, “Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death, and they bound him and led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.” You could say that this verdict was preordained, and it was. It was preordained by Jesus' human enemies, they hated him, and they had already made up their minds, they wanted to kill him, but they wanted to kill him by trial. Again, not by an assassin while he slept, or anything like that. They wanted a trial. They wanted to reject him in that way.

So it was preordained at the human level, but you know it was even more significantly preordained by God, that God ordained before the foundation of the world that Jesus would be our substitute. And so this was a preordained verdict, and so he was handed over by these hypocritical Jewish leaders. It says in John's gospel, they wanted to be able to eat the Passover, so they didn't go into Pilate's palace, and made him come out to them. Just the hypocrisy that we see there, they maintain an outward compliance to the laws of Moses, but they are murdering an innocent man, and more than that, infinitely more than that, they're seeking to murder the Son of God. We see the hypocrisy.

And they bring this charge, and it's implied in the question. Verse 11, “Are you the King of the Jews?” as Jesus stood before the governor. What a picture that is. Jesus stands before a human judge, on trial before a human judge, creator of all things visible and invisible, the one by whom all created things are being sustained at every moment by the word of his power, arraigned before Pontius Pilate. And the charge comes down, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Now, I think Jesus is clever. Politically-aware enemies thought this would be the charge that worked. Notice the charge that worked at the religious level was blasphemy, but that's not going to cut it with Pontius Pilate, so they changed the charge a bit to sedition, basically, rabble-rousing, insurrection. It's implied in the charge, King of the Jews. Now, they had tried to nail Jesus earlier on tax evasion, remember that one? They tried to get him on that one. Jesus could not be pinned down because he knew the theology of government better than we do, and he said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's.” So the paying of taxes is a subset of our service to God.

So he evaded that, but they went with this idea of King of the Jews, and it's a weighty charge. It is a threat, in some way, to the Roman authority there in the region. They would set up kings of the Jews, like Herod was called “King of the Jews,” that kind of thing, but they would be puppet kings under Roman authority. A king of the Jews that is pushed to power, rises up by popular demand, is definitely a threat to Roman authority, at that point. So it's a weighty charge, and a clever one. In Luke's gospel, Luke 23:5, it says, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching.” Started in Galilee and now he's here.

And so that's the idea of sedition, the idea of being a rabble-rouser, being somebody who's threatening the peace of the nation. And that, again, would have been of interest to the Romans because they wanted to just keep things quiet. They wanted that Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, so that they didn't have to dispatch more legions to Palestine. They're stretched thin, looking over their empire, and they want things kept quiet. They don't want riots. They don't want people gathering and chanting things with fists in the air. That's dangerous for their rule, 'cause then they're gonna have to mobilize.

Isn't it hypocritical, though, that these Jewish leaders are saying, in effect, Jesus is threatening Rome, so give us Barabbas, who's threatening Rome. Doesn't make any sense. He was an insurrectionist. Pilate saw right through all of it. He knew they weren't loyal to Rome at all. Must be something deeper going on here. But he begins the trial, “Are you the King of the Jews?"

And Jesus gives a rather enigmatic answer here. One translation has it this way, “You have said so.” That's odd. What do you do with that? “Are you the King of the Jews?” “You have said so.” Jesus was a puzzlement to Pilate, but he would, by the end of this encounter, he would be far more than that, but that's how it began, a strange statement. I think, in effect, Jesus is saying, “You said the words, but you don't understand the meaning.” I think that's what's going on by “You have said it,” but you don't understand it.

He goes into it in more depth in John's gospel. You remember the discussion they had on his kingdom. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” This is John 18:36-38, “‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. As it is, my kingdom is from another place.’ ‘You are a king then,’ said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You are right in saying I'm a king.’” That brings goosebumps. You don't have any idea how much of a king I am. You vastly underestimate my kingship.

He goes on. “In fact, for this reason, I was born, and for this, I entered the world to testify to the truth.” Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. So, he says he's a king, but he says his kingdom is from another place. And he goes beyond that and he says he entered the world of his own volition. “This is why I entered the world.” Wow. So this is an answer unlike any Pilate had ever heard. This is a man unlike Pilate had ever seen or dealt with.

So now I ask you was he, in fact, the king of the Jews? Was he the king of the Jews? Yes, he absolutely was King of the Jews. Remember how this gospel, indeed, how the whole New Testament began. It began with the shortest genealogy I can find in the Bible, and that's Matthew 1:1, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” So there's a genealogy you can memorize. The one that follows is a little harder, 42 names in that one.

There's a very short genealogy right at the beginning. Why does Matthew begin with that? To establish his right to rule on David's throne. And the fact that he is a son of Abraham, he is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham. That's why. 

So, yes, he was the King of the Jews, but not of the Jews only, for it says in Isaiah 49, “God the Father said to him, ‘It's too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob, and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles.’” It says in Zechariah 9:10, “He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.” That's his domain, it's everywhere, it's everyone. And thus when he returns in Revelation 19:16, he has written on his thigh these words, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

So Jesus was, in fact, the king of the Jews, but not like Pilate meant. Pilate meant are you a threat? Are you a threat to me? Are you a threat to my life? Are you a threat to my power? Are you a threat to Rome? Well, was he a threat? Absolutely, he was a threat. He was an infinitely greater threat than Pilate could possibly imagine, but not like Pilate meant, not like Pilate meant.

What do I mean by that? Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that, can do nothing to you. I'll tell you who to fear. Fear the one who has the power to destroy, after death, both the soul and the body in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” Jesus was an infinite threat to Pilate. I think Pilate knows right now what I mean by those words. But no, I'm not a threat the way you mean.

Now, in the end, it says in Daniel chapter 2, you remember how Nebuchadnezzar, that tyrant king over the Babylonian Empire had a dream of a statue, and that statue with the head of gold and chest and arms of silver, and belly and thighs of bronze, and legs of iron, feet partly iron, partly clay, remember that whole thing, represented kingdoms of the world and the flow of human history. Do you remember in the dream, he had a vision of a rock cut out, but not by human hands, that smashed the statue at its feet, and the whole thing crumbles like it was made out of crystal and just gets turned into this pile of chaff that the wind blows away. But this rock cut out, but not by human hands, grows and becomes a vast mountain that fills the whole world with its glory. That's the dream, the interpretation Daniel gave, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms, and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands - a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces.”

So, when Jesus comes back, in Revelation 19, it says that he has a sword coming out of his mouth. That's just metaphorical language for he does battle by the breath of his mouth. When he says to a created being, “Be dead,” you're dead. I've always wondered why the armies of heaven are with him. They're just there as spectators. They are absolutely not needed. Jesus has this one completely under control, and it says he has an iron rod with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. And so Jesus is a threat. He's a threat to any who get it wrong when they judge Jesus. He's a threat, an eternal threat, but not like Pilate meant.

And so Jesus stands there, and after saying, “You have said so,” he then becomes silent before Pilate, an unnerving silence, a supernatural silence, a prophesied silence. It's predicted. Look at 12-14 “When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. And Pilate asked him, ‘Don't you hear the testimony they're bringing against you?’ But Jesus made no answer, not even to a single charge, to the great amazement of the governor.” Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet, he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent so he did not open his mouth.

Now, earlier, before his Jewish enemies, his Jewish persecutors, rulers, in Luke 22:67-68, they said, “‘If you're the Christ, tell us.’ Jesus said, ‘If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I ask you a question, you will not answer me. So why should I talk to you?’” That's, in effect, what happened. There's no point in me talking to you. This whole thing is unjust, you are wicked, and you will not listen to my words, and I'm not gonna say any more of them. And so he's silent. He will not grace their insulting questions with an answer, and so he's silent.

Pilate's amazed. He's never seen any prisoner acting like this ever. And I tell you it becomes increasingly unnerving to Pilate. Most renditions of Pilate movies and all that get Pilate wrong, they get Pilate wrong. Pilate was like a trapped animal, increasingly terrified by the circumstances, trying to find some way to get out of it. That's Pilate. You get that, that's Pilate in the scriptures.

He's never seen anyone deal with the threat of crucifixion like Jesus. He's seen prisoners beg and plead for their lives, he's seen some be terrified and reduced to quivering masses of jelly. I'm sure he's seen some be sullen and defiant, or he's seen others be loud and defiant, but he's never seen anyone with the supernatural regal comportment that Jesus had.

And I think it unnerved him. because really, you know who's on trial here? Pilate's on trial. That who's on trial. Jesus is gonna die on the cross. Son of Man will go, just as it is written about him. There's no doubt about that, not in Jesus' mind, he knows exactly what's going to happen. But what's Pilate gonna do? Pilate was the one on trial, and this is especially clear in John's gospel. John's gospel makes it plain that Pilate was increasingly terrified of Jesus and of the entire circumstances.

Frankly, I look on Pilate like, I don't know, some kind of an animal inside a cage and the walls are pressing in like this, and he's bouncing side to side, back and forth, like you ever seen a squirrel do that in front of your car? And they can't decide which tire to get run over by, just going back and forth. And so the walls are pressing in on him. On the one side, you have his convictions about Jesus, and on the other side, you have his reading of the temper of the Jews and the threat that they're gonna go above him to Caesar and remove him from his position in disgrace, maybe resulting in his own death by Roman authorities. 

So what do I mean by his convictions about Jesus? I think he was convinced, first and foremost, clearly, that Jesus was innocent. And he wanted to set him free, that is plain, but I think it goes beyond that. I think he believed that Jesus was supernatural. I think he believed he was an incarnation. I think he believed that he was a God that had come down to Earth in human form. We can see, in the Book of Acts, that they thought this was true of Paul and Barnabas. This was a common thought in polytheism, that basically the gods and goddesses would take on bodies and come down to earth and just cause trouble, and get people into trouble.

And I think that Pilate thought probably that's what's going on. He probably heard about the miracles, and in the middle of it, his wife interferes in a court trial by sending him a message concerning a dream she's had. How strange is that? I mean, that's like grounds for a mistrial, I think. But providentially, she has an unnerving dream, and she sends this message, saying, "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.

And so he is convinced that it's out of envy that they had handed Jesus over, and so he has these convictions about Jesus, that he's innocent. Three times in John's gospel, he says, “I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him. I find no fault in him.” He keeps trying to set him free. But at one point, the Jews say to him, “We have a law, and according to that law, he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” It says in John 19, when Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and went back in to Jesus and asked him, “Where do you come from?” Not just afraid, friends, even more afraid. He was afraid of Jesus. And at that point, Jesus did not answer Pilate a word. I think he thought he was supernatural.

So that's one wall pressing. What's the other wall? How do we understand? Because in the end, he turns away from his convictions about Jesus, and he gives in to the Jews. And it all starts with the fact that they demanded that he come out to them, and he came. Now, that's strange. He's the Roman governor. He's like the king of that whole area under Caesar. Yes, but he had the power of life and death. And he goes crawling out to them, why? Well, the Bible doesn't give us the full answer, but it's pretty clear that they had some kind of leverage over him.

Josephus is the one that tells us what that leverage was. Josephus was a Jewish historian that tells us, gives us insights into the things that happened when Pilate took his seat of office in AD 26. As soon as he comes in there, he puts the insignia of his imperial guards in the temple grounds. They were considered to be idols, and so the Jews gathered and began to riot, demanding that he take the idols out of the temple. Pilate doesn't wanna begin his work day or his work life there by slaughtering a bunch of Jews, that's very bad. I told you they don't want riots, they need to send more troops.

And so he threatens them. Basically, he's bluffing, and he says, “If you don't disperse, I'm going to kill you.” They bear their necks and say, “Go ahead and do it.” And at that point, it all starts. He has to back down because he doesn't wanna begin with the slaughter. And so they win, he takes the idols out of the temple. A few years later, there was an aqueduct, a water system was put in and it violated some Jewish law. Can you imagine being a Roman trying to govern these people? And they assemble together and start chanting, emboldened even more now by what happened the first time. This time, Pilate infiltrates the crowd with plainclothes Roman soldiers, again threatens that if they don't disperse, he's gonna kill him. They bear their necks and he kills a lot of them. But Caesar Tiberius hears about this, and is enraged at Pilate, and says, “If you don't manage things better, you're gone.”

And we have evidence of all this in John's gospel, when they say, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.” Anyone who claims to be king opposes Caesar. And that's kind of what did it. “We're going to tell Caesar on you.” He already has word from Caesar, any more trouble and you're out. You know what's happening in all this? God is orchestrating everything to give the Jews leverage over Pilate so that they will what? So that he will what? So that he will kill Jesus. And why is that? Because he wants to save you and me. And so he orchestrates this whole thing. Does God do that kind of thing? Does God orchestrate details and governments, and all that? Oh, he does it every day, all the time. The king's heart is like a watercourse in the hands of the Lord.

And so here's Pilate going back and forth, trying to release him, and so he tries various clever attempts like the Barabbas thing, I like that one. “Hey, don't you have a custom here that around this time, around the time of the feast, that I can release a prisoner to you?” Now, he's mindful of the fact that a week before that, it was Hosanna day, remember that? And Jesus rides on a donkey, and everyone loves Jesus. So he's incisive. He would not have gotten his position without being a clever politician who gets out of traps very well. And so he figures, okay, the people love Jesus, the leaders are jealous, so let's try to drive a wedge between the leaders and the people, but he doesn't understand the power that the Jewish leaders have over the crowd.

And so, in verses 15-17, it says, “It was the governor's custom at the feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. And at that time, they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. And so when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, ‘Which one do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called Christ?’ But all the elders and the chief priests had persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and have Jesus executed.”

So that was all set, it was already a failure before it began. Verse 21, “‘Which of the two do you want me to release to you?’ Asked the governor. ‘Barabbas,’ they answered.” Talk about a double take of all double takes, “Barabbas? Why would you want him?” He was an insurrectionist and a murderer.

But at this point, the crowd is whipped into a maniacal, and I would argue satanic frenzy. It's not really the chief priest and the elders that are doing this, it's Satan who's whipping this crowd up into a maniacal frenzy. “‘What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?’ Pilate asked. They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’ ‘Why? What crime has he committed?’” He's innocent. He hasn't done anything. “They shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’”

Now, somewhere in-between here, he tries to flog Jesus. This happened at the end, in our account, but it happened earlier in John's account. I think John's more chronological. He's still trying to do everything short of killing Jesus, so he orders that he be flogged, which ordinarily, if it's not stopped in time, can be fatal, straps of leather, chips of bone or lead ripping flesh off backs, rivers of blood, generally done before crucifixion, to some measure, to weaken the victim so that he would die a little more rapidly.

He's trying everything he can to set him free, but finally, they play that card, “We're going to tell Caesar,” that's in John's gospel, and he realizes, “There's nothing more I can do.” Verse 24, “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I'm innocent of this man's blood,’ he said, ‘It is your responsibility.’ And then they answer, ‘Let his blood be on us and on our children.’”

Here, we have the final rejection by the Jewish nation of Jesus. In John 1:11, it says, “He came to his own, but his own people did not receive him.” And so they say, “We will take responsibility for Jesus' death.” They say it in this language, very interesting: “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” Now, there are two ways of understanding that. First of all, just biblically, that expression means we will take responsibility. It's our responsibility. It's our fault. We will take that responsibility. You have that again and again. Leviticus 20:9 says, “If anyone curses his father and mother, he must be put to death.” He has cursed his father and mother and his blood will be on his own head. In other words, he's responsible for what happened to him.

In Acts 18:6, Paul talks about his responsibility to preach the Gospel to the Jews. And it says in that verse, “When the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads. I'm clear of my responsibility.’” Jesus had warned this very thing in Matthew 23, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites,” that sevenfold woe. He says, “Therefore, I'm sending you prophets and righteous men and teachers, and some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will persecute in your synagogues and pursue from town to town, and so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Yes, I tell you all of this blood will come down on this generation.” He's meaning you're going to be responsible. By killing the Son of God, everything subsumed under that. You'll be the guiltiest of every generation for killing me, and for killing the ones that I send.

Now, it's interesting, they say there, basically, let his blood be on us, and on our children, means, “From this point forward, we will take responsibility for the death of Jesus.” Friends, that didn't last long. In the Book of Acts, do you remember how they arrested the 12 and brought them in, and they had already commanded that the apostles stop preaching the gospel, but they kept on preaching. And so, in Acts 5:28, these same Jewish authorities who were directly responsible for killing Jesus said, “You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.” Oh, wait a minute, what happened? In such a short time, in a matter of maybe a year or two, they no longer want his blood to be on them or on their children, not willing to take responsibility.

But friends, praise God, there's a second, deeper, more powerful meaning to this phrase, “Let his blood be on us and on our children.” What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And so we sang that Cowper song, how beautiful was that, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.” 

And isn't it beautiful that God, in some cases, chooses to hear these words completely differently than what they meant? That God is willing to forgive some Jews who repent of their sins and turn in faith to Jesus, and receive, through the blood of Jesus, full forgiveness for all their sins. And so his blood could be on them and on their children for the saving of their souls. And how beautiful is it that God has ordained, I believe, and many other scholars believe, that at the end of redemptive history, the Jewish nation, as a whole, will turn away from their rebellion against God and against his Christ, and believe in Jesus, and his blood will be on them, for their own salvation, forever and ever. As it says in Zechariah 12:10, “I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

And so, in verse 26, the final verdict comes down, guilty. He handed him over. He released Barabbas to them, but he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Pilate tried the hand-washing thing, he washes his hands, he says, “It's not my fault.” But he's the one that rendered the verdict, he was the one responsible, he had the burden of responsibility, and he used it to condemn Jesus, the only perfectly innocent man that's ever lived. He handed him over to be crucified.

But who was it really that handed Jesus over? Who was it really that delivered Jesus up? Was it not God the Father? “He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

And isn't it beautiful how Barabbas is a picture of substitutionary atonement? I'm not saying Barabbas is in heaven. I'm just saying Barabbas walked that day. He walked out of prison, he walked a free man. And why? Because Jesus died in his place. And how beautiful is that? Wouldn't it be cool if Barabbas was in heaven? Absolutely, it'd be cool. For him to say, “I was a murderer, I was an insurrectionist, and Jesus saved me.” How powerful is that? 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous in the place of the unrighteous, to bring us to God.” 

And so what applications can we take from this? Well, the trial of eternity is going on right now, maybe even in this room. There may be some in this room who are in an unregenerate state or walked in in an unregenerate state, and you are kind of sitting there, deciding what to do with Jesus. “What am I gonna do with Jesus?” You could decide not to decide, but that's to decide. You know that. You've heard the claims that Jesus is the Son of God, Son of Man, shed his blood, died on the cross, raised from the dead on the third day, that if you repent and believe that, that you are a sinner and that he died in your place, you'll have eternity to praise him and worship him, you'll be forgiven of all your sins. That's the gospel. You've heard that.

Well, what are you gonna do? As I've said, you need to see right now, with eyes of faith, someday it's gonna get reversed. As it says in Matthew 25, “When the Son of Man comes in his Father's glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory and all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates his sheep from the goats.” And he will say that those on his right, the sheep, “Come, you who are blessed by my father. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. And then he's gonna say to those on his left, to the goats, “Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

And you know what? He'll have the right to do it because he is the judge of all the earth. As it says in John 5, “The Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” Come to Christ. Come to Christ now. You don't know when you're going to die and appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Come to Christ now.

Secondly, understand the power of his blood. What a beautiful song we sang, “There is a fountain filled with blood.” It's beautiful though only to Christians. It's kind of gross otherwise. Sinners plunged beneath that bloody flood? But you know, as we look at that, when we survey the wondrous cross, we see beauty there, don't we? We see love there. We see power there. Understand the power of the blood. And I'm speaking now to Christians. You may have come in here with a guilty conscience today.

You may have come in here with a guilty conscience, you know probably why? Because you've sinned, because you're guilty, the Spirit is convicting you. But you know the remedy is always going to be the same. It's always gonna be the same. It'll have nothing to do directly with your sanctification, with you doing better, trying better, giving God ten good works to pay for it, or any of that. It has nothing to do with that. It all comes back to this one thing: Christ died in your place. His righteousness was imputed to you, your sins were credited to him. That's the basis in which you're gonna be cleansed. There is no other forgiveness or salvation other than the blood of Jesus. That blood that was shed by the Lamb of God was applied to you by faith, be cleansed then.

Listen again to the words I preached a few months ago from Hebrews 9:13-14, “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctify them so they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God!”

Some of you need that cleansing today. You've come in here guilty. You've lusted. You've lied. You've been selfish. You've turned your back on your responsibilities. You have sinned and you know it. You're not fighting. You're not among those that resist it. You know it's true, but you feel so guilty. Then allow your guilty soul to be plunged again beneath that flood. Confess your sins. And he is faithful and just and will forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us, purifies us from every sin. Praise God for that. And so do that, be cleansed now, and then, we can say, “Go and sin no more.” Amen? Stand up by the Spirit and say no to those temptations and those lusts and those sins.

Thirdly, be appalled at the fickleness of human praise. “Hosanna” one week, “crucify” the next. It's been said many, many times, but I just want you to find that tendency in your own heart too. I think it's sweet to worship and praise God. Have tears coming down your face? I do that a lot. Don't look at me during corporate worship. Please don't look at me, just worship. But I do, I am moved by that. But could the same person who's weeping at the greatness of God later sin that same day? And how ugly is that? Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. Let's not do that.

Let's be appalled at the fickleness of human praise, and let's not trust our own praising tendencies. Let's realize the reason you're praising is that God sovereignly took hold of you and, by the Spirit, compelled you to praise him, and is healing you now of your sins, but be appalled at the fickleness of your own hearts. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for your courts above.” I don't want my heart to wander anymore. Let's just start with today. Let's not let our heart wander the rest of the day. Amen? Let's praise Jesus the rest of the day. 

I also want you to be appalled at just how susceptible we are to praise from people. Pilate killed Jesus because he feared man, that's all. Not because he thought Jesus was guilty. And so we need to not be so influenceable. Is that a word? I don't think so. But anyway, easily influenced. We're all tired. I'm almost done, dear friends. I'm almost done. But don't be so easily influenced by what other people think, that's why Pilate killed him.

And we can't just wash our hands in a shabby little ceremony and blame-shift. That's the reason we don't witness like we should, we're afraid what people are gonna say and what people are gonna think. I love that verse that Jesus said in Matthew 11:17, “We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn.” Those are those societal puppet masters that are trying to get us to dance to their tune. Let's not dance to their tune. Dance to the tune of God and the Bible, don't be swayed by what other people think and say.

And do not shirk, fourthly, your responsibility. Take the blame. Don't try to wash your hands and say, “It's not my fault. It's not my fault. I didn't do it, it's not my fault.” We all do that. Adam and Eve did. Do you see that? God comes and convicts them, and what does Adam say? “It's your fault. God forgive me, this woman. And it's her fault too.” What did the woman say? “It's the snake's fault.” We are blame-shifters, like Pilate.

Face your responsibilities, face them openly and honestly, and if you come short, husbands, of loving your wives, as Christ loved the church, then face it and repent. Wives, if you come short of submitting with godly submission to your husband, then repent and live differently. Parents, if you've come short of the standard of training your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, then don't blame-shift, don't blame them. Live up to the standard. Children, the same thing. Don't blame your parents for your sins. Honestly taking on your sins because they are yours is the step toward never doing them again.

And then, finally, be witnesses in the trial of the century. What do you say? We are witnesses. We get to go out this week and testify to Jesus as people are kind of trying to decide what to do with Jesus. Take that insert. Learn some of those prophecies. Talk to them about those prophecies. Talk about the miracles. Testify to Jesus, and I don't mean just give your own testimony, that's fine, and I think it's good for us to say what God's done in our life. But share the Scriptures, share the miracles, share the gospel. It has the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Let's be witnesses by the Spirit of God to Jesus this week. Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the time we've had in your house. We thank you for the richness of your Word. Thank you for the children who sang earlier. I thank you for the labor that went into that time. And now, as we go from here, having heard the fullness of your Word, we pray that we would live up to the things you've taught us. We thank you for all of these things, and for the power of the Word of God to change us. In Jesus name, amen.

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 27, looking this morning at verses 1 through 10. And as we come to this very sobering text, come to the text that I just mentioned, ordinarily we wouldn't choose necessarily to study, choose to preach a sermon on. But we come here in this text to the shocking end, the tragic end, of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve. And we can picture him in our mind's eyes swinging on at the end of a rope, dead. Lifeless, alone. The suicide of a truly evil man, who was richly blessed by the proximity of his relationship with Christ, richly blessed, but never believed, never trusted, and turned him in for 30 pieces of silver.

And we can see those 30 silver coins, we can almost picture them clattering on the stone pavement and rolling until each one of them came to a stop. You can see the hypocritical priests kneeling down to pick each one of those 30 silver coins up, the very coins that they had paid out to Judas just a short time before, to effect the betrayal of Jesus into their hands. Now no one wanted those coins. They seemed like poison coins. No one wanted to touch them, no one wanted to do anything with them. And this whole tale is really a warning to us in many ways, a warning to all of us, a warning from the life of Judas of the proper valuation of life and money, and especially the proper valuation of Jesus. Jesus is the most infinitely valuable man that ever lived. The only infinitely valuable Son of God, Son of man who ever lived.

And in this account, we are brought ever closer, as we're going verse by verse, passage by passage, through Matthew's gospel, brought ever closer to the cross of Christ by which he will save his sheep from their sins. And poignantly, also we have a timeless warning of the self-destructive nature of evil. So I entitled this sermon, “The Suicide of Evil.” How evil is self-destructive in the end.

Judas' so-called friends, his new allies turned their backs coldly on him and had no interest whatsoever in comforting or counseling with him. But he, Judas, in some mysterious way indwelt by Satan himself and Satan, who was a murderer from the beginning, driving him to his death. And how ironic is it that at that same time, Satan was committing suicide by killing Jesus? Using the weapon of death to bring with his own hands, bring his own kingdom down around himself.

And so in the end, though this is a dark story and a warning, yet for us who see the evil in the world, very encouraging. Because everything that happened here was according to God's eternal plan, and his plan for us as Christ's sheep is good. And in the end, sin and death and darkness and evil will be destroyed, really ultimately by its own hand, and we will be free at last. And what a joyful thing that is.

So we begin our account by looking in verse 1 and 2, as Jesus is condemned according to plan. Look at verses 1 and 2, “Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him and led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.” So this is the final aspect of the religious trial of Jesus before the Jews. The wicked, illegal religious trial before the members of his own people now comes to its final end, its final phase.

Now, the whole effort, this wicked hypocritical sham had been to kill an innocent man with at least an outward semblance of justice. The false witnesses could not harmonize their story sufficiently to give that semblance of justice. So you remember the high priest charged Jesus under oath, “By the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” And he answers simply in Mark's gospel, “I am,” God's name. And he says in Matthew, as we studied, “In the future, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” And at this the high priest tore his robes, and they condemned him and abused him.

And here in chapter 27, the final phase, they meet one more time to make it official, completely illegal. They “took counsel together,” it says in one of the translations, this refers to the carefully laid plans to execute him without a just cause. Contrary to Rabbinic law, they hurried him off now to the Gentile trial before Pontius Pilate.

Ordinarily, as I've said, they would have had to wait another day to fast and pray and be sure that what they were doing was just and merciful, but they didn't wait, they were in a hurry to kill Jesus. And so they met one more time to condemn him to death, this perfectly innocent man, and they bound him and hurried him off to Pilate.

Now all of us was exactly according to plan, but whose plan? Now, certainly it was their plan, everything had gone as they had desired. In Matthew 26:3-4, it says, “Then the elders and chief priests of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they took counsel together to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him.” This had been their plan, their plot, their scheme. But infinitely above their wicked heads was God's sovereign plan. Amen? Infinitely above all of their plotting, infinitely above all of their scheming was God's intention in all of this. As Peter would preach on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2:23, “This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked men put him to death.” And so all of this is according to God's eternal plan.

And so Jesus is bound in verse 2 and led away and handed over to Pilate, the governor. Jesus had already been bound earlier in the evening on his arrest in John's gospel, John 18:12, “They bound him in Gethsemane.” But apparently they unbound him when he was on trial. Now, they bind him again and lead him away. This led me to think about Samson being bound. You remember how he was bound and how his bonds couldn't hold him, because Samson was so powerful when the Spirit of God came upon him.

What was it then that held Jesus' hands together? Was it not his determination to do the will of his Father? Was it not his love for us, his sheep? Was it not his desire to glorify God and go to the cross for us? Jesus says in Luke 12:50, “I have a baptism to undergo. A baptism to be baptized with.” And he says, “How straightened I am.” That's in the KJV, “How straightened I am, until it be accomplished. I'm in a straight jacket, I'm bound in until at last, I die on the cross.” Bound in by the will of God, bound in by the plans of God, and that's what kept Jesus's hands together. I can assure you, if it was not his will to be bound with those leather straps, he would have been able to rip them free, because he is far greater, far more powerful than Samson ever was.

Also, the binding of Jesus fulfills a prophetic type. You will remember how God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son, Isaac, on a particular mountain, and on the third day, God showed him Mount Moriah, where later the temple would be built. And when they reached that place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood on it, and he bound his son Isaac and laid him there on the altar on top of the wood, and he took out a knife to slay him. But the angel of the Lord stopped him. And so the binding of Isaac I think a picture or a type of the binding of Christ. And also the leading of Jesus, a direct fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 53:7, “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.” And so all of these things are indications of the perfect plan of God to give his Son in our place for our salvation.

Now, in verses 3 through 5, we have Judas condemned according to conscience. Look at the verses, “When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the 30 silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘For I have betrayed innocent blood.’ ‘What's that to us?’ They replied, ‘That's your responsibility.’ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.”

So this part begins with the words, “When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned.” It implies somewhat of a surprise on Judas' part, which is almost incomprehensible to me. How could he not know what the betrayal would lead to? It's possible that, like Peter, he could see Jesus being led away at this particular moment, could see him and this trial was unfolding and it, in some strange way, hit him what was going to happen. It's hard for me to understand that.

But at that moment then, he's seized with remorse. Which is a good translation, I think, for what he's feeling. He feels guilty, he feels bad for what he did. It was a bad feeling that's come over him as he sees this. Now, the Greek word translated here, “remorse” is different than the word ordinarily translated for “repentance.” Repentance. Judas did not repent, but he did feel terrible for what he had done. It's important for us to make that distinction. Some have asked concerning the case of Judas, “Didn't he repent here?” No, there's no indication in the original that he repented, he just felt badly for what he did.

And I think 2 Corinthians 7:10 shows us that there are two different ways to feel badly for sin, two different ways. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” - Isn't that marvelous? Friends, that's your future. You'll have no regrets in heaven, perfect memory of everything you did in life, I believe, but no regrets. Now, that's a mystery, and we can talk about that, but other than that, we're all lobotomized in heaven and have no idea what grace is. And “Thank God, Jesus saved me from my sin, from our sins.” We will remember, but no regrets. It leaves no regret. - “But worldly sorrow brings death.” And I think Judas is a very good example of worldly sorrow that produced death.

So there are two different ways to feel badly for sin. Peter felt terribly for what he'd done, and these accounts follow one right after the other. And so you have Peter weeping bitterly and he feels terrible for what he's done, but there's no doubt in my mind that God, through the Holy Spirit, led him step by step into a healthy, wholesome repentance, reconciliation with Jesus, with God and a life of service to him, leaving no regret.

But how different is Judas? Judas felt remorse, sickness, over the wretchedness of who he was and what he had done, but this led directly to death, not to God. It didn't bring him to God asking forgiveness. It didn't bring him to run up to Jesus, falling in front of him and saying, “Forgive me for what I did.” It just led him to death.

And so he says these words, “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood.” This is an amazing realization by Judas. First of all, his sin. What was his sin? Well, he bore false witness against a neighbor. Jesus was innocent, he never sinned. Deuteronomy 27:25 says, “Cursed is the man who accepts the bribe to kill an innocent person.” Sounds like Judas to me. And so he was cursed by the law for this sin. 

But we have to go deeper than that. We have to go deeper. To whom much is given, much is required. And much had been given to this man, Judas. He was one of the 12. He had astonishing access to Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory.” Judas was an eyewitness to the glory of God in Christ, in ways we can scarcely imagine.

John MacArthur said this about Judas, "No man could be more evil than Judas Iscariot. Only eleven other men in all of history have had the intimate personal relationship he had with the incarnate Son of God. No man has ever been more exposed to God's perfect truth, both in precept and example. No man has been more exposed firsthand to God's love, God's compassion, His power, His kindness, his forgiveness and grace. No man had had more evidence of Jesus' deity or more firsthand knowledge of the way of salvation. Yet in all of these three indescribable blessed years with Jesus, Judas did not take so much as the first step of genuine faith. In a way that defies comprehension, Judas persistently resisted and rejected God's truth, God's grace, and ultimately God's Son. Also, in a way that defies understanding, he managed to completely conceal his wicked rebellion from everyone but Jesus.” He was a thoroughly wicked man. So at this moment, his wickedness has led him to feel bad. And he feels badly for what he's done, but not with the conviction that leads to salvation.

Even more amazing is this testimony to the innocence of Jesus. I’ll talk more about this, I think, next time. But he says, “I betrayed innocent blood. I have betrayed innocent blood.”

The sinlessness of Jesus is essential to my salvation and yours. Jesus committed no sin. There's no deceit in his mouth. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. Friends, it is innocent blood that saves you and me from sin. Innocent blood, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for us. I plead with you, trust in that. Every week, we are reminded that people assemble here today that are outside of the grace of God, they're not Christians yet, unregenerate. You're listening to me right now, you're in an unregenerate state. I plead with you, trust in the innocent blood of Jesus. It was shed for sinners like you and me.

This sermon has a lot of potential hopelessness in it, as you look at Judas, as you look down a dark tunnel of hopelessness, but it doesn't need to be that way for you. Don't leave here hopeless. Don't leave here without hope and without God in the world. Come to Christ, and if you're already a Christian listening to these words, then memorize them and then say them to some lost person this week. We are surrounded by people that are wrestling with despair, they are without hope and without God in the world.

There is an answer, and his name is Jesus. And so I love that phrase, “innocent blood,” because that's what saves me from my sins.

And so Judas testified to it to his enemies, but Jesus's enemies had no interest in listening to that. “‘What is that to us?’ They replied, ‘That's your responsibility. It's on your head.’” The incredible coldness of these new friends and allies of Judas. There's no honor among thieves, dear friends, and there's no friendship in hell. Friendship is a gift of God's common grace, isn't it? Isn't friendship a reflection of the Trinity, how two persons can be one, can be friends? That's where we're heading in Christ. We're gonna be as one as the Father and the Son are one. We're gonna have perfect and consummated relationships in heaven, friendships in heaven. Every marriage is just a dim reflection of the perfect unity we're all gonna have in Christ in heaven.

Friendship is for heaven, not for hell. So do not be deceived if you're outside Christ and you think you're gonna have a good time with all of your lost friends in hell. They'll be there, but they won't be your friends. See, there’s no friendship in hell. And the coldness of what's going here: They don't care about Judas at all. Satan doesn't care about Judas at all. He wants to kill Judas. He'd like to kill all of us.

Jesus diagnosed these cold-hearted sinners, these chief priests and elders of the people very well. He said in Luke 11:46, “You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry and you yourself will not lift a single finger to help them with those burdens.” That's what they're doing here. They don't care, “It's your burden. You bear it yourself.” 

Godly ministry, godly pastors, godly elders, they're in the business of lifting burdens. That's what we're here to do, we're here through the preaching of the gospel to lift burdens off people, but these cold-hearted religious experts, all they do is crush people with burdens.

And so it's over for Judas, now, it's over. He has nowhere to turn to. He is empty, he is bereft of all hope, bereft of all light. And so verse 5, “He threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.” He is completely alone. Those coins, they're repulsive to him now, it's like they're on fire. It's like they're covered with some malignant virus or something like that. No one wants them, they're evil, wicked things. I wonder if Judas in hell can see a matrix of 6x5, 30 coins. If he sees them forever, was it worth it? 30 silver coins. 30 silver coins. Is it worth it? Was it worth it? 30 silver coins for Jesus?

He didn't think so at that point. He threw them away from him, he hated them, already hated them, hates them still. And he's completely alone. He left, he goes away without a friend in the world, and he hangs himself. Matthew Henry, Puritan commentator said this, “Driven by the horror of God's judgment against him, he jumped straight into that judgment. Seeking to escape the licking flames of guilt, he plunged into the roaring fire of hell.”

Verses 6-10, then the chief priests take counsel according to prophecy. “The chief priests picked up the coins and said, ‘It is against the law to put this into the treasury since it's blood money.’ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. That is why it's been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. ‘They took the 30 silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me.’”

So here are the chief priests, wicked legalists to the very end. These are the ones of whom Jesus said, “You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.” Later this very morning, they're gonna refrain from going in Pilate's house lest they be defiled, so they could celebrate the Passover. And Jesus is the reality of the Passover, and they wanna kill him, doing everything they can to kill him, but they don't wanna be defiled according to the law.

It's amazing too because those 30 silver coins came from their hands, probably out of the temple treasury, and now they don't want any part of them, nobody wants them, and so they counsel together, they take counsel together, “What shall we do with the 30 silver coins?” And so they decide to use them to buy the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. And Matthew says this is in direct fulfillment of a prophecy, which he ascribes to Jeremiah.

Now, I'm doing scripture memorization now in Zechariah, and it sounds an awful lot like Zechariah 11:12-13. So let me read Zechariah, 11:12-13. There it says, “I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay, but if not, then keep it.’ So they paid me 30 silver coins. And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ - The handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.”

Amazing points of context. In that chapter, the Lord has called Zechariah the prophet to act as a shepherd to a rebellious people, the Jewish nation. And it's in the context of false shepherds who are not doing what's right. But the people love the false shepherds, and they don't love his true shepherding, so they hate him and turn on him. So he says, “Fine, give me my severance pay.” And so they weighed out for him 30 pieces of silver. He says, “That magnificent price at which they priced me.” And then the Lord comes a second time and says, “Throw it to the potter.” And he does throw it into the house of the Lord and it ends up at the potter.

There's a lot of similarities there, aren't there? Shepherding, false shepherds, potter, 30, silver, coin, throne, house of the Lord. Lots of connections and frankly, more connections on this prophecy than you'd find on many of the allusions that Matthew says, “This was to fulfill this or that.” And yet he ascribes it to Jeremiah. What do we do with that? Well, we skip it and don't talk about it. So let's just go on to the next part and just say, “I don't know.” So that's gonna be kind of my ultimate answer is I don't know, but there are some decent explanations.

John MacArthur says that the law, the writings and the prophets sometimes referred to by the chief writer in those categories, law equals Moses or Moses equals law, David would be the writings, and Jeremiah the chief prophet sometimes chosen for the prophets. That was John MacArthur's explanation.

We'll reject the idea that Matthew wrote an error into the scripture, because once you start saying there's an error, then you never know where that ends, and it's just gonna unravel the entire garment. And you know when it's gonna unravel is when the scripture convicts you of your sin. And you say, “Well, I don't know. I think that's an error right there.” So we don't want to allow the concept of error to creep in here, it's inerrant.

Don Carson gives another explanation, and he goes over to Jeremiah 19, and that's where the Lord commands Jeremiah the prophet, to go and buy clay from the potter and to make a clay jar and smash it in a particular field in the valley of Ben-Hinnom. So the focus there is on the clay in the field and the field in which this thing was smashed, and the prophecy ends up being about the field where the wicked of Israel will be buried after the slaughter.

So I think we ought to think at a higher level, what Matthew is doing is he's saying, the real deal here is about the ultimate end of these coins and the ultimate end of Judas, and I don't doubt, frankly, that Judas might have been the first stranger that was buried in that field. Why do I say that?

Well, in Acts 1:18-19, it says, “With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field.” Judas bought a field. What does that mean? Well, “There he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language, Akeldama, that is Field of Blood.” It could have been that some people put it together, that Judas hanged himself on a tree, on a cliff or something like that, and the branch broke and then he gets dumped into a field which ends up being the same field that they bought and they buried him there as the first stranger. Outsider, outside of the grace of God, outside of redemption, eternally lost.

And I think that's probably a more sophisticated answer ultimately to what's going on here. This was a conflated prophecy between Zechariah and Jeremiah and just ascribed in the end to Jeremiah.

Well, that's the exegesis; what application can we take from this text? Well, let's start with valuing Christ properly. Shall we do that? Peter tells us, “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”

How precious is the innocent blood of Jesus to you? How precious a substance is that blood to you? I tell you right now, you may be the most mature Christian in here, you undervalue the preciousness of the blood of Christ, I guarantee you do, and you'll spend eternity properly valuing it. For eternity, you will study the value and worth of the innocent blood of Jesus, and you will celebrate what it has done for you. You are not redeemed with silver and gold, you are redeemed with the precious, the infinitely precious blood of Jesus. If you have been redeemed.

If you haven't been redeemed yet, then let the Spirit do a work on your heart right now. Let the Spirit show you the value and worth of the blood of Jesus. Do not try to stand before God's judgment seat without it. You will be condemned as Judas was. But you don't need to have that happen. There is time for you. Today is the day of salvation. 

So I urge you, value Christ properly. Don't be like Judas who traded Jesus in for some part of the world that then was worthless to him. Worthless to him. He threw it away because he learned too late how worthless it was. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what would a man give in exchange for his soul? So don't trade Jesus for 30 pieces of anything. Love and follow and believe in Jesus.

Secondly, and this is so precious to me, see the value of the sovereign power of God over the evil plans and plots and schemes of people. There's all this “taking counsel together” in this text. In verse 1, the chief priest and the elders “took counsel” against Jesus to put him to death. They “took counsel” together in verse 7, and bought with the 30 silver coins, the potter's field. So they're conferring together and they're taking counsel together. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails.” Nowhere has that ever been more true than when it concerns the taking counsel that wicked people did around the death of Jesus. They meant evil, but God means it for good for you, if you are one of his.

The church, when they assembled together after the Jewish authority started persecuting the church, started opposing the gospel, and Peter and John were arrested for doing a miracle, and they bring them in and they warn them and release them. So they go to their own people, they go to the church, they gather the church together and they start to pray, and they pray Psalm 2, “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples conspire or take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed one?’ Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire to take counsel together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen.”

Now, friends, this is a mystery but it's so precious, so precious. When I was writing this sermon, the events of the Boston Marathon bombing were fresh in my mind, and I was thinking about how destabilizing bombings can be. You just never know when something's gonna just erupt, a trash can, a locker in a train station, and it just plays into our fears, and people don't know what to do with that nameless fear of terrorism and of plots and schemes.

Maybe some people are led to trust the government, the CIA or the FBI, or the drone program or something like that, and wire taps and cell phones, be able to listen to cell phones, and have super computers keeping us all safe. Some people are worried about the encroaching government, worrying if the government's what we need to fear after all that. How do we find refuge and protection against the evil plots and schemes of sinners?

Find it here, dear friends, find it in the sovereign power of God. There are terrorist cells that meet together and plot the death and destruction of many people, it's happening probably right now, but they are under God's sovereign power and control. God is restraining their evil for his own purposes. I know that brings us into difficult questions about, “What about when it does break out and people lose life and limbs and health?” and those are serious questions, but still in the end, aren't you comforted to know that God sits on his throne above the circle of the earth and all its people are like grasshoppers and only his purposes and plans prevail?

Now, I entitled this sermon, “The Suicide of Evil,” and isn't it comforting to know that God has ordained that Satan would pull his kingdom down by his own wicked plot and scheme? Isn't that marvelous? Doesn't that bring you joy? That evil is self-destructive to our glory and our salvation. Satan killed Jesus, and in killing him destroyed his own kingdom, and we are the recipients of the grace and mercy that came out of that. We are rescued, we are living stones quarried out of Satan's dark kingdom, and we are put into a beautiful new living temple, rising to glorify God, and so it's beautiful to see the suicide of evil.

But this brings me finally in terms of application to the question of suicide itself. Suicide itself. I'm an expository preacher, I just take the next text and preach it, and I preach whatever's in it, and it takes us to the question and the issue of suicide. And it's not something, as I said, that I would choose if I were a topical preacher to preach on because it's so painful and difficult, maybe one of the most painful topics there is in this life. But it's only addressed three times directly in the Bible, there are only three people that kill themselves in the Bible.

King Saul in the midst of a battle with the Philistines, surrounded by the Philistine warriors about to die, did not wanna die by their hands, so he fell on his own sword and killed himself. Ahithophel who was David's counselor, betrayed David, turned his back on him, helped David's son Absalom to revolt against him, gave excellent counsel like he always did, but Absalom didn't listen to it, and Ahithophel knew the writing was on the wall and there was no way that Absalom was going to win, and so he put his affairs in order and hanged himself. And then this one, Judas.

Now, we must acknowledge that Judas' suicide is utterly, completely unique in redemptive history. There's never again gonna be the circumstances like what happened with Judas. The proximity to Christ, the three years of seeing the incarnate Savior, being indwelt by Satan, all of the circumstances that'll never happen again. Utterly unique. And yet, there are some aspects of it that are worth our study in our education, our training theologically, so that we can understand this dark issue of suicide.

Judas knew he had done wrong, guilt came upon him like waves. Guilt is to the soul, what pain is to the body. Tells you that there's a problem. Now, it's not inerrant, it's not true that every time you feel pain, there's a significant problem or any problem at all, but usually there is. As a matter of fact, people with leprosy can't feel pain, and that's why they destroy themselves 'cause they don't pull their hand off the hot plate quick enough, or they don't feel the pain and they're not able to stop.

So when we feel guilty, it's probably because we are guilty. When we feel a sense of shame, it's probably because we've done something shameful. A healthy person takes that pain and addresses, they take their hand off the hot plate, they stop doing that action. Or they go see a doctor and they address the strange pain they're feeling in their chest cavity or something like that, they try to deal, the pain is telling them something's wrong. Well, guilt and shame should lead us to the cross of Jesus Christ, that's where it should bring you.

We shouldn't deny it, say, “I haven't done anything wrong,” instead, we should take it to the cross. Even as Christians, we feel guilty and we should because we do wrong things. We feel ashamed and we should because we do shameful things. But we have learned the grace of God is limitless, and where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. And we are able to bring our dark feelings of despair and guilt to the cross of Christ and be healed by Jesus.

Now, why do people commit suicide? Why does it happen? Well, there are a variety of reasons. Retaliation, some people do it just to get back at loved ones, they feel hurt, they feel abandoned. Maybe a spouse leaves someone and marries someone else, and then the jilted spouse commits suicide just to get back. It seems to be the case a lot of times in terms of teen suicide, that the teenagers are trying to get back at their parents and make them hurt. And it does hurt. There are a few things as painful as being there after the suicide and having to pick up the pieces, and the guilt and all of the things that the survivors of the suicide have to deal with. It's a very selfish thing for the individual to do it, it leaves a wreckage, it leaves a world blown up.

Some people do it because they wanna be with departed spouses, perhaps elderly people, and they lose their desire to live and they don't eat and they don't do what's necessary to keep healthy and keep strong because they just want to be with the departed loved one.

Some people do it for religious reasons, especially in other religions, like Buddhism and Hinduism, Jihadists in Islam think they've got a short route to paradise, they do it for that reason. Some people do it for the sake of atonement 'cause they've done something so hideous and so horrible that they think maybe if they kill themselves, they can make up for it, that's why sometimes prisoners hang themselves in prison.

Most people I think do it because circumstances in life become so overwhelming that they just can't face them anymore. It could be a financial crisis, it could be that they've committed a crime and they don't wanna face the repercussions. Could be a medical situation, they're in so much pain that they just can't face it anymore, other circumstances.

So what does the Bible say about it? What can we learn? How do we think about this? Well, first thing I want you to know is, it doesn't mean that God isn't sovereign. I know it's hard to think it through, but there's a particular passage that God showed me, I think a number of years ago in 1 Chronicles 10, it was talking there about King Saul, and remember I told you he's one of the three suicides in the Bible, but in 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, it says, “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He did not keep the Word of the Lord, and even consulted a medium for guidance and did not inquire of the Lord.” Listen, “So the Lord put him to death.” Ponder that one. The Lord put him to death. Other than that, we'd have to say, you know that passage in Psalm 139, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Unless I take matters in my own hand and grab the last three pages of the book out, rip them out. No, that doesn't happen. God's sovereign even over this painful topic of suicide.

Secondly, suicide is a sin, it is self-murder, and we are not to murder, and it is very selfish, total self-absorption, not thinking, “What would this do to my wife or husband? What would this do to my children? What would this do to the people who knew me and love me?” Those aren't the thoughts at that particular moment.

Lesson number three, great guilt can produce great desperation and can change your views of God. Despair can be like a drug and make you think differently about God than he really is. Satan's selling you a different view of God, a harsh tyrant who just wants to crush you and destroy your life, that's not the God of the Bible, but Satan is able to deceive people.

The remedy must be the scripture. Go again to the passages that talk about the attributes of God, is Exodus 34, where Moses says to God, “Now show me your glory,” and he puts him in a cleft of the rock and hides him, and the glory goes by and he pronounces these words, “The Lord, the Lord, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding and lovingkindness. Maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Meditate on those words when you're depressed. Feed on those words.

Lesson number four is that God is merciful. And whatever has brought you to the edge, God can forgive and restore and bring you back away from the edge. Some people think and I think it's probably true, is that Judas' biggest sin was despair that did not lead him to repent. It's that in the end, he didn't think God could or would forgive him, and that the best thing for him to do would be to kill himself.

But Jesus said, “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, even those who speak a word against the Son of Man.” I think Jesus would have forgiven Judas if he had run and thrown himself on his mercy and called on his name, but he wouldn't do it. And so let's know the marvelous, infinite matchless grace of God.

Lesson number five: fear what happens next. Fear what happens next, you don't know what happens from this world to the next. Are you so sure that you're in Christ as you're thinking these dark thoughts of self-murder? Are you really ready to die? Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing to you, but I'll tell you who to fear, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

But this brings us finally to the hardest question of all. Is it possible for a genuine Christian to commit suicide? Is it possible to go from suicide to heaven? The medieval Catholic church said no, it was an unforgivable sin. Suicide could not be forgiven, because they distinguished two different types of sins, mortal sins and venial sins, the only way you could be forgiven for a mortal sin was to do penance and confess to a priest and all that, there wasn't time for that, when you committed suicide, you're definitely in hell, no doubt about it. They think that they get this from 1 John 5, “There's a sin that leads to death, you shouldn't pray for that,” etcetera, mortal sin's unforgiven.

But can you imagine the grief of those that are left behind if this were true? And I think it's going beyond what we have the right to say, it's going beyond what scripture gives us permission to say, as though we are the judges and we're able to say, “We know in this case, everybody who commits suicide goes to hell.” How do you know that? So, to say, “No, it is not possible to go from suicide to heaven,” is to make an absolute statement that logically leads in every case, you can go and be the messenger and saying, “Well, you know they're in hell. We know that with absolute certainty.” Well, I don't know that.

But to say “yes” brings us to all kinds of thorny issues as well, doesn't it? Suicide is a paradox, very difficult. Is it possible to go from suicide to heaven? Yes, it's possible. Well, we are saying, “This is a genuine Christian, they're born again, their sins are forgiven, all of them, they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit will filter their temptations, will not allow them to be tempted beyond what they're able to bear, but with the temptation will make a way of escape so they can bear up under it.” It's hard to imagine how someone can be indwelt with the Spirit and kill themself. Very hard to understand that.

But let me ask a question, what is the difference between that and all sins by Christians? Aren't we the weirdest things in the universe, we sinning Christians? We are. We are the weirdest thing there is in the universe. Everything else behaves just like it is, we are conflicted, deeply conflicted. We are indwelt by the Spirit and indwelt by sin, and they battle, Galatians 5, against each other so that we do not do what we want.

In Romans 7, “The very thing we hate, we do.” It's insanity. So are we ready to say, “Yes, all forms of insanity but that one.” I don't think so. I think it is irrational for a Christian to sin, and I think it's irrational for a Christian to be depressed. I don't say it's irrational for a Christian to be sad. I think we should be sad, there are a lot of sad things. I think it's better though, that we be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. How about that? Sometimes sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

So in the midst of all of our sorrows as Christians, we still have the joy of the gospel, don't we? We still have the fact that we're going to heaven when we die, our sins are forgiven. We have friendship with God now. I love the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” I love the starkness of the statement, “We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.” I love that. Don't ever be discouraged, that means you just, you're depressed, you're down and you have nowhere to turn to, you always have somewhere to turn to, always.

Christians have struggled with thoughts of suicide. In Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Christian and Hopeful are in doubting castle, Giant Despair beats them up every day and gives them the implements of their own demise, a knife, some poison, a rope, and is leading them to kill themselves, and only by finding the key of promise, the Word of God, that they're able to unlock the door and get out, and Giant Despair stop beating them up at last. Do you think Bunyan might have been writing out of his own discouragement and imprisonment? Tempted with thoughts of suicide?

William Cowper, great Christian hymn writer of the 18th century, struggled with mental illness and suicide every day of his adult life. Michael Card wrote a song about suicide called “The Edge,” you could look it up and listen to it, it's very powerful. In that he says, “Before I ever come again to that dark place where I might make the choice for life to end.” Very few Christian song writers will write about that topic.

Psalm 88 seems to be appropriate for that. Psalm 88 doesn't end on a high note. Psalm 88, very discouraging, very depressing, and at the very end, verse 18, “You have taken all of my companions and loved ones from me, darkness is my closest friend,” end of Psalm. But what that does is, it speaks to me that sometimes that's how the day feels. Live for the next day. The next day, his mercies are new every morning. Sun rises, he refreshes, he renews and you are restored.

So I'll say one final thing and we'll be done. I believe there can sometimes be a physiological side to suicide as well. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, it says, “God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” That's regeneration, God speaks light into the darkness of a heart. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay.” Let me simplify. What's the treasure? Knowledge, the knowledge of God in Christ. We have this treasure in jars of clay. What's a jar of clay? Well, where do you keep your knowledge? Do you have your knowledge in your pinky? Do you have your knowledge in your foot? Is it in your knee perhaps?

It's right in here, this is your jar of clay. And we were made out of the dust of the earth, amazingly. This is amazingly complicated clay, but the jar of clay image is a fragility that it can be broken. Cracked. So what about Alzheimer's or people with dementia? And all their lives, this woman, this man were sweet-tempered, pleasant and patient, and now they're maybe openly cursing or blaspheming? Don't recognize loved ones? What is going on there? Have they lost their salvation? No, their jar of clay has been cracked. God still knows who they are.

And so for us to say it's impossible to go from suicide to heaven, underestimates how fragile that jar of clay can be. Sometimes the world, the flesh and the devil can overwhelm it, and darkness can come in waves and for his own purposes, God permits that darkness to latch on. So what comfort can we have for those that are left behind to take up the pieces? Turn to Christ, turn to the Scripture, turn to prayer, turn to the church. Don't face this alone.

And what about if you're the one depressed and discouraged? What if you're asking, “Will God forgive me if I kill myself?” Do you realize what an odd question that is? How paradoxical? "Will the God who can't help me now welcome me into heaven?" That's weird. The God you wanna spend eternity with in heaven can help you right now. Turn to him and trust in him. Let's close in prayer and then we'll get ready for the Lord's Supper.

Father, we thank you for the time that we've had in the Word. Thank you for the depth of the Word in dealing with a very painful subject. I pray that you bring comfort and consolation to any that have been touched and brought to great pain through this topic. I pray, Father, that you'd bring them the comfort and consolation of the gospel. And now as we turn our attention to the Lord's Supper, we pray that you pour out through your Spirit, the grace of God on all of us who have trusted in you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Deacons, if you would come, please.

Well, you heard the text that Blake just read, and as we come to this account of Peter's denial of Jesus, we come to one of the saddest and yet one of the most hopeful and helpful stories in the gospel of Matthew. We have the story of the devastating fall of one of the greatest leaders the church has ever known. It's devastating because it shows us just how far sin can take us. The shamefulness of the details make this story exceedingly poignant for us.

We can ask these questions: How can such a mighty follower of Christ as Simon Peter was fall so far as, in a short amount of time, to be calling down curses on himself if he ever heard of Jesus, if he knew Jesus - how can that happen? How can sin, how can temptation be that powerful? How can it be that effective? It is surpassingly sad that one of Jesus' best friends in the world could not summon any courage or loyalty or friendship to stand with Jesus in his time of need. How can we be this bad? How can we sin this greatly? That's the question, those are the questions that just flow from this text for me.

Jesus had called on his followers to be willing to die in this world, just as he would die. After Peter had rebuked Jesus for predicting his own death on the cross, Jesus had warned his disciples in this way, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good would it be for a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” And so, after hearing all that, all that careful training, and so for years from Jesus, this is what Peter did, loving his own life and loving and cherishing his own soul and his life in this world and not being concerned about his relationship with Christ.

Later in the book of Revelation, Revelation 12:11, it speaks of the followers of Jesus as they fought as they battled and defeated Satan. It says, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Well, that was them, that wasn't Peter on this particular dark night. Peter loved his life and this world so much that he turned his back on Jesus and denied him three times. It's a devastating denial from one who was so close and so elevated by the Lord.

But yet, but yet there is grace for sinners like Peter, and therefore there's grace for sinners like us. How readily could each one of us be disqualified from serving Christ? How readily could we be disqualified from service to Christ? And that's why this account is so hopeful as well, we see the incredible grace of God, the grace of Jesus in rescuing Peter from the clutches of sin and temptation. The true Peter, the true Peter was not the one who denied Jesus, that's not who he really was but the one who boldly proclaimed Christ by the power of the spirit on the day of Pentecost and every day thereafter, that's who he is now, and that's who he will be for all eternity. What was going on that night is he was masquerading as an unbeliever out of cowardice and fear, he was masquerading as a worldling. And the incredible grace of God rescued Peter and will rescue each one of us, as true followers of Christ, from that masquerade.

So let's look at it carefully, this downward journey of sin, three steps to cursed misery. Let's remember the context. First of all, we're focusing tonight or today on Peter. We're focusing on him, the leader of the twelve. In every list of the twelve apostles, Peter was always named first, he seems to have been the leader of the twelve. In many encounters throughout Jesus' life with the apostles, it was Peter who would speak for all of them. For example, in Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus asked his disciples “What about you, who do you say that I am?” It was Peter who spoke up and he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” We'll come back to that passage later. Peter was perhaps the key leader among all of Jesus' followers.

Now, in the flow, in Matthew chapter 26, we remember Peter's prideful boast. In verses 31 through 33 of the same chapter, Jesus told them, “‘This very night, you will all fall away on account of me. For it is written “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” But after I have risen, I'll go ahead of you in Galilee.’ Peter replied, ‘Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.’” I think that as I mentioned when I preach through it was one of the most repulsive statements ever made by a true follower of Jesus Christ, arrogant, boastful, prideful. But that was the same night. Then Jesus made that plain prediction, “I tell you the truth, this very night before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And Peter's prideful answer at that point, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

Later in that evening, we have the account in Gethsemane of Peter's prayerlessness. Jesus had taken aside Peter, James, and John, as he frequently did, to be with him in his time of need in Gethsemane in prayer. He wanted them to keep watch with him, but he comes back after a short time and finds them asleep. And he singles out Peter for the statement, “‘Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?’ he asked Peter. ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation, the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.’” But this happened repeatedly that evening. He would come back and again find them sleeping and he'd come back a third time and again, they were still sleeping. “Are you still sleeping and resting” he said to them, “Behold, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” So we have that account of Peter's prayerlessness.

We also have the account, don't turn there, but in John 18, we have a fuller account of Jesus' arrest and how Jesus orchestrated the arrest so that he could provide a way of escape for the twelve so that they could run away at that particular time, 'cause it was not time for them to be tested in that way, facing their own deaths, it wasn't time for them to lay down their lives as martyrs.

And so he orchestrates his arrest there in John 18, he forces the arresting band there to state their orders, “Who are you looking for?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they say, Jesus says, “I am.” They all draw back and fall to the ground. Then Jesus asked them a second time, “Who is it you want?” And they say a second time, “Jesus of Nazareth,” so they've said out of their own mouth their marching orders: “We're here to get Jesus of Nazareth.” Then Jesus says in John 18:8, “I have told you that I am. If you're looking for me, then let these men go.” “This happened,” this is John 18:9, “This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: ‘I have not lost one of all those you have given me.’” There are theological depths in that statement I can't plumb, but basically it was beyond what they could handle spiritually to be arrested at that time. Jesus artfully crafts a way of escape for them all to run away and make it through the night. It was not time for them to be arrested.

But Peter wouldn't stay in that place of safety, he wouldn't stay where it was safe and secure. Instead, he's the one that very night who drew his sword and wanted to fight all those soldiers. He then ran away, but then did a U-turn, and then comes back and starts following at a distance, as we saw, we briefly mentioned last time, and he enters the courtyard. What was he doing there? He should have been home praying and trembling and hiding in his house or something like that, it was not time for him to be arrested, he couldn't handle it. But he thought he could and I don't know what his motives were, maybe pride, maybe he wanted to live up to his boast. We don't really know, but there he is in the courtyard.

And there's a clear contrast here as we begin our account with Jesus. Jesus was arrested, verse 68, verse 69 begins with the word “but.” “But Peter was sitting out in the courtyard.” So we have a contrast between Jesus and Peter, and again, in John's gospel, this is much clearer because John interweaves Jesus' trial and Peter's denial. You have different acts that are going on; meanwhile at the trial, meanwhile back at the denial, here at the trial, back at the denial. And so it's a clear contrast you have set up between Jesus' courage and his beauty and his strength and his faithfulness to his Father, and Peter in his sinfulness. And so we have this account of Peter as he denies the Lord.

Now, all four Gospels make it clear that the denial begins with a simple question from a slave girl there in the courtyard. Verse 69, it says, “Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard and a servant girl came to him. ‘You also were with Jesus of Galilee,’ she said.” Isn't it incredible how temptation works? Peter is there earlier that evening drawing his sword and ready to take on at least 600 Roman soldiers but he can't handle a simple query from a slave girl at the door. So I think he was all buttressed and ready for the temptation coming this way and it ends up coming in through the side. Temptation is devious, and it's tricky, sin is wicked, it doesn't come the way we expect, it doesn't come in the manner we expect. I also think the fact that in Matthew two of the denials come in the presence of slave girls heightens the cowardice of Peter, he wasn't being directly threatened at that moment with torture and arrest, and he's still crumbling in front of these girls. 

And so the denial begins in verse 70, he denied it before them all. “I don't know what you're talking about,” he says. So there's a very public denial, it was a slave girl that brought up the question, but he's there in front of the whole group, and he's denying it in front of them all. It's a simple denial, it doesn't go very deep. He just says, “I don't know what you're talking about.” But it's very public as he does it in front of them all, and this is the first devastating step on a downward, very dark journey that he's gonna take, and that's the way it is with sin, it always begins small and gets bigger and bigger. It metastasizes, it doesn't stay the same. Like a tumor it just keeps getting worse and worse. And so we come to denial number two. 

Verses 71 and 72, “Then he went to the gateway where another girl saw him and said to the people there, ‘This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ He denied it again with an oath, ‘I don't know the man.’” Peter is moving around in that courtyard, John says he's warming his hands by a fire. We're all wondering what he's doing there, he needs to get out of there. There's nothing good that can come from being there surrounded by the enemies of Jesus with his hands warm, but his heart colder and colder toward Jesus.

The second servant girl spreads her accusation around, so the watching crowd is listening, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth, but now Peter's denial gets to a whole different level. He adds an oath, some kind of a swearing that he does here, he swears an oath, and then he simply lies, “I don't know this man.” He distances himself as much as possible from Jesus. 

Now, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had commanded his followers concerning oaths, did you remember that? He said “Do not swear at all: either by heaven for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no;’ anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” But here's Peter saying something like this, “I swear by the gold of the temple,” or “I swear by God's throne above - I don't know this man!”

And by the way, do you see at this point how completely alone Jesus is as he faces his trial. This was arguably Jesus' best friend in the world. He is physically close, he could come forward and give testimony to Jesus, but he won't do it, he will not do it. He's already made up his mind, he is not going to say a word in reference to Jesus. Now Jesus said this would happen. In John 16:32, Jesus said, “A time is coming and has come when you will be scattered each to his own home. You will leave me all alone.” It's profound when you think about it, that you're gonna leave me completely alone. You would think after three years of friendship, there would be some loyalty, there would be some courage or willingness to sacrifice for a friend - indeed the greatest friend that's ever lived - but none of them would do it, Peter would not do it.

And so we come to the third denial which is the worst of all. In verses 73 and 74, “After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them for your accent gives you away.’ Then he began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, ‘I don't know the man.’” So we went from an oath to a curse, the final act of this tragedy brings us to new low levels of disgrace. 

Peter's accent was one of a Galilean, and he couldn't escape it, they knew he was from Galilee, they could tell by the way he was speaking. And it seems like the whole group is on him now, you can imagine a wolfpack and there's some blood in the snow or something like that, and they are growling and they're ready, they're focused on him, it's gotten worse and worse now. And so his earlier statements, he can't stick to that, he has to do something more extravagant, more extreme, he's under pressure. Again, he's masquerading, he is not on the outside what he truly is on the inside, but he's doing it because of the pressure that's being put on him, the world is squeezing him into its molds.

And so the oath that he just swore apparently wasn't enough, now he needs to go to the next level and he needs to call down curses on himself. Something like this: “May Almighty God strike me dead if I even know this man.” Think of the curses of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 28. “May the Lord send on me curses and confusion and rebuke if I ever heard of Jesus. May the Lord destroy me and bring me to sudden ruin if I ever heard the name of Jesus. May the Lord plague me with diseases, and may I have crop failure, and may I never catch another fish, if I ever heard of Jesus.” Do you see how far Peter has fallen at this point, how low it's gotten. So what is the significance of all this?

What's the significance of Peter's denials? Well, let's understand who Peter was. We've already talked about it briefly that he was called, first of all, out of all of the disciples to be one of the twelve, Jesus spent the night praying on a mountain, and then he comes down and he chooses out the twelve. And they were chosen among all his disciples to be with him and to be eyewitnesses. I look on them like little video recorder recording devices, just see what he said and did, and then later the spirit would bring to mind everything that he did and said, and they would be able to write the gospels and they would be able to write the New Testament and based on that, the world was gonna be saved, based on their eye witness testimony. That's what these twelve were to do. Paul says in Ephesians that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

He was one of the twelve, but not only was he one of the twelve, he was one of the inner circle of the twelve, he was one of the inner three; Peter, James, and John were Jesus' closest friends. And he was the leader, even of the three, as I said, in all of the listing of the apostles, he was the primary apostle, the first leader.

And it gets even worse than that. God specifically revealed Jesus to this man in a very powerful way. As we already mentioned, at Caesarea Philippi, he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said, “Blessed are you.” Oh, it's painful when you think about curses he's calling down on myself. Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” The Heavenly Father specifically revealed Jesus to Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

But that wasn't the only time. In the very next chapter, in Matthew 17, Peter, James and John were selected to accompany Jesus up to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration, and there he was transformed before the three of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And a bright cloud enveloped them. And a voice came from the cloud, “This is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” And Peter would later write about that, he wrote in 1 Peter, he said, “We ourselves were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for we received honor and glory from God the Father on the sacred mountain, and we were eyewitnesses of it.” And so twice in a very powerful way, God had revealed Jesus to Peter. And that's what makes this so devastating.

The purpose of the apostles was to take that revelation that they had of Jesus and proclaim it to the world. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in one of whom they've never heard, and how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?” The word “apostle” just comes from the Greek word meaning “sent ones,” they were gonna be the ones sent out into the world to preach the gospel so that sinners could be saved, and now here's the leader of them saying, “I've never heard of Jesus, never heard of him.” This is huge in redemptive history. Faith comes by hearing, and to have this key link that the rest of us who will never have seen Jesus - Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have heard - to have the key link, the apostles, say “I've never heard of Jesus.” We don't get saved without their ministry. So this is huge.

Peter had made those promises. “Even if all fall away in account of you, I never will.”

Well, what motivated all this? It was his fear, he was afraid of what would happen to him in this world, he was afraid of death. He was afraid of reprisals, he was afraid of suffering and death, he loved his life in this world too much at that moment. And is there any person in this room who can't relate to that? Is there anyone in this room who can't say, “You know, I've done that, I've done that, I've loved my life too much in this world, I did not at that moment or this moment or the other time deny myself and take up my cross and follow Jesus. I didn't testify clearly to Jesus at that moment,” is there any one of us who is willing to say, “Hey, I would never do something like this”?

And that's what makes this story so powerful. Jesus said, “The one who loves his life will lose it, but the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” That's one of the hardest battles there is in this world, is to learn to hate your life in this world and live for Jesus, to live openly for Jesus and not worry about the reprisals or the things that are gonna come to you if you serve Jesus. But it's so hard for us to do. It's all about faith. Walking by faith, not by sight.

Jesus said, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. So if you're willing to hate your life in this world, you're willing to follow me,” said Jesus, “I'll honor you, I'll honor you, but you have to believe in that by faith, you can't see it in this world, the world's gonna dishonor you.” And there is a terrifying sentence on all of this coming from Jesus himself. In Mark 8:38, “He said, ‘If anyone is ashamed of me, and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.’” I don't want Jesus ashamed of me, and yet I'm so strongly tempted to be ashamed of him. And I think that's what was going on with Peter that night.

Peter, at this point has hit the bottom of his life. I think if you were to talk to Peter right before he died say, what was the worst part of your life? What was the lowest moment? He would say “This was it, right here, this night, this point right here, when I was calling down curses on myself there outside where Jesus was being tried. That was the low point for me.” But praise be to God that we have a Good Shepherd who doesn't let us go, but leaves the 99 on the hills and goes to look for the one that wanders off. That's the nature of our Good Shepherd. He's not going to give up on us, he's gonna go back, and he's going to get us like the wandering sheep we are, and he's gonna pick us up and put us on his shoulders and bring us back. 

But my next point is the journey back is filled with pain, it's filled with pain, it's just the way it is. The only way you can come back from this kind of sin is to hurt, and so we see it in the account, the rooster crows at that moment. After the third denial, the rooster crows. Look at verse 74-75, “Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: ‘Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.’”

Now, to make this even more painful, if you bring in Luke's testimony, at that particular moment, we don't necessarily know how, but at that particular moment, Jesus was able to look directly at Peter as the rooster was crowing. What do you think that felt like? Now, we know that Jesus' trial in front of the Jewish authorities had three phases: Annas and Caiaphas, the council, and so he was, I think just being transferred from one phase to the next and providentially everything just lined up. Isn't it amazing how those kinds of things happen? Everything just lines up. The rooster crows and Jesus is able to get Peter's attention. And just look at him. Luke 22:61, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken.” You see, that's how it works.

So this is, friends, this is all about pain at this particular moment, pain, we were listening as we drove in this morning to a Sovereign Grace song called “The Look” and “The Look,” actually Sovereign Grace did a remake of a John Newton song. John Newton was the one who wrote “Amazing Grace.” In 1779, he wrote a song entitled, “I Saw a Man Hanging on a Tree, and Sovereign Grace redid it in a song called “The Look.” And this is what it says: “I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and blood, who fixed his loving eyes on me, as near the cross I stood. And never till my dying breath will I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his death, though not a word, he spoke. A second look he gave, which said, ‘I freely all forgive, this blood is for your ransom paid, I die that you may live.’ Thus, while his death, my sin displays in all its blackest hue, such is the mystery of grace, it seals my pardon too.” And I think that Peter, till his dying day, never forgot that look forever etched upon his mind, as the song said, he would remember what that look felt like.

So the rooster crowing and the look from Jesus were two very painful things. Jesus had programmed Peter's mind so that he would remember. He spoke these specific words. What an odd thing to mention a rooster, I mean, think about that. “You're going to disown me.” “I would never disown you.” “Well, you really are gonna disown me, period. Let's get on to the next topic.” He doesn't say that, he says, “Before the rooster crows.” Why does he do that? Because he's laying his word down in Peter's mind so that he can reclaim him when the time comes, so he can restore him when the time comes. So memorize scripture, listen carefully to this sermon, feed your hearts with scripture, so that God has some hooks to bring you back if ever you should stray. 

And so he remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And then he leaves, he gets out of there, that's a key statement, he shouldn't have been here to begin with, it's a tempting situation, a forum of temptation. He was in over his head and the rooster is crowing and the Lord's look. And isn't it beautiful how God sovereignly orchestrated a way out? Here's this pack of wolves sniffing blood, and they just let him walk away. But they did, and so the Lord orchestrated his escape really for the second time that evening.

And then he went outside and wept bitterly. Wept, he just wept. Matthew adds the word “bitterly,” so it wasn't just any kind of weeping, I was weeping that came from deep inside the heart, it was an agony of heart.

So what lessons can we take from this? This is just the account. There are various lessons we should take from this account. First, let us all just stand in awe and wonder at the greatness of the character of Jesus Christ by simple contrast. This, we could argue, is one of the best men that ever lived, Peter, I mean, and look at what temptation did to him. Look at what temptation did to him.

But temptation never corrupted Jesus. He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. He stood before his judges unafraid and made the good confession, it says in 1 Timothy, so just stand in awe of the character of Jesus, the greatness of Christ. Every time I come here to preach, my desire is that you would think great thoughts of Jesus Christ. So think great thoughts of his character by contrast with Peter.

Secondly, look again at the universality and the depth of sin, it's amazing that we even have this account at all. Peter was in the midst of his ministry when this gospel was written. Mark's gospel, many people think, comes directly from Peter, that Peter gave it to Mark, maybe as he was on trial for his life. So this might be read almost as his confession, the details of it. The weeping bitterly, probably, he did alone.

And so we have this story because the Bible is extremely honest with us about the failings of its great men and women, it's honest about this one fact: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Ecclesiastes 7:20, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.” There's no one like that. Romans 7, as the apostle Paul put it, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, and what I hate, I do.”

So how do you see yourself in the story of Peter, do you see yourself in him? Do you see yourself as someone who could easily deny Jesus if the Satanic pressures, diabolical, clever temptations and pressures were around you, they would force this kind of denial from you. Do you see yourself there? I sure hope so. Because the Bible says, “If anyone thinks he stands, take heed, lest he fall.” I'll come back to that verse in a few minutes, but you need to see yourself in Peter, you need to know that you're just like him. And frankly, it'd be good if you are were honest about how you are in witnessing, sharing your faith out in the world, and say, “I've actually played this scene again and again, more than more times than I can possibly recount, I've in some way, refrained from speaking for Christ when I knew that the spirit was prompting me.”

Do you see yourself here? Do you have actual sins to confess to the Lord? Then confess them. The final word in this sermon is grace not sin. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. So confess, he knows you already. You just don't know it yourself. So confess, say, “Lord, I have played Peter's role again and again, I don't wanna do that anymore. Please forgive me, oh Lord.”

We need to be willing to suffer with Jesus. It says in Romans 8:17, “If we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ - if indeed we share in his sufferings.” Does that word, “if” bother you at all? That it challenges me. Okay, I'm an heir if I suffer, if I share in Christ's sufferings, then I'm an heir. Or 2 Timothy 2, “Here's a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we disown him, he will also disown us.” What happened to that in the case of Peter? Well, let's go to the next phrase, “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself.” So which is it? He disowned him, but Christ was faithful and didn't disown himself and stayed faithful to Peter.

Thirdly, notice the sufficiency of the cross for all of our sins. We haven't gotten to the cross yet. It's in the very next chapter, we're coming to it, but it is the shed blood of Jesus alone that restores sinners like Peter and like you and me. Every one of us is a sinner. There's none better than another when it comes to the issue of the cross and judgment day. All of us need a Savior, and the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross is sufficient for sins like this. Trust in him. Call on the name of the Lord for the salvation of your souls.

If you are outside of Christ, if you are lost right now, if you've been invited here by a friend or wandered in here off the street, or if you just know you're lost, you know you're on the outside, you've been playing a game, you've been masquerading as a Christian. Then this moment is for you. Don't leave this place unregenerate. Call on the name of the Lord. Look to Christ crucified, his shed blood is enough for sins like this, it's infinitely ample for sins like this. Trust in him. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Fourthly, the importance of prayer. The importance of prayer. I'm gonna talk about it negatively and then positively, first of all, the importance of prayerlessness. Shall we talk about that? Do you all think, as I do, that Peter should have spent his time in the garden of Gethsemane better? “But I have to sleep, I'm so tired.” No, you have to pray. I guarantee in your Christian life, there will be some times where you are overwhelmed with fatigue, but you still need to pray and not sleep. We see the danger of prayerlessness, and Jesus specifically warned him about it. He specifically spoke to him about it. He said, “Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” He specifically warned him.

Well, let him specifically warn you now about prayerlessness, are you praying? Are you praying as you should? We're all gonna say, “No, I'm not,” not with the fervency, not the amount, but I know I'm guilty from time to time, even from day to day of prayerlessness. Well, watch and pray so that you won't fall into temptation. Look what happened to Peter, be warned about prayerlessness, but I have an even better story to tell on prayer. And it doesn't have to do with Peter's prayerlessness, it has to do with Jesus our high priest’s prayer for him. Do you remember that?

As we've talked about before in Luke 22, “Simon Simon, Satan has demanded to sift you, like wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and after you have turned back then strengthen your brothers.” Isn't it comforting to you like it is to me? To know that we have a great high priest who's at the right hand of God and is always living to intercede for us. And in that way, he is able to save us to the uttermost. He will never stop praying that your faith will not fail, and it won't if you're a genuine child of God, you could go through some horrible circumstances like this, and your faith will not fail. So the importance of prayer.

Fifthly, the need for constant vigilance. I said I'd mention it in a minute or two, you need to be vigilant constantly. Sin is more devious, more powerful; temptation is more alluring than you can imagine, and it's gonna come at you in an angle and in a way that you aren't aware of. You're gonna be ready in the front, it's gonna come in through the side door. In this case, it was a little slave girl that he didn't even know she was talking to him, probably, when he walked by her, and pretty soon he's saying, “I don't know what you're talking about,” and he's on a slippery slope. So be wise concerning Satan's clever devices to draw you into sin.

And so 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall!” Walk moment by moment in total dependence on Christ and in constant awareness of your own weaknesses and the power of the world, the flesh and the devil. Never underestimate them. They come at you as flaming arrows, and only by the shield of faith and by the power of Christ can you resist.

Sixth, the painfulness of repentance. If you're in sin, it's going to be a painful journey back. Don't try to take the shortcut, the private jet flight, you know, skipping all the journey on the ground. There is no shortcut on this, the disease of sin has a very painful cure, genuine heartfelt, repentance and transformation does not come easily.

The shock of the rooster's crowing of Jesus looking at him, and all of that began a work of pain that I think at that moment actually started to increase more and more. I think he felt more pain, however many minutes later when he was weeping bitterly, than when Jesus first looked at him. It starts to roll on him. It's interesting in Mark 14:72, it says this, “Immediately a rooster crowed a second time, and Peter remembered when Jesus had spoken the word to him, ‘Before the rooster crows twice, you will disown me three times.’” - Listen to this - “When he thought about it, he began to weep.” It's an interesting little addition in Mark, “when he thought about it,” that's when he started to weep. The Greek word there implies a careful reflection, going over it again and again, something like this, “How could I have done this? How could I have denied him? I can't believe this happened, but he warned me that it would happen” and you're going over this, and then the tears start to flow. Deep sadness and bitterness, and with it comes weeping. 

And that bitterness would be deep and profound and lasting. The pain of restoration still wasn't over, even after he got done weeping bitterly. You can imagine how he must have felt in the upper room when Jesus gives evidence of his resurrection, but Peter hasn't had an encounter with Jesus yet. “Am I still in? Am I still included? Do you forgive me for what I did? Or am I out now? What about me? I know there's gonna be a feast, I know that many are gonna sit at the table. Do I have a place?”

And so in John 21, we see beautifully Jesus going after Peter and three times asking him, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” “Oh, Lord, I love you.” “Feed my sheep.” Remember that? “Simon, do you love me?” “Yes, I love you.” “Tend my lambs.” Then he asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” And then these words come in, “Peter was hurt, because Jesus asked him three times. He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’” Do you think Jesus meant to hurt him at that moment? I think he did. He meant to hurt him in order to heal him. As I mentioned in a sermon in Isaiah, most of the therapies, most of the medical therapies there are in the world hurt in order to heal. All surgeries do, chemotherapy hurts in order to heal. And so Jesus meant to hurt him, but not ultimately to hurt him, he meant to heal him and to bring him to repentance.

And so we must go through that pain, we must be willing to repent genuinely, as I've quoted Thomas Watson on the ingredients of true repentance. He was a Puritan pastor. It had six ingredients. Sight of sin, seeing it as it really is. And then sorrow for sin, weeping bitterly over it, as is evidence of sorrow for sin. And then confession of sin, and shame for sin, hatred of sin, and then turning from it.

We tend to want a shortcut short cut, all of that and go quickly, and the Book of James chapter 4 says, “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” Humble yourself and let God lift you up in due time. When you've sinned grievously, then spend time repenting. And it's not a work, it's not like you're working your way, it's just you're dealing honestly with the sin, and that pain will stick with you to some degree for the rest of your life to protect you from further sins. And then you'll be done with it. There'll be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain. You'll be free in heaven forever. But we need it now, friends, that's the whole point of discipline, that's the whole point of genuine repentance.

Seventh, the possibility of restoration. Praise God for this. This was, in some ways, you could argue - some, I know this mentality, I understand it, but some would argue, they would come very vigorously to Jesus and say, “This man should be disqualified from his ministry for what he did.” And the answer is, it's true, it's true. He should be disqualified. The point of being disqualified is a threat. It says in 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul says, “I beat my body and make it my slave, so that after I've preached to others, I won't be disqualified.”

But there's a balance here concerning the case of Peter, yes, he should have been disqualified, he was supposed to be an eyewitness testifier to Jesus, and at that very point, he's gonna be completely unbelievable on the day of Pentecost. Tell you what, let's put him on probation, okay, well, he won't be allowed to preach for 10 years. God had a different time table in mind: 40 days later, filled with the Spirit, he was standing in front of the citizens of Jerusalem preaching boldly.

And so I just want to proclaim in the name of Christ, in the name of Peter, the possibility of restoration even from a great sin like this. And how boldly did Peter preach in the book of Acts what at a point a picture of boldness and courage. I love when he and John were arrested after healing that lame man, remember, and they're brought before the council, the very same people who had killed Jesus, really.

He said, “Rulers ” - This is Peter speaking - “Rulers and elders of the people! If we're being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel; It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” It's almost like Peter is swimming in the name of Jesus at that point, proud to speak it, proud to honor that name and not ashamed of it at all. Praise God for the transforming power of the gospel and the healing power of Jesus and the shed blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it went right to the glorious end as Jesus said it would happen. He said, after restoring him, he said, “I tell you the truth” - this is Jesus speaking to Peter in John 21 - “When you were younger, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go, but when you are older in the future, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and take you where you do not want to go.” And then John editorialized, he said he was speaking of the way by which Peter would glorify God in his death. So Jesus cured him of his fear of death and he gave a bold testimony to Jesus right to the end of his days.

Eighth, The Amazing Grace of God to sinners. It's an ocean of grace out there. It's an ocean of grace. Swim in it. And when we get to heaven, we're going to be like the elders and we're gonna take all the good works and the testifying we did to Jesus and all the things we did, and we're gonna cast those crowns before Jesus. You know why? Because he will be the one that deserves credit for every one of them. We are gonna be those who will come into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what we did was done through Jesus.

And finally ninth, let's be witnesses for Jesus. What do you say? Do you think you can have a chance to share the gospel this week? Do you think God might put you in a place, “Say, Lord, put me in a place where I can testify to Jesus this week. Put me in a place where I can shine like a light in a dark place. But then, you know who's praying this prayer, this is me, the one who every time I get put in that place, I don't do it this time. Would you please give me the courage and the strength to speak Jesus' name and to tell the truth, so that sinners can be saved.”

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the lessons we learned from Peter's denial, it's a very poignant lesson for me personally, and for all of us, Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your grace and in restoring such a sinner to your service. And I pray that you would protect us from temptations, make a way of escape, so we can get out of situations that are too hard for us, but Lord, give us boldness and courage and strength by the Spirit to speak your name without shame and to pray proclaim your gospel without shame in a world that desperately needs it in Jesus name, amen.

As we come to Matthew 26:57-68, we come to a really shocking moment in the history of the world. The gospel, this indisputable fact, is standing in front of us: the eternal God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, sent his Son, his only begotten Son, into the world. He took on a human body, he lived a sinless life, never did anything wrong, never broke any of the laws of God, poured out his life to benefit and bless people whose lives were shattered and broken by sin. He healed people, he loved people, he lived a sinless life. And we, the human race, we arrested him, bound him, tried him, convicted him and condemned him and killed him without a cause. And that's what we're facing here in this account today. I think the greatest sin that has ever happened was the death of Jesus Christ. He's the only sinless man that ever lived, so everything that was done to him was undeserved. He was a perfect man. Sinless, pure, spotless lamb. And yet, we put him on trial. Can you believe that? This is an account of God on trial. How shocking is that?

Now, in the Garden of Eden, as you know, there stood a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis 2:15, I think a good translation of that verse is that God put Adam in the garden to serve it and protect it. The Hebrew word there “protect” implies some danger, some encroaching danger. Something's going to come. We believe that by that time, Satan had already fallen into his rebellion, had already been cast to the Earth, and he was coming to the Garden. Well, why was he coming there? Well, one theologian that I read gave a plausible idea of why it was that God in his providence brought Satan to the tree.

I believe that God brought Satan, the fallen angel, the lead rebel against the law of God, brought him to the tree to be judged by Adam, the judge. It says in 1 Corinthians 6:3, “Do you not know that we will judge angels?” What kind of angels would we judge but wicked angels or fallen angels? So in the wisdom of God, he brought Satan to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that there would be a trial, there would be a court, and Satan would be condemned by man, the judge, because he had fallen to the Earth, and God had put man in charge of the Earth to fill it and subdue it and rule over it. And part of being a king, a ruler, is to be a judge.

But Satan cleverly turned the whole thing around. You know the story in Genesis 3. He initiated an encounter at the tree, not with Adam, but with his wife, with Eve, Adam's helper. He turned the entire trial in its head, and basically at that first temptation, he put God on trial. And Adam, standing quietly by his wife's side, was judging God, judging God's word. “Did God really say... “ Judging God's truthfulness in warning when he heard, “You will not surely die.” Judging God's goodness in holding out apparently some kind of blessing that would have been beneficial to us. “For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God knowing good and evil.” And so there is Adam, our representative, and now he's not judging this wicked creature who's questioning God, instead he's judging God. God is on trial at the tree with man the judge, and so it has been ever since. 

The natural tendency of our rebellious race, we rebellious sons and daughters of Adam, is to put God on trial in our hearts and minds, especially when it comes to the painful issue of human suffering. Elie Wiesel, the Jewish survivor of the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, said that he beheld there three Jewish men hold a trial of God in absentia for what was happening to the Jews in the concentration camp, the Holocaust, the slaughter. As a result of that, he based a 1979 play on that whole encounter called “The Trial of God.” It was set in a Ukrainian village in 1649 after the massacre of some Jewish villagers. In Elie Wiesel's play, three travelling minstrels arrive in the village intending to put on a play, but instead put on a mock trial of God for the massacre that had happened in that village. Elie Wiesel putting God on trial.

C.S. Lewis wrote a book called God in the Dock. The British way of saying “God on trial.” He said that man rather than rightly seeing himself as standing on trial before a Holy God, instead prefers to see God standing on trial before us, accountable to us, for all the hard things that have ever happened in our lives or in this world. He has to give us an account for what's happened in this world. So whenever there's a hurricane or an earthquake or a fire or the tragic death of a child, the shocking surprise of some adverse circumstance leads people again to put God on trial.

But the truth is the exact opposite, isn't it? The truth is the exact opposite. At the end of all things, we will stand on trial before God. God is the Judge of all the earth. And on that day, on Judgment Day, we will give an account for every careless word that we have spoken, and God will judge righteously. As it says in Hebrews 9:27, “Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment.” As it said earlier in Hebrews 4:13, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight, everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.”

What's even more amazing, as we come to our text today, the Bible makes it plain that Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the trinity, will actually be the judge of all humanity. Every single human being will stand before Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. He is the judge of all the earth. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.” Jesus himself said this in John 5:22-23, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father who sent him.” And yet in our text today, we have the judge of all the Earth, Jesus, standing before wicked, sinful men to be judged by them. We have God the Son on trial. And furthermore, it's a wicked, unjust and illegal trial. What else could it be, because he was sinless? One that puts the sinfulness of the human heart on full display.

Now, as we come to the trials of Jesus, there are two major aspects of Jesus' trial. There was a religious trial before the Jewish authorities, and there was a secular trial before secular mostly Roman authorities. Jesus was tried by Jews and by Gentiles. I believe this was part of the sovereign plan of God. Just as Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin, we're told in Romans, Jews and Gentiles alike are held guilty for the death of the Son of God. It bothers me when people out of fear, rightly in many ways, of anti-Semitism saying the Jews were in no way responsible for the death of Jesus. That is false. But it's also false to say that the Jews were solely responsible for the death of Jesus. That's false as well. Gentiles, equally responsible. God shut up both Jews and Gentiles alike in this particular sin, the condemnation of the Son of God. He orchestrated these two trials, God did, so the Jews and Gentiles alike would be guilty for condemning the Son of God.

Now, each of these trials, the trial before the Jewish authorities and the trial before Pilate and Herod, had three phases. So in effect, Jesus had six trials. It's really quite staggering. Six different hearings. In every case, Jesus condemned, found guilty. In the Jewish trial, there was first a preliminary hearing in Annas' house, it's recorded for us only in John's gospel, in John chapter 18. Then second, we have the trial before Caiaphas, the then high priest, and the Sanhedrin recorded in our account here. And then third, the same group reconvened just after daybreak as recorded in Matthew 27:1. Three phases to the Jewish or the religious trial.

And then the secular trial also had three phases. First before Pontius Pilate. Then when he found out that Jesus was a Galilean and that Herod was in town, shipped him off to Herod for a trial. Herod just wanted to see a miracle, nothing doing, so he sent him back to Pilate for phase three, or really phase six at that point of his trial.

And isn't it amazing that there was such a great miscarriage of justice by two people, peoples I guess, who prided themselves on justice, specifically in court trials? The Jewish nation had righteous laws that sought to defend the innocent from false accusations so that justice would be served. The Romans also prided themselves on their court trials and their proceedings.

Jewish justice established in the laws of Moses: judges were selected because they were righteous and upright men who would not take a bribe, for a bribe twists the eyes and ears of the judge and perverts justice. Deuteronomy 16. The Sanhedrin itself was established originally for the purpose of justice. Any community with at least 120 men could form their own counsel, and this council came to be known by the Greek term for sitting together, “sunedrion,” we get it as “Sanhedrin.” They would sit together and try to make sure that justice was done. The goal always was that every accused person got a fair trial. Capital crimes in particular were singled out for special treatment.

In Deuteronomy 17:6, it's plain that no one could ever be put to death on the testimony of just one witness, there had to be two or three witnesses for someone to be put to death. False witnesses in Deuteronomy 19 were punished most severely, because if it was ever uncovered that someone broke the Ten Commandments and testified falsely, bore false witness against his neighbor, then whatever that crime was, it had a punishment, that punishment would be done to the false witness. And if it was a capital crime, the false witness would be executed. And that was the desire to uphold justice and righteousness. Furthermore, if in the end the individual was found guilty, the witnesses had to be the first to stone them, to put the individual to death, so that they stood accountable for their testimony.

Beyond the laws of Moses, rabbinical law and tradition had additional safeguards to be sure that justice was served. For example, the sentence of death could not be carried out until the third day after the trial. The council members were to fast in the intervening day. So once guilty and condemned to death, it had to be on the third day the execution happened, and in the intervening day, they were supposed to fast and pray and be sure that they were doing God's will and that they hadn't missed anything. This also gave additional time for evidence that might be used to exonerate, to set the individual free.

Witnesses, when they testified, had to give the exact time and date and location of the incident or their testimony could not be accepted. There was always the presumption of innocence, they were innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, the defense of the accused was supposed to be handled with great care. If the verdict of death was not overturned, then an officer of the council would escort the prisoner through the city to the place of execution and a herald would go ahead of the slow-moving procession declaring in a loud voice, things like this, “This man so and so” - stating the name of the convicted man - “is led to punishment for such and such a crime. The witnesses who have sworn against him are so and so and so and so. If anyone has evidence in his favor, come forward quickly.” Again, an effort to be sure that they were not condemning an innocent man. At the place of execution, the convicted man was urged to confess his crime, whether he did or not, he would be executed, but before that they would give him a sedative to dull his senses so that the pain wouldn't be extreme.

In addition to these rules, no trial could begin or continue into the night. They wanted the people who were judging to be clear-headed. In the Sanhedrin, when the vote for conviction was taken, it would proceed from the youngest member to the oldest so that the youngest wouldn't be swayed unduly by older members. If the vote was ever unanimous, and this is amazing to me, then the case was thrown out because there was an assumption that it could never be unanimous, and that there had to be some mercy, someone had a heart of mercy, and so clearly there would be a plot afoot to kill somebody. Sound familiar when it comes to Jesus?

In all of these things, they operated under the principle, the Sanhedrin is here to save life, not to destroy it. The goal was not merely justice but, whenever possible, mercy. All of these were thrown out the window when it came to Christ. It was an unjust trial because he was innocent, and it was an illegal trial based on these rules. Jesus was basically condemned before he ever got to trial. I think if you read the gospel accounts, you know that's true. They had already decided to put him to death, all they wanted was a semblance of legality painted over this most heinous act of wickedness ever in the human race. They wanted to appear to be legal and righteous as they were condemning this innocent man.

And so Jesus was illegally tried then before first being charged with a crime, he was tried at night and in private, he had no defense counsel, there were many false witnesses, and none of them was held accountable for their false testimony. He was executed the same day he was tried and convicted, so there was no chance at appeal, no opportunity for the council to fast and pray and seek the will of God. It was hastily thrown together with the barest semblance of justice because there was no justice in it at all. Furthermore, once he was condemned, they treated Jesus with utmost disgrace, spitting in his face and smashing him with rods and mocking him, mocking his prophetic ability. Things that should never have been done in any case. Why? Why this hatred?

Well, in Verses 57 and 59, we begin to get an idea of why. We see the jealousy and the greed of the Jewish enemies of Jesus. Verse 57, it says, “Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.” Verse 59, “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.” I mean, this is not a trial, this is a plot, this is murder is all it is, by means of the court.

So they're trying to kill him. Now, in the pre-trial at Annas', which is again recorded only in John 18, Jesus calls them on it to some degree. If you know what to look for, Jesus calls them on the illegality of his trial. He's not wondering what's gonna be the outcome, but he wants to have it stated for the record how unjust and how illegal this whole thing was. So they brought him to Annas, Annas' house. Why to Annas? Because he's the real high priest, the real power behind the throne. I look on him like The Godfather in one of those mafia stories, a thoroughly evil man. Caiaphas was his son-in-law, a bit of a puppet, not just under the Romans, but under Annas himself.

And it says that the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. That's illegal to be asking the accused these kinds of questions. So Jesus answers this, he said, “I've spoken openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues or at the temple where all the Jews came together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me.” What is Jesus asking them to do? Produce witnesses, right? “It's illegal for you to be asking me directly. Where are your witnesses, Annas?” Well, when he said that, do you remember what happened? One of the officials standing near Jesus struck him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” He demanded. Jesus said the same thing, “If I have said something wrong, then testify to it. But if I've said nothing wrong, then why did you strike me?” It's the same thing, “Where are your witnesses? This is not how we do a court trial.”

So why were the Jews determined to kill Jesus even with such prejudice and wickedness? Well, a lot of reasons. It's strange because of the perfection of Jesus, Jesus, the only perfect man that ever lived perfectly filled with love for God and love for neighbor at every moment, poured out his life in service to sinners, never refused any of them anything they came and asked him for. Even if it was inconvenient, he would come immediately and care for them. The only man that ever perfectly obeyed the law of Moses.

The people gave this summary in Mark 7:37, “He has done everything well.” Think about that. Scripture gives this testimony in 1 Peter 2:22, “He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” Jesus was sinless, so why the hatred?

Pilate, in the next chapter, in Matthew 27:18, says very plainly why. It says, “He knew that it was out of envy” - out of jealousy - “that they had handed Jesus over to him.” So they were jealous of Jesus. It's a deep spiritual principle.

They were jealous of him in the same way that Cain was jealous of his brother Abel. Do you remember? Jesus was perfectly righteous and they were completely wicked, and darkness hates the light and will not come to the light it says in John 3. Proverbs 29:27 says, “The wicked detest the upright.” There was a hatred there. Annas, Caiaphas were completely evil, corrupt individuals. And it says in 1 John 3:12-13, “Do not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” So they hated Jesus because he was light, and they were darkness.

Secondly, they hated Jesus because of his popularity. Jesus was immensely popular with the crowds. As he rode into Jerusalem, almost the whole city was out there to greet him. “Hosanna,” they're shouting. “Hail to the King of the Jews,” they're shouting. And the Jewish leaders were filled with jealousy. Now, we don't have any direct statements other than Pilate's statement about envy or jealousy, but we definitely have it in the book of Acts concerning the apostles. In Acts 13:45, it says, “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.” So they're jealous of Paul when they saw huge crowds. How much more jealous would they be of Jesus?

They were also jealous of his power, thirdly. He had supernatural power, he could do things they couldn't do. Remember when they ascribed his miracles to Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, remember? And Jesus asked them this question, “If I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons drive them out?” It's a very interesting question. Do you think their sons were driving out demons? I don't think so. In other words, “I can do things you apparently can't do.” They knew that very well. Now, they missed the point of the miracles. The point was, this is God's son. Instead, they tried to kill Jesus, the wonder-worker, and even kill Lazarus who was raised from the dead to try to kill the evidence.

But they were jealous of the apostles concerning this same thing in Acts 5. It says, “Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed. And then the high priest and all of his associates who were members of the party, the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy and they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.” They're jealous of Jesus because of his miracles.

But they also had a position to protect. They were corrupt because they were making huge money on the animal sacrificial system. We've talked about this before, I won't belabor it. But every animal that was brought to the temple to be offered as a sacrifice had to be inspected by Annas' guys. I wonder if they figured out in terms of business, what percentage they had to accept through. I think they would like to have failed all 100 percent of the sheep that the pilgrims brought, but they figured that's bad for business. They gotta be clever. So they probably failed like 70 percent of them, and then confiscated those animals and sold them to pilgrims the next day at a slightly elevated price. 

And by the way, you couldn't use your money, whatever money you had out in your outlying districts, you had to use the temple shekel, and there's some money changers over there who will be happy to exchange money for you for a fee. Josephus tells us a quarter of a million lambs were sacrificed at the time of Passover. Do the math. I won't do it, I know you're thankful for that. But huge, huge profits rolling in. Annas and Caiaphas, very much like the Mafia, it was very corrupt, but it was corrupt in the name of religion.

And you know that twice, at least, Jesus drove out those wicked people from the temple. In John chapter 2, he made a whip of cords and drove out the money changers and drove out and overturned the benches of those selling doves and drove out all of the animals, and he was filled with the fiery indignation and zeal. “Take these out of here,” he said. “How dare you turn my Father's house into a marketplace?”

Oh, Jesus made some very powerful enemies there, very powerful enemies. And so they were afraid that the Romans would come with Jesus' leadership here, the Romans would come and take away both their place and their nation, they said. They were afraid of losing their gig, so to speak, afraid of losing all of the money that they were making.

And so even before the trial occurred, they were convinced that Jesus was guilty. So in verse 59, they “were looking for false evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death.”

Now, an aside, verse 58, we'll deal with it more next time, God willing, Peter is following at a distance. See that in verse 58. “Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.” We'll talk about that, God willing, next week. But Peter should have been home, should have escaped. He wasn't ready for what he thought he was ready for. I don't know what his motives were, maybe partly loyalty to Jesus, partly pride for his statements early in the evening, partly curiosity just sitting down there to see the outcome. Never lifted a finger to help Jesus on his trial. But there he was. We'll get into that next week.

Then come the false witnesses. Look at 59-61, “The chief priest and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death, but they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally, two came forward and declared, ‘This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” So again, clearly, they're not looking for truth.

They're orchestrating false witnesses, but they've done a very shabby job. I don't know if there was a false witness school, but these folks were not graduates of it. It just wasn't working well. So they wanted some semblance of justice, but a better semblance than that. It was pathetic. These guys' stories just weren't jiving at all, it just didn't work. The best they got were the ones that were recorded here. “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.’”

Now, basically, this is a charge of blasphemy against Moses and against the temple, this is the very thing that they're going to use later to kill Stephen. So it's a weighty charge, but it's not the real charge. We'll get to what the real charge was in just a moment. It really didn't have to do with this statement. And frankly, they got it wrong. They were false witnesses and they got the statement wrong. Jesus, as far as I can tell, never said, “I am able to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.”

What he did say in John chapter 2 is when they asked him for what authority, what sign he would give for the right to knock over all these benches and drive all the animals out, what sign did he give to show the right of his authority to do these things? Jesus said these words: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” So who's doing the temple-destroying in Jesus' statement? Not him, his enemies. “You destroy, I'll raise up.”

But the temple he had spoken of was his body. Very deep, not gonna get into it, but there's a connection between the physical temple and Jesus' body. And so even his disciples didn't understand it at that time, but afterwards, after he was raised in the dead, they remembered this statement and they remembered the words that he had said, and they understood the statement, “Zeal for your house has almost literally destroyed me.” It was because of his zeal for the house of God that he was consumed, that he was killed.

So the false witnesses were getting them nowhere, so the high priest takes matters boldly into his own hands, and this reaches a whole new depth of illegality here. This is the judge in the trial, stands up, directly addresses the accused - you're not supposed to be condemned out of your own mouth - but directly addresses him basically saying in effect, “These false witnesses are getting us nowhere. Let's see if we can deal with this directly.”

Verse 62, “Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, ‘Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony these men are bringing against you?’” So this is illegal at many levels, it should never have been done, but this is what happened.

Jesus was silent, and we'll talk more about his silence when we get to the trial before Pilate, but this was in direct fulfillment of Scripture. Jesus, it says in Isaiah 53:7, “was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” He kept quiet. He's not saying anything.

Therefore, in verse 63, the high priest gives him this solemn charge, and this is an incredibly important moment in redemptive history right here, verse 63-64. The high priest at this point represents the Jewish nation as a whole. He says, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Now we get to the real issue here. You know what Jesus is being tried for? Blasphemy - not in reference to the temple - blasphemy in reference to the incarnation, that he claimed to be God.

That's what the issue was here. Jesus was making a clear claim to deity in claiming to be the Son of God. In John 5:18, remember how they accused him of working on the Sabbath? And Jesus gives this incredible answer in John 5. He says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working. My father's working and I'm working. We're both working.” As though Jesus had no idea what an incendiary statement that would be. He knew exactly how they would hear that. But it says in John 5:18, “For this reason, they tried even harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath” - according to them - “but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” That's the issue here. That's the issue.

So, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” In our text, it says, “Yes, it is as you say.” Mark has a simpler statement. He just says, “I am.” Do you realize the significance of that? That's the name of the Angel of the Lord in the burning bush. That's God's name, that's Yahweh's name. So he says, “Are you the Son of God?” And he answers, simply, “I am.”

But he doesn't stop there. Remember last week I talked about Jesus' incredible commitment to Scripture? He then reaches in the 39 books of the Old Testament, of all of the prophecies that he could have reached for, all of the prophecies concerning this key issue, in effect, he's saying, “You're clearly struggling with incarnation, let me help you. You're struggling with, how could I be both Son of God and Son of man? How could I be both human and divine? Let me point you to the key text of Scripture in the entire Bible on that issue,” and he reaches for Daniel 7. Daniel 7:13-14. He appeals to it. This is what he says in Matthew, “I say to all of you: In the future, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Again, he's not directly quoting Daniel 7, he's alluding to it, but he's making it a prediction. “In the future, you will see.” Remember, everything Jesus says is true. So they will see him in the future, and they'll see him as God. He will be at the right hand of the Mighty One, he'll be coming on the clouds of heaven, and he will be coming for judgment and for wrath.

What is he alluding to? He's alluding to Daniel 7:13 and 14. There it says, “In my vision at night, I looked and there before me was one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days,” that's God the Father, “and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All peoples, nations, and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed or pass away.” That's what he's alluding to.

It's the clearest text in the Old Testament on the deity and the humanity of the Messiah. Matthew 7:13 and 14. The key thing is that he is called Son of Man, so he's human, and he is worshipped as God in the presence of God. This can only be the incarnation.

Well, as a result of this, the high priest tears his robes and says, “‘He has spoken blasphemy. Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy, what do you think?’ ‘He is worthy of death,’ they answered. Then they spit in his face, and they struck him with their fists. And others slapped him and said, ‘Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?’”

This is a key moment. This is the rejection of the Messiah, the official rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation. John 1:11, “He came to his own, but his own people did not receive him.” Luke 19:44, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, he said, “because you did not recognize the time of God coming to you.” He was condemned by the Jewish nation.

And interestingly, the high priest doesn't wait for a vote, no secret ballot, he calls for a verdict by acclamation. “Hey, everybody, what do you think?” Which is completely unjust and illegal. And they all cry out what they're supposed to cry, “Guilty, worthy of death,” these kinds of things. And then they start to mistreat him.

They spit in his face. That's one of the most denigrating, disgusting, dehumanizing things that could ever be done to a person, to spit in someone's face. In every culture, it's a symbol of overt disrespect, usually it would lead to a fight. And they hit him, and they go beyond that to mock him. They blindfold him, like it's kind of a game of blindfold bluff. “Who hit you? Prophesy to us.”

Guys, remember, he never stopped being God. Jesus, the Son of God, read people's minds. He knew everything about them. Remember the Samaritan woman, who, at the well, and Jesus said, “You've had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” Remember that? She runs into the village and said, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did it.” A bit of an over-statement, but she was quite impressed by Jesus' ability to know her. Remember what he said to Nathaniel, “While you were still under the fig tree, I saw you. That's how I know that you're a true Israelite in whom there's nothing false.”

Blindfolded Jesus could have picked out any one of those people and told them what they were thinking that moment, secrets from their lives, all their skeletons in their closet. Jesus knew everything. “Oh, Lord, you have searched us and you know us. You know when we sit and when we rise. Before a word is on our tongues, you know it all together.” That's who they were blindfolding and spitting on and hitting, the Son of God. And they condemned him to death, and to death he would go.

So what applications can we take from this text? Well, all of scripture is written, everything in scripture is written for one purpose: To make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Jesus went through this trial for sinners like you and me. He was innocent, he was perfect, sinless. We are guilty. And Jesus came to stand in our place, to be tried in our place, to be condemned in our place, to suffer and die in our place. “All we, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. And by oppression and judgment, he was taken away.” He went through that for sinners like you and me.

So the best thing I can ever do is preach the gospel of this Savior, of him who stood in our place and who was condemned in our place as the hymn says, “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood. Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior.” Is that true of you? Do you know by faith in your place condemned, he stood? All you need to do is trust in him, believe what I'm saying is true, that he was God the Son, died on the cross for you, and you will be forgiven.

Secondly, marvel at the wickedness of the human heart. Marvel. This is the low point, I think. This whole trial, the condemnation of Jesus, and his death is the low point of the human race, the wickedness of the human race. And as I've said to you before, so I say again, whenever you find evidence of wickedness in the scripture, see yourself. Look in the mirror of God's perfect law and find out who you are. It's not the righteous that Jesus came to save, it's not the healthy that he came to heal. We're sinful too. And if you say, “I would never do what Annas and Caiaphas did and all that,” just understand that's not the conclusion that scripture wants you to have. What scripture wants you to say is, “We are wicked. We are broken sinners. Thank God there's such a Savior as Jesus.” Behold the wickedness of the human heart.

And be aware of the tendency that we have to put God on trial. Have you ever done that? Have you ever tried God? Have you ever put him on a stand and cross-examined him? Have you ever said, “God, what are you doing to me?” Scripture says no one can say to him, “What are you doing?” But we do it a lot. When you go through a trial, don't put God on the stand. Remember that he's the King, he is God. Submit to what he's doing in your life. Humble yourself under God's mighty hand. Don't fight his disciplines, don't fight his judgments, humble yourself under his judgments, and say that he is righteous all together.

And understand non-Christians are putting God on trial all the time, we're called to be witnesses at the trial. Does that sound good? “You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses.” So testify to the goodness of Jesus. Testify to the power and the love of Jesus to his death, his resurrection. Be witnesses at Jesus' trial. Amen. None of his disciples were there at that time, but now by the Spirit, we can do that, we can be witnesses at the trial of Jesus.

And if I can say this to you in terms of imitation, bear injustice more patiently than you do. You know what I'm talking about? Have you ever said out loud or at least in your heart, “That's not fair”? You started saying it when you were a child and one of your siblings got something you didn't get, and oh, the injustice of it. And it's grown inside your heart so that more and more you see things that are done that are unfair, people who have disrespected you, people who have treated you falsely or wrongly. And frankly, the more you get involved in evangelism and missions, the more this is gonna happen to you. People will hate you without a cause. 

The more you stand up for righteousness in our increasingly wicked culture, the more people are gonna pound on you and treat you unjustly. 1 Peter 2 covers that. When we are pounded unjustly, we are to imitate Jesus who handled himself so beautifully in this trial. It says again in 1 Peter 2, “He committed no sin, there was no deceit in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats.” So that's how we're supposed to bear patiently injustice. People being unfair to us. And again, it's not just the big ones, it's when someone cuts you off in traffic, when you're standing in line, and then people circumvent you at the food line, and something rises up in your heart about the injustice of it. Now, you've got good manners not to say anything about it, but it's in there, isn't it? You know what I'm talking about. Go to Jesus' trial and say, “He was silent, he was humble, and he had never done anything wrong. How much should I bear patiently anything that happens to me?”

And then finally, understand the Daniel Son of Man prophecy. It is, along with Isaiah 53, the two most significant prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament, in my opinion. Isaiah 53 clearly explained substitutionary atonement, you heard me quote it earlier, but this one clearly explains the incarnation and the worship that Jesus is going to get from people from every tribe and language and people and nation. And that's awesome. Daniel 7 says, in the future, the entire human race is going to see Jesus coming back on the clouds of heaven. And it says in Revelation 1:7, “Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him.” You know why? Because it'll be too late then. Now we have to see him with eyes of faith. Jesus is coming back. He's coming back. It's the next thing. He said, “Behold, I am coming soon.” Let us be faithful until he returns.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the account of Jesus' trial. We thank you for how he was willing to bear patiently the false accusations of wicked people so that he could affect our atonement by his death. It was unjust, it was illegal, it was wicked, and Jesus bore it patiently to set us an example that we should follow in his steps and also to atone for us that we might worship him forever and ever. We thank you for Jesus. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.