Luke's Gospel

Wonderful. Great. We're going to have our reading before Tom comes and preaches from the gospel of Luke. We're going to continue it will continue in that series. So if you have a Bible in front of you, you can grab it and turn to Luke, Chapter 22, or you can follow along on the screen.

When we come to the trial of Jesus. It's a dark night. And so we're going to read from, as I say, from chapter 22 verse 63 to chapter 23 verse 12. Let's hear the word of the Lord. The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him, they blindfolded him and demanded, prophesy, who hit you?

And they said many other insulting things to him. At daybreak, the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law met together and Jesus was led before them. If you are the Messiah they said, tell us, Jesus answered, if I tell you, you will not believe me. And if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the son of man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.

They all asked, are you then the son of God? He replied, you say that I am, then they said, Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips. Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to pilate, and they began to accuse him saying, we have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar.

And claims to be Messiah, a king. So pilate asked Jesus, are you the king of the Jews? You have said so, Jesus replied, then pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no basis for a charge against man, but they insisted. He stirs up the people all over Jude by his teaching He started in Galile and has come all the way here. On hearing this, Pila asked if the man was a Galileian.

When he learned that Jesus was under herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. When herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there vehemently accusing him.

Then herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him, dressing him in an elegant robe they sent him back to pilate. That day, herod and pilot became friends. Before this, they had been enemies. Over to Tom. Dean, thanks for reading for us.

And as ever if you have brought your own Bible, then do keep that passage open in front of you. A few of the key verses are going to come up on the screen, but not all of them. So if you do have a bible, then that would be that would be helpful for you, I think. My name is Tom Sweetman. I'm the assistant pastor here at the church and a very warm welcome to you.

And welcome to those who are joining us on the live stream as well. Great to have you with us. And if you've been watching for some time and you would like to come and join us physically at some stage, then you just must let us know through the church email, and we can book you a place here or get in touch with you and invite you to join us in other ministries. So do feel free to get in touch And welcome to anyone who's new here this evening. I think there are new students tonight who are with us for the first time, particularly.

And just as Dean wet your appetite for, we have got an event that is starting this week, actually, this Thursday, at 8 o'clock, it's not a brand new event. It's more of a resurrection of an old event. It's a mid week group called refuel, and we're going to be meeting here observing all the guidelines that we we must do, and we're going to be looking at the Bible together and eating a simple meal together, and it will be a good chance to get to know other students who are who have also come to Kingston. And it seems like there is a hunger for this type of event because when all your lectures are online and when even society meetings, I think it's mainly online. It's really good that the Lord has given us this premises which we can use.

To encourage 1 another in in the word of God. So if you would like more information about that, do come and see me or Safran, who's over there just in the birth of radiator. And you can speak to her and she'll add you to our student WhatsApp group and you can stay in touch. That way. Let's bow our heads and begin with a prayer together.

Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would help us this evening to understand these words that he inspired and that he authored. Lord, we thank you that in our ever changing world where circumstances and rules are changing. That the rules and instructions that you have given us stand firm forever and that we can always trust them. And we prayed that as we look at our Lord Jesus Christ approaching the end of his earthly life that you would help us, even if these words and these scenes are familiar to us. We pray that you would open our eyes that we may see wondrous things in your law, and we pray that you would give us the grace not only to intellectually understand these things, but the power and the want to obey them and to put them into practice and to be changed by them.

And most of all, we pray that you'd help us to see Jesus suffering servant and yet now the ascended lord of all. We want to see him, lord, and be more like him. And we ask these things in his name. Amen. Well, this reading is from a Facebook post that was shared on the eleventh of August, and the the Russian in which it was written has been translated into English by Facebook.

So some of the sentences aren't perfectly clear, and some of the expressions we may not understand. But the general sense of it is is is pretty clear, I think. It reads as follows. Yesterday, I was captured by Omenol, who are a type of military police in Belarus near Minsk at 7 o'clock in the evening. I was with 2 brothers I think he means Christian brothers there, sat in the car parked along the road.

Just wanted to be near the city center and pray for the situation in Belarus. I was taken out of the car, cut off with batons on my head, back, stomach. I shouted to them that I am a believer and that I'm here to pray for Belarus. They didn't believe. Only swearing, threatening, and beating.

They then threw me into a blue minibus, ordered me to lay down the aisle face down. There were 2 already lying there. There, I was tortured by an electric shocker on the back of my heart area. Asked who I was with, who is the planner, my answers didn't suit him, constantly threatened with swearing, laughed, and beaten. After knowing that I'm a Baptist, They asked what prayers I know.

I answered that I pray with my words to God, and I know our father. We were brought to some kind of nook, unloaded, and forced to stand on a stretch, head stubbed into a paddy car. For the slightest movement or attempt to speak, they beat us with batons. 1, Omenov held my broken hand behind my back, although it wasn't necessary. There was so much hatred and threats in their conversations.

1 of them loudly said, if it was my will, I would burn you all down. We were brought to the territory behind a high fence under a barbed wire. There were mats unloaded into the room similar to an empty warehouse on concrete floor and walls. They put my face to the wall. They banned talking.

That's how it lasted for 2 hours. Everyone was surveyed, all the data recorded. And all this time, I have been constantly praying to God. For those who are being bullied and beaten, for themselves and for their brothers and for our country and for our authorities. So that God would open their eyes.

That was written by a man called Sergey, who is known to some of our members and he wrote it after the elections that took place in Belarus in August. And that is just 1 testimony. There are many others like it, and I'm sure there are many others that are still to be written, which will detail similar experiences. And as I was reflecting on these stories, there were 3 things that struck me about them. Particularly.

Firstly, despite its many, many faults, social media is not all bad. I watched the social dilemma on Netflix this week and it is meant to be a documentary. It's like watching a horror film. There is a lot of scary stuff about social media but it's not all bad. If you live in a country with a state controlled media, then these kind of platforms allow you an opportunity to share your experiences, and to tell the truth, and to make sure that people know what is happening to you and to your fellow citizens.

Secondly, there is something satanic about the level of hatred that is on display here. If it were my will, I would burn you down. When there is no accountability, it is incredible what men will do to each other when they're given the opportunity. Thirdly, It does seem to be in cases like this, and in moments like these, that the truth of Jesus can come out in sparkling ways. When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, Jesus said, Do not worry about how you defend yourselves or what you will say.

For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time, what you should say. In moments of very great evil, God opens the door for even greater truth. And as we come to the trial of Jesus this evening, perhaps you've already picked up from the reading that all of those 3 points are here. Luke told us right at the beginning of the gospel that he was putting together a biography of Jesus, which he had carefully investigated In other words, he had done the hard work of a journalist, so that we may know the truth about Jesus, no cover up He didn't want this to be hidden. He wanted it to be exposed and made known because he was a journalist.

Secondly, Satan is at work here. Just have a look at some of the words that crop up in this passage, which we've just read together. The scale of the violence is frightening. Guarding, mocking, ridiculing, beating, blindfolding, demanding, insulting, hitting, leading, sending, accusing, insisting. Before the final verdict is even given, all of that happens to the Lord of Glory.

That is the violence that he was subjected to because Satan was at work in this scene. But thirdly, in this moment of evil, the truth comes out in sparkling ways. When Jesus Christ was brought before synagogues rulers and authorities. The holy spirit taught him what to say. And although he doesn't say loads of stuff here in this passage, what he does say is brief, and forceful, and clear.

So we see it. In Jerusalem 2000 years ago, in Belarus today, in many other places around the world, journalism matters, evil is at work, and Christ shines in the darkest of moments. And for the rest of this evening, the plan is basically to follow Jesus on his trial and to see those things together coming out of the passage. And we're gonna begin with the equivalent of the Omenov. These soldiers are the same type of men who would throw you into the back of a minibus and put a taser into your back.

It's the same characters that we're dealing with here. And this is the first point if you like to make notes, the soldiers who hit you. At every point, there is a key question, a moment of interrogation, the soldiers who hit you. Have a look at verse 63. The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him.

They blindfolded him and demanded, prophesy. Who hit you? And they said many other insulting things to him. Now, if you were here last week, we had a great sermon on Peter The Brave, who was a courageous man in in lots and lots of different ways, but like all of us, he was a failure. And in verse 56, when he was pressed by a servant when he was pressed in a moment of weakness, he would not identify with his lord.

He denied is lord. And that denial really exaggerates the loneliness of this trial. Putting them side by side together just shows how lonely Jesus must be. All his followers are gone. Now literally all of them are gone.

He is totally open, totally vulnerable, surrounded by these men who were who were created through him, and yet Satan and sin have led them to a point where they are now doing this to their own maker. Raining down punches upon him, treating him worse than an animal, insults that are so aggressive, they can feel the spit from their mouth. And with that violence, is this this kind of mocking which shows that these soldiers were not ignorant after all. They had heard the word on the street about Jesus. You can tell it by what they say.

Proficii. Who hit you? These soldiers were not ignorant. They had heard what people were saying about Jesus. And so come on Jesus, Let's put your blindfold on, and you tell us who threw that punch, who aimed that kick in your side Who pressed that knee on your neck?

Who tripped you up? Who elbowed you in the back of the head? Who did it profit? Shouldn't be hard for you. If they are, if you are who they say you are.

And in all of this, we must remember that Jesus was and is both truly God and truly man. He is the God man. And that tells us that this is not just a metaphor or a parable about suffering. Or this is not the experience of a man who who didn't really feel it, in the same way we might think, he was a true human being like us. Same kind of bones, same kind of blood flowing through his veins.

He felt this in his body. And as a sympathetic high priest, that means he can sympathize with our friends in Belarus. He's been there in that bus and he's heard those words and he's felt that taser. Paul says in colossians 1, I am glad when I suffer for you in my body. For I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church.

The sufferings of Jesus Christ on the cross are a hundred percent finished. But as his church continues to suffer here on earth. There is a sense in which he who is the head of that body feels that suffering with her. The God of this passage is not a God who is far away and lifted above his and unable to sympathize and only pretending to know what it's like to suffer. He has been there, and he is there, and he will be there when his people suffer.

So stage 1, the soldiers who hit you. Stage 2, the council are you then the son of God? That's their question. Verse 66, at daybreak, the council of the elders of the people both the chief priests and the teachers of the law met together, and Jesus was led before them. So it's now daybreak and we don't know how long those beatings continued.

It may well be that he was beaten up all through the night and into the morning, and now he's being led like some kind of livestock into the next stage of his trial beaten probably to to to to some kind of pulp. And where are the soldiers? Where are the soldiers really don't care about who Jesus is? In the religious court, that is the issue. Who are you Jesus?

This is the opportunity that they've been waiting for. They wanna hear it from his own mouth so they can do what they've dreamed of doing for some time, who is he? And verse 67 makes that obvious. If you are the Messiah, tell us Jesus answered. These his first words, If I tell you, you will not believe me and if I asked you, you would not answer.

This conversation is a sham. That's what he's saying. If I tell you the truth, you won't believe me. If I ask you a question, you won't answer me. Maybe you remember that scene with John The Baptist, where I asked you where his authority came from.

And you didn't know what to say, and so you kept quiet. If I ask you, you won't know the answer, you've made up your mind. You're not interested you've got the kind of ears that will only hear what they want to hear. But now that I've made your motives obvious, I have in fact got something to say. From now on, the son of man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.

Now, the son of man is Jesus' favorite title for himself. And any religious leader worth anything would know that name from Daniel 7. The son of man is God's ruler, who was led on the clouds before the ancient of days, and he was given all authority in heaven and on earth. It is a it is a mega title. And to use it at this moment would be dynamite, because it's emphasizing everything is important about Jesus.

It emphasizes his humanity as a son of man. He's a true human, son of man, but also his divinity as the eternal God, as the 1 who existed before and now and forever, given authority by God. This is this is like pushing an explosive button. And look, they obviously get it, don't they? Verse 70, they all asks, You imagine them, maybe they were quizzing in 1 by 1 to start with.

But when they hear that, they all ask. They all lean in They all raise their voices. They all lift up their eyes to meet his, and with the voice of Satan somewhere behind them, They say, are you then the son of God? You might remember in Luke 4 when Jesus was on trial for the first time. Out in the wilderness, satan said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.

There is a way in which that question can be satanic. If it's not going to be combined with faith and trust, But rather it's looking for an opportunity to destroy, are you then the son of God is a satanic question? You say that I am. It is as you say. You've said it.

I affirm it. Well then. Why do we need any more testimony? We've heard it from his own lips. And as I say, although Jesus doesn't say lots of things here, this this is so clever.

Because what he's saying at this point is, if you're going to kill me, you're gonna have to kill me for who I am. Sun of man, Son of God, Messiah Christ. You cannot claim to be ignorant now. You, yourselves, have said it. You must kill me for who I am.

Now later, we'll have a little bit of a think about that name in a bit more detail. But for these leaders, this is the final straw, isn't it? They've heard enough. The only problem is they can't actually do to Jesus what they want to do to him by themselves. For that, they're gonna need pilot.

So thirdly, let's go to that part of the trial pilot, are you the king of the Jews? Now, in every kind of competitive game, doesn't matter what it is, in every sport or every competitive activity, a successful champion will change their tactics depending on who they're facing. A successful person or team wouldn't just play the same way in front of every opponent. What they do is they study their opponents, and then they change their tactics to give themselves the best chance of winning that particular fixture or event. And the leaders, although possessed by evil and single-minded in their hatred of Jesus, are savvy enough to know that going before pilot means a change of tactics.

They know that pilot doesn't give us stuff about their religious debates. He does not care about their little arguments about which particular law was it levitical or was that found in deuteronomy. He's not interested in their law And so they have to adapt their strategy. You can see it very plainly in verse 1, chapter 23. Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to pilot.

I love that. You can imagine them all, getting up and bundling into pilot's court, you know, all absolutely foaming and frothing at the mouth, waiting to get what they want from him. And verse 2, and they began to accuse him, saying, we have found this man subverting our nation. We predict a riot. Pilot.

And you don't want that on your hands. Jerusalem is busy enough as it is at the moment without someone subverting the nation and potentially causing a riot. That's charge number 1. Number 2, he opposes payment of taxes to Caesar. Which is just objectively false.

I mean, it wasn't that long ago where Jesus said the direct opposite of that. Give to Caesar, what is Caesar's? Thirdly, he claims to be Messiah, a king. And pilot, as you know, we have no king around here, but Caesar. And that last bit is really clever.

You see, pilot is already nervous about the situation is passover. There are a lot of people around. The potential for unrest is is high. And so if you've got someone coming around claiming to be a king, well, that could just be the very last spark, which sets the whole place on fire. And you can tell he's nervous, because that's what triggers him.

So, Tyler asked Jesus, are you the king of the Jews? You have said so, Jesus replied. But then, Pilot announced to the chief priests in the crowd I find no base for a charge against this man. And linking back to what I said about journalism at the beginning, if you are a person who's serious about facts, that statement is really, really important. Because Luke wants us to know that in the eyes of the law, Jesus was innocent.

He was not guilty. That's how he found him. And and that is just really important because it shows us what a sham this trial has now become. The question for the authorities now is not let's find out whether this man is innocent, the question now is, we know he's innocent, so how do we convict an innocent man? That is a very different type of question, isn't it?

Let's impartially find out if he's guilty. No. No. We know he's innocent. The problem is how do we convict an innocent That's a really different question.

Luke wants us to know that Jesus was officially innocent. He was declared to be innocent by the authorities of his day, but verse 5. How long is it gonna last. But they insist it. Come on pilot.

Think about this. Don't be hasty. Don't be rash. Don't don't don't go calling him innocent just yet. Hear us out.

He stirs up the people all over Judeia by his teaching. He started in galilee and has come all the way here. We can't have this man, pilot. They're pushing him, and they're pushing him to make a decision But what they don't realize and unfortunately for them is that they're pushing has only put the brakes on proceedings. Oh, he's from Galile, you say?

Oh, that's interesting. Because Galile Lee is not really part of my jurisdiction. That's herod's territory. To herod, he must go. Pilot doesn't have the courage to release him as an innocent man or even to take responsibility for the situation.

If he can get it off his hands, He will get it off his hands. He's running away from what he knows in the end he must deal with. That's the third thing. Fourthly. And more briefly, herod, he plied him with many questions.

And it's worth knowing that this is the same herod who wouldn't listen to John the Baptist and had him murdered. This is the same herod who in Luke's gospel were told was quite afraid when he heard the stories about Jesus and the disciples because he wondered whether someone was coming back from the dead to haunt him and to bring judgment on him for what he'd done to the prophet. But then, at some point down the line, that fear, which actually could have saved him, if it was combined with repentance, vanished, and he ends up where he is in Luke 23. When herod saw Jesus, He was greatly pleased because for a long time he had been wanting to see him, from what he had heard about him, He hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions but Jesus gave him no answer.

As our Isaiah had prophesied many, many years before, He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter And as a sheep before it shirrors is silent, so he did not open his mouth. That is haunting stuff, isn't it? Herrod refused to listen. He refused to repent His heart got harder and harder and harder until he came to the point where even the word of God was withdrawn from him, Jesus would not speak to him.

He had had his chance. Now, we'll come back to the final stage of this trial next week. But let's try to summarize what we've learned and bring some of this into application for our for our for our days, and we'll stick with herod for a moment, because herod is really a warning to anybody who doesn't act on truth about Jesus. This passage makes it very clear who he is. Son of man, son of God, crucified for sinners, raised in power, sat at the right hand of God returning soon, that is who he is.

And therefore, we need to respond with faith and repentance. Because if we don't, then 1 day we will come to the same position that Harold found himself in. To the moment when our last opportunity evaporates, and the word of God is withdrawn from us forever. If we don't respond while we can, we may become him. Jesus is not just a prophet, and he is not a Derren Brown circus entertainer.

He is the reigning, returning, judge of Daniel 7, and we have to prepare for him, because 1 day every 1 of us will standing in his court at his judgment bar, and we will have to give an account for what we did with what we knew. We need to make the most of our opportunities when they come. Secondly, as we look at Jesus, in this trial, second second point of application, we see that he is an example for suffering believers. 1 Peter 2, Peter himself puts it exactly that way in chapter 2 verse 21. Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, and we've seen what they were, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. And that brings us full circle background to our friends in Belarus, doesn't it?

I haven't read all of their stories, and I don't claim to know exactly what they've done in every circumstance. But it does seem to me that in many cases, Jesus has been their lived example through their trials. They have not been violent as far as I can see, They have submitted to their court dates and their fines, but through the stages of their trials, they have tried to be like Jesus. And this is where the example is. It's not to say that there is never a time to campaign for your rights.

And it's not to say that there's never a time to protest injustice But in our example and in our manner, we follow this Jesus, who chose not to retaliate insult for insult and pay back evil for evil, but he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. In all kinds of suffering Christ is our example. Thirdly and lastly, we learned from this trial that Jesus is sovereign over his suffering, which is just an extraordinary application from this passage because Jesus to me looks like a football in this passage who is just being kicked from player to player across the pitch. He's been thrown from pillar to post he looks completely out of control, doesn't he? At the mercy of everyone above him.

But how did the disciples read this scene? In acts chapter 4, what gave them confidence as a small suffering band of believers on the screen, acts chapter 4, And notice who they actually mention. It's everybody here, isn't it, herod, and pontius Pilot, met together with the gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, they did what your power and will. Had decided beforehand should happen. That is a very big Christian God, isn't it?

The father was not making the best of a bad situation here. This wasn't him getting a silver lining in some dark clouds, it was actually his will to raise up Jesus to his right hand. Through this trial and this suffering. Every person we have met tonight from these violent soldiers to flimsy pilot to herod, was doing what God's power had decided beforehand should happen. Now, does that mean they weren't responsible?

Luke's a good journalist. He wants us to know that they're responsible. But what they intended for evil, God meant for good. In the raising up of his son even through these wicked intentions. This is a big God, isn't it?

It's a big God that we serve. This is the in God. And as Christians today, that means we can take heart in this. Because the God who was sovereign over this trial is sovereign over our trials, and they always, in the end, have a happy ending. The death and the resurrection of Christ was not the end of the story.

In fact, in some ways, the empty tomb was just the beginning. The empty tomb was not the end, it was the exodus. It was the moment of departure. It was the moment he left to take his rightful place as lord of all. And that same journey belongs to all of us who follow him.

Through trials, through suffering, through death, into resurrection, and onto the day when we reign with the son of man upon the earth for ever and ever and ever. In this evil moment, Jesus shines the truth is out. The suffering servant he was but now he is the ascended lord of all. So let us look to him as our example and trust him as our lord. Let's bow our heads and pray together.

Let me just give you a moment to collect your own thoughts and to take an opportunity to pray about any of the verses that we've read, any of the points that have been raised, And without presuming that everyone here is is a believer. This might be an opportunity for you to turn from your sins and to come to this Jesus. While you can. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. We pray lord that you would help us to learn the lessons of this passage.

We pray that you would guard us from becoming like herod who had his opportunities, but who refused to respond rightly to your word. And in the end had his opportunities withdrawn. We pray lord that you would help us not to harden our hearts today, but to act with repentant faith in the Lord Jesus. Father, we pray that you would soften our hearts and make them teachable and humble that we might respond rightly to the things you have shown us about yourself this evening. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are our example in suffering.

And that if anyone was entitled to fight back to retaliate, it was you. And yet, lord, you closed your mouth. You did not pay back evil for evil because you were entrusting yourself. To your heavenly father who judges justly. And we pray lord that you would help us when faced with trials of various kinds to follow after him in that way, that we would protest perhaps when we need to that we would raise our voices against injustice when we must.

But lord that we would be like Jesus in suffering. And father we thank you Perhaps most of all, that you are sovereign over suffering over suffering. And we thank you, Lord, that in everything we have seen tonight, In the end and behind the scene, it was your power and your will at work. And we thank you, lord Jesus, that we can trust you as sovereign over our trials. Thank you for who you are, son of man, son of God, King forever, we worship you lord in Jesus' name.

Amen.