Book of Luke - Ch. 23, Vs. 1-26 (12/19/2004)

All right, I think we're ready to get started this afternoon And we've been in the book of Luke, and I think we've made our way all the way to chapter 23 verse 1

So if you will find that Just finished studying

Jesus being brought before the Sanhedrin And we might want to read the last couple of verses up there verse how about verse 70 and 71 there in Luke chapter 22

Before we get started in the next chapter Then said they all art thou then the

Son of God and he said unto them ye say that I am And they said what need we any further witness for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth

So they thought they had Jesus where they wanted him at this point well Let's have a word of prayer, and we'll start with chapter 23 father

Thank you for the word that you taught us this morning We ask you to teach us once again.

Thank you that your Holy Spirit will teach us the sense of the meaning behind your word and We pray that you would show us some new things today in this passage that we've studied before We ask you that would teach us things both new and old and Lord We thank you for the

Lord Jesus in the beautiful Christmas story that everyone's thinking about this time of year Lord we thank you for the manger scene we thank you for all that that symbolizes for us as we think about the incarnation and The fact that you were

God with us and so Lord teach us this afternoon for Jesus sake amen

Chapter 23 verse 1 And the whole multitude of them arose and led him unto

Pilate and they began to accuse him saying we found this fellow perverting the nation and Forbidding to give tribute to Caesar Saying that he himself is

Christ a king Now let's stop just for a moment did Jesus forbid people to Give tribute to Caesar to pay their taxes

What did he teach? And who was it he taught that to the

Pharisees You know that to the very ones Saying this he held up a coin and he said whose pictures on it

They said Caesars picture and he said given to Caesar. What is Caesars? now that was done in clear in public and Now they come and accuse him of not you think they could think of something better to accuse him of than that one but they didn't so and So they say he teaches not to pay the taxes and then they say that he himself is

Christ a king and Pilate asked him saying art thou the king of the

Jews and he answered him and said Thou sayest it same kind of answer.

He gave earlier up in verse 71 70 verse 71 says thou sayest that I am

Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people I find no fault in this man

And they were the more fierce Saying he stirreth up the people teaching throughout all

Jewry beginning from Galilee to this place Now who is really stirring up the people?

They were And where Jesus when it was in order I mean you remember when he would feed the 5 ,000 put them down in companies and everything was in order and Here they're causing riots in the street and it gets even worse when

Pilate said I don't find anything wrong with him and they border on riot at this point So they were even more fierce verse 6 when

Pilate heard of Galilee He asked whether the man were a Galilean now

Pilate thinks he's found his way out And As soon as he knew that he belonged into Herod's jurisdiction.

He sent him to Herod. There you go scapegoat He's gonna try to put this on Herod so that he won't have to make a decision and he's hoping this will work

And so and to me it was pretty pretty smart thing. He did here he did not want to find anything wrong with this man and So always in Herod's jurisdiction less sending there

So he sent him to Herod who himself also was at Jerusalem at that time now what you may not know yet Well, you do if you've read this before but Herod And Pilate were not friends

At this time. They did not like each other at all doesn't give the reasons. It just says they don't like each other

And when Herod saw Jesus he was exceeding glad For he was

Desirous to see him of a long season because he had heard how many thing had heard many things about him

And he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him now Want you to stop a minute and think about this

Place yourself here It says Herod saw Jesus and he was exceeding glad.

Can you explain that to me? It They want to know a star so he just had he had a natural desire to bone want to be around a famous person

Could this perhaps answer a long -standing question I've had and maybe you have had is why it is that lost people want to go to church in the first place

Why do we have tears in the church? Could some of it have to do with just some desire for power or fame or some desire to be up in front of the

People or be popular in a group where a large number of people are they don't do that often in our church, but But you know this may give us some insight into why it is that lost people even want to come around it

Why do they want to come around in Christianity? But they do they not even want to come around they want to teach and Invariably they want to interject some false teaching in with the truth and they sneak in privilege and To our groups and begin to teach so Herod was excited about seeing

Jesus should he have been Probably not because as soon as he sees him he has to answer for more because now he has more information

About the truth. So now he's more accountable But anyway, he didn't know that he he was exceeding glad like Russell said he wants to see a miracle

He wants to see something great here very fleshly desire Well that brings me to another thought about this verse

Do any of you know of any particular groups in the country that are fast -growing in fact worldwide?

That have a strong desire to see a miracle Every day and certainly every

Sunday Well, there are groups like that and they even think if you don't see that in church that God hasn't been there

That God's not in the midst of it. And yet I find that to be very similar to Herod's desire

To see Jesus do something. In fact, the Jews of the day always were asking him

We'll do this and we'll believe on and he said you generation of vipers He said

You're evil and adulterous generation. You will not see a miracle except for the resurrection

He says I'm gonna come out of the grave in three days That's gonna be what I let you see and yet they wanted to see him do something with his hands

They wanted to see him do a magic trick In their view and that's the same thing Herod wants and I'm gonna tell you

I'm gonna give you a little warning I'm not saying there aren't wonderful people friendly people in all groups and and even saved people in many groups around us

But beware of the doctrine of people who believe that if God's there a miracle is going to happen

Do you know that there are many many places throughout time beginning with Genesis? Going all the way through till the time of Jesus Many times of 600 years and longer in the

Old Testament life when there was not one miracle for 600 years that happened more often than not in fact miracles were always the exception to the rule and So we read the

Bible though and we remember those cool parts and we think I must have been that way every day It was not that way

Yeah with lights Well, it should be considered so by us but But that's not the kind of miracle people want to see

They want to see Someone raised from the dead They want to see a blind man see right in front of their eyes or a lame man walk right in front of their eyes

And this is what they asked Jesus to do and usually when they asked him to do it in that tone

Then he would refuse to do it. He would say you're gonna see the resurrection. That'll be your sign So we live in a day that have this same kind of excitement

When they think about Jesus they're exceeding glad and their desire for a long season to See him do some of these many things that we've heard and yet we live in an age of faith

If nothing else if the church age could be known by one word, it would be faith Faith means the opposite of seeing with your eyes it means of seeing things with your faith and And so it's not that God doesn't do miracles he does

He still does miracles when he chooses to do I've I know that there are people who are healed anyone

Whoever is healed from anything. It's healed by God Not by the doctors not by the medicines healed by the

Lord So he still heals he's still powerful. He still can do anything that you've ever seen him do in the

Bible But he does it when he chooses to do it because he is sovereign. It is not done by the will of man

So you can't turn these things on and off. You can't turn God on and off. You can't turn miracles on and off You can't control

God So what we're supposed to do is to study his word to study together and to discuss him and his name and his wonderful works together that pleases him and we're supposed to remain in prayer for one another and pray enough and Know the

Lord enough so that you're willing for him to guide your prayers even when you're asking for something specific that you would be willing for him to guide you that you are not going to receive that so change your prayer slightly and Be willing to know his will not your own will and that's the way it should be for a people of faith

So there's a lot to be learned by here in verse 8 He hoped to have seen some miracle done by him

There it is. How many people today who even call themselves Christians? Live in that realm and I've met some dear sweet people and talked to them had them give me their testimony

That are just absolutely consumed the only thing they're interested in in the entire Christian realm really is to see

God heal somebody and and yet their own spouses die of Of horrible diseases and they weren't healing their own spouse.

I don't understand that if you have that gift and You can do it at your whim and you can have meetings in your home

I know a particular real sweet man in Dallas that I met that Said that God gave him this gift and he was a

Baptist all of a sudden. He had this gift He just opened his home up to Bible studies and instead of studying the word together

What happened is everybody to show up from the neighborhood to be healed then go home healed He said and yet right now his wife has a disease.

She's on Dialysis and is Not looking to me very well so it's strange and Yet the whole desire of their heart is to see these kinds of healings and I think that's off on the wrong tangent.

I Think that we need to love God's Word. We need to love the Lord. We need to be his servants and we need to be

Happy to do whatever he calls us to do today Don't ever think it's mundane if all you do is speak a word to someone or help them fix a flat or Be kind to them in the grocery store in the line or you know things like that.

Don't think that's mundane a Huge majority of biblical history. That's the sort of thing that God's people are doing

Day to day kindness and love for others and giving the message Verse 9 then he questioned

With him in many words, but he answered him nothing Isn't it interesting that Jesus didn't just open his mouth up and blurt out everything in you and yet we have a tendency to do that Don't we?

If we're not careful, we'll say too much in every incident We want to let people know what we know and that can be a real danger

I think a good motto for life is people around you don't need to Know anything other than what they exactly need to know so tell them that you don't need to go into a lot of other things because The book of Proverbs makes it clear that we ought to just for the most part not be talking a whole lot

Listen is better to listen is better. So they question him in many ways and he didn't answer a thing

Verse 10 and the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him and Herod with his men of war

Set him at naught. What do you think that means? It's easy to read over that one

What do you think that means they did to him They set him at naught and they mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him again to Pilate What did they do when they set him at naught?

And they treated him like he was lower than they were and like he was nothing

Right and This is what they did did he rear his head up and say wait a minute you don't know who you're doing this to You don't know who

I am, you know, if you go back to the first century the Christians were more like that Nowadays we're gonna go protest

We're gonna get a big group up and go down to the City Hall and protest if the world's doing something to us We don't like and we're gonna tell them, you know, and in so many words, we're gonna tell them you don't know who we are

We're upstanding citizens of this city we go to the

Apartmentals Baptist Church down here and you can't do this to us. We have to watch that attitude

I have to watch that inner attitude Jesus. His attitude was not that way

They put him down to his low denominators. They could put him and he didn't say a word

So This was in fact the spirit of the new of the first century

Christian. They were like this very meek very meek people Didn't say one word as far as I can tell like a sheep

Mm -hmm. Very good point verse 12 in the same day Pilate and Herod made friends

They were not friends until this happened That amazing so there are people who will come together around you and become friends in their

Common goal of being your enemy if they find out you know the Lord and you love him and you're following him you'll have people that never even spoke to each other to come together and Try to have a common strength against you and what the

Lord's doing in your life And they had no use for each other until this happens.

So It's kind of an amazing statement Pilate and Herod were made friends together this day for before they were at enmity

I mean they literally hated one another before this They were at enmity between themselves and Pilate when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people said unto them you have brought this man unto me as one that perverted the people and behold

I having examined him before you have found no fault in this man touching those things wherever you have accused him

No, nor yet did Herod For I sent you to him and lo nothing worthy of death is done unto him

So I will therefore chastise him and then I'll release him For of necessity he must release one and to them at the feast and they cried out all at once saying away with this man and Release him to us

Barabbas who for a certain sedition made in the city and for murder was cast into prison

Pilate therefore willing to release Jesus Spake again unto them, but they cried saying crucify him

Crucify him and he said unto them the third time. Why what evil hath he done?

I have found no cause of death in him I will therefore chastise him and let him go and they were instant with loud voices

Requiring that he might be crucified and the voices of them and of the chief priest prevailed and Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required was he a strong man

Was Pilate a big strong man he was weak weak as he could be he was afraid of these people and You know in the other parallel passages you read where the people said may his blood be upon our head and The heads of our children.

Do you suppose they remembered that in World War two? When Hitler got hold of their children You know, it is said that the

Jews of that day not being familiar with this passage since it's in the New Testament Questioned God so severely that they said one of two things has to be true

God could do something and didn't or God could not do anything and they chose the second and That's why most

Jews today are agnostic they just don't you know, they don't believe anything about God and So it just heaped more and more

Upon their heads when they made this statement, you know, maybe his blood be upon our head and in the heads of our children

Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required and he released and to them him that for sedition and murder was cast into Prison whom they had desired

Boy, did that speak a lot about human nature? But he delivered Jesus to their will and as they led him away, they laid hold upon one

Simon a Cyrenian Coming out of the country and on him.

They laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus Let's stop there brother Otis will pick up with verse 27

Next time well We start with the beautiful manger story and we end with this story

We end with this story and yet this is the story that The father

Recorded again and again and again in the scriptures not to not so much the We don't even know the date of his birth

But we definitely know the date of his death, don't we What an amazing story from start to finish

And people debate about whether we ought to have Christmas and all that, but I'll tell you what why don't you just use it as an opportunity is to to teach your little children about Jesus coming

God with us in the manger Would you have done that if you were

God you created this thing, would you go down into this thing and let them kill you? Kill your son,

I don't think so What an amazing story let's stand and we'll have prayer together and in case we don't see you before next

Sunday You have a wonderful time with your families Lord we Thank you so much for your word and Lord you might

Direct many of us in our homes to finish reading the story with our children and During this week sometime

Lord, we just thank you so much for coming into this world in a way that we could touch you and Hear you and see you in a way that we could comprehend even in our own language and And you revealed yourself to us in that way

We will never see the depths to which Jesus suffered on the cross

But we're thankful father that you will share with us some of the joy That he will have together with us in the future.

We will contemplate and understand much more of that and So we look forward to that time

Lord and we see the things happening in the world around us and we know we're in the end Somewhere in the end.

We don't know exactly where but it is exciting. We live in an exciting generation exciting times

And father we ask you to keep our hearts and our minds on the Word of God That we might not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that we might not be deceived

By any false teachers in these last days prepare us to serve you as we ought