Friday, March 29, 2024 PM

could have been his followers. He was denied by his disciple

Peter. And not just once, but three times. He was mocked and he was beaten.

And all of this by the same group that we looked at on Palm Sunday.

You know, the ones who were plotting to kill him. Who were threatening him.

Demanding to know by what authority he was doing all these things. Who is he?

Who is this Jesus? Even his enemies affirm his testimony and affirm his glory.

I invite you to stand with me as we read God's holy word.

Beginning in verse 66 of Luke 22. As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led him into their council.

Saying, if you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, if I tell you, you will by no means believe.

And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go. Hereafter, the

Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then they all said, are you then the

Son of God? So he said to them, you rightly say that I am. And they said, what further testimony do we need?

For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate.

And they began to accuse him saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar.

Saying that he himself is Christ the King. Then Pilate asked him saying, are you the king of the

Jews? He answered him and said, it is as you say. So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd,

I find no fault in this man. But they were the more fierce. Saying he stirs up the people teaching throughout all

Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. This is the word of the

Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. We are coming to a king.

What sort of king? We come to his table.

Are we not given counsel? In God's word. To know what kind of king it is.

At whose table we sit. Proverbs 23.

Verses one through three says, when you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you and put a knife to your throat.

If you are a man given to appetite, do not desire his delicacies for they are deceptive food.

Verse six. Proverbs 23 says, do not eat the bread. Do not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire his delicacies.

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

We come to a table tonight and this table of this king.

This king is no tyrant. This king does not rule by fear and deception.

This king is no miser who is jealous and angry when he has to share his bread.

We are coming to a king, Jesus Christ. And as we think about the way in which

Jesus is described in this passage, when he is on trial, when those who have gathered together to end him, to murder him, as they begin to throw accusations at him, they cannot help but to declare his glory.

So it shall be that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. And indeed, he will reconcile all things by the blood of his cross.

Even those who hate him will still praise him. So it was at the trial, the night of his death, morning of his death,

Christ's testimony, this testimony for which he died. Jesus says that he is the

Christ. We see that the Christ is none other than the Son of Man, that the

Son of Man is indeed the Son of God. And the Son of God is King, King of the Jews, King of you.

This is what this passage declares. Praises to Christ, even as he's being accused by those who hate him.

And we need to receive Christ's testimony in its fullness, in its completeness.

We need to receive Christ's self -testimony of his own glory fully and wholly.

Let us not think that we can commune with Christ selectively. There are many people who see some sliver of value in Jesus, and they're willing to affirm a handful of things about him, and they leave off the rest.

No, with Jesus Christ, his claims of authority are total.

In verses 66 through 68 of our passage, we see that Jesus is the

Christ on the morning of his death. Early in the morning, as soon as it was day, six o 'clock in the morning, as soon as the sun crept up over the horizon, the elders of the people, the chief priests and the scribes, they all come together and they bring

Jesus into their arena of their authority, where they're going to run the entire show.

The Jewish leaders here are their religious leaders. The Jewish leaders here are their cultural leaders.

These are their political leaders, and they have brought Jesus into their arena because they are going to create the context that they believe they need to have in order to get away with murdering

Jesus. They're going to have a trial. Some trial. If you know anything about Jewish law and the way in which they were to pursue a trial, they broke every one of their own laws to get it done.

And so they question him. If you are the Christ, tell us. Do they want to know?

They do not want to know. Jesus shows the futility of this entire event.

He says, if I tell you, you will by no means believe. We're not talking here.

We're not having a conversation here. This is not happening, Jesus says. He says, even if I were to ask you something, you're not going to answer me.

If I ask you to let me go, you're not going to let me go and answer me. That's not what's happening here,

Jesus is saying. You're pretending like this is going to be a trial in which there's going to be questions and answers and a verdict given.

But he says that's not happening. Jesus exposes what's happening is this is completely for show.

Jesus does not commune with deniers. Jesus does not commune with those who deny him.

He's not in conversation with them. He's not in fellowship with them. He is not in relationship with them.

Having a great old time. He is not in communion with unrepentant liars and murderers.

He's saying we're not having that conversation. That's not what's happening here. We're not getting along.

They would have been willing to allow him to heal the sick. They would have been willing for him to take care of the poor.

They would have been willing for him to bring more people into their area to see him and to be around him.

That was fine. But as soon as he started making authority claims and saying that he had the power on earth to forgive sins and that he came as the

Messiah in the way that fulfilled all the significance of Israel, they were done with him. Our communion with God is entirely dependent upon our communion with Christ.

He is the one mediator between God and man. The man Christ Jesus. And we don't have communion with him if we try to only select certain things that we like about Jesus and say, well,

I affirm Jesus in these five ways and leave off these 15. Ergo, I'm this kind of Christian.

No. You don't get to select. He's the king. He's the king.

In verse 69. Clearly, Jesus is not denying that he is the

Christ. He's already said that in prior passage in Luke chapter nine.

Peter said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, you got that right. That's from the

Lord. That's from the father in heaven. That is correct. Jesus is not denying that he's the

Christ. He only affirms it more in verse 68 when he says, or verse 69, when he says,

Hereafter, the son of man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. Hereafter, the son of man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.

Well, he's saying something about himself. They know it because that gets them riled up.

He says. He knows where this is leading. He's already told his disciples what's going to happen.

When they get to Jerusalem. He's going to suffer. He's going to die on the cross, and he's going to be raised the third day.

He told his disciples that was what's going to happen. He knows where all of this is heading. And he knows what the result of it all is.

And for the joy set before him, he sets his face toward the cross. When they ask him if he's the

Christ, he answers. Irrespective of whether you're going to believe me or not, whether you're going to listen to me or not, irrespective of what you're going to do to me.

Here's the facts of the matter. The son of man is going to sit at the right hand of God. In other words, there's nothing that you can do about it.

You think that he's saying, I know that you think it's inevitable that you're going to end up killing me, that this is all for show.

But what's inevitable is the son of man is going to be at the right hand of God. When you read

Psalm 8 and you read the description of the son of man, the full glory of man, and then when you read

Daniel 7 and the trajectory of the son of man in Daniel 7, the glory of Psalm 8 and the trajectory of Daniel 7 coalesce in Christ's ascension.

In Christ's ascension, God glorifies his son,

Jesus, who is the Christ, who is the son of man. That is a royal title.

God glorifies Christ, so we ought to honor Christ. God grants authority to the son of man, and that's why we bow the knee to the son of man.

When we think about this expression of the son of man, it's a

Hebraism that has the idea of if you want to know what humanity is, you look at Jesus Christ.

He's the definition. He's the son of man. He's everything. When God says man in his fullness of humanity, that's what man is.

And therefore also, not only is he the definition of man, he's the destination of mankind.

Where will mankind end up? Where will humanity be in all of its fullness and its glory and its restoration?

That humanity is in Christ. You want to know where humanity ends up?

Christ. You don't know what humanity is? You look at Christ. Why? Because he is the image of the invisible God. He is the son of man.

Being the definition and destination of humanity makes him the ruler, the king of all humanity.

There is not a single individual who has ever lived in the history of the world that has not been brought under the authority of God as creator, and he has manifested his authority in Jesus Christ.

So whoever you are, wherever you are, whenever you have lived, you are under the authority of God, your maker.

His king is Jesus Christ given to us. We must bow the knee. It's not about whether or not you have a personal

Bible. It's not whether or not you've been raised in church. It's not whether or not you've been raised in the western world or the eastern world, or whether you're in the first world country or third world country.

Every single person is under the lordship of Jesus Christ, either a rebel or redeemed.

Jesus Christ is the son of man, and the son of man is the son of God. This the religious leaders knew very well.

Jesus says hereafter, the son of man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. In this way, he's affirming that he is indeed the

Christ and all that that means and his royal authority, and they get the point because they say in verse seven, then they all said, well, then are you the son of God?

You just affirm that you're the Christ and you just affirm that you're the son of man. So by logical extension, that must mean that you're claiming to be the son of God.

And Jesus said, you got it. They said, now we've got him.

Now we can accuse him of blasphemy. Now that we've got him to say this in just this way, now we can bring all manner of accusation against him.

We can take this phrase that he said and use it to condemn him for blasphemy.

There is a instinctive biblical progression, an immediate logical progression.

If indeed Jesus is the Christ and he's the son of man, then this must mean that he is the son of God.

When you read the gospel of Luke, where do we find Jesus being described as the son of God? When the virgin birth is being explained to Mary, the one whom you will bear will be called the son of God.

OK, that's certainly an affirmation of his deity, but it's also a passage that is mostly about his humanity.

The term son of God is also used in Luke 1 to describe the fulfillment of God's promises to David, that the heir of David is now arriving in the person of Jesus.

He is God's son. Again, it's an affirmation of his humanity, his human lineage that goes all the way back to David.

Certainly he's 100 % God, as much God as God is God, and he's fully man, as much man as man is man.

These things are true. The Bible affirms them in more than one way. Jesus himself said to the religious leaders before Abraham was,

I am clearly claiming to be God himself. But when we are reading about him being the son of God in the gospel of Luke, it's emphasized about his humanity.

Adam was called the son of God. Luke chapter three. Why was he called the son of God?

Because he was created by God in a special representative position. Luke chapter four.

In Luke chapter four, as the devil is tempting Jesus, the scriptures are clear that wherein they're talking about Israel.

Israel is called God's son. And yet Jesus, those scriptures are applied to Jesus as God's son.

God told Pharaoh, let my people go. You have wickedly imprisoned my son.

You have been hurting my son. Let my son go. He meant Israel.

Because Pharaoh didn't, he took Pharaoh's son. Later on,

God said in Hosea, out of Egypt I have called my son. Describing how to get Israel up out of Egypt.

Later on in Matthew, it is said this is fulfilled in Christ. Out of Egypt I have called my son.

What's the point? That when we think of the expressions of Jesus being the son of man and the son of God, this is not essentially about the incarnation of the incarnation is very true in everything about Jesus in the scriptures only affirms the incarnation.

When we're thinking about the expression that he is the son of God, we're thinking about how he is the heir of all things.

Who did God call his son? Well, he called the son of David his son.

He called Israel his son. He called Adam his son.

So what's the point? Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the son of the living

God. Yes, in terms of the Trinity, 100 % true. Also in his humanity, he is the fulfillment of that chosen servant of God.

So we see that being the son of God signifies not the erasing of Adam as if Adam never existed.

It's not the erasure of Israel as if the Jews should no longer exist.

It's not the erasure of the lineage of David through Solomon, but the signifying of their completion, of the end of their entire covenantal and religious significance in Christ.

For Jesus to say that he is the son of God, on the one hand, they can try to accuse him of blasphemy, making himself equal with God for which they tried to stone him prior.

But also they can accuse him of blasphemy and come after him because he's saying in and of himself, in his own person, he is the chosen people of God.

He's the full package right there. That doesn't work for them. All their authority depends on him not being the

Messiah, him not being the son of man, him not being the son of God. That's too much. That's too much.

So they all said then, are you the son of God? So he said to them, you rightly say that I am. And they said, what further testimony do we need?

For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. Now, when

Jesus says that he is the Christ, he is the royal son of man, that he is the son of God.

That is the testimony. When I hear it, I want to rejoice. I want to rejoice in that.

And that is the very same testimony that causes other people to reject him.

It's the very same testimony, the very same words, the very same claims.

What makes the difference? The grace of God. In 2

Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, Paul says, Now, thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

And through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge, the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. So through the people of God, the aroma of Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ is expressed in every place.

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

To the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death. And to the other, the aroma of life leading to life.

And he was sufficient for these things. It's the very same testimony. It's the very same smell, the very same aroma.

Someone is smelling it and saying this is salvation and life. And the others are saying.

Can't stand it. Can't stand it. The son of man is the son of God and the son of God is.

King. The son of God is king. Verses one and two, then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate.

And they began to accuse him, saying, we have found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is

Christ. A king. They knew what he was saying.

If Jesus says he's the Christ, then that must mean he's the son of man, which must mean he's the son of God, which must mean he's the king, right?

Because he's the descendant of David. Apparently, he's claiming that he's the descendant of David and he has royal authority so we can get him in trouble with the political authorities because they'll see him as a rival.

In other words, they they see a point of political tension. If Jesus is who he says he is, then that must mean that.

There will be political instability. And they were correct.

And so they lied about Christ saying that he was perverting the nation and that he was encouraging sedition to Rome, saying, don't pay your taxes.

Of course, we know that that's not true. Jesus said, pay your taxes. But they were lying about him, they were lying about Christ because they did not want his authority claims on their life.

Everyone who lies about Christ is trying to avoid the authority claims upon their life, because if if he is who he is and he has said what he has said and he has done what he has done, then there's nothing left for them than to be crucified, lose everything for him, become his and his alone, deny themselves.

So he is indeed a king. Now they want to to frame it as some kind of destabilization of the nation.

Well, if you really think that Christ is king in this really big way, then that must mean the end of our nation.

That's what they were concerned about. It has to be Christ versus Caesar and there has to be some sort of destabilization.

But it's actually way worse than that. It's way worse than that.

It's not simply a matter of political instability. It's an individual upheaval.

It's an upheaval of the family. It's an upheaval of the church.

It's an upheaval of the tribes. It's an upheaval of the nations.

It's an upheaval of the whole earth. Nothing can stay the same.

Nothing can stay the same. Jesus clearly told Pilate that his kingdom was not from this world.

It's not of this world. Where is his throne at? The right hand of God from heaven. But his kingdom certainly is in this world.

He said he said of his own people, you're not of this world. But he did say you better be in the world, but not of the world.

His kingdom is in this world, but it's not of this world. And his kingdom is something that is way bigger than the concerns of the

Jewish religious leaders. It destabilizes everything. Everything is brought under submission to Christ.

Christ is king. This is the point that is made in verses three through five. Then Pilate asked him saying, are you the king of the

Jews? He answered him and said, it is as you say. So Pilate said to the chief priest and to the crowd, I find no fault in this man.

But they were all the more fierce, saying he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.

Pilate looks at Jesus. Is this why they're mad at you? Because you're saying you're the king of the Jews and they're a little jealous.

Is that what's going on here? Pilate doesn't really get it. They don't really get it.

Pilate doesn't get it. The Jewish religious leaders are furious. The followers of Jesus Christ bailed on him when it became clear that these claims were going to put him into the hands of their enemies.

What about you? What about you?

Jesus Christ went to the cross, dying for his own self -testimony.

That as Jesus of Nazareth, he indeed was the Christ. He was the son of man. He was the son of God and that he's king.

And if he's the king of the Jews, if we read the covenantal conditions and Israel's role in the

Old Testament, then that clearly means that whoever is their king is indeed king of the whole world.

Just king of everybody. It is not anti -Semitic to say that Christ is king.

It's anti -Satanic to say that Christ is king. Christ indeed is king and he died for that testimony and he was raised to prove it.

What further testimony do we need other than the testimony of Jesus Christ himself who died holding to this truth and was raised to prove it?

And all who receive his testimony are welcome to his table. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the time you've given us in your word. We thank you for the clarity in which you have declared your son and his glory.

We thank you that he is co -equal in all of your glory, co -eternal, fully pleasing to you as our heavenly father and as our mediator, as fully a man, perfectly righteous, even now interceding and mediating on our behalf.

We thank you that you have given us such clear word through your son, Jesus Christ, that by your Holy Spirit that we would know and believe and be assured that indeed

Christ is king. I pray that you would bless us as we share in this meal and rejoice in your gospel.