On Trial

IT IS FINISHED ARREST AND TRIAL March 29th, 2020 FVCC LOGO SPLASH WELCOME/ANNOUNCEMENTS Welcome to Fox Valley Christian Church, where every member is a missionary. If you are joining us on Facebook or any other form of social media, I want to encourage you … as we greet each other … to answer the following question in the comments below … ON SCREEN QUESTION “When everyone else was running for toilet paper, what did you run for?” As you think about that, I want to remind you of where we have been the last few weeks. We are leading up to Easter and in doing this we have been looking at Christ. We have been walking through key moments in the Gospel of John that help us to see Christ. Week 1 we said that He is here, last week we said that He is our Savior, and this week we are going to look at His arrest and trial and we are going to see our Savior who stepped forward. But first, let’s begin with prayer. PRAY HEROIC MOVIE MOMENTS This is one of the most heart breaking, but heart emboldening, moments in scripture. Jesus is arrested and beaten, but Jesus is dealing a mighty blow and winning the battle. I love movies. I am sure that many of you during this staycation have pulled out the old VHS and have went through some of your favorite classic movies. Alright, probably not VHS, but I am guessing that many of you either watched through your favorite classic movies, made a plan to eventually watch through some of them, or you will eventually find yourself going through them as this season continues. And if you are like me at all … there are those moments in movies that just grab your heart. For me, it is those moments where the hero, against all odds, steps forward. FILM COLAGE IF POSSIBLE, TO THE SIDE Typically, this is when the hero is surrounded by enemies. There is a moment where the enemy asks who is responsible or where is your leader. The moment where the hero knows that speaking up and stepping forward will cost them their life. And then it happens … the hero, to defend his own, to save the lives of those around himself … steps forward. His life for theirs. Jesus stepped forward. He stepped forward for His disciples and He stepped forward for us. He did it willingly, He did it out of love, and He did it with authority. Today we are going to look at Jesus, the one who stepped forward. A SAVIOR STEPPED FORWARD We are going to look at John 18 and 19 from a distance today. Let’s begin at the beginning of John 18. JOHN 18:3-5 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" 5 They answered him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am he." Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. Jesus came forward. Remember, Jesus knows what is happening. Jesus knows that what comes next is not going to be pleasant. He literally, according to Luke 22, was just praying and in such agony that His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. He was asking God to take what was to come next from Him. LUKE 22:42 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done. Jesus knew what was coming, He was in agony because of what was coming, but when the time came and we needed a hero … Jesus stepped forward. In order to fully understand anything else after this point here. You need to understand this. Jesus stepped forward. He willingly gave Himself up, even though it wasn’t His will. He stepped forward. SATAN WAS WINNING? Now, we are going to take an aside here … because I think it is important for us to fully understand the next part of this. At this point … Jesus is arrested and being led to be crucified … did Satan think he was winning? Around this time of the year we hear many preachers say, “Satan thought he had victory on Friday, until Sunday came.” Satan thought he won, and then Jesus defeated death. That sounds good, but is it true? IF POSSIBLE, ARGUMENTS TO THE LEFT OR RIGHT I have seen many arguments that say: - Satan knew from the beginning, all angels knew the plan, they were literally watching it unfold in front of them. - Satan knew the prophecies and that Jesus would be crucified. That’s why he tried to kill Him as a baby and tempt Him in the wilderness. His sole focus was to keep Jesus from the cross. If Satan didn’t catch on through observing the Israelites and reading prophecy, He would have heard Jesus Himself say that He would be handed over the Gentiles, beaten, and crucified … and on the third day rise again. There is no way then that Satan really thought he was winning here. Right? Well, let’s look at some of these things in scripture. SATAN/ALL ANGELS KNEW THE PLAN FROM THE BEGINNING. Did they? 1 PETER 1:10-12 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. What an interesting scripture right? There are things, namely salvation matters, that have been revealed to us through God’s Spirit and the angels don’t even fully understand or know these things. They long to look into these things. SATAN KNEW THAT JESUS WOULD BE CRUCIFIED: Did he? 1 CORINTHIANS 2:7-8 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. He is talking about Satan here. Satan is one of the rulers of this age. He didn’t have a clue how God was going to save. He knew that God planned on saving. He wanted to stop the plan. He knew that Jesus, as God, was involved in the plan and, as man, was vulnerable. But He didn’t know that the cross was victory or he wouldn’t have crucified Christ. SATAN TRIED TO PREVENT JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION: Did he? Because he seems to be the one that initiates the crucifixion. Look what happens to Judas during the Holy Week. LUKE 22:3-4 3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. Satan led Judas to the chief priest. He literally led Jesus into the hands of those that would crucify Him. Listen … people are going to tell you that Satan knew what was going on and that he understood that the cross meant victory for God. Satan is not God. He is not on the same playing field as God. They are not two all-knowing minds. SIDE NOTE: If you still have questions here how this works … read Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. He does such a great job of distinguishing between God and Satan. They are not two equally opposed enemies. It is creator and creation. It is all knowing and limited. It is infinite and finite. And at this point … in his arrogance, his anger, his pride … Satan thought that he was winning. He thought that he had surrounded the enemy from all sides and could care less that Jesus stepped forward. He saw it as Jesus stepping forward in defeat. Not as a hero stepping forward in victory. GOD’S WILL Now … everything gets really complicated here. Everything gets really tricky here. Here is why. In the same way that Satan is not all knowing, but he sure thought he was. We are not all knowing, but we sure think we are. We can only see what is immediately in front of us. We can only see what we can see. So, because of this … we all have an opinion and we call our opinions facts. Look at Social Media, especially right now. There are facts, sure. But there are a lot of opinions that people are shouting as facts. We even believe that they make such good sense, shouldn’t they be facts … ? EXAMPLE: If you see someone in need and you have an extra $10, you should give them your extra $10. Not your only $10, your extra $10, and they are in need. So, yeah. This makes sense. If you see someone in need and you have an extra $10, you should give it to them. Well … hold on … what do you mean by need? And is giving them $10 cash going to help them or will it tempt them to use it on something they don’t need? And should I just hand it to them? In our current situation, couldn’t I put them at risk by getting to close? Is there need greater than the risk I would be putting on them? There are far too many questions that need to be answered. Every situation is going to be different and at the end of the day … we can hope we did the right thing … but only fool really believes that they know with all certainty that they made the right choice. There are far too many variables and you can’t possibly believe that you can follow every variable to conclusion and that you have set the right path in motion. So … then I don’t give the $10? … I don’t know See … I told you … it gets tricky here, because we are not sovereign and we are not all knowing … therefore, we don’t have all of the answers. Instead, a couple things need to happen here. FIRST, WE HAVE TO ADMIT THAT WE ARE LIMITED. We have to admit that not only are we not all knowing, but we are far from it. What a great opportunity we have right now, right? What a great opportunity to understand our limitations and be humble, while we are in the midst of being humbled. How many of you thought that we were too advanced to have a pandemic like this affect us the way it has? How many of you thought we were too superior to find a situation that caused us to feel like prisoners in our homes? It’s been humbling right? Well lets continue down that path and humble ourselves even more. We need to admit that although we “think” we know what is best in all situations … we, in fact, cannot know what is best. We are too limited by what is immediately in front of us. Instead, we need to turn to the one that in fact does know what is best and He works for what is best. NEXT, WE HAVE TO RECOGNIZE THAT GOD IS SOVEREIGN. He is in full control. He is king and Lord over all creation. JESUS’ CONFIDENCE Look at Jesus near the end of His trial … JOHN 19:10-11 10 So Pilate said to him, "You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?" 11 Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin." Pilate says … I have authority to release you or kill you. And Jesus responds and basically says … yes you do, but that doesn’t bother me because God is the one that gave you that authority. So … if I die, it is not because it is your will (Pilate) … it is because it is God’s will. Jesus stands confidently before Pilate. Not because Pilate has no power. Jesus just confirmed that Pilate has power. Pilate has the power to kill Him. Jesus is standing confidently because He recognizes that Pilate’s power is under the sovereign rule of God. Jesus fully understands that the Jews are getting their will by having Him crucified and that Satan is getting his will by having Jesus killed … but … Jesus steps forward because He knows that above and beyond any one of their limited wills … Jesus is submitting to the true Sovereign King whose will is perfect AND whose will is good. APPLICATION AND CLOSING Listen, we have many enemies. Right now, the Coronavirus is our enemy and sin (even in social distancing) lurks as our enemy waiting to devour us. There are going to be times that it feels like the enemy is winning. There are going to be times that we stand in front of our enemies and they have power. They have the power to kill and destroy. They have the power to tempt and to taunt. It is not their lack of power though that gives us confidence. It is not their lack of power that gives us hope. Pilate has power, these soldiers have power, Satan has power, the coronavirus has power … but none of them are independently powerful. Every one of them are under God’s will. I bet Satan thinks he is winning right now. I bet Satan looks at how the Church is physically scattered and sneers. I bet Satan sees the fear and the death that is spreading across the world and believes that he is victorious. I want you to know that even if you can’t see the big picture. Even if you can’t see how God’s will is good and perfect. Even if you can’t see how God’s will is working for good. Even if you can’t see the unlimited reaches, the varying degrees, the multiple outcomes … You have control of one thing … one simple thing … Humble yourselves before God. The God who is Sovereign and in full control. But take heart. Have hope. Submit with confidence. Because remember … we are humbling ourselves before the King who steps forward. We are humbling ourselves before the King that says, “Take me. My life for theirs.” PRAY OFFERING/ANNOUNCEMENTS It is time for our offering. I know that things are financially scary right now, but I want to encourage you to continue giving. In full disclosure, our offerings have been significantly impacted the last few weeks. I know that God will sustain us, I know that we will continue to share the Gospel and that nothing will stop us there, but I also know the many great things that our tithes and offerings allow us to do. The ways that we are able to reach locally and globally and the ways that we are able to continue to train you up so that you can be a missionary in your families and in the world around you. So I want to encourage you to continue giving. If you are able, if you are able … I want to encourage you to give online at www.fvcc.com/give. You can also mail your checks into the Church at 40w150 Main Street, Batavia, IL 60510. Parents … we want to encourage you, if you have not already … to go to www.fvcc.com/kids and check out our two children’s worship services there. One is for our Elementary aged kids and one is for preschoolers. AWANA … we also now have resources online for all of our kids in AWANA. They can see videos from their leaders and continue to be engaged there. Go to www.fvcc.com/AWANA Bible Studies … also, don’t forget to check out our Bible Studies as we are walking through the Gospel of Luke right now. You can see these at www.fvcc.com/BibleStudy Finally … please continue to pray, pray, pray … and you can join us daily for prayer on our Prayer Calls. Just call (951) 799-9548 COMMUNION We are now going to transition here and join together in communion. I want to remind you during this season, it is not what you are eating and drinking that make this time significant. It is who we are gathered around and remembering. Jesus. Our Lord. Our Savior. The one who stepped forward. The one whose will is good and perfect. I want to encourage your family to gather around for communion, to pray together and then I want to encourage you to end this time we have together today by praising God. So, after you take communion, turn the volume up a little, and join us as we praise God. The one who steps forward. PRAY SPLASH SCREEN HERE THANKING PARKVIEW CHRISTIAN CHURCH WORSHIP SONGS FVCC LOGO SPLASH