[0:00] Well, the first important thing that I will say is open your Bibles. Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 23.
[0:17] Let's pray.
[1:00] Our Father, this morning our prayers are instructed by Scripture. And for one, I'm reminded of the text in Psalm 119 where the psalmist prayed, Open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous truths of thy law.
[1:18] And apart from your working to give us understanding, we will leave here unchanged, indifferent, no more drawn to the glory of Christ than we were before.
[1:37] And so we are thankful for the instruction of Scripture that reminds us to beg for those things that are appropriate and honoring to Christ. We are also reminded of the words of Zechariah where he said, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
[1:57] And we are dependent upon the Spirit of God making your word clear, persuasive, encouraging, convicting for the glory of Christ.
[2:13] We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So allow me to do something just a little different here. The second service. I'm going to ask whoever's running the slides, would you just not do them?
[2:26] Because I'm not used to this. Okay. So bear with me. Just follow me. How's that? And don't look for little prompts on the screen because they'll throw you off and they'll probably throw me off.
[2:37] And we'll all wonder what happened on the way to Gethsemane. So let me start by saying this. Earlier as I was sitting here on the front, which is my place, a little girl asked me, Are you preaching?
[2:53] I thought, how is she? Well, it's this, you know, the rig that gives me away. And I said, Yes, I am. I said, Will you pray for me? She got this little quizzical look on her face.
[3:05] And I said, Did you know that you're supposed to pray when the pastor preaches? And with a little innocent face, she said, No, I didn't. I said, Well, the Bible says to do it.
[3:19] And how many of you know that praying is part of your obligation while someone is preaching the word of God? Wave your hand just kind of like this so I know you don't need fresh instruction.
[3:31] Go ahead. The scriptures are explicit that you have an obligation to pray for the preaching of the word of God.
[3:41] Now, when a pastor says something like that, there's a little follow-up that should always happen. Do you know what it is? Where's that in the Bible? Shouldn't that be the thought?
[3:53] Where do you find that? And that Tim Kenoyer really has no authority, nothing of significance to say apart from Scripture. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 1 and 2.
[4:05] Pray that the word of God would have free course and bear fruit among you. And if I'm redundant and repetitious about one thing in particular, apart from believing the Lord Jesus Christ, it ought to be pray when a man's preaching.
[4:20] And I will not be put out, if you think it's necessary, while I am preaching, to go ahead and say out loud, Lord, help him. It's not going to bother me. I say it when I'm preaching.
[4:35] Because apart from the enabling of the Spirit of God, the preaching of the word of God is not made effective, either in the hearts of believers or in the lives of unbelievers.
[4:51] So, with that as an introduction, let me say that it will also be my privilege, Lord willing, and the creek doesn't rise, that I preached on May 18th.
[5:01] And I'm going to tell you ahead of time what I'm going to preach that week so that you can appreciate this morning the organic unity of Scripture.
[5:11] What I mean by that is how the Bible fits together. And what we are going to be looking at this morning has bearing on the central theme of the Scriptures, which, by the way, is Jesus.
[5:27] The first passage that became significant in my life was passages that convicted Tim Kenoyer of the darkness of his soul and his absolute depravity.
[5:45] And I remember the terrible burden of realizing that I was a sinner that stood justly condemned before a holy God. And I was broken by that.
[5:56] The second passage that became very significant to me was in Romans, several different texts that say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's not the Romans passage, but it says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
[6:11] Romans 10, 11. And I remember crying out and finding the blessing and the relief of salvation through the Lord Jesus alone. Later on in my life, the Lord used 1 Peter 1, verse 8 in particular to really change some of the trajectory of my life.
[6:35] Some of you may know it by heart. Whom having not seen, we love. Though now we see him not yet believing, we are filled with joy, inexpressible, and full of glory.
[6:51] And that verse got a hold of me. Because I realized that while I didn't want to admit it, more often than not, I was like that nasty little queen, you know, mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?
[7:04] Now, I know none of you think that way. But you know when other people are talking about what's a blessing to them, you're thinking you're it? Or when people aren't thinking about you, you're a little put out, right?
[7:20] Huh? And that verse began convicting Tim Knoyer that he didn't love Jesus like he should. And that began a journey.
[7:32] That will end up in eternity. And I will be satisfied when I see him as he is, and I shall be like him.
[7:51] Isn't that good? So how does that relate to today? Well, our pastors have been working their way through the last portion of Luke, and one sermon after another has just reminded us of the beauty and the glory of Jesus.
[8:12] Isn't that right? I mean, I remember Pastor Andrew preaching about the love of Christ for Judas. Judas. It's like, you're kidding me? And I just, that's my Jesus.
[8:25] And you know, if he can love Judas, Tim's within his range. And then the other week, Pastor David was talking about Jesus praying in the garden, and he was talking about the burden of what it was to go to the cross, and he was willing to do that.
[8:43] Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, right? That's my Jesus. And last week, Pastor Andrew, by the way, how many of you are praying for Pastor Andrew on a regular basis before he goes, raise your hands.
[8:57] Everybody get your hand up. Just out of practice. Go ahead. Look at me. Pray for your pastors, right? Okay? But last week, come back to the subject.
[9:12] Pastor Andrew was talking about Jesus and his love for Peter. how broken Peter must have felt when he denied the Lord Jesus.
[9:25] And Jesus loved him anyway. Never changed his mind about Peter. And if Jesus won't change his mind about Peter, he won't change his mind about Tim.
[9:37] And so here we are this morning in another portion where the takeaway that I want you to take with you when you leave this morning is that, wow, that's my Savior.
[9:52] And I have every reason to love him because he is so unbelievable in his love and his grace. I want us to look in three simple steps.
[10:08] Number one, what do we see in the text? And we're not going to spend a lot of time there because I think the text is fairly well known and while there are some important pieces to draw from it, I think the overarching question is going to be why did Jesus do what he did?
[10:27] namely in being quiet in the face of false accusations. Then the last thing that we're going to look at is how does this fit into my life?
[10:40] One of the characteristics of Bible preaching is that it's not just an explanation of the text itself but it is a spirit-enabled application of how does that fit my life and how should I live because of Jesus?
[10:57] Well, let's look first of all at the text and just a reminder to you here that where we are in chapter 23 is we are after chapter 22 and in chapter 22 Jesus had been before the Sanhedrin, the high court of the nation of Israel and they had brought him in and their intention was to accuse him and to put him to death and their accusations across the board were all false.
[11:25] Every one of them. They lie about this, they lie about that, they lie about the other thing and they couldn't even get their lies to fit and I've thought about that.
[11:37] That must have been profoundly frustrating for the individuals who are bringing the accusations of Jesus to get, you know, hey, would you mind telling a lie about Jesus and that the next guy couldn't pull off the lie to make it fit with the previous one?
[11:51] It was a mess and he was quiet. One false accusation after another, he was quiet. I had the privilege of raising four children and one of the things I learned about children, maybe my mind were different, but in our children's case, sometimes things would happen in the basement.
[12:13] Do you understand what I'm saying? things would happen in the basement and more often than not it happened with my boys, not as much as my girls, but my, and I'd hear something going on down there and then suddenly I'd hear running, coming up the steps and sometimes I thought to myself, the first person is probably guilty.
[12:36] But one of the things I noticed is that when my boys came up to deliver a report, they were always innocent and they were ready to declare their innocence with all sincerity and passion just befitting of the moment.
[12:54] You know, it's like, yeah, innocent as, you know, wind-driven snow and it's normal and so here we kind of find Jesus with all these accusations.
[13:05] He didn't say a word. Didn't say a word. Finally, you know the scene. The high priest says, are you? And he says, yeah, you got that one and he says, by the way, the day is coming when?
[13:20] And he makes it clear that judgment is going to happen and there's no question. Well, we've heard what you said. You're guilty of blasphemy. You deserve death. They decide we can't put him to death formally, legally so we have to march him over to the Roman authorities.
[13:37] That's Pilate. That's where we pick up in the passage that we're looking at this week and we find that they come in the morning before Pilate and they come to accuse him and interestingly enough, and I want you to notice this anyway, in verse 2, they begin to accuse him saying, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar.
[14:05] completely different accusation than what had gone on all night in that trumped up judgment against Jesus, completely inappropriate and contrary to a Jewish law.
[14:20] So here they come to the civil authorities and instead of saying, you know, we've got a problem with a theological issue in the fact that this man is saying that he is God's son, no, we're concerned about something completely different.
[14:34] This is a political matter and we're very concerned. What was their accusation? You're misleading the nation and that word means to kind of twist and take the people away from where they should be.
[14:50] Now we get to the second part and that's really the interesting part and part in fact because here they are accusing Jesus of something completely contrary to what his public teaching had been.
[15:01] they said that Jesus was encouraging the nation not to pay their taxes. I'm not going to ask if any of you have ever been audited because I would expect you not to wave at me if you have.
[15:19] But if you think that an audit by the IRS is something that you prefer not going through, I assure you that not paying taxes to the Roman authorities was far more severe and the consequences more destructive to your well-being than what we go through here.
[15:37] And the Romans were very, very interested in seeing that all of their taxes were gathered. And they brought a charge that should have made Pilate's hair stand on end.
[15:54] It's interesting actually when you read the portion of scripture here that Pilate was really not put out by that.
[16:05] Now there's a reason because Pilate was not ignorant of what was going on in his jurisdiction and he fundamentally knew that the problem that the Jewish leadership had with Jesus had nothing to do with Rome or taxation.
[16:22] It had to do with their internal dispute with Jesus and what he was teaching. But they come and they make these charges and once again I want you to recognize that in the face of these false allegations for all practical purposes Jesus is quiet.
[16:43] He doesn't say anything. And you stop and recognize that apart from the earlier response that he had given to the high priest regarding his deity fundamentally his communications with Pilate were quite similar.
[17:02] And it was striking to Pilate that in the face of these accusations Jesus was quiet. in particular because Pilate knew that he was in the position at least he assumed that he was in the position of putting Jesus to death.
[17:21] What's the deal with you? I'm in the situation that should I decide you can be executed or should I decide you could be forgiven and excused.
[17:34] In the text it is interesting that in the face of the false accusations that Jesus was subjected to that eventually as we read there in the passage Pilate says this I find no guilt in this man.
[17:52] I want you to understand that in making that statement Pilate was making a judgment that had standing. He wasn't just giving a little bit of an opinion.
[18:04] You know what I'm not real sure. No, this man is innocent. Practically speaking the matter should have stood there but as you read in the text in verse 5 it says but they were urgent when they found out that Pilate was not willing to accommodate their false accusations against Jesus they became even more animated and more concerned with the fact that their ambitions of seeing Jesus crucified on the cross were going to come to an end and they weren't going to accomplish their agenda.
[18:36] I do want you to understand that by this point in Pilate's public life he had already endured several very significant political upheavals among the Jews and the powers that were in Rome were becoming a little suspicious of Pilate's ability to reign to govern and that helps us understand a little bit why once the public outcry became so significant and so pointed that Pilate went ahead and listened further and eventually accommodated the unjust ambitions of a wicked people in a desire to crucify Christ.
[19:23] Well as things are playing out okay we also read not usually stirring up people but he's teaching throughout all Judea and from Galilee even to this place and when Pilate heard those words Judea and Galilee he thought to himself ha!
[19:40] a brilliant opportunity of political dodgem. Why? Because he knew that Herod who was the one responsible for these areas Judea and Galilee was in town and the Roman court system allowed for an individual to be judged where he committed the crime or where he was accused of the crime where he lived or in Rome okay and so when Pilate heard that Herod was in town he thought to himself now I have an out I really don't be responsible for putting this guy to death because I know this is just a matter of political intrigue and hateful attitude towards an undeserving individual who's falsely accused let me hand this off to Herod how many of you have ever found it convenient to have somebody else do your dirty work we've all done that it's like yeah I saw that hand go talk to your dad that was terrifying to me because he would always say go pick a belt
[20:56] I never found one that worked okay so here is Pilate thinking to himself ha I have this opportunity of handing off judgment to Herod now we do know that when Herod had the opportunity he was quite intrigued by this and he thought to himself you know what I've been curious about this Jesus remember earlier is this John the Baptist come back from the dead and didn't know who he was and he'd heard now by the way you do have to understand that authoritarian individuals like Pilate and Herod did work hard to have kind of a pulse on what was happening in their region because they were responsible particularly for civil obedience and so they would have known well there's this guy going around doing miracles he turned water into wine and he walked on water and he healed the sick and he's raised the dead and Herod thought to himself you know what
[22:02] I'd really like to see him do one of these you know Jesus shows up they mock him Jesus doesn't answer doesn't show a miracle he's quiet he's quiet and it frustrates Herod and he sends him back to Pilate who ultimately gives in and has Jesus delivered to be crucified that's in broad terms the what of the text now you can work through the particular details and see it for yourself and it's there to be considered and it's there for our record to understand what happened but I think another thing that is very important for us to understand as we are working our way through the text is it's appropriate when we are engaged in personal Bible study to ask the question why why do you do that and you probably have done that when one of your children has come to you or somebody else has come and said so and so did such and such to me and you ask yourself why why did you do that and so what I want us to do next is I want us to think about the why behind the silence of our
[23:37] Savior because it's significant the why is significant in part because the truth of the matter is the silence is not normal now you may think to yourself oh well I am very guarded in what I say but the truth of the matter is you're not we all struggle with our tongue James makes that clear doesn't it we struggle with our tongue I will tell you that the older I get the more pleasure I take in the things I don't say rather than the things I do say and in relationship to that one of the things that I found that has helped me and I have said so many things that I shouldn't have said is a passage of scripture there are many of them that come to mind but one in particular Proverbs chapter 10 verse 19 when words are many transgression is not lacking when words are many transgression is not lacking do you know what that's saying the more
[24:41] I talk the higher the probability that I'm going to say something I shouldn't now in relationship to that because I would I would make the assumption that most of you here are believers and since you are believers I'm going to make another assumption that you're concerned with your ongoing spiritual development and your progressive hatred for sin right I don't want to keep on doing those things that I have done in the past if there is a sincere desire to grow and change it will show up in the battery of bible verses you have that are supportive of your struggle did you understand what I said I'm a deer hunter and I've learned that more arrows are better than fewer arrows and what do I mean by that if I miss with one I'd like to have another and another and another until I accomplish my end okay same thing with bible verses you're struggling with a matter of sin whether it is in the matter of moral purity or it's the matter of pride pride cometh before a and a haughty spirit before
[25:59] I hope that that's not the end of the passages that you have that relate to that ongoing struggle my point is this is that when we recognize that we are dealing with a battle of sin in our heart one of the indications that we're taking that struggle seriously is we begin to fill up our mind with passages that the Holy Spirit will bring to mind to help us with that battle amen the Holy Spirit is really not obligated to help me with my self-talk how many of you know what I mean by self-talk now Tim the Holy Spirit is obligated to take the scriptures and use them is not my word a fire is not my word a hammer the word of God coupled with the spirit of God is going to help Tim Knoyer be a little less inclined to do and say and think some of the things that I do my point the larger focus is that silence is not normal and it would have been normal for Jesus to defend himself secondly we do have many
[27:20] Bible examples of individuals who when they're falsely accused they went ahead and had something to say Acts chapter 4 Peter and John before the Sanhedrin they had something to say how is it that these unlearned men are so proficient well they figured out they had been with Jesus I think about Stephen in Acts chapter 7 brought with false accusation and any of you who have read Stephen's little brief sermon know that he starts out with just a wonderful recitation of Old Testament history and he ends up what does he do you hard hearted stiff neck he lets them know that they are having a problem with sin and it just turned them angry well we think about Paul falsely accused he defended himself and I think about the passage in Luke chapter 12 verse 11 and 12 let's look at it just for a moment you're in
[28:24] Luke 22 so turn back just for a second Luke chapter 12 verse 11 and 12 here's what it says and when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say a little comment here probably most of us here when we know we're going into an adversarial conversation we write down I hope some of the things that we think need to be said am I right I used to put them on a little three by five card or a little note somewhere so I knew where I was and I knew what I thought needed to be said at the moment after I prayed and thought about it and Jesus says by the way when you're in this situation don't fret about it why for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you is this here's
[29:25] Jesus who was quiet contrary to the general nature of humanity number two he was quiet contrary to the passage in Luke chapter 12 that tells us when you're brought in and false don't worry about it the Holy Spirit will give you something to say so we have to ask ourselves why didn't Jesus say anything it's important now when we're trying to figure out why Jesus was silent let me again give a little note in relationship to that question when we are looking for a significant answer to a difficult question make it clear in your thinking that the Bible is the best resource to get a reliable answer can I say that slowly the Bible is the best resource to get a reliable answer I am grieved of heart by how often I see believers professing to believe in the sufficiency of scripture who will rely upon every other form of advice than scripture well I quote such and such a psychologist or I'll quote such and such a therapist or I'll quote such and such a person who had a screed on
[30:47] Facebook or wherever else and those things really kind of wrap me around the axle and I am fully persuaded of their significance and the scripture is not in them it's not a bad idea to consult the internet when you want to figure out how to change your oil okay but when you're trying to deal with a problem of your soul a person who has a Ph.D.
[31:16] in psychology and an SS in theology is not your best resource what do you mean by SS I mean you know something they learned in Sunday school in fourth grade it's not significant enough to stake your life on it I don't have a problem with individuals who don't on the instant have a Bible answer I have a problem with people who don't look for a Bible answer can I say that again slowly I have a problem with people that don't look for a Bible answer there's something wrong when we believe that the God of this universe the savior of mankind can be trusted to get us to heaven but not give us adequate counsel on how to solve the problems we have in life there's something wrong and we wonder why we're in the mess we are so we find that
[32:21] Jesus was quiet and we have to ask why well first I want you to know that Jesus never said anything that his father didn't tell him to say that's pretty striking isn't it how many of you would like that to be true of you Jesus never said anything that wasn't according to his father's will John chapter 8 verse 28 listen to this one I do nothing of my own authority but speak just as the father taught me sometimes I have to ask myself after I've said something and you know the alarm bell goes off in my conscience any of you have that problem it's like and and I get caught between two things self justification well you righteous man
[33:24] Tim 76 anything yeah right where's it that in the Bible Jesus never said anything that his father didn't instruct him to say hey here's another passage John chapter 12 verse 49 and 50 I have not spoken on my own authority but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak and by the way the best way to know what the father wants you to say are you worried for this one is by being sure that what you want to say is corroborated supported confirmed in the scriptures right I can't tell you how many harebrained ideas I've had that I thought were just so full of righteousness and later on I thought you know what there is not a Bible verse that comes close Jesus said
[34:25] I never said a thing that my father didn't want me to say and we've all been there haven't we one of the things that happens in human life is after we say something we sometimes particularly in believers lives I want you to understand that believers have this little alarm bell that goes off am I right it's like oh I'm not sure about that one and then you get an argument with yourself well I wouldn't have said what I did if he hadn't said what he did well it needed to be said it was true you know I you know what I'm saying here's Jesus I never have said anything that my father didn't want me to say I want to be like that so we can safely say if Jesus was quiet now it was because the father wanted him to be quiet we do know secondly that
[35:35] Jesus was quite aware that what he could say wouldn't change people's hearts anyway back up you're in Luke chapter 23 but just go back if you would to Luke chapter 22 and read what we find out there in verse 67 if you are the Christ they said tell us but he said to them if I tell you you will not believe and if I ask you you will not answer how many of you on occasion have known that nothing you say is going to make any difference and swine lest they turn and rend you there are times that getting in a dispute is prompted by individuals who are quite full of their own righteousness and believe that they are the end of persuasion there's a time to be quiet and
[36:37] Jesus here in the text made it clear that there was a time to be quiet there's something even more important than those two things though and I want you to understand that that behind this business of being quiet in a very unusual and challenging time is the fact that Jesus submitted to the plan of salvation he knew what was going on he knew why he had come and he knew what needed to be done and so I ask you when you stop and think about Jesus being quiet in this is your heart drawn to consider that I know why he was quiet he had me in mind he was thinking about the cross he was thinking about my redemption he was thinking about the plan of the father for all of eternity to bring about the salvation of individuals and he knew how this was supposed to play out and there was no reason to interfere if you think with me back through the history of scripture and
[37:51] I take you back just for a moment to Genesis chapter 3 where sin entered the garden you will remember that after sin entered the garden God provided skins and where do skins come from animals now we don't know for a fact what the first animal was because it doesn't tell us and when the scripture doesn't tell us we probably do well not to add our own thinking to it would you agree with that but something had to die to provide a covering we also know!
[38:31] that when God said to Abraham I want you to take your son up that mountain and I want you to sacrifice him as Isaac and Abraham are marching up the mountain remember Isaac says I get it here's the fire here's the wood where where's the lamb right what does Abraham say God will provide and God provides a lamb when the nation of Israel in slavery in Egypt was told that every firstborn was going to die there was one remedy it was blood on the doorpost and on the lentils when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming do you know what he said behold behold the lamb of
[39:33] God that takes away the sin of the world turn in your Bibles now if you would back to Isaiah chapter 53 why was Jesus quiet and at your own leisure when you're home later I want you to read from Isaiah chapter 52 verse 13 all the way to the end of the chapter and just do that with a quiet spirit and revel in the sweetness of the Lord
[40:33] Jesus but in verse 4 surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we were turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that was led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before it shears is silent so he opened not his mouth probably one of the most striking portions of Isaiah chapter 53 is verse 10 I think in the King James it says for it pleased the
[41:36] Lord to bruise him I think that God the father was willing that his son should die for me it's overwhelming so how does that fit today well you're here this morning as one who knows the Lord Jesus and your heart just kind of thrills when you stop and think that's my savior who loves me and someday I'm going to see him face to face there may be some of you that this morning you have to admit like in revelation where it says to the church at Ephesus you've lost your first love and this morning the truth of the matter is your heart is just indifferent to the sweetness of the savior that in eternity will occupy all of your thinking and your joy and you're sitting here saying you know there's something wrong with me and I don't want to stay this way well there's a remedy cry out to the Lord and say look do something about this stone cold heart you know I can mock a movie where someone stands up and says mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all but I am caught in that sin and I wanted to change
[43:11] I can tell you this God answers that kind of prayer there may be some of you here that do not know Christ and I can tell you you know full well what the bitterness is of being a self focused unhappy insecure guilt ridden person and there is no remedy for your soul except in Jesus let's close in prayer father let your word fall on fertile soil to the glory of Christ amen