Address—Marc Debu
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Let's look to the Lord.
A godfather we.
Would ask for thy help now as we seek to open thy word and meditate a little bit about on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we thank the Lord that we have that opportunity to think on thee. We think of how we were able to remember thee and thy death.
And we just prayed out what is being said this afternoon would draw us closer to the.
Would maybe help us to enter.
And a little bit more in in what it was that thou didst go through for us. Lord Jesus, we just thank Thee and we pray for thy help and thy worthy name. Amen.
And we sing this hymn quite often that the remembrance of the Lord, the breaking of bread. There's a couple of things in this hymn that it starts out by singing on that same night, saying on that same night, Lord Jesus, when all around the joint to cast its darkest shadow across thy holy mind. And I want to talk about that a little bit about the darkness.
Of that night in which the Lord Jesus was betrayed, in which he suffered at the hands of man.
And then in the fourth verse it says in thee by grace accepted the hard and mindset, free to think of all thy sorrow, and thus remember thee.
You know, when we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, it was mentioned yesterday, we have the Holy Spirit that indwells us. And I think because of that we can look back on that night and have a right perspective of the wickedness of man and what they did, and also of the beauty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ who submitted to the will of God.
And went through that suffering.
For us. And so that's that's what I had in mind is to in the Gospels, maybe try to go through a little bit of a chronology of what happened from when the Lord Jesus was betrayed till the time that he was hung on the cross, but before that.
You know, we can think of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's divided up in different parts. The majority of his life down here, the 1St 30 years.
We really have very little information about that, but we know this, that he was about his father's business when he was 12 years old and he was in the temple, he said to Mary wished he not that I must be about my father's business. And so that's what we know about those 30 years that he spent them independence upon the father. He was about his father's business.
And maybe would like to this kind as an aside, but as an encouragement, especially to the young people.
It's interesting to think that the majority of the Lord's life, maybe between 85 to 90% of the Lord's life, he wasn't a public figure. He wasn't occupied in doing miracles and healings and giving sermons. He led a very, if you might say so, normal life, even though there was nothing normal about it, because he was perfect. He was the Son of God.
And yet, if you would have looked at him from day-to-day, he didn't do anything spectacular.
And I think for all most of us, that's really what the Lord wants from us. He doesn't want great things. He's not looking for anything spectacular, but he wants us to live our lives, independence upon him being about our Father's business too. That's what the Lord Jesus spent the majority of his life down here doing. He was occupied with his Father's business, but it didn't look spectacular. And we can follow him in that.
And then of course, we have the three years of his public ministry, and that's what most of the Gospels are occupied with.
But then there's the very end of his life down here on earth. That will be his suffering and his death.
And I think if you look at it in proportion, that's actually what we read the most about proportionally. We read the most about his three years of public ministry, but that occupied three, 3 1/2 years. But then those last, let's say, 24 hours before the Lord Jesus lay down his life. We actually got quite a bit of that written about in the Gospels.
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And so that's what I want to take up. But before we start with that.
Let's turn to Matthew's Gospel.
Chapter 26.
Matthew's Gospel chapter 26 and read from verse 6.
This was about six days before the Passover, it tells us in John's Gospel. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the House of Simon the leper, they came to him, a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his.
On his head as he sat at me. But when his disciple saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble you the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you.
But me have not always. For that She hath poured this ointment on my body. She did it for my burial.
Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached, and the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial offer.
Why do I read this?
I read this because I think it shows us that the Lord truly appreciates when we have communion with his suffering. Now this was Mary who did this and she was the one who had sat at the Lord Jesus feet. Maybe she was the one who of all people living at that time.
Entered the most into what was about to happen to the Lord. You know we read about the disciples and they really didn't have a clue even though the Lord many times.
Told them about the suffering he was going to go through. But here was one who had sat at his feet, taken in his words. No doubt she was a woman who meditated upon the things she heard and let them really sing down into her soul. And she knew that something was about to happen.
And in doing what she did, she showed that however far she could enter into what was going to happen.
And she did so, and the Lord truly appreciated that. And so it's nice that we know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, but I do think he really appreciates it if we enter a little bit into what he went through.
At the hands of man we'll touch upon, hopefully at the end, a little bit about the three hours of darkness. And we know that that's when the Lord Jesus.
Paid the penalty.
Took upon him the judgment of our sins.
But we're very limited in how far we can enter into that. That was something between him and a holy God. But when it comes to what man did to him and how the Lord reacted to that or not reacted to that, I think those are things that if we're occupied with them, it will really enrich our appreciation of what the Lord Jesus was willing to do for us. And then one more thing in Luke's gospel to.
Kind of bears out the same thing.
Luke 22.
And this was now six days later at the Passover.
And justice Verse Verse 15 He said unto them with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
So here was the Lord with his disciples.
And the strong, strong language that he used with desire I have desired.
And he was about to be betrayed. He was about to go through this awful night that we'll read about. And yet his great desire was to have his disciples around him. The Lord's great desire is that we should be right around him, that we should be close to him and be occupied with himself. What's so beautiful to us? We know that it was right after that that we have the upper room ministry that we read of in John's Gospel.
And what's really?
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Canada central theme of that Upper Room ministry, It's the Holy Spirit, is it not that he would send a comforter. And what is the main purpose of the comforter? It's to occupy us with Christ. And so this afternoon when you are here and you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, having the Holy Spirit indwelling you, we can enter into things that this world has no clue about.
This world has no clue about and so it's, I think it's a, it's a real privilege.
In a way that's respectful to be occupied with what the Lord Jesus did and his sufferings. And so let's start in Marks Gospel chapter 14.
And many of these things that we'll look at you can find in several gospels.
All the, all four of the gospels have accounts about the Lord's suffering at the hands of man. And so many of the instances you can look at in two or three gospels, and it's good to do so because they have little different details. But obviously we can't, we don't have time to do all that. And so I'll be kind of picking here and there a little bit, but Mark's Gospel chapter 14 and verse.
34.
And the Lord said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death, Carry ye here and watch. And he went forward a little bit, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
And he said, ABBA, father, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou will.
And so here you might say, he's not quite yet suffering at the hands of man.
But in this whole process of him going to the Garden of Gethsemane, being betrayed, and then, you know, the trial, we might say that comes after that. I think this is the one place where we see that there's a struggle in the soul of the Lord.
And it says he anticipates.
What was about to happen?
He anticipates.
What he would have to endure that a holy God would have to turn away from him.
When he, the Holy One, who was without sin.
Become the Sin Bearer.
This is the place where we see this struggle in the soul.
The Lord Jesus was God.
As God, he's all powerful. That what he was about to do. There was nothing easy about it.
There was nothing easy about it.
Know that the epistles tell us that he did know sin. Maybe we can enter into that a little bit.
But it says to that in Him was no sin, and that's something that we really don't know anything about.
Because we are sinners. We don't just sin, We are sinners. It's what we are. It's our character.
And here was one.
Was without sin.
And it's true that in the 33 years now that he had lived in this world, he had been surrounded by sin.
But unlike us, he had not become accustomed to sin.
Sin was still as awful to him.
33 years into his life on this earth, as it was the very day he came into this world.
And so for him to think.
That in a few hours.
All this sin.
Of man from Adam.
All the way to those that will still come after us if the Lord leaves us here.
They would be poured upon him.
And so we see that here it says that his soul.
Is exceeding sorrowful unto death.
Then he goes further and he falls on the ground and he prays.
And what does he pray, if it were possible that the hour might pass from him? And then he says, All things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me.
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That's a that's an incredible thing to think about, that he's praying.
To know mighty God. And yesterday we read the account of the creation.
And there's.
There's 3 words in that account in Genesis 1.
Well, the whole chapters as amazing as Josh was saying, but there's three words that show the limit.
The limitlessness of God's power.
It says the stars also. The stars also.
Man doesn't even have a clue yet about how many there are.
We're up to billions upon billions upon billions, and in the account of creation against 3 words, the stars also. And so the Lord Jesus says here.
That the Lord, all things are possible unto thee. Take this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but dying me, then God can do anything. But He couldn't do this, He could not do this. If there ever was going to be any blessing for man, for fallen man, that cup had to be drunk, and there was only one man that could do it, and that was the perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we see the struggle here in his soul, because his his holy soul recoiled, shrank back.
From being made to sin, offering. And yet he knew there was number other way. There was number other way. If God's love, his heart of love, could ever go forth to man, this had to be done. And so he says, not my will, but I can be done.
And what's so beautiful is from this moment on.
No matter what man does. And they did their worst.
We see perfect peace in the path of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had submitted to the will of the Father and there's no more struggle. There's no more struggle and you can see that a few verses down he says in verse 42, he says rise up, let us go for lo, he that betrayeth me as I had.
Now, if we have to do something that we don't like to do, we like to drag our feet, we like to postpone things. We like to try to see if we can get out of it. They hear the matter was settled. The matter was settled. This was the Father's will, and he was going to do it. So he says, let's do it. Let's rise up and let's go. Let's turn now to John's gospel.
Chapter 18.
John's Gospel chapter 18 and verse one, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the books he drawn where was a garden into which he entered and his disciples. This is the garden of Gethsemane. We just read about that. That's where he prayed and Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place where Jesus OFT times resorted thitter with his disciples.
Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns, and tortures and weapons.
Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto him, Whom seek ye?
They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto him, I am he.
And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.
As soon then, as he had said unto them, I am He, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then asked He then again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am He. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way.
You know the Lord went to a place where he knew he would be found. Judas knew of that place.
Because they had been there many times.
But what does this little account tell us? What tells us different things? First of all, I think we see the total depravity of the matter that the heart of man. Here's Judas.
Judas was number stranger to the Lord.
Judas had spent over three years.
Pretty much 24 hours a day with the Lord. And we know there was times that the Lord went up into the mountain alone to pray. There were times that he sent out the disciples.
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But for the most part of those over three years, Judas had witnessed everything the Lord had said, everything the Lord had done.
Perfection in every possible way.
And yet for Walt, for 30 pieces of silver.
He was willing to betray.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Now did Judas have any different fallen nature than we did? No.
No, but he had allowed himself to be hardened towards the entreaties of the Lord. I have no doubt that in those three years the Lord.
Towards some special attention into Judas.
Because not willing that any should perish apply to Judas too.
And yet he had not responded.
His heart had hardened overtime. Now it Will stood a point that Satan himself had entered into him. He had allowed this. He's responsible.
What else does it show us?
It shows us the foolishness of men, I think.
They had brought weapons.
To overpower the Lord Jesus Christ.
Foolish. How foolish. There have been many times, or several times at least.
In the Lord's life that they had tried to apprehend them and they couldn't do anything. Maybe they thought here at night we'll send quite a bit of people. It says a great multitude. At some point it speaks of a captain and the word used there is the word that is used later on in Acts for one who is over 1000 men. So it was probably quite, quite the group of people that came.
But it shows us that man has no clue about how the Lord Jesus who the Lord Jesus Christ really is.
It did not matter, he said. I am I am. I am He. And they all fell backward. It's the smallest glimpse of his glory, of who this person was, and man could not stand before that.
And there's.
Today man is still at enmity with God. He still thinks that he can do something against God. And we we know from prophecy that man will take up weapons again against the Lord. But what foolishness? What foolishness?
But there's something very beautiful too. In the last verse that I read, the Lord says, I have told you that I am He. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way. He's talking about his disciples.
I think it gives us a little picture of the work that he's about to do. He was going to go.
To do what he had to do so that they could be set free.
The Lord Jesus endured all of this in the 1St place to please the Father.
What man had done in his rebellion and in sinning against God.
That had to be.
Propitiated God's righteous claims had to be vindicated, and that's what the Lord Jesus did in the first place.
But two, very much so. He went there so that we might be set free from the ******* of sin and from the enemy. He allowed himself to be bound. We read that a little bit later that verse 12. Then the band and the captain and the officers of the Jews took Jesus and bound. He allowed himself to be bound that we might be set free.
Just think of that too. How these wicked men.
Bound the Lord Jesus, and here were hands that never done anything wrong.
Nothing but good. He had touched people that were sick and healed them.
And touched little children, and he blessed them.
And now those hands were blocked.
As if man says we don't want you, we don't want you to do anymore good.
This is the time 2 and I won't turn to it, but where it says it's in Matthew's Gospel, this is the time where it says that the disciple forsook him and fled.
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The work that had to be done was something he had to do alone. Man could not go with him.
What a savior we have.
Let's read then verse 13. And they led him away to Anna's first, for he was the father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. And I think there's about six, I don't know if you want to call them stations, but different steps in the in the path of the Lord's trial, you might say, before he's actually delivered to the people.
To be crucified and this would be the first one they took him from the Garden of Gethsemane, which if you look at a map.
Would have been on the east side of Jerusalem. They probably took him through the city to to this man's place and then later to KFS place. And that's kind of where the trial starts developing.
But as we go through this, I want you to to keep in mind too that pretty much all of this was done during the night.
Was done during the night. It was darkness and man lost darkness rather than light.
They were at ease, you might say, during that time.
And so he's brought first here before this man, and it doesn't seem like much happened here, but it's interesting to me that.
The first place where the Lord Jesus is brought is to those who were the most responsible.
The High Priest should have been was instituted to be the link between the people and God. The High priests were the ones that brought the offerings from the people unto God and now instead of doing that, they are bent on destroying the Son of God.
What blindness, how far these people had gone away from what God had in mind with them.
But let's look to the next one. We'll turn now to Matthew Chapter 26.
And this is where the trial really starts, you might say.
57 Matthew 26 and 57.
He Matthew doesn't mention him going to Anna's first, but it says they had laid hold on him on Jesus, led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
They were already assembled. They were ready for this. They had wanted this for a long time. Now we read a little before that and the parable that the Lord Jesus spoke to the people. We will not have this man reign over us.
So they were ready for this. They had been scheming. They were assembled.
There verse 59 Now the chief priests and elders, and all the council sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death, but found none. Yet though many false witnesses came, yet they found none. At the last came to false witnesses, and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose and said unto him.
Answer us now nothing. Which? What is it? Which these witnesses?
Witness against thee, but Jesus held us peace.
I want you to imagine this scene.
What if you would imagine a courtroom?
Where you might say everything is predetermined, it's all one sided, the judge, the jury.
The lawyers, their own playing together, you might say they're all on one side. And then you have the accused, and the accused has nobody to defend themselves, and he doesn't defend himself either.
And what the amazing thing is, they're not able to condemn it.
What a phrase. They sought false witnesses. Every trace of justice was was gone from this. It was just men completely apart from God. These were the high priests that they show their true character. They saw false witnesses and they find some false witnesses.
And even though they were determined to condemn him to death, it was not enough to condemn him.
That's the perfection of the person that stood before him.
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And it just says Jesus held this peace. And as we go through this, you'll see too that the amount of people.
Wanting the death of the Lord Jesus seems to multiply.
And the hatred, the frenzy seems to multiply too. And yet, amidst all of this, there's perfect calm on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ. He not only held His peace, but He was at peace. Why? Because He had committed everything into the hands of the Father. He was here to do His will and what man could do to Him.
That's not what he was occupied with.
But then then the high priest says in verse 65, The high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God.
That thou tell us whether thou be to Christ the Son of God. Jesus said unto him, Thou hast said, Nevertheless I say unto you Hereafter, shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven? Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. What further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now we have heard his blasphemy. What think he? They answered, and said, He is guilty.
Death.
They do condemn it, but on what basis? It wasn't on the basis that he had done anything wrong.
But it was on the basis of the truth as to his own person.
The priest adjourned him and he has to answer. That was part of the law.
What is the answer?
He just confirms the truth that he is the Son of God.
But it's interesting when he answers, that he says too hereafter shall he see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power.
It's as if before they can pronounce their condemnation.
They receive their judgment because the Son of Man is the title, the name he takes when he will come back to judge this world. All judgment is committed unto the Son of Man says, yes, I am the Son of God, that you will see me as the Son of Man in judgment and in power.
It's an amazing scene. Here was the Lord, and to human eyes it was all lost. It was all over. They held all the power. And yet he tells him, I'm going to come back in power and judgment will come.
And a time of testimony was over. And so these men, these responsible ones, who were now mocking him, and so on, they would get to know Him, they would see Him again as the Son of Man. And then these last two verses, 67 and 68 Then they did spit him in his face, and buffet at him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophecy unto us, thou, Christ, who is it?
That's Smoothie.
You know these are not easy verses to read.
We who love the Lord do not like to read of Him being treated like that, but maybe there's something in it too that makes it a little hard.
And that is that sometimes we need to be reminded, and we were last night, but we need to be reminded of how bad we really were.
Who was this that did this? Later on we'll read about the Roman soldiers doing this. We can see that a little bit better. But if you go back, who was here? It was the scribes and the elders and the high priests. They were the ones who were doing this to the Lord at this moment.
They were the ones that on a normal day you would see walking down the street in their solemn clothes and solemn face. Be all respectful. Be here to masks fall off.
These men who would have been the religious top of society, people looked up to him.
They are beating a man who's not even defending himself.
The wickedness of man's heart.
Let's turn to.
Luke chapter 22 again.
Verse 66.
It says And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together and led him into their counsel.
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I believe that there's really two meetings of the Sanhedrin, the council, the one we just looked at, and that was in the middle of the night right after he was captured here. Now it speaks of another meeting.
First thing in the morning.
And, you know, and I think it's a Mark Mark's gossip. It's it's straightway in the morning. As soon as it was day, they held another meeting. I think the purpose of this meeting was they had already come to their conclusion and their eyes, the Lord was guilty of death.
But they knew that they really couldn't do anything about it because they were not allowed to put a man to death being under Roman rule.
And they knew, too, that what they had done and decided during that night would not stand before the Roman rule. And I think they convened together here again first thing in the morning.
To give it a look of being official, we've tried this man properly and that's the conclusion we came to. So I think there's two meetings of the Sanhedrin. This would be the second one. And it's interesting in this one in verse 67, it says, Art thou the Christ tell us? And he said unto them, If I tell you, you will not believe. And if I also ask you, you will not answer me nor let me go.
Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God.
And the Lord is really saying is.
The time of me testifying to who I am is all over. He had done that for 3 1/2 years perfectly.
And his words and his deeds, there was power backing up the things that he said. The Lord had given a complete full testimony of who he was. And he says, whatever I say now you're not going to listen anymore. But then they say, then said, They all are now. Then the Son of God. And he said unto them, Ye say that I am.
It's interesting that they don't go through the whole process anymore of trying to find witnesses against him. They knew that wasn't going to work. They went through that. And so they go straight to the point. Are you the Son of God? He cannot deny himself. And so he answers in the affirmative. And I think when we look at this whole portion, you know, there's, there's certain things that are really striking.
That the intense hatred of of man against the Lord Jesus.
The calm, the peace of the Lord. But I think what's striking too is that God is silent. God is silent. You know, in during the Lord's ministry, the heavens had opened and God had spoken.
At his baptism Mount of Transfiguration. But here while all this was happening was one man was doing the worst to his well beloved Son. God is silent, but God is still at work and He would not allow.
The Lord to be condemned for anything he didn't do. And so the Lord, a God, works it out in a way that he.
When man would look back at this and say what was he condemned for? It was as to the truth of who he was. And we see too that over and over again, God makes sure that there's witness that this man was innocent. It's amazing how many times we have that.
Judas, the one who betrayed him, he says. I've betrayed innocent blood.
There's Pilot, I think three times, he says. I find no fault in this man.
In a way, the high priest, even though they didn't say it, by the fact that even with false witnesses they couldn't condemn him, they have to admit this man is innocent.
There was Pilot's wife to have nothing to do with this unjust man.
Herod sends him back. He couldn't find anything.
It was the thief on the cross says this man has done nothing in this.
And then in a way to indirectly even the centurion by the cross said truly this was the Son of God, over and over again, the Reed of the innocence.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet what does it say in verse 71? And they said, what need we any further witness for we ourselves have heard out of his own mouth.
And.
John 18, verse 28.
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Then let day Jesus from cafes unto the whole of judgment. And it was early. And they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover Pilot then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring you against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Now they did actually give an accusation, and I'll.
Read it. It's given in Luke's Gospel.
Chapter 23.
Verse two, it says they began to accuse him, saying we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself as Christ the King and that was complete, something completely different than what they had condemned them for. They had condemned them because he made himself the Son of God. When they come to Pilate, the accusation is completely different. It's catered so that the Roman governor.
Would not be too happy with this person. They didn't say he's he said he's the son of God. They knew that wasn't going to go anywhere even though later on that comes up. But what's interesting here is and what I've just read is again, it says it was early. And you see throughout this whole proceeding that there was haste, there was hurry. Man was motivated to do what he did.
Feet that are swift to shed innocent blood.
What we see too, is that.
What hypocrisy. They didn't want to enter the judgment hall before because it was the Passover and they were afraid of being the file.
And here, the one who is the true Passover, they were delivering to the civil authorities to be crucified.
What hypocrisy in man's heart and man's dealings.
Verse 31 Then set Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered unto him, Says thou this of thyself? Or did others tell it thee of me?
Pilate answered, Am IA Jew an own nation? And the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done?
You know, we have to try to imagine this scene. What's going on here?
He was the judgment hall, and I'm assuming it was a pretty large room, a large building.
That may be except for a few guards or soldiers. It would have been the Lord Jesus and Pilate alone in there. The Jews stayed outside, not wanting to be defiled, and you see Pilot going back and forth between the Lord Jesus and the man outside.
And we know Pilot is totally responsible.
But he dealt with a situation that he had never dealt with before. He dealt with a person unlike any other person he had ever had. In his judgment home, there's great accusations. And here's this man, he's not even trying to defend himself. And he asks him, are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus says, you say this of yourself, or did they tell you?
And he says am IA Jew pilot must have been complete perplexed.
Hated the Roman authority.
And yet their hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ trumped their national pride. It's amazing. It's amazing. Pilots like, I don't understand this. These people who don't want us to do anything, who want us out, have delivered you, being a Jew to me to be condemned. You must have done something really bad.
Jesus answered. My Kingdom is not of this world.
Then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from hands? What words?
What words think? The pilot must have been stunned. But I think in this verse too we have the real secret to the Jews hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ. His Kingdom was not of this world.
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If he had come as the king of the Jews in the way that they wanted and expected it, that would not have been this problem.
They were looking for the Messiah, were looking for him.
That they had forgotten the whole question of sin.
They wanted to be restored to the times of David and Solomon to be the number one nation. Their vision just had to do with this earth.
When the Lord spoke of things that they didn't like, they didn't want him.
The Lord had to deal with the questions. The Lord had to deal with the question of sin.
So Pilate says, Art thou a king then?
I'm not sure about this, He might have said this half marking, but it seems to be that for a moment the Lord caught his attention.
And how could it have been otherwise?
Here was a man standing before him.
With moral dignity. The way he behaved, as I said, was unlike anybody he'd ever seen.
And at this time to the Lord no doubt already border traces of the beating he had received. And yet the way he talks, the way he acts, it would have made man stop and think, Who is this man? Are you? Are you a king? Jesus answered, Thou says that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Pilate said unto him, What is truth?
And then he went out again.
What is truth? And he went out again.
I'm to the point that I almost need glasses. How much time do you have left? Is about 10 minutes. All right. Thank you.
Let the next.
The next stage you might say we only read of in Luke's gospel, Luke chapter 20.
Three.
I think this ties right in with what we just had. He went back out after he said what is true.
Maybe he'll listen for a second, but it just shows us again the way he walks outside. That man in his natural state is incapable of entering into who the Lord Jesus Christ is.
And there was everything there to arrest Pilate in his path, where you might say, and yet he could not enter into it. This person was different, but it was too much, you might say, for him. And so he walks away and when he comes outside.
Let's see here first.
Four, let's start 23 verse four then sent Pilate to the chief priests and to the people. I find no fault in this man.
And they were the more fierce, saying, He stirred up the people, reaching throughout all teaching to our old Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged unto Herods jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself was at Jerusalem at that time. No, Herod was in charge. This is Herod Antipas, He was in charge of the area of Galilee.
And he was the one who had been responsible for the death of John the Baptist.
And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous to see him for a long season, because he had heard many things of him, and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him.
You know, we've already had the religious world and their guilt and pilot, we might say we see the political world and their guilt. And here's a man, Herod. And Herod was a man that lived for sin and for pleasure.
You know what? What striking words Herod was exceeding. Glad to see Jesus.
He was a man who had no idea of the seriousness of the situation.
And men that live for pleasure and for sin, they have no idea of the seriousness of their condition.
Now what we're reading about this is the center of two eternities. This was not just a crisis, you might say, in the life of the Lord Jesus. This is a crisis of all humanity.
You know, everything before that led up to this moment, the Lord going to the cross and everything after it looks back. Nothing has ever been the same. And this man was exceeding glad, hoping to see a miracle. And there's so many people like that in this world today.
00:50:06
You might say he will pretty much be on human feeling.
He wanted to be entertained by this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was suffering, who was about to go to the cross. Then he questioned him with many questions, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests undescribed student vehemently accused him. Inherit witness, man of war sentiment gnawed and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him again to Pilate.
Now I don't know exactly what it means when it says they sediment not the heritage is man. It could not have been good.
Could not have been good. And they mocked him, put that robe, gorgeous robe about him.
As if to make him something in this world, and the Lord Jesus had not sought for anything in this world.
There were times that they wanted to make him king and he walked away. He was here to do the Father's will.
Not to seek anything for himself.
And so he sent back to Pilate. And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people, he said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverted the people. And behold, I have examined him before you, and have found no fault in this man touching those things were off. You accuse him no nor yet, Herod, for I sent you to him. And lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.
What we see to here with Pilot is.
He did not want to deal with this question.
He realized that this was maybe greater than he was, and he seeks every opportunity to not be the responsible party. He sends them to Herod.
He comes up now with this thing of the two prisoners, Barabbas.
Or the Lord Jesus. By this time it wasn't just the chief priests and the elders anymore, but a multitude had gathered.
You know, forsake of time, I'll have to just maybe.
Summarize things a little bit.
But the multitude that I gathered.
No doubt many of them had seen many of the miracles that the Lord had done.
Maybe some of them had known people, friends, relatives that had been healed at some point by the Lord.
No doubt quite a few of them some days earlier were in that procession when they when the Lord entered into Jerusalem and they hailed him as he came in.
And here they have the choice.
A murderer or the Lord Jesus Christ?
And that multitude Christ, crucify him, crucify him.
Then Pilot chastises him.
He scourges him, and tells us in the Psalms that the plowers ploughed his back.
They made long their pearls. Many people died.
And they were subjected to that scourging.
The Lord bore it all.
Than the soldiers, They mocked him, they beat him.
But let's go now to John's Gospel chapter 19.
This is after the soldiers had mocked him and put the robe on him, the crown spit upon him, smote him.
Verse 4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you. Now you may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said unto them, Behold the man.
What did the people see?
I think this is the time that we can think of that verse in Isaiah 52 where it says that his visage was so marred.
More than the sons of man.
It is, as it were, the last presentation of the Lord to the people.
This is what man had done to him.
Behold the man.
Lord says in Psalm 69 look for comforters and I found them.
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You would think that when he stood there.
And there would have been some.
That it would have.
For some sympathy in their people, they remembered him doing nothing but good.
And I was so beaten up he was probably hardly recognizable. And yet there were no comforters.
But as we think of that, maybe I'll end on this. Sorry I didn't time it well, but.
I remember in high school I read a story, an article we had to read, and during that time there was a genocide going on in the country of Rwanda.
In in Africa, there's two groups of people and they were killing each other. There was an interview with a man.
Who had either been delivered in a prisoner swap or something or escape, I don't remember that his body was full of scars. He had been so badly treated. In the interview, he he said this, he says what hurts the most is the scars you don't see. It's what's inside.
And here we see the Lord Jesus behold demand.
As I said, probably not just.
Not a pretty sight. And the Lord felt it. He felt everything. He felt when he was spit upon, He felt when he was beaten, Scourge, all those things.
Well, what did he feel? Even more keenly? It was the rejection of the people that he had come to bless.
He, the Creator, came into his creation, was among them, doing nothing but good, and this is how he ended up.
The Lord felt it all. He felt it very, very much. And yet the whole time we do not hear one word trying to defend themselves. We do not hear one word trying to lessen any of what came upon it.
And this is not the end. We know there's more that came talk more to Pilate. His path to the cross would have been one of of being mocked and cheered by the people. We know that in the first three hours when he hung up on the cross, all that came by, they mocked him.
If you filed him, there was the thieves on the cross that mocked him.
And yet we see perfection throughout perfection throughout the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a savior and so.
You know, I hope it was somewhat orderly, and I think it's very profitable for us to be occupied with what the Lord Jesus endured for our sake. And we didn't have time, but we know it wasn't the three hours of darkness that He paid for our sins. If it had stopped where we read, there still would not have been a way of salvation. He had to suffer at the hands of a holy, righteous God.
The Scripture gives us all these details about what the Lord Jesus went through, and it should mean something to us. It should mean something to us. He loved us so much that he was willing to undergo all that, and to it gives us that stark, stark contrast.
Of the darkness, the wickedness of man's heart. And that's what we all are. A word. We were no better.
And then yet the absolute perfection delight in that darkness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's thank him.
Our godfather, we.
We just thank you for the Lord Jesus and we acknowledge that many of these passages that we read.
Are hard for us to.
To think about, to be occupied with. And yet they're part of thy revealed word to us.
And they just show and prove over and again.
The perfect the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His submission to thy will.
And we see two men's awful wickedness.
We just prayed to this not being a gospel meeting, but that there would be nobody in this room who would think that there's any good in man.
The passages that we read show that there is no good in man.
And yet the Lord, knowing all this, knowing all that was going to befall him, he went step by step to the cross, enduring these things.
01:00:03
Remaining that light that shines in the darkness.
And doing the work on the cross so that those men.
That did all this might be blessed. We just marvel at that, Lord Jesus, but we thank you for it. We thank Thee for what thou hast done. In thy worthy name we pray. Amen.
Yeah.