Book of Luke - Ch. 23, Vs. 25-38 (12/20/2020)

It's nice to see bodies in the house. Always better people than empty pews.

And it is quite a blessing to have you all here. We're going to, this morning, look at the latter part of chapter 23 of Luke.

We will not get through with it today because we're going to go on a couple of side ventures, but we will get there eventually.

To begin with, Luke 23 verse 25 is where we left off last week.

And he released unto them that him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired, but he delivered

Jesus to their will. So what he's saying there is, Pilate released

Barabbas and turned Jesus over to the

Jews to be tried and to be crucified. So in effect, what happened is

Jesus is going to die in the place of Barabbas. Now, of course,

Jesus also dies in our place. And that's the message of this whole story.

Let's take a moment and pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us together that we might meet and study your holy word.

Thank you for providing the Holy Spirit to translate for us and to let us know, each and every one of us, what you have for us this morning.

And we know that we all can have different things. We can learn different lessons out of the same passage.

Bless us and keep us. Go through the services today. Thank you especially for your Son and thank you for all the things that you've done for us.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So before we go back to Luke and his account of the crucifixion,

I'm going to go to 1 Corinthians and read something Paul wrote.

1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1.

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which

I have preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what

I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. Now what I've done here is

I've gone through and highlighted or boldfaced some passages. I'm going to come back and read those in a minute without all the other to present the issue that I want to deal with.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which

I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, and he was buried, and he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.

Now I want you to notice some of the things that, oh let me reread that. I said I was going to and I didn't.

Just the highlighted parts. I declare unto you the gospel, by which also you are saved, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried, and he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.

Now why don't you do is notice some things that Paul did not mention as he described the gospel.

He didn't mention any of Jesus's miracles. Why did

Jesus perform his miracles? Anybody know? To show that he could?

To convince the masses. To convince the masses or at least to show the masses that he was the

Messiah. These were the signs that the Jews demanded. You don't remember the passage says the

Jews need a sign and the Gentiles need wisdom. Well the miracles, that was all about the doing things so that the

Jews would recognize him as the Messiah. Well what else did he didn't mention?

He didn't mention any of Jesus's teaching. Who do you think that was designed or laid out for?

For the Gentiles. For the Greeks who demanded wisdom. They had to have things that they could understand.

He had to put things out to them and say this is the way it is and Paul tried that in one of his sermons.

The sermon at Mars Hill and he laid out the most beautiful sermon that he had ever done and as any of you heard of the church of Athens?

You know why? Mars Hill was in Athens. He had his best service.

Paul had his best service in a city where he did not was not able to develop a church because he appealed to the reason.

He didn't appeal to the Holy Spirit. That wasn't the place for the church.

But in any case the teaching was about the Greeks. He also didn't mention

Jesus as a model of how we should try to live. Doesn't Jesus play the role of a model that we should endeavor to try to live like Jesus lives?

As much as possible and who would do well to live as much like Jesus as possible?

Just the Christians or everybody? Everybody would do well if they would use

Jesus as their model for how to live. But Paul didn't even mention that. He didn't mention any of that because that's all things that relate after you receive the gospel.

After you receive the Holy Spirit. After you recognize that you're his.

The totality of the gospel message as presented by Paul is this.

Jesus died for our sins. He was buried and he rose again on the third day.

That's the bold faced items that I read just before. How that Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the scripture.

Exactly as it was spelled out in the scriptures. Okay. Now I want to say this.

I want to ask this question. What scriptures is Paul talking about? Maybe you know.

Maybe you don't know. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All of the books in the

New Testament that are labeled as gospel. The gospel according to Matthew. The gospel according to Mark.

The gospel according to Luke. The gospel according to John. Were all written after first Corinthians.

After Paul wrote first Corinthians. So Paul could not have been referring to any of those.

What scripture is Paul referring to? That Jesus would go through all this exactly as it was spelled out in the scriptures.

What scriptures? Old Testament. The Old Testament scriptures. The scriptures that Paul is referring to are found in the

Old Testament. Isaiah is a place. Psalms are a place.

There are all kinds of places. Numbers of all places is a place. Probably.

It's probably in every one. It's probably in every one. But you have to.

Yeah. In fact, Jesus said, you search the scriptures for them you think you have eternal life.

I can't remember exactly how it says. The bulk of the entirety of the

Old Testament is written about me. That's the paraphrase of what he says.

The entirety of the Old Testament is written about me. If you go in and you search any scripture in the

Old Testament scripture hard enough you'll find Jesus lurking on that page. Last Sunday we discovered an example of part of the gospel story in the

Old Testament. And what part was that? That was the manner in which

Jesus must die. Remember we talked about that last week? John brought it up in the

Gospel of John this way. John 3 .14. In fact, I commented that this was only two verses before the most commonly read scripture verse in the

Bible. John 3 .16. If you go two verses earlier you'll find this.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the

Son of Man be lifted up. And that was a statement that Jesus could not have been stoned.

Jesus could not have been tried by the Jewish courts according to their laws because their laws would have demanded that blasphemy be punished by stoning.

Not by crucifixion. So he had to be tried in the

Roman court. Well, we didn't go here last week but I'm going to this week.

Numbers chapter 21 verse 6. This is just after Moses has come down off the mountain and found the people worshiping the golden calf.

And so Jesus sends fiery serpents among the people.

Fiery serpents. Numbers chapter 21 verse 6 is where we'll begin.

And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died.

Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned for we have spoken against the

Lord and against thee. Pray thee unto the

Lord that he take away the serpents from us. Now I've got a question.

Did the Lord answer that prayer? Did he take away the serpents?

No. He didn't. Did he do anything? He provided a way out.

That's absolutely correct. So they said, Pray unto the Lord that he take the serpents from us.

And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole.

And it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live.

So he provided as Brother Huber said, a way out. He provided them a way out.

A way not to die when the fiery serpents which were still amongst them bit them.

They would not die if they did what? Recognize that they had sinned against the

Lord. Believe what Moses told them. Looked at the serpent on the pole and they would be healed.

And it came to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live.

And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived.

Now there were some things that had to be going on. They had to recognize that they had sinned against God.

In order for them to look upon the serpent they had to first have recognized that they had sinned not against Moses necessarily, which they did, but more against God.

That the sin was a sin against God. And because of the sin that they had against God they were afflicted with a physical malady.

They then had to believe what Moses told them. Moses says if you look at the serpent on the pole you'll be healed.

They had to look. And when they looked upon the serpent on the pole they were healed.

So they were cured of their physical malady. And the question that we asked last

Sunday is how does that relate about our sins and Jesus?

Well who is our sins really sins against? When I sinned whom do

I sin against? If I meet John out in the parking lot and beat him up,

I am sinning against John but I am more sinning against God than I am against John.

So I've got to recognize that I have sinned against God and we have to do that.

When we have sinned against God we are afflicted with a spiritual malady not a physical one.

Then we will need to believe what Jesus tells us. We will need to look at Jesus upon the cross.

And when we do that then we're healed. That's how the serpent on the pole relates to Christ on the cross.

And there are of course many other examples. We dealt with that one last week. I'm going to deal with a couple of more very briefly and then one to a larger extent.

One of these stories is in Jonah. Jonah was referred to by Matthew.

Matthew refers to Jonah when the scribes and the Pharisees ask him the important question.

The question. Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered saying master we would see a sign from thee.

Of course they would. They were always looking for a sign. How many signs had Jesus given them?

He'd gone through the country bringing people from the dead, curing leprosy, healing people.

Any sign you could possibly want they had. And they want another one.

And he says, Jesus says, but he answered and said unto them an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and no sign shall be given it but the sign of the prophet

Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the well's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

And the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

And behold a greater than Jonah is here. So what happened to Jonah?

Jonah died. Jonah was buried and Jonah rose from the dead after three days.

See that's what I believe. That's just me. I think Jonah actually died. There's scripture in the book of Jonah that indicates that he died.

Not that he was preserved alive in the belly of the fish which the Lord could have done that. But I think he let him die.

And then he was buried. Talks about being buried.

And then he rose from the dead. Brother Otis always said that he was he was a spit out on the land white from being bleached out by the by the acid only in the well's belly.

And that could have been the case. But I don't think so. I think Jonah came out looking just like he went in.

With just exactly the same task that he had in front of him that he refused to do before he went in.

And then he did it. And then he got the expect the result that God expected.

But he didn't get the result that he expected. So he spent a chapter pouting.

Okay that's Jonah. So as Jonah died and was buried and rose from the dead after three days so did

Jesus. Now we don't have time for this but if you would read Jonah chapter 1 verse 11 through Jonah chapter 3 verse 4 with the mindset that Jonah actually died and was buried and rose from the dead you will see a book with an entirely different perspective than you used to have when you view

Jonah as a story about a fish and a man. There's another story that we're not going to go into just just a tiny little bit.

The story of Isaac, Jacob, and the substitutionary sacrifice.

I'm going to read just a little bit of Genesis 22 verse beginning at verse 8. Abraham and his son

Isaac are on the way to the mountain to offer sacrifice. And Abraham said

Isaac asked him, Father I see the fire.

I see the I don't see the sacrifice. And Abraham said to him my son

God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Now he doesn't actually provide himself as a offering to Abraham but he's going to present himself later with the event that this is patterning.

Then I skip down to verse 13 and Abraham looked up his eyes and he looked and beheld behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

So the ram took the place of his son for Abraham. And Abraham called the name of that place

Jehovah Jireh as it is said to this day in the mount of the

Lord it shall be seen. Now what shall be seen in the mouth of the Lord? Jesus being sacrificed in place of all of us to bear to bear our sins.

So that's what that event is all about. That's the gospel in the

Old Testament. We also have Rahab and the scarlet cord that she hung from her window indicating that she was the one that helped the spies and they said they'll leave her alone.

But she told the spies when they left go and hide in the forest for three days and then you can go report back to Joshua.

So from the perspective of Joshua the spies were in abeyance for three days.

For three days they were as good as dead and then they show up. So that's another story with the gospel in it.

But the example I really want to look at today is in Psalm 22.

I'm going to start reading Psalm 22 at verse 1 and I'm going to read most of it and we'll stop along the way for comments and then we'll come back to these comments later.

The 22nd Psalm and it begins with this passage or this phrase,

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now I've got a question.

Who wrote that Psalm? David wrote. How could

David have known that Jesus would say exactly the same thing, the exact same words as Jesus hung on the cross more than 500 years later?

Now keep in mind this. The cross was not even in existence at the time of David.

How did the people of David's day deal with blasphemy?

They stoned them. So how could David have known that Jesus would say exactly the same words as he hung on this strange execution device that wasn't even in existence at the time, hanging on the cross 500 years later?

Well, Matthew tells us this. Matthew 27 verse 46, but don't leave your place totally in Psalm.

We'll come back to that. Matthew 27 verse 46. About the ninth hour,

I probably need to give you a little heads up. The ninth hour is three o 'clock in the afternoon.

They started counting for secular time at six in the morning and they counted till 12.

That was six hours. Then three more hours, that makes it nine. So there's going to be two important times here, the sixth hour and the ninth hour.

And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Well, that got him, didn't it?

Then he translates it for us, just in case we can't translate it. That is to say, My God, my

God, why hast thou forsaken me? Word for word.

That's in a foreign language that Jesus spoke, or did he? Yeah, Jesus was speaking in Armenian, I think.

And so he had to, translate that into the Hebrew, so that we would know that what he said matched exactly what

David said. Word for word. Now, wouldn't Jesus be aware of Psalms?

Oh, he would. He would, but would David? Well, David writes what

David feels there. And then Jesus is quoting

David, maybe. The Holy Spirit could travel anywhere and anywhere. Well, we know this, or we believe this, and I'm sure we all know it.

Every book of the Bible is inspired, and that includes David and the

Psalms, and that includes Matthew. And so the real penman of both of them was the same one. So in that sense, it's not extraordinary.

But what is extraordinary is, it all fits together. All fits together exactly the same.

And what David, as a man, could not have known, the Holy Spirit inspired him to write.

So he says, this first part is a lamentation of Jesus and of David.

For David, it's his lamentation, but it's also Jesus'. We'll see how it fits together as we go.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

He sat in the garden and prayed, Jesus did, for the cup to pass from him, but not my will, but thy will be done.

O my God, I cry in the daytime, and thou hearest not, and in the night season am not silent.

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou disbelieved them.

They cried unto thee, and were delivered. They trusted in thee, and they were not confounded.

But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despise of people.

Now there's a Bible commentary by the name of Chuck Missler that I refer to occasionally, and he said something very interesting here, something that I've never seen anywhere else, and I'm not going to vouch for it except to say that this is what he said, and he is generally pretty good.

The term worm, toa, can also mean scarlet.

In fact, that word is translated 38 times as the word crimson.

Scarlet dye was made from a particular worm, semis vermilio.

That worm pierces the thin bark of twigs to suck up the sap from which it prepares a waxy scale to protect its body.

The red dye is in that scale, so if the people wanted to make red dye, they would harvest these worms when they have made their, basically what a butterfly does, make a cocoon, but this is a wax, waxy scale, and it's got red dye in it.

They'd pick those off, and they would process them, and they'd get a red dye from them.

Now, when reproducing, this female climbs a tree where it bears its eggs.

Now, it bears its eggs on its inside. The larvae hatch and feed on the body of the worm, so the worm literally gives its life to its offspring.

Now, later on, when the carcass falls off, when the little thing falls off, a crimson spot is left on the branch, and when the scarlet spot dries out, it takes three days.

Isn't that interesting? And as it dries out, it changes from crimson to white.

No, I'm not serious. I'm just reading what Chuck Missler says, and I do believe

Chuck Missler is serious. I have studied it. I believe that's all true. He even goes here and quotes

Isaiah. Somebody said Isaiah. He quotes Isaiah, Come now, let us reason together, saith the

Lord. This will change your perspective of this verse, too. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they will be like wool. I don't know if that's...

I know that's not scriptural, but I do respect the man that said it. Back to Luke.

Not Luke. Back to Psalm 22. We're now on verse 7.

And now we see this. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, and they shake the head, saying,

He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing that he delighted in him.

You'll see that verse again in a minute. But thou art he that took me out of the womb, and thou didst make me hope when

I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my

God from my mother's belly. This is Jesus. This is David. This is

Jesus talking about God. Jesus talking about God the

Father. And David talking about God also.

And now, more than 500 years before the fact, David is going to describe the ordeal of Jesus as Jesus hung on the cross.

Verse 11. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help.

Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bishan have beset me.

They gaped upon me with their mouths as ravening and roaring lions.

I am poured out like water. All my joints bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax.

It is melted in the midst of my bowels. Now, if this had been

David, and David had only been talking about somebody that was executed for blasphemy, would their bones be out of joint?

I don't think so. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.

Thou hast brought me to the dust of death. He's extremely thirsty.

Would a man being stoned be extremely thirsty? Not necessarily, depends on when he drank last, but stoning wouldn't make him thirsty, but hanging on a cross would.

For the dogs have compassed me about. Who are the dogs? The Gentiles are always referred to as dogs.

When people are spoken of as dogs, they are Gentiles. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.

Who would that be? That would be the Pharisees. They pierced my hands and my feet.

That's an odd way for David to present an execution. You wouldn't have your hands and your feet pierced if you were stoned.

I may tell all my bones, they look and stare at me. I only saw that this morning.

I read that. I just read it. I don't pass it. You know what that said? He's looking down at, tell me.

He's been lifted up. He's been lifted up. That is true, but now he's telling his bones.

He's talking to his bones. What's his bones doing? His bones are peaking.

They're out of joint, but they're not broken, but they are peaking out through the torn places in his flesh.

He has been whipped already. Before he's on the cross, he's been whipped. He has been whipped severely.

His bones are showing. I may tell my bones, they look and stare at me. My bones are looking up through the flesh at me.

And then something. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.

Did they ever do that with David? No, they did it with Jesus. How could David have known that they were going to do this with Jesus?

The power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, sir. Now be, but be thou not far from me,

O Lord, O my strength. Hasten thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog.

Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn.

Okay, that is a reference to rhinoceroses. To what? Rhinoceroses, the big animals that have the horn on them.

Rhinos. That's a reference to a rhino. It's not a reference to a horse with a spear sticking out of its forehead.

That's what we always say. But they're seeing rhinos. Okay, now we're ready to go back to Luke and pick up Luke 22 at verse 26.

I think I said chapter 22, verse 26. And we will not be back in Psalm again except I'll pull quotes out as we go through and just read them back to you, but we've already read them.

And as they led him away, they lay hold upon one Simon, a Syrian, coming out of the country, and on him they lay a cross that he might bear it after Jesus.

Now I've read a lot and I've read a lot of people, including Dr. MacArthur, who talked about the generosity, the kindness that Simon the

Syrian showed to Jesus by bearing this cross. And as much as I love

Dr. MacArthur, here's one instance I've got to disagree with him. Mark says it a better way and you'll see better what's happening when

I read Mark. Mark 15, verse 21. And they compel one

Simon, a Syrian, who passed by coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus to bear his cross.

Now how many of you have heard about go the extra mile? Have you heard that phrase, go the extra mile?

What's he talking about? Okay, so Jesus, this is something that was well aware.

A Roman soldier could compel you to carry his pack for one mile.

And Jesus said, no. If they asked you to carry it a mile, carry it two miles. You know how they asked him?

They took the sword. They took the sword and they put it flat edge on his shoulder.

And they said, grab the pack and carry it. Now that pack weighed about 100 pounds. And they couldn't say,

I've got more important things to do, fella. I've got things to take care of. They couldn't say that. Because if they did, what they would do is, he had to or he had to die.

Simon didn't pick up that cross member of the cross and carry it because he wanted to.

He didn't pick up the cross because he knew Jesus needed him to carry it. He didn't pick up that cross for any goodwill.

He picked up that cross because all the soldier had to do and what he would have done is this and he would have been dead.

He was compelled to do it. But even though he was compelled to do it, good things sometimes happen out of bad things that you're compelled to do.

Did you notice how Mark described Simon, Assyrian, the father of Alexander and Rufus?

Does that tell you anything? If you'd go to Romans 16 verse 13, you would see

Paul in closing his letter to the Romans said this among other things.

Verse 13, Salute Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine.

He's saying he had such a close relationship. Paul had such a close relationship with this fellow by the name of Rufus and his mother that he felt like Rufus's mother was his own mother.

Salute Rufus. Maybe these two guys,

Alexander and Rufus, which Paul, Paul, which Mark assumed would be known by the people he was writing to.

Otherwise he wouldn't have described it. I wouldn't describe, Ron, you as a son of your father and call your father's name if I didn't know your father and didn't expect the people around me to know your father know what

I was talking about. So it's likely that Alexander and Rufus were also

Christians and well known in the church. And why would that have been? It's likely that Simon on the way to the cross saw what was happening, got saved himself and laid his son, his sons to Christ.

Again, that's just me. And there followed him a great company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.

But Jesus turning to them said, daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me but weep for yourselves and for your children.

For behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, blessed are the bearing and the wounds that never bear and the pats that never gave suck.

They shall, then shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us.

For if what they do, for if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

Now, Chuck Missler also said this, if the Roman authorities do this to one that they know is innocent, what will they do to you who are guilty?

And then he follows with another question. When the day of judgment arrives, can there be any escape for you?

That's when in the day of judgment arrives, that's when they're calling for the stones to fall on them, to be hidden.

That's when he's saying you'd be better if you'd never had. And there were also two other malfactors led with him to be put to death.

So Jesus is not in the procession all by himself. And when they would come to the place which is called

Calvary, they crucified him, the malfactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.

Now, back to Isaiah 53 verse 8. I'm gonna, you can go there if you wish.

Isaiah 53 verse 8, this is talking about Jesus. He was taken from prison and from judgment.

And who shall declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken.

Was he convicted, stricken for anything that he did? No, for what we did.

He made his grave with the wicked. And with the rich in his death. He's going to be hung on the cross with two wicked men.

And he's going to be buried in the tomb of a rich man's grave. Because he had done no violence.

Neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief.

When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed.

He shall prolong his days. And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. That he, that he's talking about, that he is

God the Father. Sees the travail of Jesus and God the

Father is satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.

For he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him in portion with the great.

And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he has poured out his soul unto death.

He was numbered with the transgressors. He was hung on the cross with the two sinners. And he bared the sin of many.

Not all but many. And he was made the intercession for the transgressors.

You can't read Isaiah 53 and not get the gospel story.

Then said Jesus, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. He is magnanimous.

Jesus is. Hanging on the cross. Looking out at the people who are ridiculing him.

Who has led to his crucifixion. And his thoughts are forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

And they parted his rags and cast lots. Remember that?

Psalm 22 18. They parted my garments among them and cast lots over my vesture.

And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him saying.

He saved others. Let him save himself if he be Christ the chosen of God. Remember that?

They shall all they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out their lip and they shake their head saying.

He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him seeing that he delighted in him.

And the soldiers also mocked him. Coming to him and offering him vinegar.

What a strange choice. Actually it was it was a a potion to alleviate the pain and make them lose partial conscience.

That's this that's why Jesus refused it. Psalm 69 19. Also a psalm by David.

Now I snow my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before me.

Reproach has broken my heart. I am full of heaviness and I look for some to take pity.

And there was none. And for comforters and I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat.

And for my thirst they gave me vinegar. Again how did

David know that? And now back to Luke. And saying if thou be king of the

Jews save thyself. And a superscription was written over him in the letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew.

This is the king of the Jews. Now this again is Chuck Missler and I again do respect him and I believe there's something to this.

But this is something you probably haven't heard before. If you have forgive me. When Jesus was crucified

Pilate wrote the formal epithet. Now it was on a placard and as they led the parade down to the side of the crucifixion they carried that placard before a crucified person.

When they got there they nailed it on top of the cross so that the crucified man would be hanging down below this placard.

So when you visualize Jesus on the cross you see the placard above and it says this is the king of the

Jews. And down below it you see Jesus hanging there. I'm going to read it again in John because it's a little more precise but I'm going to tell you this about it up front.

The particular wording that Pilate chose displeased the Jewish leaders.

They weren't happy about that and they asked him to change it but Pilate refused.

Now he says there are some interesting aspects to this incident that are not apparent in our

English translations. Now I'm going to read what I'm going to read John 19 starting at 19.

And Pilate wrote a title and he put it on the cross and the writing was

Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews. This title then read many of Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh unto the city.

So it's just right outside the city. And they went out to see it and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.

It's not the problem. It's the Hebrew. Then said the priest of the

Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews but that he said

I am the king of the Jews. Why do you think that makes such a big deal over such a small thing?

Because they're trying to tear him down and if they can say he said he's going to be a

Jew. Okay. Jesus said he's the king of the Jews. We're not honoring him with that title.

And with that title it doesn't work but but there is something else there that I had never seen until I read this article.

He's also putting Herod at his place. Pilate answered what

I have written I have written. Now the chief priest, this is

Chuck Missler again, the chief priest distress highlights something we might otherwise miss. Notice that Pilate refused to revise the epithet it composed.

This may have more significance than is apparent in our English translations. What we don't notice in the

English translation is the potential acrostic made up of the first letter of each word which would be spelled out in the tetragamma.

That is the four letter word of name of God. Now what's the name of God?

The one that the Jews refused to say? Yahweh. If you read what was written from right to left the first letter of each word written from right to left would be spelled

Y -H -W -H. They didn't use vowels.

That was Yahweh. So there what the Jews what the Hebrews saw above Jesus was

God. The unassailable name. Now I don't know if that is true.

I thought that was worth relating. I am pretty sure it is because I have great confidence in this man.

But I don't know. Who is it? Chuck Missler. Chuck Missler is dead now.

He was at Koinonia House. He has a lot of really interesting things. He was a guy that was trained up as a at one time he was the head of the

U .S. intelligence relating to submarines. So he was a big wheel and then he became a

Bible teacher. Okay I'm about to finish for for the day.

And one of the male factors which were hanged railed on him saying if thou be

Christ save thyself and us. But the other answered him rebuking saith dost thou not fear

God seeing that thou art in the same condemnation? John MacArthur said this.

In Matthew 27 and Mark 15 both report that criminals were mocking

Jesus along with the crowd. As the hours were on however this criminal conscious was smitten and he repented.

When the impetent thief resumed his mocking this thief refused to join in.

Verse 41. And indeed we just we justly for we receive the just you are our deeds but this man has done nothing wrong.

And he said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

MacArthur said this. The penitent thief's prayer reflected his belief that the soul lives on after death.

That Christ had the right to rule over a kingdom of the souls of men. That he would soon enter that kingdom despite his impending death.

His request to be remembered was a plea for mercy. Which also reveals that the thief understood that he had no hope but divine grace.

And that the dispensing of that grace lay in Jesus's power. All this demonstrates true faith on the part of the dying thief.

And Christ graciously affirms the man's salvation. And Jesus said unto him.

Verily I say unto thee today thou shalt be with me in paradise. So the thief was a lost sheep.

The thief was a lost sheep. And let us pray. Most gracious heavenly father thank you for this day and thank you for all the many blessings you have given us.

Thank you for all of the information. All of the all of the things that you have put into our hearts that we need to know to carry us through these difficult times.