Jesus Loves Me This I Know

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,

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.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

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.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's see.

Thank you.

Let's eat and drink in remembrance of Christ.

Let's eat and drink in remembrance of Christ.