What Is Your Response To Jesus Christ?: Luke 22:63-71

So we study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel, and uh we have some extra copies.

If you didn't bring one, this is a great day to have a paper copy or at least one on your device if you just raise your hand if you would like a paper copy.

And uh we're gonna be looking at three different texts, actually.

So you do want to have a copy in front of you, it's really gonna be helpful.

Uh much uh grateful for the folks who joined us online last week from a wide variety of places.

Uh Tagbalaran City, Bajal, Philippines.

I hope I pronounced that right.

So glad that you were able to be with us if you're watching today as well.

Nairobi, Kenya, Singapore, Markham, Ontario, Canada.

So uh very grateful for the technology that enables us to be able to reach out and minister to folks from different areas outside of our own four walls.

Up on the screen here, you'll see the QR code if you're in the room here and you would like the notes and quotes in advance.

It also tells you there that our primary text will be Luke 22, 63 through 71.

I'm gonna encourage you if you have your Bible and it's open and you're kind of rifling through, put a finger right there.

Uh, make sure you hold that spot.

Also, though, you're gonna look at a few verses from John 18.

So jump there and also hold that.

And then uh also Matthew 26.

We're looking at three different gospel accounts of the same event, and we want to we pick up little details from each of these three accounts, so it's gonna be important that you uh are able to follow along as we get to each of those texts.

All right, uh, if you'll allow me uh and join me, a prayer for illumination as we begin.

I'm borrowing from uh uh an Anglican prayer attributed to the 19th-century Scottish theologian uh Horatius Bonner.

So uh he prayed like this, and I I love this.

Lord, take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire with love for thee.

What we know not teach us, what we have not give us, what we are not make us.

And this we pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen and amen.

So let's begin with Luke 22, 63 through 70, or yeah, 22, 63 through 71, reminding you this is the Passion Week.

And uh we've already come through the um uh Last Supper.

Uh the disciples in Jesus proceeded from the Last Supper over down through the Kidron Valley into the Garden of Gethsemane, where there was some prayer going on there, some disciples that were falling asleep during that prayer.

I know that never happens to any of you here.

Uh never happens to me either.

And um, and then there was the arrest of Jesus, the betrayal, the kiss by Judas, the arrest, the disciples scattered.

And we're kind of picking up, we're somewhat after a bit of that.

In verse 63, we find that Jesus has been arrested, and he's actually being held by the religious authorities on trial in the middle of the night, which they shouldn't have been doing to begin with.

And next week we'll look at the political or civil trials.

But for this week, we're just going to take a look from verses 63 here down to 71, and then read the parallel accounts in John and in Matthew as well.

So it goes like this the men were holding Jesus in custody.

They were mocking him and beating him.

And they blindfolded him and were asking him, saying, Prophesy, who is the one who hit you?

And they were saying many other things against him, blaspheming.

So this is torture that's begun, uh, mockery, abuse of the worst kind.

And as they blindfold him, they're making fun of the fact they knew that he had some special powers and had done some very interesting and unique things during the course of his ministry.

But now they're making a mockery of all of that, thinking, oh, if he had all of those powers, could heal people who are sick, he could cast demons out, he could walk on water, he could raise the dead even, which he had done three times up to this point.

And they're mocking him by saying, Prophesy, who hit you?

And they punch him again, they slap him again, they kick him again.

And it's just a horrible thing, and he's blindfolded during all of this.

When it was day, the council of the elders and the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led Jesus away to their council chamber, saying, If you are the Christ, tell us.

Now that's really a direct question, isn't it?

And for all of those people who have ever wondered about who Jesus really was and is, um, this should make you at least sit up straight and pay attention, because here some of his detractors and even those who wanted him to be put to death are asking him directly the question, who are you?

And are you the Christ?

The Christ is the New Testament's way of saying the Messiah.

In other words, do you, Jesus, think you are the Messiah, the Christ?

Christ is not his last name, it's a title.

And so I want to point out to you that the idea that Jesus might be the Christ is not some kind of thing that was drummed up a few hundred years later, after his death, by some followers that are trying to prop up his image a little bit, like we might have read in a modern fiction novel or a scene on a movie or something like that.

That's not the case at all.

Even his detractors right here are aware of the fact that Jesus himself and his followers, a lot of people were thinking he was the Christ.

So they put the question directly to him Are you the Christ?

Tell us, but he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe.

If I ask a question, you will not answer.

And he's reading and very aware of their hearts and their minds in this moment.

He understands exactly the disposition of their hearts toward him.

They will not believe, and the will is involved.

An old book I'd written called Coffee Alceology, I did a whole chapter on the difference between knowledge and belief.

We tend to think of knowledge as what we can know empirically using our five senses.

I can see that, I can hear that, I can taste, touch, whatever.

And we don't think so much about this, but we actually all believe more than we know.

We believe more things about life, reality, history, etc., than we know or are able to experience empirically.

And so belief involves what?

The will.

And Jesus is here pointing out to them that their wills are set against belief.

If he were to tell them, they would not believe.

If he were to ask them a question, they wouldn't answer.

But from now on, he says in verse 69, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.

Now, for first century Jews, their ears would perk up at this self-referential title, Son of Man, lifted directly out of Daniel chapter 7, verse 13, which is speaking about Messiah.

Daniel 7:13

And so he's saying to them, I'm the Son of Man, and you're gonna see the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God elsewhere in one of the other uh texts, in Matthew, I believe, is we're gonna read that he'll be coming back.

You'll see the Son of Man coming in power.

And so it's Jesus' own self-referential title, Son of Man.

And to say something like, would be seated at the right hand of the power of God, he's lifting that right out of Psalm 110.

Again, first century Jews would know that Psalm by heart and would know it's a reference to Messiah.

Well, they all respond in verse 70, and they say, Are you the son of God?

Then again, their question is very direct.

They want to hear him say it.

They're very angry and upset, and to them it will seem like blasphemy.

Watch what happens.

He responds and he says, and I'm reading from a New American Standard Bible.

It's very simple.

Three words.

Yes, comma, I am.

Very direct.

There's not a, he's not telling a parable now, he's not shrouding it in any way.

It's very direct.

Some of your English translations may say, you have said it yourself.

In other words, you already know the answer to the question.

And in here, in my translation, it's yes, I am.

He's not equivocating, he's saying it very direct.

As direct as their question is, his answer is even more direct.

They said then, verse 71, what further need do we have of testimony?

This is a religious tribunal, and they're putting Jesus on trial.

They have had murder on their minds for a long time with him.

They're exasperated because they kept trying to find a way to take him, and they had to rely on the traitorous Judas to help them do that, to do it so that the crowds weren't around at that particular time in the middle of the night.

And they're now saying, after he's said, Yes, I am the Christ, I am the Son of God.

Verse 71, what further need do we have for testimony?

We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth.

All right.

So there it is, his detractors, his enemies, those who want to put him to death, actually acknowledge that Jesus' own understanding of himself is that he indeed was the Messiah, the Son of God.

Turn to John chapter 18 with me, if you will.

John 18 · chapter mention

And let's look at verses 12 through 24.

It's a similar, but it fills in a little bit for us as we read.

You'll see the Roman cohort, and by way, a Roman cohort would be about 600 soldiers, and the commander and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus, bound him, and led him to Annas first, for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

So here's what we have: a little bit more detail, the names of what was kind of an odd thing to have two high priests.

Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas.

And usually there's just one high priest.

The Jews themselves would appoint that high priest under the direction of God.

But here, Annas, who has been the high priest from really from 6 to 15 A.D.

as high priest, and then his son, and then his son, and he was appointed by the Jews, but then his son-in-law Caiaphas was appointed by the Romans because he was friendly to the Roman government, the oppressive Roman government in power at the time.

And he ruled actually from 18 to 36 A.D.

as high priest.

Somebody says, well, what happened in the middle years in between?

There was a guy named Ishmael, a guy named Eliezer, and a guy named Simon.

Each had less than a year of being high priest.

But these two are kind of in cooperation with each other.

They know each other really well, and they're both kind of respected as high priests.

And so in that year, and Caiaphas, verse 14, was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people, never really knowing that he actually was saying, that, you know, sort of hinting at the fact that Christ who would die, one man who would die, would be, would bring salvation to many people.

Simon Peter was following Jesus, and so was another disciple.

Now that disciple was known to the high priest and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest.

And here we have really the retelling of Peter and his denial of Jesus, dropped down to verse 19.

The high priest therefore questioned Jesus about his disciples, about his teaching.

Jesus answered and said, I've spoken openly to the world.

I always taught in the synagogues, in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and I spoke nothing in secret.

Why do you question me?

Question those who have heard what I spoke to them.

Behold, these know what I said.

And when he had said this, one of the officers standing by gave Jesus a blow, saying, Is that the way you answer the high priest?

So he literally took another punch, blindfolded, likely still, and they literally hit him again because they're thinking he's being disrespectful to the high priest.

Jesus answered, If I've spoken wrongly, bear witness of the wrong.

But if rightly, why do you strike me?

Annas therefore sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.

And so he's going literally from one high priest to the other.

He's going to Caiaphas's house.

Now turn with me, if you will, to Matthew chapter 26, and look at verses 59 through 68 as we sort of finish off the text that describes the religious trials that Jesus was put under.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

This is again Matthew 26, verses 59 through 68.

Matthew 26:59–68

59 begins like this the chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus in order that they might put him to death.

Again, you see their motive there.

They want to put him to death ultimately, and the way they're going to do it is somehow or another get some false testimony.

Why?

Because he hadn't actually done anything that the Romans would find wrong.

As a matter of fact, you'll, as we as we study into next week, Pastor Tommy's going to lead us through the political civil trials.

You see, they lit they literally find nothing wrong with him.

I mean, it's it he's about to be declared innocent by the by the uh civil authorities.

And so there, the r the religious people are trying to drum up something because they don't have the power of capital punishment.

They're trying to find a way to make it look like Jesus was committing insurrection and that he was a political threat to the Roman system.

And so they're looking for false testimony against Jesus, that he might be put to death.

Verse 60, they didn't find it, even though many false witnesses came forward, but later on, two came forward and said, This man stated, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.

That's kind of close to the truth.

Jesus kind of had said that kind of thing.

But when you turn it into some kind of a literal threat, they might be able to latch on to that and get the Romans to see it as a potential riot or an uprising of some kind, right?

Well, the high priest stood up and said to him, verse 62, Do you make no answer?

This is to Jesus.

What is it that these men are testifying against you?

But Jesus kept silent.

And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.

And Jesus said to him, You have said it yourself.

Nevertheless, I tell you hereafter, you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Referring to the end of time when God wraps up human history.

And Jesus is saying, I'm the one that's going to do that, and you're all going to have to face the music at some point.

It's really bold claims by Jesus.

The high priest tore his robe, saying, He has blasphemed.

What further need have we of witnesses?

Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy.

What do you think?

And they answered and said, He's deserving of death.

And they spat in his face and they beat him with their fists, and others slapped him, and they said, Prophesy to us, you Christ.

Who is the one who hit you?

And we'll stop there as far as the text.

Turn back with me to Luke's gospel, if you will.

Luke chapter 22 will remain our primary text for today.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

I think we'll call this sermon.

What is your response to Jesus Christ?

This is kind of what's on display here.

How do these religious leaders, in this case this week, how do they respond to Jesus?

We can kind of see from the text we've read.

It's pretty obvious, isn't it?

I love it that we have four gospel records.

And that there's a little bit more detail that comes from one and another, different kind of detail comes from another, etc.

That doesn't in any way, shape, or form bother me.

You can read one account, read another, and you'll you might think you were that, you know, you, oh, two women showed up at the tomb or only one is named or whatever.

And you might start to try and think in yourself, how do you harmonize all of that?

Is it possible to harmonize it?

I think it is.

I don't think there's anything that's significant that we can't harmonize in the four gospels.

If four different people are giving us their eyewitness account or their researched account, in the case of Luke, I think it would sound like this that Luke's telling of the story of the religious trials, that John's telling of the stories, that Matthew's telling of the stories would have some variation to them.

And I'm encouraged by that.

I feel like that means we're getting a little bit more of a full picture of what happened that night.

Matthew seems to have a Jewish audience in mind when he writes.

How do we know this?

He quotes the Old Testament like 95 times.

He's assuming his readers have some knowledge of the Old Testament, and he's connecting the dots between the Old Testament and Jesus to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of those Old Testament scriptures.

Mark seems to have more of a Roman audience in mind, from what a lot of Bible scholars will say.

Informed by Peter, it's suggested in church tradition, that he was the one who was trying to speak to the Roman mindset.

And I don't know this for a fact, but I am fascinated by the fact that Mark uses this one word that keeps pace, keeps the pace moving.

He uses this word immediately, 43 times.

And that's, I've often called it the short attention span gospel.

It's for people that need the action to keep moving.

And I'm one of those people.

I love Mark's gospel, and I love teaching through it.

Luke, a Gentile, as far as we know, the only Gentile author of a book in the New Testament.

And he seems to be writing with not just the Jews in mind, but with the broader world in mind.

Some would say he takes more of a universal approach.

That is, that this gospel, this good news that he's telling, is for everyone.

It's an offer for everyone, whether you're Jew or Gentile.

And into the Jewish world in particular, they tended to think of the entire world as divided into two groups, Jews and not Jews.

Gentiles, they called them.

And so here's Luke, of course, writing his story with that in mind.

John seems to be one of the closest of the disciples to Jesus, Peter, James, and John, always very tight, experiencing a lot of things, those three, with Jesus that the others did not.

And so John seems to have a real emphasis on his eyewitness account, which is amazing.

And then add to that, he spends a great deal of his text talking about the Passion Week and the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And so each of the four Gospels bring us something.

But if you were just to pick one or two questions that they might be answering, asking and answering, it might be these two.

And so I ask you today, what is your response to Jesus?

Chesterton used the metaphor of going to the dogs when he was talking about the Christian faith itself and how it has been pressured in so many ways from outside, from inside, from corruption, uh, from all kinds of things.

And he uh he would look at a text like this, I'm sure, and say, it seems that when you read this, Jesus is on the ropes.

Jesus is sort of going down.

It seems like that's the direction if you just stop right here and you don't read on through to the rest of the story.

I got great news for you.

We're gonna read on through to the rest of the story, but we want to mine the gold that is right here as well.

Chesterton talked about this way, he said it at least five times in history.

The faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs, and in each of those five cases, it was the dog that died.

Yeah.

So the dog, in his use of the metaphor, would be that which would attack the faith, attack the Christian gospel to take it down, to kill it, whatever.

And he's making that point, and I think it's a great point.

Each time the dog is what dies.

And Christianity adapts and endures.

Um Luke here presents the faith as, I think, uniquely dynamic, capable of recovering from apparent defeat.

Why?

Because he's talking about Jesus and he's gonna go on to the rest of the story, which we'll get to at some point.

For now, if I were to summarize what's going on in this sort of series of trials, we have the trial before Annas and Peter's first denial mentioned.

We have Peter's second and third denials in Luke chapter 22, which we've already studied.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

We have the unofficial trial before the Sanhedrin.

We have the official trial before Sanhedrin, and then that's the one before Caiaphas.

And then we have the death of Judas, which will be recorded for us in Matthew 27.

And the first trial before Pilate, the first of the political trials, if you will.

He's sent off to Herod then.

We read about that next week.

And then the second trial before Pilate as well.

And then the scourging, which you can read about in Mark chapter 15 if you like.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

The condemnation of by Pilate before the crowds is in John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

So we have all of this that's happening before we even get to the cross.

And what I want to really highlight for you as we consider all of this is that the story is so filled with live-body detail.

It's so full of names and places and actions, very specific, that it really calls us to at least consider the historical reality of it and the significance of it, really, for all time.

Because Jesus actually came to accomplish something on the cross.

It's not an occasion that we look back on and say, oh, shucks, a good man died.

It's not that at all.

He's in charge.

We've been making that case for the last few weeks.

He's always in charge of what's going on here, even though it seems to be costing him something.

But what is then your response to Jesus?

If he would do that, all of that, and suffer through all of that, and just up to the point where we're at right now, being bludgeoned and tortured, blindfolded.

Why?

What would drive him to do that?

Why would he do that at all?

And you know the verse, you know the answer.

Sometimes we're just connecting the dots together here at the village chapel, aren't we?

You know the verse.

John 3, 16, for God.

So what?

God so loved the world, cosmos, all of it, you, me, through all of space-time history, God so loved us that he gave, they didn't take, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

You see, what's driving Jesus to go through this punishment, this torture, this anguish, all of this abuse transforms, really, doesn't it?

When you start to think of why he did it, our view of it is transformed because we know how much he loved us.

But we look at these folks in this story, especially in Luke 22, as it's so clear in these just very few verses, we we see their response to Jesus, and it kind of pushes the sort of puts the weight back on us now.

The onus is on us.

How do we respond to Jesus?

Look at how they respond to Jesus.

I'm gonna call them belligerent unbelievers because Jesus actually said, look at verse 67.

If I tell you, you will not believe.

Again, the will is involved in belief.

And their wills were set against believing.

And then he makes these amazing claims about being the Son of God, about being the Messiah, about coming back to set the world to rights.

And it's such good news and such a horrific moment.

And they still refuse.

No, unwilling, belligerent unbelievers, I would call them.

Spurgeon used to say unbelief is the great stone lying at the door of your heart, preventing that door from being opened.

And I plead with you, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus, or if you're here today and you're drifting back and the darkness is encroaching, oh, turn around.

Turn, face the light of Christ who has come for you.

He's come to save you, to draw you out of the darkness and into the light.

Do not stand with a big stone across your heart, the stone of unbelief.

I love J.I.

Packer's book, Knowing God.

If I had an opportunity to be on a desert island and I could only have ten books, this is one of them.

He said the unbeliever has preferred to be by himself without God, defying God, having God against him, and he shall have his preference.

Nobody stands under the wrath of God except those who have chosen to do so.

The essence of God's action in wrath is to give men what they choose in all its implications, nothing more, nothing less.

In other words, let me say it another way for us.

If you want to live your life as if God does not exist, or as if God simply does not matter, God will let you do just that.

What could be more fair of him?

But please realize there will be very real consequences that follow from the choice that you or I might make.

There are very real consequences that will affect you, your relationships, your health, your moods, the trajectory of your life, and ultimately your destiny and on into eternity.

It's really important, you see.

And every single Sunday when we get up here, we remind ourselves as we prep for these sermons, there are souls at stake.

And it might be yours if you're here today and you don't know Jesus.

So I want to plead with you, I want to awaken you in any way I can to the reality of what Christ has done for you.

Yes, he even suffered that torture, but he's going to go even further and suffer the cross.

And yes, we know the great news that he will rise again to defeat and dismantle death.

And we're excited about that.

We want to walk there, we want to get there, but we first have to know why he went to that cross.

Because he loved you and he loved me, sinners though we are.

And because he doesn't want us to live in any kind of a way in which we think that it's about us balancing out the moral scales.

There's people in this room, I know, who believe the doctrine of grace, but live their lives as if it's up to them to balance the moral scales.

And it's not.

Christ has done everything necessary for your salvation.

And that's why we point to him.

And that's why we challenge you today.

How do you respond to Jesus?

Look how much he loved you to go through all of that and to die even on the cross.

And that's really the second point I wanted to make today.

Not only do we look and see the sort of belligerent unbelievers, but we also see the suffering Savior, don't we?

That he really loved us that much to go through all of that.

Tim Keller, Christians follow someone who sacrificed everything to redeem and renew the world.

At the heart of the Christian faith is a man who died a victim of injustice and who called for the forgiveness of his enemies.

I mean, even on the cross, as this centurion pierces his side to see if he's really dead, and out flows the blood and the water separated, hypervolemic shock definitely setting in there.

The man was dead.

Really dead.

And the centurion was a professional executioner.

He knew what he was doing.

And so Jesus literally suffered, literally died for you and for me.

Enemies, though we were at that point in time when we did not believe and had not received Christ as our Savior, we were at odds with God.

And there are people all around us that are in the same position.

And so our hearts break wide open.

Our mouths should be open, and we should preach the gospel.

We should share the gospel.

We should live the gospel out in word and in deed.

I know some of you say, well, I just like to let people, you know, watch my good deeds and all that sort of thing, and maybe they'll get the picture.

And I got news for you.

You're not that good.

You just aren't.

Nobody's gonna get it based on your good deeds.

But when they hear you say, Oh, yeah, I've been a fool, and yet God set his love on me in spite of that.

Yeah, I've been at odds with God, and yet God set his love on me.

And I don't know why.

I don't know why.

I know there's a lot of people that talk about why is there only one way, and they get all, you know, all wrapped up in that question.

Why is there only one way?

Why can't there be two ways?

Whatever.

And what they really mean is, I want one more way than God is offering.

I want my way.

I think the biggest question, and I've said it before a million times, I'll keep saying it.

I don't think the biggest question in the world is why is there only one way?

I think the biggest question is why is there even one way?

I'm a sinner.

You you all are sinners as well.

We don't deserve anything.

God doesn't owe us anything.

And yet the great news I have to tell and remind myself every single Sunday, whenever we any of us stand up here and preach, is that He loved you so much, and it wasn't about your performance.

It was about His heart.

His heart that just overflows with love.

And he would suffer to be your Savior.

Thirdly, and finally, I want us to talk about just the self-understanding and the self-revelation of Jesus.

It gives us a little greater look into him, doesn't it?

And who he was and who he is even now.

Uh, one of my favorite Christological passages, if I could just use a big word for a second, which means the study of Christ, okay, is from Hebrews chapter one.

Look at this on the screen with me.

God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world.

And he is, Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of God's nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power.

When he had made purification of sins, that is, when Jesus died on the cross, he and then he rose again and ascended back into heaven, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High, having become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.

You've got to go read Hebrews chapter 1 all on your own.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

I so encourage it for you.

It's really all about how unique Jesus is.

I've used the term before, sui generis.

It's a Latin term that means one of a kind.

And there is no other even in the category, is the idea.

So you could draw a line in all of reality.

And Jesus is over here.

God, the Trinitarian God, and we see God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit right there, and then that line, and then everything else is over here, including you, including me, including all of human history, all of man's achievements, everything we think we're so great after the Enlightenment.

Oh, we've done so much, aren't we great?

All that stuff.

That's all on this side, and he alone is over here.

And that's why we continue to point to him, just as the writer of Hebrews does.

Are you among those who are curious about Jesus or about God?

The God who reveals himself in Scripture.

I am one who is curious about Jesus.

I do not know it all.

As a matter of fact, I'll stand up here and tell you, I cannot know it all about God.

I'm a finite creature, and I have a tiny little brain.

But as much as I might think I know, there is over here on the other side of the line this God who is really there, who has really come in the personal work of Jesus to save us, and who by the Holy Spirit empowers us to live out the life he calls us to and to follow Jesus, that's an infinite being.

And finitim, non-capax, infinitim, the finite cannot comprehend the infinite.

It's simply impossible.

If you're waiting until you figure it all out about God, you'll be waiting forever.

We're not that smart.

We don't have capacity for all of who he is.

And how brilliant of him to then take the initiative and reveal some of who he is to us in the person and work of Jesus and in the scriptures that we have.

Written over a 1600-year period of time by somewhere close to 40 different authors from all walks of life, God is in the business of revealing himself to those who will open their eyes and instead of being belligerent unbelievers, will behold and believe what God has revealed to us.

And that takes some humility on our part, doesn't it?

Who is Jesus?

Is he really all he claimed to be?

Here's C.S.

Lewis from Mere Christianity.

Some of you have read it.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic on the level of a man who thinks he's a poached egg, or he would be the devil of hell.

You must take your choice.

Either this was and is the Son of God, like the religious leaders were asking, or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.

But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

He's not left that open to us.

So this is some of the texts where we get Lewis's trilemma.

He's either Lord, lunatic, liar, or lord.

Which is he?

You know?

Is he a liar?

Is he lunatic or lord?

Some have added a fourth one, legend.

They've said that his followers made it all up, you know, a couple hundred years later.

Um, which I think we've kind of dispelled that, haven't we?

I think we kind of see that the religious leaders on the ground during the time of Jesus were so upset at the things he was claiming about himself, he must have really believed them.

And as a matter of fact, those religious leaders must have feared it might be true.

So let's snuff the message out, was their viewpoint.

Let's murder him, let's get him killed.

So whether you live back then and you're religious or next week, the irreligious, which can happen even in our own day and time, whether you're here today or listening or watching, and you're religious, but you quite don't really know who Jesus is.

You're not sure, and you look at this passage and you see him making such bold claims and such clear claims.

I want to invite you to believe in the Jesus of the New Testament.

If you struggle with forgiving yourself for the sin you've struggled with, I want to invite you to believe in the Jesus who went through all of that so that you wouldn't have to struggle, that you wouldn't be afraid of God.

You'd have a healthy fear of God, but you wouldn't have to be cowering in fear that He isn't gonna forgive you your sins if you repent.

No, no, no, it's already settled.

The finished work, we call it, the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Again, I'm getting ahead of myself, so I gotta pull it back a little bit here.

But I want to ask you today, what is your response to Jesus, the one who would go through all of this suffering, this abuse, this injustice, this torture, so that he could get to some more torture and even his own death on the cross.

Why?

So that you and I could be reconciled to God.

Um it's, I know that it sounds strange, maybe to some of you who've never heard this before.

But when Jesus came, that's exactly what he came for.

So that if you would believe and trust in him, you might have life in his name.

How will you respond to Jesus?

I'll close with this quote from Tozer.

He said the unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof.

That really does describe the belligerent religious folks in this text, doesn't it?

They wouldn't be convinced by any proof.

The worshiping heart needs none.

So what do you have?

Where's your heart as it relates to Jesus?

Have you bowed before him?

Uh again, you may have questions about him.

I still have questions, you know.

I've got my degree in theology, but I still have a lot of questions because I'm a finite creature trying to behold and understand more and more as much as I can, this infinite God who has loved me.

And I I can't even understand why, but it blows my mind in the most beautiful way.

Has your mind been blown too?

Look to Jesus.

He's that beautiful.

Let's pray.

Thank you, Lord, for who you are.

You didn't have to come, but you did.

You didn't have to suffer, but you did.

You didn't have to die, but you did for us because you love us.

Lord, I pray that you'd move on all of our hearts and help us to understand that more and more.

Not so that we feel guilty, but that we feel loved.

Because the cross is such a beautiful symbol of your love for us.

Um that you would do that for us.

We who don't deserve that's Lord, your grace is indeed amazing.

Help us to receive it as we turn to you and behold you in all your beauty and majesty.

We pray.

In your name.

Amen and amen.