And Jesus said, you will not believe me.
And if I asked you, you would not answer.
Long before this trial, they had already made up their minds about Jesus.
And Jesus knew that even if he was to ask them some questions, they wouldn't answer them.
They were only looking for one thing.
To put Jesus to death.
And that in a way that would still make the people think that they were the good guys.
Jesus said this to them.
From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of God.
This is quite the claim.
And to catch the full meaning of this, we almost have to go back and read the story carefully.
All along, Jesus has been referring to himself as the Son of Man.
And the Son of Man is a special title.
It refers to the Messiah.
The glorious king who would come to rule God's never-ending kingdom.
As it was revealed to Daniel in a vision long ago.
So Jesus is saying a lot here.
He's saying, yes, I am the Messiah.
And from now on, you will see me seated at the right hand of the mighty God.
And to be seated at the right hand is a special place of privilege and honor and authority.
And so Jesus is saying, from now on, or perhaps the next time you see me,
you will see me having that special position of authority, of glory, of power.
They all asked, are you then the Son of God?
You can almost hear it in their tone of voice, in the way they ask it.
This is not a sincere wondering.
This is an interrogation kind of question.
Are you then the Son of God?
Will you go so far as to claim for yourself that you are God's Son?
And Jesus replied saying, you say that I am.
Not the most direct answer.
And exactly why Jesus answers this way, I'll be honest, I don't know.
It's possible that the question is loaded with misconceptions about what it means for Jesus to be the Son of God.
Or maybe Jesus just wants to get them thinking about what they really intend to accuse Him of here.
Or perhaps Jesus is simply unwilling to answer the question in this moment.
He's not going to deny, and He's not going to give them in this moment what they're looking for.
But somewhere in the course of this conversation, Mark tells us in his Gospel
that Jesus eventually does simply say, yes, I am.
I am the Son of the Blessed One.
The Son of God.
And at this, the trial is over.
They accuse Jesus of blasphemy.
And from there, they march Him off to Pilate, the Roman governor.
And of course, before Pilate, they're not going to charge Him with blasphemy
because Pilate doesn't give a rip about that.
No, before Pilate, they charge Jesus with subverting our nation.
Which basically means disturbing the peace.
Undermining the status quo.
Stirring up the people.
Well, that has some truth to it.
Jesus has kind of been turning things upside down.
He's been exposing the hypocrisy and the corruption
of the majority of the religious leaders in Israel.
It's been a good kind of disturbing the peace.
They go on to say, to accuse Jesus of opposing payment of taxes to Caesar.
Not true.
A blatant lie.
They accuse Jesus of claiming to be the King of the Jews.
And He is.
But they're hoping to get Jesus into some political trouble with Pilate.
So Pilate examines and questions Jesus.
And three times that day, he declares Jesus to be innocent.
And that he's found nothing that he is guilty of or deserving of death.
And then finally, the religious leaders stir up the crowd
to demand that Jesus be executed by crucifixion.
The people begin shouting, crucify Him.
And it goes on and it goes on and it goes on.
Until finally, Pilate gives into their demands
and hands Jesus over to be executed.
After beating Jesus, they march Him out to the place of execution.
They strip Him of His clothes.
They nail His body to a wooden cross.
And then they lift Him up high in the air for all to see.
The people, and especially the religious leaders,
mocked Jesus as they saw Him hanging there, dying.
He saved others.
Let Him save Himself if He is the Son of God.
Jesus, as He hung there suffering,
prayed to God and said,
Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing.
At about noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
For the sun stopped shining,
and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Jesus called out with a loud voice,
Father,
into your hands I commit my spirit.
When He had said this, He breathed His last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened,
praised God and said,
Surely, this was a righteous man.
When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place,
they beat their breasts and went away.
But all those who knew Him,
including the women who had followed Him from Galilee,
stood at a distance,
watching these things.
From there,
Jesus' body was taken down and laid in a tomb by a man named Joseph.
This is the true story of Jesus' death,
from Luke's accounting of it.
And we might wonder,
well, what's the meaning of all this?
What are we to do with this?
How do we make sense of this?
And that's probably what most of Jesus' followers were thinking too,
as they witnessed and watched all of this in utter shock and disbelief.
The wonderful, miracle-working man,
who they had got to know and love and follow
around for the past three years,
was executed and now dead.
But even before any of this had happened,
Jesus told them it was coming.
He told them that it was coming,
and He explained why.
He had been saying before all this,
the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.
He had been saying,
the Son of Man must suffer many things
and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes
and be killed.
He told them it was coming,
and it was at the table,
as they marked the Passover together the night before,
that He explained why.
Let me read that part of the story again for us.
From Luke chapter 22.
When the hour came,
Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table,
and He said to them,
I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer.
Verse 19.
And He took bread,
gave thanks,
and broke it,
and gave it to them,
saying,
this is my body,
given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way,
after the supper,
He took the cup,
saying,
this cup is the new covenant
covenant in my blood,
which is poured out for you.
Jesus' death was not an accident.
It wasn't a stroke of bad luck.
It wasn't just some bad men
got the upper hand on Him.
No, His death had a deep purpose.
In fact,
it had been part of God's plan all along.
This is my body,
He said,
given for you.
I'm going to die for you,
my friends.
This cup is the new covenant in my blood,
which is poured out for you.
My blood is about to be poured out
for you,
my friends,
to establish a new deal
between you and God.
Oh, there's something much bigger going on here.
And we could go to many other passages
to bring this to light,
but the short and simple of it is this.
All of us have sinned against God.
We are all guilty before Him.
We,
the human race,
rebelled against God
way back at the beginning.
And all of us who are here today
share in the sentence of that guilt.
And each one of us has added to that guilt
with our own sins
and our own evils.
We could talk about the various kinds of sins.
some are obvious,
lying,
disobeying or dishonoring our parents,
sexual immorality,
gossip,
trying to hurt other people.
Or we could talk about
the more subtle sins.
Selfishness.
Pride.
Failing to love God
and other people
the way that we should.
Treating God
as if everything else in life
is more important than He is.
That's just a small sampling.
The list goes on.
There's all kinds of things
that we have done.
All of us have sinned against God
in our actions,
with our words,
in our attitudes.
As Paul says,
we all fall short
of God's glory.
Because of our sins
we are in big trouble with God.
And to do what is right
and just
and good for the world
means that God will someday
have to deal
with our sins,
with our guilt.
In God's own word,
a day of judgment.
A day of punishment.
So that's our big problem.
That's why we desperately need
this new deal
with God
that Jesus came to bring about
by His blood.
We need a way
for our sins to be forgiven.
We need a way
for our guilt
to be taken away.
And God
needs a way
to do that
that is just
and right.
And so long ago
God came up with a way.
The only way.
God would send
His Son, Jesus,
into the world.
He would permit
Jesus to take
the punishment
that we deserve
upon Himself
and suffer
and die
in our place.
The righteous
for the unrighteous.
A substitution.
That's what's going on here.
This is what Jesus means
when He says
my body
given
for you.
My blood
poured out
for you.
and make no mistake
God sent
Jesus to do this
because He loves you.
Because He loves me.
Because He loves
all the people
of the world.
And Jesus
for His part
came to do this
not just because
He had to
but because
He loves you
deeply.
I was reading
this morning
as He said
to His disciples
I lay down
my life
for the sheep.
My choice.
Because I love them.
This was His prayer
as Jesus hung
on the cross.
Father
forgive them.
It was a suffering
and death
that He went to
on purpose
to make
forgiveness
a reality
between God
and everyone
who will seek
His forgiveness.
And so once a month
we do this
in remembrance
of Him.
We celebrate
the Lord's table.
We partake of
broken bread
and a cup
to remember
the love of God
and the love
of Jesus
that saved us
that set us free
that secured
for us
a new
and wonderful
relationship
with God.
This table
is precious
to us.
In a few minutes
we'll hear
the words
of a familiar
song playing
in the background.
Jesus loves me
this I know.
And I just want
to ask you
that question
this morning
as we do this.
Do you know
that Jesus
loves you?
does your heart
know it?
How can we
know it?
Because the Bible
tells us
that Jesus
came to die
for us.
The greatest
act of love
that could ever
be done
at the cross.
So let's
take some time
to quietly
reflect
and pray.
I want to
encourage you
in these moments
as the music
plays
to confess
your sins
to God.
Think over
the past month.
Think over
the past week.
Reflect on
what Jesus
has done
for you
and why.
After we've
had a few
minutes to do
that
Ryan's going
to come up
and he's going
to serve
the bread
and the cup.
And if you're
here this morning
and you have
given yourself
to Jesus
as your
king,
as your
savior,
then I want
to invite you
to partake,
to participate
with us,
to remember
with us.
If you haven't
made that decision
yet, I want
to encourage
you to abstain
from it until
you're ready to.
But perhaps
you could make
that decision
this morning.
It's as simple
as admitting
to God
our sins,
confessing
to him,
asking for
his forgiveness
and asking
for him
to be
our Lord
and our
savior.
We'll wait
until everyone
has been served
and then we'll
eat and we'll
drink together
in unison.
and
okay,
let's
Thank you.
Let's see.
Thank you.
Let's eat and drink in remembrance of Christ.