Tell Us
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Does anyone remember what I preached about on May 21, 2023? That was only about 16 months ago. Anybody? It’s okay if you don’t. I didn’t either. I had to look it up. The sermon was on the confession of Peter that Jesus was the Christ. But it was more than just the confession. There was also this correction. Jesus corrected their thinking about what was to happen to him. He would be handed over to be killed. And still beyond that, Jesus gave a command. They too were to take up their cross and follow him.
And here we are, coming full circle. Jesus is on trial for his life. Only this time, Jesus isn’t the one answering questions; he’s taking them and it is he who is to make a confession. Again he corrects the religious leaders. And by the end of this whole trial—from the Sanhedrin to Pilate to Herod back to Pilate, he will be forced and yet willingly at the same time, take up his cross.
This is just the beginning that we see here. Yet, as we look at the text this morning, I want us to focus on the three titles that are given to Jesus. We’re used to these titles and so we can see them all as synonymous to his name. Yet, they are distinct titles that have ramifications for everyone on earth. The first title is “Christ.” The second is “the Son of Man.” Finally, there is “the Son of God.”
The Christ
The Son of Man
The Son of God
Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.
When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”
The Christ
The Christ
The first title that we see given to Jesus is the title Christ. Before we get there, we see something that once again hearkens back to the confession of Peter. In the confession, Jesus asked, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”
And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.”
The crowds saw Jesus as a prophet, nothing more. He may be akin to the greats like John the Baptist or Elijah—in essence, the forerunner of the Christ, but they did not necessarily see him as the Christ. And now, the temple guards are mocking Jesus as if he were merely a prophet. Now that doesn’t sound much better than mocking him as if he were the Christ. This was what the prophets of God could expect, however: derision and collision. Deriding with their lips, and colliding with their fists.
Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.
At best, he was some prophet to these temple guards. And because they could not see who Jesus was, the very ones who were supposed to protect the house of God from sin and blasphemy, were in fact, sinning and blaspheming the very Christ of God.
At this point, if we were to read John, we would see that he gave us details that there was basically a pre-trial in the middle of the night. Certain men of the Sanhedrin needed to get all their ducks in a row, and so they put Jesus on trial so they would know how to trap him when the official trial took place in the morning when all the men were present. And now that they are all there for this official moment, they begin questioning him.
When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer.
Luke writes down those who made up the Sanhedrin Council. It is likely that Theophilus, whether a real person or a pseudenym, would have no idea who made them up, so Luke tells us that it was made up of the elders, chief priests, and scribes. Then they command him to tell them if he is the Christ. Now, we must understand that “Christ” is the Greek word for the Hebrew word “Messiah,” and both of those words mean “the annointed One.”
There developed a theology about who the Messiah, the Christ, would be and what he would do. And this theology, like all theologies starts small and then gets larger and more information and thought is given to it. So it began as an expression of just about anyone who led God’s people—specifically Judah after the split between the two kingdoms. And so anyone who was of David’s line was considered a messiah. Even Cyrus of Persia was called God’s anointed because he allowed the Jews to go back and populate Judah again. But the prophets—especially some of the Minor Prophets—began to build on the idea of the Messiah. By the time we get to the inter-testimental times—the time between the Old and New Testaments—the doctrine of who Messiah had gotten much larger than it was at the beginning.
The proto-pharisee group had gotten together and wrote a psalter known as the Psalms of Solomon. It’s not Scripture, but it was a poetic understanding of Solomon’s writings and somewhat of a commentary as well. And in there, there are point in which the Messiah is talked about. By the time Jesus comes on the scene, there is this idea that the Messiah—the Christ—would be one who would “‘destroy the unrighteous rulers’” ... overthrow the unlawful nations, and to purge Jerusalem of sinners” (LBD). This is not entirely wrong. Jesus would indeed destroy the unrighteous rulers; the problem is that the Sanhedrin Council was woefully unaware that they were those leaders. Eventually the Christ would return and overthrow the unlawful nations. We see this with such imagery in Daniel 2, when a rock carved out of a mountain by the hand of God smashes the idolatrous statue representing the nations of the world. He began his process of purging Jerusalem of sinners, but not in the way expected. He did it through love; healing them through their repentance and faith.
This is who the Christ is; this is who he was supposed to be. In a subtle but powerful way, Luke has proven this to be true. He was born of the line of David. He was challenging the unrighteous rulers to their face. He was purging the sinners—eating and drinking and calling them to repentance. And he predicted his coming and overthrowing the unlawful nations. But more than anything, Jesus was focussed on seeking and saving the lost. And there is coming a time when he will fulfill that mission.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The Council asked if he was the Christ. Jesus’s response was that he could admit it—confess his own Christship—but they would not accept his confession as true. But then he said, “If I asked you, you would not answer.” Are you the Christ? “Who do you say that I am?” That’s the imagery I believe Jesus was bringing up. If I asked you, you would not answer. He asked the disciples. They were all too ready to answer what the crowds rumored Jesus to be. But when he asked them personally, only one would answer. If he were to ask the Sanhedrin, a crowd of seventy of Israel’s leaders, they would remain silent. Not a word.
What if he were to ask you? Do you see him as the Christ? Is he the One the Council has accused him to be? If not, and you’re wrong, how awful for you. If so, but you do nothing about it—you do not follow him—how awful for you. If so, and you do follow, how glorious it will be! But you cannot remain neutral. There is no neutral ground. You are either for him or against him.
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
The Son of Man
The Son of Man
But the title of the Christ is not the only one that is used during the trial. There was a second title that Jesus used of himself: The Son of Man.
But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
A moment ago, I had mentioned how Daniel had given us this vivid imagery of the hand of God cutting out a large stone from the mountain and breaking the idolatrous image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, setting up a kingdom that will not end. And it is Daniel who also gives us an understanding of who the Son of Man is. In both instances, Daniel describes both of the kingdoms set up as kingdoms that will not end; thus, they are one and the same kingdom. Thus, whoever the stone is that destroys the kingdoms of this world is the same one who is called the Son of Man.
“I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.
This Son of Man passage, along with the Ancient of Days passage just above, is sandwiched between two horrifying verses about the kingdoms of this world. The earlier passage tells us about a dream Daniel had. There was a lion, then a bear, afterwards a leopard, and finally a beast that defies imagination. Then suddenly, he has a break from the horror and sees glory! He sees the Ancient of Days on his throne, and one like the Son of Man riding on a cloud. Daniel is left without knowing exactly what all this means until he receives the interpretation. In short, we read
‘These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever.’
But how does that happen? It is explained that the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High. And so, what we see then is that the Son of Man is the human form of God himself. We know that because God is the one who is always depicted on a cloud. In Exodus 13, we find God first appearing as the cloud to lead Israel through the wilderness. He is in the form of a cloud on Mt. Sinai. He comes as a cloud into the tabernacle. But in two places, we find this explicitly stated that God is the rider of clouds.
He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
and in
An oracle concerning Egypt.
Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud
and comes to Egypt;
and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
Don’t miss the fact that Isaiah brings out the judgment of God in his one verse here, while the Psalmist indicates that God is sovereign over all. So we can see that the Son of Man is the very one who would rule not only over the Jewish people, but over the whole world. He will one day bring it into judgment.
But even more than that, it is the Son of Man who fights on behalf of his saints. He always has; he always will. Again in reference to the Red Sea destroying Egypt’s army, Moses wrote in his song
Exodus 15:3
The Lord is a man of war;
the Lord is his name.
And at the end of Revelation we see Jesus riding his horse, coming in judgment. He has always fought for his people and always will. I love what Tremper Longman III said about this fact: “God’s people are told that their Lord fights for them against the evil that oppresses them—both external enemies and the sin that remains in their own hearts. This is the comfort that the Bible presents to God’s people today, whether a Christian in an Iranian jail or one in America feeling the ridicule of a ‘toxic culture’ in the West. God has won the victory on the cross, and history’s victorious denouement (DAY new mo) is certain.”
Beloved, we need not worry about our futures, so long as the Son of Man is on his throne seated at the right hand of the power of God. We need not worry about our spiritual futures, nor our temporal futures. Our place is secured in heaven—the best thing anyone could do is send us there sooner rather than later. But even if we must endure affliction and tribulation, we have been promised time and again that they will only lead to greater glory and greater blessing. Why? Because the Son of Man is on his throne.
The Son of God
The Son of God
But he is not only the Son of Man and not only the Christ. He is the very Son of God.
So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”
This was what the Sanhedrin was looking for. A confession! But obviously, if we look closely, we find Jesus did not quite make the confession for which they looked. They asked him, “Are you the Son of God, then?” His response was pretty cryptic. He neither denied, nor confirmed. In essence, what he said was: “those are your words, not mine.” Now that might sound strange to us. Why would Jesus not just answer plainly? And the answer is, we don’t exactly know. But, if we look back to Peter’s confession, we see that in Matthew’s account, Jesus’s response to Peter saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” he did not exactly say “you’re right.” He said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
The evidence was set before Peter, and by divine revelation, he saw Jesus accurately. He believed exactly what he said. Now here is the Sanhedrin standing before Jesus. They have heard his words, which lead them to conclude that he is claiming more than Christ-hood. He is claiming to be the very one riding on the clouds—the Son of God, God in the flesh. Intellectually they had received the message. But they did not agree; they did not believe. To them, it was just a way of indicting him on blasphemy—punishable by death (if they could convince the Romans to do their bidding).
You see, the Sanhedrin Council had to make a decision about Jesus, just as we all do. Was he the Son of God or was he a blasphemer worthy of death? Was he lying? Was he a lunatic or was he Lord? C. S. Lewis often gets the credit for coming up with this argument, but it was actually developed by a Scottish minister in the 1800s as I found out in a Justin Taylor article on The Gospel Coalition website. Taylor has a quote from Watchman Nee, whom I think said it better than Lewis:
First, if he claims to be God and yet in fact is not, he has to be a madman or a lunatic.
Second, if he is neither God nor a lunatic, he has to be a liar, deceiving others by his lie.
Third, if he is neither of these, he must be God.
You can only choose one of the three possibilities.
If you do not believe that he is God, you have to consider him a madman.
If you cannot take him for either of the two, you have to take him for a liar.
There is no need for us to prove if Jesus of Nazareth is God or not. All we have to do is find out if He is a lunatic or a liar. If He is neither, He must be the Son of God.
However, William Lane Craig, one of the great Christian apologists, pointed out that there is one more possibility. What if the Jesus we read about is simply a legend and not the Jesus of history? Taylor pointed out that Lewis rebuffed this argument as well when he stated that the Gospel Accounts are not legend. As a literary historian, C. S. Lewis who was at one point an atheist, found that the Gospel Accounts were too clumsy to be legend, and did not have the stuff that legends ought to have. Thus, Jesus is not legend. So the decision is now the same as before: liar, lunatic, or Lord. It’s the decision that everyone must make if they’ve heard the name of Jesus.
To quote C. S. Lewis, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we finish up with Luke 22 this morning, we’ve seen three titles that Jesus bore all in one trial: The Christ, The Son of Man, and The Son of God. Each one depicts more and more of who Jesus really is. He is The Anointed One who will destroy the unrighteous leaders and overthrow the nations. But not for Israel’s sake alone. As the Son of Man, he is fighting for all of God’s people—from every tribe, language, and tongue. He is ruling his kingdom even now at the right hand of the power of God. And rightly, he is not only flesh and bone, but as the Sanhedrin acknowledged with their lips but not with their hearts, he was very God of very God.
It’s your turn now. Who is Jesus to you? In reality, Jesus ought not be judged my humankind, and yet we cannot help ourselves it seems. You can’t do any worse than the Sanhedrin who literally put Jesus to death. But you can make the same mistake as to his identy and so trample underfoot the very blood that was shed in order to save sinners like you and me. He is coming again, on the clouds, in order to save we who eagerly await him. Would you join us in that expectation?
For those of us who have already accepted Jesus as Lord, may I ask you a question? Do we claim him as Lord but treat him as if he is a lunatic or a liar—excusing our own sins as if Jesus did not mean what he said? If he didn’t mean what he said, then he must be a liar, or he must be crazy to say those things. If he meant what he said, then why do we not act upon them?