It will be accomplished

Introduction

Good morning church. It is a joy and honor to be here with you this morning to worship and fellowship. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Isaac’s brother-in-law. I am married to his sister Liz who is pregnant with our first child. Over the past two years, our church has been going through the book of Luke. I am going to be looking at the same passage they are today.

Before we get into the passage, I want to give you a brief summary of what has been taking place recently. Jesus and His followers were in a region between Samaria and Galilee. There He heals ten lepers, one is saved through faith in Jesus. Some Pharisees come to Him and ask about the coming of the kingdom of God. Jesus explains that it cannot be predicted, but He will come in judgement. Then he shares the parable about the persistent widow teaching that they should pray always as they wait for his coming. He follows this with a parable teaching that the humble are justified not the proud. After this, people bring infants to Him and He teaches them about how to receive the kingdom like a child. A rich young ruler asks a question on how to inherit eternal life and Jesus says that what is impossible for man is possible with God. This brings us to where we are today.

Luke 18:31-34

Luke 18:31–34 ESV

31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

31

The first thing that should be noted is that Jesus is now only speaking to His twelve disciples. This conversation that He has been having with many is over. He is moving on with His disciples to a private conversation. These men are His closest friends and followers who would later become His apostles who spread the gospel and write parts of the New Testament.

Jesus says “see”, which implies that the path they are taking is clearly headed to Jerusalem. In Luke 9:51, Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem. Now it is plain to His followers that they are going to Jerusalem. In chapter 9 when He set His face, it was not as clear because He didn’t take a direct path to Jerusalem geographically, but now it is clear that this is where they are going.

God’s plan will be accomplished

Jesus tells His disciples that all that is written about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Jesus assures the disciples that God is going to fulfill His plan and promise. Here, Jesus is referring to everything that is promised about Him, both in His death and what will take place at the end of time. It will all be accomplished by Jesus. As we will see, Jesus is giving special attention to what is about to take place, specifically His death and resurrection. The term Son of Man is used in the book of Daniel to describe the coming Messiah who will be given dominion over the earth. Likely, the disciples would have been filled with great excitement upon hearing this as many of the Jews anticipated that the Messiah would come to overthrow the oppressors of Israel. The Roman Empire is in authority over the Jews, enforcing heavy taxes upon them. In their minds, they would have envisioned a military victory over their enemies and a kingdom set up on earth under the rule of Jesus.

God’s plan is different than we expect

32

But then Jesus next words would have been shocking. First He says that the Son of Man will be handed over to the Gentiles. This would have been utterly confusing for His followers to hear. In a moment, in a word, they would have become so confused at what Jesus was saying. They went from dreaming of victory and ruling with Christ, to hearing that the one who was supposed to deliver them from oppression was going to be handed over to their enemies. In the Old Testament, the phrase handed over is used many times by the prophets as they pronounce God’s Judgement against the nation for their sin and rebellion against God. Now this phrase is being used by the Messiah to describe what is going to happen to Him. When Jesus says this, it is as if He is saying He is going to come under God’s judgement for sin. They would have wondered how this could be?

Jesus continues describing what will happen to Him according to the Scriptures. He will be mocked, spit upon, and shamefully treated. In the book of Isaiah, you can find many passages where the sufferings of Jesus are described in detail. These words are familiar ones, but let’s think about what is being said here. We have all been mocked before, It doesn’t feel good to be made fun of by others. We’ve all been shamefully treated and embarrassed by other people. Maybe you’ve even been so disrespected by someone that they spit on you. Now think about how Jesus would have felt. The Creator of the universe, the Creator of the very people mocking Him and spitting on Him. The all powerful one submitted Himself to be mistreated by His creation. It was God’s plan for this to take place, for Jesus to be treated like a criminal.

33

Then He would be flogged. The practice of flogging was a brutal punishment. Isaiah again describes the brutal treatment of Jesus. He is going to be beaten beyond recognition. His identity would be hard to make out because He was going to be so badly flogged. And then, they would kill Him. The Messiah was going to die. The victory predicted by the Old Testament prophets was not going to be accomplished by a warrior king, but a suffering servant. In Genesis 3 we see that sin enters the world through Adam’s disobedience. And through Scripture we learn that all are guilty of sin as we each have gone astray from God. Each one of us chooses to disobey God as we think that we know better. We follow in Adam’s footsteps. We learn that because we sin, we deserve death. The penalty for sin is death, and not just a physical death, but separation from God for all of eternity. God is holy, and so anything that is not holy cannot be in God’s presence. So, each one of us has earned through our own sinfulness separation from God. We justly deserve to be condemned by God. But in Genesis 3, God says one more thing, that the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed, but the seed would crush the serpents head. The death of Christ is what God was referring to. God had a plan from the beginning to redeem people from their sin. His plan to do this was do die in their place. Jesus, God incarnate, would die in the place of sinners. He was perfect, He kept all of God’s commandments perfectly, He was without sin. And so He would die so we do not have to. Though it would appear at first that Jesus had lost, He was victorious. The devil may have thought he won through the death of Christ, but we see that Jesus crushes him and sin and death through His resurrection. This is what the Scriptures are all pointing to. While Jesus words are heavy, they are words of victory. It can be hard at times for us to understand why God chose to do this. While we may not have all of the answers, we can know that God has a plan and it will all be accomplished.

Apart from God revealing His plan, we have no hope of understanding

34

But the disciples do not understand what Jesus is saying. God’s plan is often not what we expect it to be. He will do what He says, but we must be sure to not place limitations or expectations on Him, as He works in ways we do not understand. We see that the disciples are unable to grasp this because of their own lack of understanding as well as it being hidden from them. In God’s perfect timing the disciples would understand what Jesus has just said, but for then, it remained a mystery. The disicples do not understand the meaning of Jesus death and resurrection until He reveals it to them. For a time, even after they know He has risen, they remain in hiding, but once God has revealed to them the meaning of it all, their lives change radically. Their eternity is forever changed, but so their lives were changed in the here and now. Because of Christ, they each began to teach of Jesus, and according to tradition all of them but John were killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. Instead of going back to their professions before they knew Jesus, they became preachers of the good news. Their day to day lives looked extremely different because of Jesus. I can tell you that my life looks extremely different because of God’s revelation. If I did not know Christ, I would have never went to Word of Life where I met Liz Meyers, who is now Liz Scott, my wife. Liz and I would not be having this child together if I had never met her. And if I had never met her, I would never have met Isaac, and the Pollucks, and all the people who are a part of our church. My life has been drastically changed because of Jesus. Because of Jesus, I have found a new meaning and purpose for life. And so I’m sure many of you can say the same. We can rejoice that our eternities are very different because of the revelation of Jesus, but also our lives today are different because we know Christ. It is only because of God’s mercy and grace that we can know Him and have a relationship with Him. Scripture tells us that if we repent, turn from our sins and trust in Jesus alone for salvation, we will be saved. Jesus has accomplished salvation. If you believe in Jesus, your life has been changed, both now and for eternity.Like the disciples, let us go and proclaim the good news of Jesus to those around us. God has revealed this truth to you for your salvation and so that you can tell others. God has planned for you to live where you do and for you to do what you do so that you can influence the people in your life for Christ. None of it is by accident. God has a purpose for everything. May we grow in our understanding of God’s plan and walk in obedience to it. Let’s pray.