Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: To the last of our Fullness of Christ series. We finish it next week. So here we go. We're reading from Luke 23 this morning.
Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. That's Jesus.
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 answered. Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no basis for a charge against this man.
But they insisted, he stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching.
He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.
On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean.
When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he came. So 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 some questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there 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 Pilate became friends. Before this, they had been enemies.
Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people and said to them, you brought me this man as one who is inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. As you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.
Therefore, I will punish him. But then release him.
But the whole crowd shouted, away with this man, release Barabbas to us. Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city and for murder.
Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 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.
Therefore I will have him punished and then release him. But the loud shouts.
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, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will. As the soldiers led children Jesus away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women, who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned to them and said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, blessed. Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills cover us. For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called School, they crucified him there along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.
Jesus said, father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, he saved others. Let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.
There was a written notice above him which read, this is the King of the Jews.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us.
But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God? He said, since you are under the same sentence. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.
Then he said, jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus answered him, truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Finishing up the last bit now.
And it was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, surely this was a righteous man. When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood and at a distance, watching these things now. There was a man named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and upright man. Who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, One in which no one had yet been laid.
It was preparation day and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Jesus. Sorry. Followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body had been laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. May God bless the reading of his word to us today.
Lawson.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Good morning.
That was quite an epic story that we've just read out.
And let me just.
Wrong way around.
Just an amazing account.
Seems strange when we're talking about love to read out such a passage.
But Jesus said, there's no greater love than this.
Than I lay down my life for you.
So this passage is all about love.
It's all about God's love for each of us.
Isn't that amazing?
There's three things from this passage of scripture that I want us to consider this morning.
When was this planned?
Why did this happen?
And who is Jesus?
Three incredibly important questions that the Bible is going to answer you this morning.
There's lots of scriptures I'll refer to this morning, but I won't actually turn to it in the Bible because it'll be too long a time.
But as we read the Bible, we discover that Jesus coming to earth was not a random collection of circumstances.
It wasn't an accident.
It wasn't reactive.
It was carefully and meticulously planned.
It was planned. When was it planned?
When was this plan conceived?
And I love what Peter the apostle says in 1 Peter 1, verse 20.
And he. Who's he? That's Jesus he's referring to.
He was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
One translation says, before the founding of the universe.
Think about it.
Jesus had already gone to Calvary.
Jesus had already risen from the dead before man breathed his first breath.
Wow.
In Genesis. I love the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis, it says, and God formed man from the dust of the ground.
And he breathed into his nostrils. That's real close, isn't it?
And breathed the breath of life. And he became a living being.
I can imagine. Put your imagineer on. This morning, Jesus is nose to nose with Adam.
And Jesus is looking into the lifeless eyes of Adam.
He's going to breathe the breath of life into him before he does.
He already knows he's going to die for him.
He already has been to the cross.
And he loves him with an everlasting love before he's even breathing.
My only analogy is when my lovely wife Leslie is here.
You know, when. When she was pregnant with our children.
I used to love touching her tummy and feeling our little babies punch.
It's beautiful.
Do you know I loved the child before he was born or she was born.
I loved them before it happened.
That's a small example. But Jesus loved us before we were even born.
It says in Acts 4:27.
For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. Both Herod, Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and all the people of Israel.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Were.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before it was done.
It wasn't the Jews doing this. This was God.
Manipulating, maneuvering people to what he wanted to do. This was God's purpose and God's plan.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: God planned it all.
You know? Amazing. God told Mary and Joseph before Jesus was born. Name your child Jesus. Because he will save his people from their sins.
All before he was born. He was a savior before he was born.
Isn't that amazing?
When the shepherds were told.
For unto you this day is born. In the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.
Before Jesus started his earthly ministry, the angels announced. The Savior is here.
The Lamb of God is here.
He has arrived.
The magi, the wise men came looking for a king.
They saw something in the heavenlies.
The king is coming. The King is coming.
He's born.
John the Baptist.
Several years before the crucifixion of Jesus. When Jesus was about 30 years old, John the Baptist saw Jesus. He said, behold the Lamb of God.
Who takes away the sins of the world. Before the crucifixion, before the resurrection. He saw it.
Isn't that amazing?
Jesus himself told his disciples many times.
I'm going to die for you.
But I shall rise again on the third day.
All before it happened.
It was planned. When was it planned?
Before the creation of the world.
But why?
But why did it happen?
When God created us, he created us with free will.
Love cannot be forced.
A deep connection between two people only happens when each heart is willing.
You know, I don't know what your record is of Valentine's cards. Have you had many sent back?
I don't know.
Good question. Don't answer it. Whatever you do, don't answer it.
See, there are thousands of songs about love. Isn't there?
Love is in the air.
Every sight and every sound. No. Shh. Okay. Love's all around us.
But love only can truly exist within the framework of free will.
It doesn't exist outside free will.
And God gave us free will.
But God knew before he created us that we would fail.
The Bible describes Adam and Eve and their account. Why they chose to disobey God's will. They put their own will and their own desires to rule their own life above God's will.
And the Lord only wanted to bless them, to bring them joy and peace.
But what they chose only brought separation, sadness and death. Their hearts rebelled against a loving God.
And they fell.
They fell into what we call sin that separates us from God.
You know, one of the terms of death in the Old Testament means to be separated from separated. Like people say, you're dead to me.
You don't exist. It's a separation.
And then something happened in the heart of man that kind of went from light to darkness, you know? I really love my children, man. I used to love my children. I still love them. They're all over 30 now. And I love my kids.
You know, I used to do mad things as a father.
I used to hide in cupboards waiting for them to return to school, home from school. And I would jump out at them and I'd wrestle them to the ground. You know, just loving fatherly, things like that.
It had to stop. When they got so big, I passed out.
I think they knocked me out. But anyway. But I loved having fun with kids. I loved kids. I took them swimming. And they were such a delight to me. And they still are a delight to me.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Me.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: But you know, one thing I never had to tell and show my children how to misbehave.
Do you know, it came naturally.
I don't know about yourself. It comes naturally.
And I remember. I remember even Sam, when he. When we first took him to nursery, you know, he was like three or four like that.
And when I was taking him to nursery and he so didn't want to go that he grabbed my neck so hard and his fingernails ran down both sides of my neck, and it looked like I'd been clawed by a lion when I came home from dropping the children off.
Dropping Sam off, brother.
Anyway, when we collected him later that day, had a wonderful time.
But the problem with Sam was every toy belonged to him.
And he used to grab a toy, put it in his pocket.
You try getting it off him, you know? No, it's my toy. It's Precious. It's my precious.
You know, in the end we have to frisk him when picking him up from nursery.
You know, remember your school days, man, they were cruel days.
You know, we, we can be so cruel with our mouths, can't we?
We experience and such horrible things come out of, can come out of children, can come out of young people.
You know, you, you young people are wonderful. I know you've never thought or said anything bad at all. I know that.
You know, God gave us the ten Commandments to show us our nature, to show us that we are not perfect and we will never be perfect.
CS Lewis, a great author, one of the most powerful intellect minds of the 20th century, started life as an atheist and ended up as a Christian. But one of the interesting things he said is observation of man was this. He said, no man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.
How many of you have said, right this week, I am not going to touch any chocolate.
Day one was okay.
Day three, you have to go to co op and you have to pass what we call the temptation aisle.
All those chocolates at your eye level, by Thursday you failed.
And that's a silly example.
And we find ourselves believing that we're really, really good.
You know, one of the things in our western world is we actually genuinely believe that we are really, really, really good and we don't need saving. I've got it all together. I'm so good inside. I'm absolutely wonderful. I don't need as a savior, I'm wonderful.
You know, I once had a conversation with a really nice man.
He gave to charity. This is a true story. He gave to charity.
He would help his neighbors out.
He was a hard working man.
In fact, you would love him as your next door neighbour because he would always help you out.
So I got into conversation with him, I said, oh, can I ask you a few questions about regarding the ten Commandments? He said, sure. I said, okay, here we go.
Have you ever stolen anything from anyone?
He said, well, I've taken things from work that I didn't think the bosses would miss.
So yeah, I kind of have taken things.
I said, have you ever told a lie?
He said, everybody tells lies.
Sometimes a little lies, sometimes they're big lies.
Have you ever? I told him, have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain?
Seems to be a fashion, doesn't it? JC this, JC that.
And he said, well, I only do it when I get frustrated or angry or over excited.
He said, so I have.
And he said, have you ever looked at a woman who's not your wife in a lustful way?
Kind of went quiet?
And he said, yes. Don't most men?
And I said, then, well, by your own admission, you're a thief, you're a liar, you take the Lord's name in vain and you're an adulteress.
And he looked at me, said, oh, oh, really?
See, do you know pride is one of the most deceptive and destruction destructive emotions or attitudes we can have.
We think we're all right. God.
Hey, don't bother dying for me, Jesus. I'm okay.
But Jesus, when he was beginning to teach, and it's recorded in Matthew chapter five, and I love this, Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was not talking about your bank account.
He was not talking about your possessions.
He was talking about the state of your heart.
See, there is no difference between a rich man and a poor man's heart.
Heart.
A rich man can steal, a poor man can steal.
A rich man can hate. A poor man can hate. The rich man can be envious, the poor man can be envious.
The rich man can commit sexual crimes. The poor man can commit sexual crimes. There is no difference.
Godly poverty.
Godly. The Jesus kind of poverty that he's talking about is that you know that you need God.
And without the love and the peace and the forgiveness of Christ in your life, you are bankrupt, you are poverty stricken. And when you come to that point saying, God, I need you, Jesus, I need you.
At that point, you become rich in Christ.
Jesus went on to say, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. What on earth does that mean?
It means when you say, lord, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry I've ignored you. I'm sorry I've led my own life.
I'm sorry for my sin.
I'm sorry for all the things I've done wrong. When you start to mourn, then God comforts you with his peace, his love and his grace. It transforms your life to free us from the penalty or the consequences for what we truly deserve.
Jesus died for us and he took our guilty place.
Second Corinthians 5 says, for he who knew no sin. Who's that? Jesus was made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
The prophet Isaiah says, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was What? Wounded for your transgressions, he was bruised for your iniquities. The chastisement of your peace was upon him. And by his stripes you're healed.
We have all, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
And God has laid on him. On who? Jesus? The iniquity of us all.
For God has so loved you this morning that he's given, and he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, will not perish, but have now everlasting life. You can have everlasting life now.
But who is Jesus?
Who is he?
Historians acknowledge that Jesus is an historical fact beyond any doubt. He's a fact. People say, oh, I believe Jesus existed. I've heard this down the pub. Oh, I believe Jesus existed. Oh, he was a lovely man. Oh, he did lots of lovely things.
And he said lots of nice things as well.
But I think he was just a good person.
Other religions will say that Jesus was a prophet. They do. Some would even say he's a messiah. That means anointed and holy by God.
But they would never say that he is God.
And some of those religions don't believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again. Oh no, that couldn't be God.
Other religions can't make up their mind who Jesus is. They think he's the brother of Satan, he's a promoted angel. They just got no idea.
But what did Jesus say about himself?
Here's what Jesus said about himself.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
You cannot get God's grace by being good.
You get God's grace by knowing that you're bad and he receives his goodness.
Pilate asked Jesus to his face, right to his face. Imagine that.
Are you the Son of God?
And Jesus didn't reply. Quietly, Jesus said to them all, he must have raised his voice.
You rightly say, I am.
Wow.
Jesus had a conversations with the Pharisees and he said, your father Abraham, rejoice to see my day. And they say, what you're, you're not even 50 years old and you're saying, abraham, rejoice to see you.
And then Jesus used the term said before Abraham was, I am.
Before time, before creation, I am.
In Revelation we see what Jesus says about himself. He said, I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come? The Almighty.
You know, the Jews were right on the scene they were right. They were shoulder to shoulder with Jesus. They wanted to kill him. Why did they want to kill him? For two reasons. One, he healed on the Sabbath.
Two, he said God was his Father. That made him equal with God and that made them so angry.
How dare you say you're equal with God.
Oh, I love it.
What does the Bible say about Jesus? I love this. What it says in Colossians.
For by him, that's Jesus were all things created.
Think about it.
The very floor you standing on was created by Jesus. The very wood for this building was created by Jesus.
He's wonderful.
He created that. All things that are in heaven that are on the earth, visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Jesus and for him and for all things. And he's before all things and in him that's Jesus. All things consistent.
The Bible says, let all the angels worship him.
Revelation 5 says, Blessing and honor and glory and power to be to him. Who's him?
God. And who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, the Lamb is Jesus forever and ever.
This is heavenly worship.
And the apostle John, who lived shoulder to shoulder with Jesus, who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who witnessed the countless miracles of Jesus Christ, who witnessed the raising of the dead through Jesus Christ. And he said, if you were to write down all the miracles that Jesus did, he said, there's not enough books in the whole world that would record what he did.
It's amazing. And what did John say about Jesus?
He said in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God.
All things were made through him, and without him. Nothing was made that was made.
Nothing was made without Jesus.
Everything was flows through Jesus.
In John, 1st John 5, he wraps up his epistle. John does by saying this.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding this morning that we may know him who is true.
And we are in him who is true.
His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life.
CS Lewis said in his grappling with life and death, with his powerful intellectual mind, and he became a believer in Jesus Christ. He said this Christianity, if false, is of no importance.
And if true, of infinite importance.
The only thing that it cannot be is moderately important.
Alice Cooper, the great rock star of the 20th century, was a complete mess. An alcoholic, drug taking, womanizing man. And he met Jesus Christ.
And do you know what Alice Cooper says about that meeting?
He said, I did not find Jesus.
He said, I surrendered to Jesus, you know, and his life was totally transformed.
Jesus is the Son of God.
He came as God in the flesh to die for you. Isn't that amazing, love?
Don't you feel incredibly loved this morning?
It's not just somebody dying for you. It's God dying for you in a human body.
God, in a sense, doesn't ever die because he's a spirit, but he took on a human form that would suffer an agonizing death for you.
Don't you feel love this morning, man? I do.
Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures.
And he was buried. And he rose again on the third day. According to the Scriptures, he was seen by 12 apostles after he rose from the dead.
Then by another 500 people in one sitting, 500 people saw the resurrected Jesus Christ.
He appeared and reappeared for 40 days.
Why?
My theory is it was so amazing to see Jesus risen from the dead when you'd seen him die a few days earlier. Your brain cannot take in such wonderful news. You can't believe it.
You had to reappear and reappear. Yes, it is me. Yes, it is me. I am risen. I am risen.
God loves you today with an everlasting love.
And it might be hard for you to acknowledge or understand this, but before you were born, he loved you.
Before you existed, he died for you.
That's the most amazing thought that Jesus. What Jesus has done.
