Today I want to tell you, first of all, about a building called the Domus Gelatiana,
which was unearthed in 1857, and it's in Rome.
It's on the Palatine Hill in Rome.
And in the building there's a picture which dates from about the 3rd century.
I wish I had it for you, but in the picture there's a young man to the left
who is making some kind of gesture with his hand,
and he's looking at a man to the right, a figure who is hanging on a cross
and has the head of a donkey.
And underneath the picture, written in Greek, but I'll translate it for you,
according to Wikipedia, it says,
Alexa Menos worships his God.
What an embarrassment.
How cutting.
No one else has to follow such an embarrassing leader.
The atheists follow intelligent scientists.
The Muslims follow the mighty Muhammad.
The Buddhists follow their peaceful, liberal Dalai Lama.
And the Hindus have so many to pick from, one of them has got to suit your tastes.
But for Christians, nothing is going to change the fact that we worship a pretty stupid-looking God,
a pretty pathetic-looking leader.
No one else follows such an embarrassing God.
Whoever heard of a God who was caught by his creatures and killed on a cross,
naked as the day he was born,
he was the laughingstock of the nations.
Yet Paul writes,
I am not ashamed of the gospel.
And his worshippers still sing,
thank you for the cross.
And we celebrate Good Friday.
In fact, we're on mission together this week,
just so that everybody knows
that we follow this embarrassing God.
So as we look at Luke chapter 23 together,
tonight we're going to remember why.
And you will want to have it in front of you,
because we're going to move fairly swiftly through the story.
In verse 1,
the time has come,
the moment the scribes and the chief priests have been waiting for.
As Jesus had predicted,
and as they had planned,
they handed Jesus over to a Gentile,
a Roman governor.
The story then unfolds in three trials.
In trial 1,
Jesus stands before Pilate.
That's in verse 1 to 5.
In trial 2,
Jesus stands before Herod.
And in trial 3,
he's back in front of Pilate again.
Now as we look through these three trials together,
there are two main themes
that Luke highlights for us.
I'm going to flag them right up front,
and we'll see them as we go through.
Okay, firstly,
Luke shows us that Jesus is king.
So look out for that.
And secondly,
that he is innocent.
Okay,
those are the two themes,
that Jesus is king,
and that he is innocent.
Take a look at verse 2 in the first trial.
Although Jesus is accused of several different things,
they all boil down into one issue,
and that's Jesus' claim to be king.
You see,
Jesus is accused of misleading the nation.
How has he been doing that?
By opposing payment of taxes to Caesar.
Why has he been doing that?
They say,
because he claims to be king himself.
Now in verse 3,
Pilate asks,
are you the king of the Jews?
And Jesus' response is surprisingly vague.
Because,
I think it's because,
Pilate doesn't know what he's asking.
Really.
Pilate wants to know whether Jesus is out to overthrow the Roman rule.
Is Jesus an insurrectionist,
a terrorist,
trying to arouse a rebel army?
Now the answer to that,
of course,
is no.
Jesus says in John,
my kingdom is not of this world.
And actually,
if you look back as to whether Jesus opposed payment of taxes to Caesar,
he didn't.
But Jesus says,
you have said so,
because that isn't the full story,
is it?
Jesus is in fact the king of the Jews.
And that's exactly Luke's point.
Now,
whatever Pilate thinks this means,
he obviously doesn't think that Jesus is a threat to the civil order.
In verse 4,
he announces his verdict.
You see it there?
It seems to be a fairly clear-cut case.
Pilate says,
I find no basis for a charge against this man.
And this is the first declaration of Jesus' innocence in the chapter.
It is certainly not the last.
We've already seen our two themes,
haven't we?
Jesus' kingship,
is the issue in contention.
And Jesus' innocence is obvious.
That should have been the end of the story.
But instead,
the mob shout louder to get their point across.
They say,
he stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching.
He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.
Now,
during their little speech,
however,
Pilate spots a way out.
If Jesus is from Galilee,
he is under Herod's jurisdiction.
So,
Pilate sends Jesus off to Herod,
who happens to be staying about 10 minutes down the road.
And with that,
we come to the end of trial one.
We've seen those two main themes.
Jesus' kingship,
Jesus' innocence.
Before we launch into trial two,
which goes from verse 6 to 12,
let me just give you a taster of what's happened
previously between Herod and Jesus so far.
Okay,
previously on Herod and Jesus.
In chapter 13,
some Pharisees came to Jesus
and said to him,
leave this place and go somewhere else.
Herod wants to kill you.
Jesus replied,
in his usual calming way,
go tell that fox,
I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day,
for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem.
So,
meek and mild,
Jesus trying to smooth everything over.
How do you think
the trial between Herod and Jesus
is going to go down then?
You know?
Look at verse 8.
Knowing the background
certainly puts a different spin on verse 8,
don't you think?
When Luke says that
Herod was greatly pleased to see Jesus
because for a long time
he'd been wanting to see him,
it sounds more like a spider
pleased to have just caught a fly in his web
rather than a distant admirer.
meeting his celebrity hero.
But perhaps Herod is a genuine fan.
I mean, look at what Luke goes on to say.
Herod wanted to see Jesus
perform a sign of some sort.
Maybe that's not so sinister after all.
But that's only if you haven't read Luke 11 recently.
Now, some of us may have,
but for the rest of us,
let me remind you
what Jesus tells us about sign seekers.
You might want to turn there.
You don't have to,
but I'm going to be reading from verse 29
if you look at Luke 11.
As the crowds increased,
right,
Jesus is becoming very popular,
and to keep the crowd on side,
he says,
this is a wicked generation.
It asks for a sign,
but none will be given it
except the sign of Jonah.
For as Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites,
so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.
The Queen of the South,
or the Queen of Sheba,
if you've heard that name,
the Queen of the South
will rise at the judgment
with the people of this generation
and condemn them,
for she came from the ends of the earth
to listen to Solomon's wisdom,
and now something greater than Solomon is here.
The men of Nineveh will stand up
at the judgment with this generation
and condemn it,
for they repented at the preaching of Jonah,
and now something greater than Jonah is here.
So do you see what Jesus says about sign seekers?
This is a wicked generation.
See, Herod's sign seeking
is not such a positive thing after all, is it?
Luke tells us that sign seekers are evil
because, the reason in Luke 11 was,
because they do not, in fact,
listen to God's messengers, do they?
Did you see that?
They want to be amazed and entertained,
but not taught,
when signs are actually about teaching.
Herod is a typical sign seeker,
just like the crowds of people in Luke 11.
When he meets Jesus,
he wants to see magic tricks,
but he has failed to notice
that he is standing before
a prophet even greater than Jonah
and a king even greater than Solomon.
Jesus actually did many, many signs
which attested to who he was,
who he is,
but sign seekers don't pay attention
to what the signs actually say.
They just want to see magic tricks.
Herod should repent of his sins
like the Ninevites did
when Jonah came to them.
He should bow down in honor of the king
as the queen of the south did
when she met Solomon,
but that's not what he does.
Let's keep reading.
In verse 9,
he bombards Jesus with questions.
Jesus gives no reply.
Why do you think that is?
I don't think Herod will be listening.
You see, sign seekers
don't listen to God's messengers anyway.
What is the point?
Even worse though,
when Jesus refuses to answer his questions
and after the chief priests
and the teachers of the law
have had their go at accusing Jesus again,
Herod begins to mock Jesus' kingship.
Herod and his soldiers
ridiculed and mocked him,
dressing him in an elegant robe,
they sent him back to Pilate.
Now, I think the robe
reminds us of Solomon again.
Did it ring those bells for you?
You see, Solomon,
clothed in all his splendor,
is the archetypal Old Testament king.
You know, he's the bee's knees king
of the Old Testament.
The robe is certainly royal and kingly.
And you see,
the awful mistake
that Herod and his soldiers
have made,
and the terrible evil
that they are committing,
is that they are standing
before a king
greater than Solomon,
yet they mock him
as if he were a common jester
for their entertainment.
Not a king at all.
In fact, though,
the mockery
that Jesus endured that night
only further confirms
his identity
as God's anointed king.
You'd think
a palace
and a robe
and all that kind of thing
would confirm
someone's identity as king.
But you see,
the Old Testament
foreshadowed a king
who would come
and who would be mocked
and spit upon
and treated badly.
That's why we read
from Psalm 89.
Now, Psalm 89 was long
and I hope you were able
to follow all the way through.
If not, go over it again.
It's rockin' awesome.
Anyway,
back to Psalm 89,
the psalm,
the mood of the psalm
radically changes
halfway through.
Okay, so in the first half,
the psalmist begins
by recounting
God's amazing promises
to David,
the promises he gave
to David in 2 Samuel 7.
Okay, that one of David's sons,
one of David's descendants
would sit on his throne forever
and would conquer
all his enemies
and so on and so forth.
Would reign over
this perfect kingdom forever.
Okay.
But halfway through the psalm,
the mood changes dramatically
because the Lord
does not seem
to be keeping
his promise.
Let me read
from verse 49
of Psalm 89.
Lord,
where is your former
great love
which in your faithfulness
you swore to David?
Remember, Lord,
how your servant
has been mocked,
how I bear in my heart
the taunts
of all the nations,
the taunts
with which your enemies,
Lord,
have mocked,
with which they have mocked
every step
of your anointed one.
Do you see how
what God's anointed king
is experiencing
in the psalm
is fulfilled
in Jesus' experience
before Herod?
The mockery
that Jesus endured
in Luke 23
only further confirms
that Jesus
is God's anointed king
because that's what
God's people
are always taught
to expect.
Now,
before we move on
to trial three,
let's just think about this
just really briefly
in the 21st century
for a moment.
We still have
sign seekers
and mockers,
don't we?
People who say,
I will only follow Jesus
if he shows me a sign
or shows me a miracle
or appears to me
in some way.
And when he doesn't,
they mock us,
his people.
which Jesus takes
personally.
They mock us.
But friends,
remember that Jesus
is the king.
He has already
given us
plenty of evidence
of that.
It is just that
sign seekers
will not listen
to God's words,
to God's messengers.
Well,
finally,
let's go to trial three.
The third and final trial
begins in verse 13.
And much of the same ground
is repeated again.
I'm not going to cover it
in detail for the sake
of time.
But you see,
in the first half
of verse 14,
Jesus is accused
again.
In the second half,
Pilate declares
his innocence
again.
In verse 15,
we are told Herod's verdict
agrees with Pilate.
So even Herod
says Jesus has done
nothing to deserve death.
That's the third statement
of Jesus' innocence.
And in verse 16,
in light of all this,
we're told that
Pilate wants to punish
Jesus
and then release him.
It seems absurd
that he even wants
to punish him,
doesn't it,
really?
But he wants
to release him.
And from this point on,
there's one major question
that begins to overhang
the whole story.
Okay?
And that question is,
who will be released?
A prisoner called Barabbas
is introduced.
And it's either him
or Jesus.
As it becomes more
and more apparent
that it will be Barabbas,
our two themes
turn into two
tragic ironies.
We've seen as we've
gone through these trials
that Jesus is king
and that Jesus is innocent.
In the last scene,
we see that the crowd
want Barabbas to be released
even though he's not the king
and he's not innocent.
Now, the first irony then
is hidden in the meaning
of Barabbas' name.
Barabbas actually means
son of the father.
Bar meaning son
and Abba meaning father.
Right?
Now, you see,
the irony is
that the title
son of the father
is a title
often used
of God's
anointed king.
If you can think back
to the Old Testament again,
and we've already been
talking about 2 Samuel 7,
you might remember
when God promised David
that one of his descendants
would sit on the throne
over God's kingdom
forever,
God says
of that descendant,
of that son,
I will be to him
a father
and he shall be
to me
a son.
But Barabbas
is not the true
son of the father,
is he?
Not in that kingly sense.
Jesus is the true
son of the father,
the true king
descended from David
who will rule
over God's kingdom
forever.
Yet the crowd
don't want their king.
They demand
that Barabbas
be released,
the unworthy son,
the son whose name
only underscores
how inadequately
he has lived up to it.
Now the second irony
relates to our second theme.
Jesus is innocent
but the crowd
want Barabbas,
the guilty one,
to be released.
In verse 19
you'll see Luke
gives details
of Barabbas' crime.
He actually did
pretty much
exactly
what Jesus
is being accused of.
He was thrown
into prison
for an insurrection
in the city
and for murder
during that insurrection.
This was a crime
deserving of crucifixion
but the crowd
want Jesus
to be crucified.
You see in verse 20
we're told that
Pilate appealed
to the crowd
again
wanting to release Jesus
but they kept shouting
crucify him,
crucify him.
For the third time
he spoke to them
why?
What crime
has this man committed?
I have found in him
no grounds
for the death penalty.
That's at least
the fourth time
Jesus has been
declared innocent.
Who will be released?
Pilate says again
therefore
I will have him punished
and then release him.
But with loud shouts
they insistently demanded
that he be crucified.
And their shouts prevailed.
So Pilate decided
to grant their demand.
He released
the man
who had been thrown
into prison
for insurrection
and murder.
Notice how Luke's
already spelled that out.
He doesn't just call him
Barabbas.
He spells out again
the guilty one.
The guilty one
was released
because he was the one
they asked for
and they surrendered
Jesus to their will.
And with that
we come to the end
of our passage.
I want to close
with just two
implications
that come out
the two main themes
and the two
tragic ironies
that we've been
looking at.
Okay?
So these three trials
have shown us
that Jesus is innocent
and that he is king.
That is clear as day,
right?
Let's look at the
implications of Jesus'
innocence
and the implications
of Jesus' kingship.
Number one,
the fact that Jesus
was innocent
means that when,
means that he was not
taking the punishment
for his own sin.
That is the heart
of the good news
that we find
in this passage.
Barabbas is a wonderful
picture of that,
isn't he?
Jesus took the punishment
for Barabbas' sin,
didn't he?
And what the Bible
tells us is that
this is actually
what he's done
for all of us,
for all those
who trust in Jesus.
Just like Barabbas,
we have all been
inadequate sons
of our heavenly Father.
And we have all
rebelled against
his rightful rule
over us.
Because of that,
we all deserve
to be punished
by him.
But Jesus,
when he died
on the cross,
he died in our place
as our substitute.
All those
who trust in Jesus
get to go free
because Jesus
has taken
our punishment.
It's just
a simple swap.
It's not
too complicated,
really.
Children do this
on the playground.
It's a simple swap.
See,
we are treated
as innocent
because he was
treated as guilty.
This is the only way
to be freed
from the punishment
you deserve.
last of all,
let's talk about
the implications
of Jesus' kingship.
Because Jesus
was and is
God's true son,
death could not
hold him
as the Old Testament
also foretold,
and Jesus rose
from the dead
on the third day
to take his place
on his throne
until the time
when he will return
to judge
all the world.
On that day,
the Bible tells us,
no one will be
at all embarrassed
or ashamed
to be associated
with Jesus.
In fact,
all those
who had judged
Jesus
unworthy of their
honor and respect
will find that
when he returns
to judge them,
the sheer sight
of him will
terrify them.
And that will be
only the beginning
of their eternal
suffering.
I'm afraid
we've got to end here.
There is a day coming,
says the book
of Revelation,
chapter 1,
when Jesus Christ,
who is the true ruler
of the kings
of the earth,
isn't that a scary
title for Herod
and Pilate,
who is the true ruler
of the kings
of the earth,
who loves us
and has freed us
from our sins
by his blood,
will return.
And he will come
with the clouds
and every eye
will see him,
even those
who pierced him.
And all the peoples
on earth
will mourn
because of him.
Do you see?
King Jesus
will not put up
with rebellion
forever.
So I plead
with you,
if you haven't
already,
before it is too
late,
show him honor.
I'm not
mucking about.
I'm not just
preaching
because I have
a slot.
And it almost,
I'm not forcing you,
but it is
going to happen.
You know,
we need to be
prepared for this
event that is
going to happen.
Show this one
honor.
Bow down
and adore him
for his love
towards you.
Lest when he
returns
and you have
yet refused him,
you will weep
and wail
and suffer
eternal torment
at his
hand.
He will be
gentle with you
now,
but there comes
a day when he
will not be.
If you have
already bowed
the knee to
King Jesus,
first of all,
make sure that
you live that
way by obeying
his word.
You are in
his kingdom.
You have been
transferred from
the kingdom of
darkness into
his good kingdom.
Live that way.
It's a good way
to live.
You don't live
that way to get
into the kingdom,
but you live that
way because you
are in this good
kingdom.
So live that
way.
Secondly,
remember that
he loves you.
Think about
what he has
done for you.
Thirdly,
pray for your
friends who
don't yet know
him and warn
them.
Please pray this
week as we go
together on
mission to the
lost.
This is
wonderful.
Please use
this.
This would be
great to focus
your prayers on,
especially,
where is it?
If you look at
it, especially
Friday the 22nd,
the last bullet
point, that guy
there in desperate
need of your
prayers.
Please pray for
this Joshua Russell
fellow.
Anyway, please
pray for us.
Pray for the
coming of Christ's
kingdom.
Pray that it will
come soon.
because at that
day, every eye
will finally see
that Jesus
deserves praise
and honor and
glory.
Amen and
amen.
Come, Lord
Jesus.
Let's pray about
that now.
Gracious Father,
we thank you so
much for sending
your Son, who
though he was
innocent, he bore
our punishment.
Though he was
king, he was
mocked and
treated scornfully.
Father, we know
that he is
coming again
and will gather
to himself all
those who have
bowed the knee
to him.
We pray that you
would speed that
day and that there
would be many
people on that
day worshipping
him, praising
him for his love
towards them.
We pray that you
would help us to
take the gospel to
those who do not
yet know him, to
bring them into
his kingdom
before it's too
late, before they
are crushed under
the force of his
kingdom.
We pray for his
glory and for
their good.
Amen.