Gethsemane, Arrest & Crucifixion
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[00:00:00] And we are gonna read, uh, in Luke 23 verses 33 to the end of the chapter. So if you're able, please stand. If you're able, please stand. And again, hear this for what it is, the words of God. The words of our God words, that he is preserved. For our sakes, Luke chapter 23, beginning in verse 33. When they came to the place called Skull, there, they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
But Jesus was saying, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. And they cast lots dividing up his garments among themselves. And the people stood by looking on, and even the rulers were sneering at him saying he saved others. Let him save himself. If this one is [00:01:00] the Christ, the Messiah of God, this chosen one, the soldiers also mocked him, coming up to him, offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
And there was also an inscription above him. This is the king of the Jews, one of the criminals who were hanging. There was hurling abuse at him saying, are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other answered and rebuked him saying, do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
And we indeed are suffering justly for we receiving what we deserve for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise. And it was about the sixth hour [00:02:00] and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour because the sun was obscured and the veil of the temple was torn in true.
And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle when they observed what had happened, began to return beating their breasts.
And all of his acquaintances and the women who accompanied him from Galilee were standing at a distance seeing these things. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, but more importantly, the obedience to his word. Please be seated.
Number one, on your outlining kids. This is actually tied to one of the questions that [00:03:00] you have. Number one on your outline is the amount of olives and children. The Mount of Olives is where Jesus went to pray the night that he was betrayed. It's also known as Gethsemane. But if you look in your bulletins, there's a full page handout that's folded in half, and if you look at it, I've done something, I've uh, put the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of John side by side, and I've tried to show you how things line up in terms of the passion account in terms of the last supper.
Uh, Jesus going to Gethsemane, his arrest, his trials, all that stuff. I've put 'em side by side. You'll note that I didn't do Matthew and Mark and I was planning on doing Matthew and Mark toward the end of the week, but then I thought that's gonna be a really good exercise for you guys to do as a family, to read through Matthew and Mark's account and, and line up some of the things that were taking place.
But today we're gonna focus in on the Mount of Olives. Jesus at Gethsemane, we're gonna focus in on his betrayal and arrest and we'll [00:04:00] focus in on the, the crucifixion. I wish I had time to do the whole thing, but rumor has it, you don't wanna sit for three hours. So, uh, but number one on your outline, the Mount of Olives, beginning in Luke 22.
So if you still have Luke Open, turn back a page. Luke 22. We're gonna start in verse 39. And by the way, Gethsemane Kids, this is on your outline too. It means oil press. It's a, a place on the Mount of Olives where they would, it was a special garden. They'd take olives there and they'd press it out and they'd make olive oil.
Interestingly enough, uh, there are certain places in the Bible where pressing out grapes or pressing out oil is a sign of wrath and judgment as well. In Luke 22, verse 39, we read, he referring to Jesus came and proceeded as was his custom to the Mount of Olives. The disciples also followed him. So it was Jesus custom and what is meant by that.
And Luke addresses this a little earlier in chapter [00:05:00] 21, verse 37, uh, that passion week, he, he entered Jerusalem, uh, on a Sunday and he taught at the temple. And at the end of the day, after teaching at the temple, Luke says in evening, he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives. And it is most likely that he went out and he spent the night on the Mount of Olives to be alone.
And it is most likely, as was his custom. He wanted to be alone because he would spend most of the night in prayer. And then he'd get up, he'd go back to the temple, he'd teach and he'd repeat. So Luke says he came out as was his custom and he went to the Mount of Olives, and 11 of his disciples followed him.
'cause Judas had left by now. Look at verse 40. And when he arrived at the place, he said to them, pray. That you may not enter into testing. Pray that you might not enter into testing. And as the story goes, he took James and John and Peter. He went a little bit further and then he went a little bit further than them and he went to his knees and he [00:06:00] started to pray.
But I think it's important to understand what this word prayer means. Do you pray like Jesus? Do you understand what it means to pray? Because this word, and this is the common word for prayer, but it comes into English as our word prosecute. So to pray is to prosecute. And the idea there is when a prosecutor goes after a defendant, he goes with everything he has.
Do you pray with everything you have? Do you bring evidence with you? Do your prayers? Do you bring facts with you to your prayers? And what I mean by that is do you pray the word of God back to God? Do you pray his promises back to him? Father, you said, so I pray this, father, you are holy. So I lauded you because you were holy.
How vigorously do you pray? Do you pray like a prosecutor so that they would not enter into testing? Jesus again, wanted to protect [00:07:00] his followers, verse 41. So he with, he withdraws from them about a stone's throw and he knelt down. And having begun to pray, he says, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, yours be done.
As I said, he took Peter, James, and John, and they distanced themselves from the other apostles, and then he distanced himself from them and he gets on his knees. And I already mentioned it at the beginning of service, but I find it fascinating that Jesus went to his knees before his father and what was his prayer?
Father, if you're willing, remove this cup. And this phrase for cup, it's used throughout the Old Testament. It's wrath. It is God's cup of wrath. And Jesus knew that he was about to go to the cross and he was about to experience the wrath of God. And Jesus is a man. Jesus is human. He's God, but he's also human.
And already we've read in the book of John, uh, in John's account, when he leaves the three and he goes further, [00:08:00] he says, my soul is grieved to the very point of death. And as a dying man, he goes to his father. But I love the way he prays. I don't want to experience this wrath. Is there any way that I could avoid this cup of wrath, yet?
Not my will yours be done? And it's interesting in the Greek text, because when Luke writes, if you were willing, remove this cup, yet not my will, he uses two different words for Will and willing. And the one used of the father is stronger. If it is your purpose that I go to the cross, then it really doesn't matter what I want.
And again, we should follow Jesus' example and pray in that way. And now we come to verses 43 and 44, verses 43 and 44. I know some textual critics, and they've said this, but I've kind of adopted it myself. Luke chapter 22 [00:09:00] verses 43 and 44 are my favorite verses that are really not in the Bible, and that may shock you, but all of the textual evidence that we have says that this was added a couple hundred years later, that this was probably not almost to the point of certainty.
Our evidence demonstrates that this was probably not something that Luke wrote. And yet it's one of my favorite passages. It captures the passion of Christ. It captures his emotional state because, uh, whoever added this, what it says is that Jesus started to sweat drops of blood, and that's an actual condition.
Jesus is not the only one who's ever experienced that, and the condition is called osis. And it's where the blood vessels that are close to your sweat, gr glands will burst and you'll actually sweat blood. It captures Jesus' emotional state, but it is likely not in the Bible. And this is one of those places where truth has to [00:10:00] matter more than tradition matter more than something we like.
So jump to verse 45. When he rose from his prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow. The disciples were sorrowful. The disciples were grieved in mind and spirit. It was a hard week, and Jesus had taught them some hard things, and they had seen the Pharisees go after Jesus like never before, and try to trick him and trap him, and they were grieved, and so they were sleeping, they were tired, and he said to them, why are you sleeping?
Get up and pray that you may not enter into testing. And we see, uh, the, the different gospel writers, even in the synoptics, they present the story slightly differently. We see in the other gospels that this took place three times that Jesus prayed, he went, woke up his disciples, please pray for me. And he does it again two more times, so a total of three times.
But in Luke, he only mentions it one time that he [00:11:00] prayed, he woke up his apostles and then it goes straight to the arrest. And so number two on your outline is the arrest and kids. The next verse, verse 44, Luke 2244. This is on your outline. It's something that I want you to fill in. And Luke chapter two, verse 44 says this, while Jesus was still speaking, he came to his disciples, why are you sleeping?
Get up, pray that you're not tested. And while he was still speaking, behold a crowd. And we'll look at this crowd in a minute. Behold, a crowd came and the one called Judas a friend, a one who actually left the table. At that last supper, one called Judas, one of the 12 was preceding them. He was leading this crowd and he approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the son of man?
With a kiss, and hopefully you remember this 'cause I've said it several times, but in the Greek language word order doesn't matter. The [00:12:00] Greek language is designed that you know what the subject and the, the predicate and, and the objects, you know, it doesn't matter in terms of order. So I want you to hear how Luke writes this, because typically word order in Greek has to do more with emphasis than, than proper order.
And literally what Jesus says, Judas. With a kiss, the son of man you are betraying. So a couple of things about this verse. First of all, the crowd in John 18, three in John chapter 18, three, we re we we read Judas then having received a Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests in the Pharisees. So there's this crowd that comes in.
Luke chapter 22, verse 52. We read when Jesus is addressing this crowd. Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple and the elders who had come out against him. So what we see in terms of the Jewish people, you have, the [00:13:00] religious, the military, and the civil leaders all came out to arrest Jesus.
And then we have John telling us that a Roman cohort came out, a Roman cohort consists of 600 Roman soldiers. Now, maybe all 600 came, maybe just a portion, but it would not be beyond imagination that all 600 came. In fact, in Acts chapter 23 verse 23, Paul is protected and it's spelled out Paul is protected by 470 Roman soldiers.
So to believe that Rome would send 600 should not stretch the imagination, but maybe only a portion came out. They had torches and they had clubs, and they had swords. And I love John's description of the encounter because they come to Jesus. And Jesus is not trying to get away. Jesus is not cowering.
Jesus steps up. Judas, the son of man, are you betraying with a kiss? But then Jesus asked the question, who are [00:14:00] you seeking? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. And in the Greek, Jesus says, and that's important because he's citing Isaiah. In ego Imy, we translate it. I am he. It literally just means I am. Isaiah uses it repeatedly of Yahweh I am and there is no other.
I am God and there is no other. I am your savior. And there is no other Jesus stands, imy. And what does John say? Everyone falls. I think this is proof, and we'll get to this in a, in a little while, but this is proof that there was demonic activity present because if I came after someone and they stood up and said two words and it made me fall, just the power of his words, I would've left.
But they get back up and I believe John says it happens one more time. They go Eime, [00:15:00] and so they arrest Jesus. But I want you to think about the question, Judas with a kiss, and literally the word translated kiss is philo. And literally it means love. Judas, with love, you're gonna betray me. You're gonna do it with an act of love.
And we know that it was gonna be a kiss because when Jesus says later, you're betraying the son of man with a kiss, he uses the more common term for kiss and to kiss is an act of love. Judas, are you betraying me with an act of love? And see, Jesus was holding out to je to Judas. One more chance to repent.
I'm giving you one more chance. You're coming at me with love, and there was a day that I know you loved me. At least you professed it. You're coming after the Son of Man, which was Jesus's one of Jesus's favorite, uh, references to himself. And it referred to the fact that he was Messiah. It. [00:16:00] He was the son of man found in Daniel.
He was son of man found in Ezekiel. He was the Messiah. So he reminds Judas, I'm the Messiah, and now you're gonna betray me. And that word literally means you're gonna hand me over. He's holding out one more olive branch to Judas. And yet we read in John 17 verse 12, and this is Jesus high priestly prayer.
Jesus says, while I was with them, I was keeping them in your name. Which you had given me, and I guarded them and none of them perished. But the son of Perdition, Judas, is referred to as the son of Perdition, literally the son of destruction, the son of Annihilation. And again in the Psalm, Psalm 41 verse nine, even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
And I just want you to stop and think, because sometimes we read through these things so fast, the emotional toll. How [00:17:00] would you feel if your one of your best friends was the one that lied about you, was the one that turned you in and you offered him a chance to reconcile? And he did it anyway
when those who were around him, verse 49, when those who were around him saw what was going on. They said, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and caught off, cut off his ear. And we read in the gospel of John chapter 18 that it was Peter. Peter is the one that struck the slave of the high priest with his sword.
And we read the name of the high priest. His name was Malki. But here's the fascinating thing. When you study the, the Greek text, Peter May have taken a wild swing. But the Greek text is very clear. He sought to kill someone. The Greek text says, and one of them struck, and this word for struck means a heavy blow.[00:18:00]
Peter swung and his intention was to kill one Greek scholar. Put it this way, evidently Peter was not intending a surgical operation on the man's ear, but purpose to split his skull, but he missed and he only got the ear. Both Luke and Matthew say that it was the slave's right ear. And this is fascinating, and this is another thing that we can read through way too quickly.
You see the fact that Peter cut off his ear and the fact that Jesus healed the ear. That's another hyperlink. It's not a quotation of a Bible verse, but it's a concept that runs throughout the Old Testament.
Some of Luke's first readers would've understood this. It is significant that an ear was severed and it is significant that it was a right ear. You see, when the high priest was anointed for ministry, he would've had blood applied to his right ear. It would've also been applied to his right thumb and the his [00:19:00] right big toe.
And you see there are no coincidences in scripture. Remember that there are no accidents, there are no coincidences. And the fact that Peter severs the ear is important. It pictures two things and the first thing it pictures is Jesus was about to perform a new exodus because hopefully you remember in Exodus 21, a Hebrew man or woman.
But in Hebrews 21, it's speaking of the man. He can you, he could have sold himself into slavery. Okay, and we, we talked about that months, maybe a year back, but a Hebrew male could sell himself into slavery. At the end of seven years. He would've been trained, equipped to go out and live on his own, and he was to be released.
But if at the end of that time he loved his master and he wanted to stay in his master's house, we read in Exodus 21 that the master would take him to the doorway and he would pierce his ear. And it doesn't specifically say right ear, but the Talmud, the Jewish rabbis, as well as other verses parallel type [00:20:00] passages in scripture, all indications point to it would've been his right ear.
And what it meant was he was a perpetual slave. Peter removed the sign of slavery. Peter removed the sign of slavery. And here's what's fascinating. We don't know exactly how Jesus healed him. All it says is he touched his ear. And when you understand Hebrew and Hebrew way of thinking apart for the whole, so did Jesus bend over and pick up the heel and rea the ear and reattach it?
Well, it doesn't seem so. It seems like the simplest reading of the text is Jesus reaches up and he touches his where his ear would've been, and he heals his ear. Now, I can't wait till I get to heaven because I want to know, was it still pierced? Did it still have the sign of slavery? My guess is it didn't, but Peter removed the sign of slavery.
The other meaning of this thing is Jesus once again is holding out a chance to [00:21:00] repent. You still have an option to repent. You see this idea of an ear was prominent in the Old Testament, but it was also a saying of Jesus. When Jesus would teach, he would often end his teaching with this. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.
And in Psalm 40, verses 60 to eight, the Psalmist writes sacrifice and meal offering. You have not desired. You see, God would much rather you avoid the sin. So in that sense, sacrifice and meal offering, you have not desired my ears. You have opened burnt to offerings and sin offerings you have not required.
Then I said, behold, I come in the scroll of the book as it is written of me. I delight to do your will. You see listening in the Old Testament implied obedience, and literally when it says, my ears, you have opened the Hebrew is you've dug my ear, you've pierced my ear. You see, Jesus came to save us from [00:22:00] slavery to sin, but we were going to be slaves.
If we put our faith in Jesus. We have a new master and now we're new slaves to Jesus Christ. And all of this was not coincidental, and all of this would've been picked up by the early readers. But Jesus answered and said, verse 51, stop. No more of this. And he touched his ear and he healed him. Verse 52.
Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the religious leaders to the officers of the temple, the military leaders, and to the elders, the civil leaders who had come against him, have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber. While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on me and here's the important phrase, but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.
Satan was active this night. We'll see that Satan possessed Judas twice [00:23:00] this this night. Satan was active. We read in Luke chapter 22 verses three and four, that Satan entered into Juda. Who was called a scar belonging to the number of the 12. And then he went away and discussed with the chief priests and the officers how he might betray them.
But it would, it would appear as you read the text and you put it together, that he didn't continue to possess Judas. He, he, he entered him, he caused him to do this thing, and it would appear that he left because in John chapter 13, the 27th verse we read, and this is after Judas is at the table and Jesus has instructed his apostles.
One of you're gonna betray me. They start asking, is it me, is it me? And finally he says, it's the one that I'm gonna dip this bread and I'm gonna hand this bread to. And he does it and he hands it to Judas and John writes, after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. So Satan enters into Judas a second time.
Therefore, Jesus said to him, what you do do quickly. Verse 54, having [00:24:00] arrested him. They let him away and brought him to the house of the high priest. But Peter was following at a distance number three on your outline crucifixion.
Now we've, we've had to skip some things. We skipped Peter's denial. We skipped the trials. Jesus had at least, well more than three, but three sets of trials. He was tried before the Sanhedrin and the various high priests. He stood before Pilate. He stood before Herod. We skip Si Simon of sre. You see, Jesus was so physically beaten that he couldn't carry his own cross.
We'll talk about that in a minute. And in Luke we read that they, they picked a guy. His name happened to be Simon. He was from the area of Cyrene, and Simon carried his cross. We won't be looking at Jesus addressing the women of Jerusalem, but it is interesting this Simon of Cyrene. Mark mentions his as well and he mentions the names of his sons, Alexander and Rufuss.
So it would appear most likely that Simon [00:25:00] became a believer because he witnessed the crucifixion. His sons became believers and they were known by the church.
Look at verse 23. Then when they came to the place called Skull and Kids, this is on your outline. In Greek, it's skull, literally cranium, but in Latin it's verre. Or Calvary, and that's where we get the phrase Calvary. That's why we call it Calvary. When they had came to the place called Skull or a calvary, they crucified him.
And the criminals one on the right and the other. The other on the left. And it's interesting because all of the apostles, all they say is they crucified. They didn't describe it, and I think there are a couple of reasons they didn't describe it, and I think the most important thing is they didn't have to, sadly, everyone alive during that day understood crucifixion.
We don't always understand it as well. I think the other reason they don't describe crucifixion is because [00:26:00] it was horrific and it's not fun to describe crucifixion, and it's always hard to know in how much depth one should go. But I think we should understand a few things. Crucifixion was invented by the Persians, and many scholars will say it was invented by the Persians.
It was perfected by the Romans. And again, as you listen to this truth, should as with the Christmas story that we've looked at several years in the row, truth should trump storytelling. Jesus was crucified on a cross, but what kind of a cross? You see there were two crosses in use in the Roman Empire, and one was way more popular than the other.
There's what's called a tau cross. And the tau cross looks like a capital T. It is, it is overwhelmingly more likely that Jesus was crucified on a tau cross. The other cross is referred to as a Latin cross, and it's, it's the cross that we normally [00:27:00] a associate it with. It's, it's the lowercase t. But the, uh, the uprights called the stripes would've been left in the ground.
They, they would've taken them to a place that was a normal place of crucifixion and they would've been left in the ground. And typically, and again, the movies we watch, the stories we see Jesus is pretty high, but typically the upright would be six to eight feet high. And the, the cross beam and the cross beam was called the pet Tablum Patibulum.
It was anywhere from five to six feet in length. And they would've tied that cross beam to the shoulders, in the arms of the person being crucified and the person being crucified would've walked that to the site of execution. And we read, and I don't have to get into a whole lot of detail, but we read that Jesus had been so beaten by the surging, which interestingly enough, Luke leaves out.
He doesn't really mention it. He does say that Pilate said, I'll punish him. Luke also leaves out the crown, crown of thorns. He doesn't mention that, but it's mentioned in other gospels. And just so you know it, [00:28:00] again, most of our depictions, it wouldn't have been a circular crown, it would've been more like a helmet.
It would've covered his entire head and they would've put it on his head. And we read that the soldiers beat it down, but Jesus was too beaten to carry the cross beam, the nails. What kind of nails would they have used? And they would've been more like tapered spikes. They would've been square and they would've been five to seven inches square, and they would've been about three eighths inch across, so almost a half inch thick.
And people died from crucifixion for two main reasons. Hypovolemic shock, loss of blood, dehydration, or exhaustion, asphyxia, you can't breathe on the cross.
But that's just the physical. And yes, I could go into a whole lot more detail. I don't want to, this has been a tough week [00:29:00] because I've reread so much on crucifixion and, and on your handout I've offered you, uh, a few resources if you wanna read in more detail. And I don't think it's a sin to go into more detail.
I think it's good that we understand it. However, this is just the physical. The real agony that Jesus experienced was spiritual. Remember the words? Well, first of all, just I wanna repeat the words of Luke 22, but this hour and the power of darkness are yours. Remember the words of Psalm 22, Psalm 22, 1 begins, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
And that will always be a mystery because we don't know exactly how it was that the father forsook the son on the cross. And this too is a hyperlink, and we should go to the rest of the psalm and read it. But the father and the son are one, and they remained one eternally. And yet the human, Jesus experienced the wrath of God on that [00:30:00] cross.
At 12 noon when it got pitch black, evil, dark, Jesus sat there by himself quietly and he experienced the wrath of his father for my sin. For your sin. For three hours, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. And later in the Psalm, many bulls have surrounded me.
Strong bulls of baan have encircled me. A few verses later, for dogs have surrounded me, a band of evil doers have encompassed me. They pierce my hands and my feet. And yes, this may have simply been a description of the people around the cross, but it's also very likely because of the way Old Testament uses these words.
This could have been a description of demonic activity, and we already know that Satan was active the night of Jesus' crucifixion. Anyone with the courage to get up off the ground because a man spoke some words. Must be demon [00:31:00] possessed. Why would you continue with this? And when they came to the place called Skull, they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right, the other on the left.
And then we come to verse 34, another verse that is questionable in terms of the original text, but Jesus was saying, father, forgive them. For, they did not know what they're doing and they cast lots dividing up his garments among themselves. And it's the phrase father forgive them for. They know not what they are doing.
Most likely not in the original text. And it's caused a lot of controversy, but most likely it's not in the original text for. So for today's purposes, we're just gonna jump to the second part of the verse. They cast lots dividing up his garments among themselves, and this is a reference to Psalm 2218.
They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots.
The Roman [00:32:00] statesman, Cicero, he was a lawyer, a scholar, a philosopher. He said this about crucifixion of all punishments. It is the most cruel and most terrifying. He labeled it as the most disgusting and repulsive capital punishment.
Verse 35, and the people stood by looking on, and even the rulers, these would've been the Pharisees members of the Sanhedrin. Even the rulers sneered at him saying, he saved others. Let him save himself. If this is the Messiah of God, his chosen one. And it's interesting because these words, they were sneering.
So much is descriptive. And when we look at a verse in the Old Testament, we'll see the same thing. But there was so much body language, literally what this word means. It means to ridicule, to sneer, but it's using the facial expression to do it. It's, it's [00:33:00] flaring the nostrils, it's making a face as well as speaking words.
And then they, again, they cite Isaiah chapter 42, and they also reference Psalm 22. So in Isaiah 42, 1, God writes, behold my servant. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. And in Psalm 22, verses seven and eight, all who sneer at me. Again, it's facial expression. They separate with the lips.
They open their mouths. They wag their heads. Their heads are moving side to side saying, commit yourself to Yahweh. These are the words that the Pharisees use in derision. These are the words that the Pharisees twist and they throw it out at Jesus. Commit yourselves to Yahweh. Let him deliver you. Let him rescue you.
And, and this was said sarcastically, and you could almost insert the phrase, if you think he delights in you. [00:34:00] You see, the Messiah was not supposed to be crucified because they didn't understand their Old Testament scriptures. Even the soldiers in verse 36 mock him coming to him, offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
Now, there was also an inscription above him. This is the king of the Jews. And we read in John 19 that this phrase was written in three languages, Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that everyone would know. And it was interesting, and I don't wanna spend a whole lot of time here, but if you think of Jesus' trials, he was condemned for blasphemy in front of the Jews.
But when they went before the Romans, they changed the charge and he was condemned for sedition. He was condemned because the Jews were saying he's trying to make himself king. And even the criminals get on board with mocking Jesus. The two men we read in other gospels, both of them at the beginning started to criticize him, started to blaspheme and mock him.
Verse 39, 1 of the criminals who were hanging was hurling [00:35:00] abuse at him. Literally the word is blaspheming him, and there's two ways to use that word. We can blaspheme God and that's horrid, but you can also blaspheme another human being. You can verbally abuse them. Disrespect them. And this prisoner was saying, are you not the Christ?
Is that not your claim? Did you not claim they kept throwing it in his face? Do you not claim to be the Christ if they only knew that he was doing exactly what the Christ was supposed to do? Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us as if we deserve salvation. The other criminal answered rebuking him.
Do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And I wanna stop there because again, there are no [00:36:00] coincidences in the gospels seven times. Luke has different characters proclaim the innocence of Jesus seven times.
Pilate does it four times. Herod does it once. I can give you the verses later if you want it. The criminal on the cross does it here, and we'll get to it immediate, uh, momentarily. The centurion also says Jesus was innocent, and in fact, literally the words of the centurion, and these are interesting. He is a righteous man.
Seven times. Jesus is declared in the gospel of Luke to be innocent. And I'm very careful when it comes to biblical numerology, but I do think there are some numbers that have extra meaning. The number three, the number six, the number seven, the number 10 on occasion. Sometimes they're literal, but other times they have special meaning in this case seven times.
But seven was the number of perfection Jesus was shown to be perfect. Jesus was shown to be perfectly holy and perfectly innocent, [00:37:00] and everyone recognized it and it didn't matter because Satan was having his way. Satan was crushing the heel of the Messiah. Satan was thinking that he was winning and yet he was losing for the Messiah was doing exactly what the Messiah needed to do.
Verse 41, this man has done nothing wrong. Verse 42, and Jesus. And the criminal was saying to Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, and this is so important, truly, I say to you today, this very day, you shall be with me in paradise. And there's something about this word, paradise.
It takes us to the Old Testament. It takes us to Eden. But the New Testament uses it also. And here's the important thing. Every time Paradise is mentioned in the New Testament, it, it means in the very presence of God. And what Jesus was telling the criminal is this very day you'll be with me in the presence of God.[00:38:00]
This idea that Jesus went to hell for three days is not biblical. Did Jesus descend? Yes, to bring his saints out of hell and into the very presence of God, but he didn't take three days and Jesus promises the criminal this very day you will be with me in paradise, in the midst and in the presence of my father.
Verse 44. Now, Luke starts to throw out some timeframes. Mark tells us earlier that Jesus was crucified at the third hour, which would've been 9:00 AM. Jesus was crucified at 9:00 AM. Luke says then at about the sixth hour, 12:00 PM noon, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. 3:00 PM for three hours.
This black, thick darkness. And this darkness is described because the sun was obscured and the veil of the temple was torn in. True. And you see, sometimes we read the Bible and we don't like the way the Bible [00:39:00] uses words. So when Jesus uses words like the sun will be dark, the moon turns black, the stars fall.
We don't wanna give them a biblical interpretation. 'cause the Old Testament interprets those things for us. We wanna act as if it's really getting black and falling and and things. And yet if we did that to this passage, it would be absurd. When Jesus says the sun was obscured, literally the sun was no longer in existence.
That's how black it got. The sun ceased. The sun died out. That would be a literal interpretation, but that's not what Jesus meant. It simply got black. It could have been an eclipse. It could have been some miraculous moving of God. What it ultimately was, was Jesus was experiencing the judgment of the father.
During those three hours. So it got a bitter, thick, dark, frightening black. But by the end of those three hours, we read and the veil of the temple was torn into, and it's important to understand there were actually two curtains in the temple. [00:40:00] There was a curtain at the very front of the temple, which separated the entrance of the temple with the courtyards, and then there was a curtain separating the holy place from the Holy of Holies.
And it makes eminently more biblical sense to see it as that second curtain. It was the second curtain that was torn into, and other gospels make it very clear, and I'm not sure how you would know this, but apparently it was very clear it was ripped from the top to the bottom. No man could have done that.
Only God in the death of Jesus Christ opened up the way to the Holy of Holies, opened up the way to the throne of grace. Grace gave us the ability to approach with boldness, the throne of grace. The old Covenant system was finished as the book of Hebrews says, and it has been replaced by the new covenant.
And so Jesus cries out in verse 46. Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last, and [00:41:00] hopefully you remember the story. Even Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died so quickly. But we need to remember Jesus' words in John 10. For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life.
No one takes it away from me. I lay it down on my no own initiative, and I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. And you'll remember the last words that Jesus cried out on the cross to tell Usai it is finished. And when Jesus was done paying the wrath of sin, he laid down his life.
He was in control. He was in control the entire time Satan thought he was crushing the heel and he was, because that's the prophecy. But it did nothing because Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord. And so we read in verse 48, all the crowds who came together for this spectacle. Actually jump back to verse 47, 'cause this is I, I don't wanna skip this one.
Now. When the [00:42:00] Centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying Certainly this man was innocent. And we're gonna come back to this verse in a minute because I think this is Luke's interpretation of what the Centurion said because all three other gospels have him saying something like, surely this man was the son of God.
But we'll come back. We'll look at that momentarily. But I think Luke interprets us for us and the centurion. This is the seventh declaration of innocence. Surely this man was innocent and literally in the Greek. Surely this man was righteous. Now, verse 48, and all the crowd who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, they observed the thick darkness.
They heard Jesus's Christ from the cross. They heard the soldiers' words. Certainly this man was innocent. When they observed what had happened, they began to return beating their breasts and all his acquaintances and the women who accompanied them from G were standing at a distance [00:43:00] seeing these things to beat one's breast.
It was a sign of sorrow. Often it was a sign of repentance. You see, they saw something that day. They saw something that day and they weren't expecting it.
But I wanna return back to that verse. Certainly this man was innocent because the other synoptics, Matthew Mark, they, they translated or they say it differently, and literally Matthew and Mark say something along these lines. Truly, this man was the son of God. Truly, this man was the son of God. The problem is the Greek is extremely vague, and you can translate this several ways.
You could translate it coming from a Roman, truly, this man was a son of a God. You could translate it truly this, this man was a son of God, capital G, or you could translate it how most of our scripture does. Truly this man was the son, capital S of God, [00:44:00] capital G. Why so vague? Why are the scriptures vague here?
Because you must decide,
because it's a question that every single one of us must ask ourselves, and the question is, what do you believe about Jesus? What do you believe about Jesus? Is he is? Is he the son of God? Is he the God man? Is he the incarnate God? Is he Yahweh in flesh? What do you believe about Jesus? But you see belief translates, and I do not doubt that probably everyone sitting here today would say, yes, he's the son of God, capital S, capital G,
but how do you live? See, that's the better question. I know plenty of people who believe that Jesus is the son of God, but they [00:45:00] live like ranked pagans. They live in a way that James tells us, betrays the fact that they don't have saving faith. So it's vague because we must answer the question, who is this Jesus?
But along with answering that question, we must ask, how then should I live? How then am I living? Do you serve this Jesus? Do you serve this Jesus in a palpable way? Do you live your life as a life of gratitude? Do you spend time in prayer? And I speak to you as one who struggles with prayer, but do you pray?
Whether, whether actually or metaphorically, do you get on your knees? Do you confess your sins on a daily basis, not even a regular basis, daily moment by moment? Do you confess your sins? Do you cry out for the Holy Spirit to continue to transform you? Do you live your life like you believe the story we just read that Jesus went to the cross for your sins?
How do you serve [00:46:00] him? You live. You believe he's the son of God? You've got a week to answer that question because when we get together next week, we will look at the resurrection. It'll be a whole lot more fun of a sermon. We'll look at the resurrection, we'll look at the conquering king. Come back from the dead.
Let's pray. Father in heaven. Thank you. As hard as it is to work through this story, as hard as it is to talk about crucifixion and just the physical agony that Christ went through, it's even harder to wrap our heads around the spiritual agony. But Father, that's what we need to meditate upon. We need to meditate upon the fact that he went to the cross because of me.
Jesus went to the cross because of my sin. Jesus went to the cross because of my hate and my rebellion against God,
and [00:47:00] Jesus paid the price for that. So now, how do I respond? How do I live for him? Spirit of God. I pray that you will take this week and that you will not let us quit thinking about that question. Are we living in ways that we should, are we serving in ways that we should, are we loving in ways that we should?
Are we praying, reading the Bible, spending time with other Christians in the way that we should, in a way that reflects that? I actually believe this story that I believe you went to the cross. I believe you paid the price for my sin. Oh, spirit of God transform us. Transform us so that this community that we live in would know that Covenant Church is up here, that we care, that we love, that we forgive, but that we hold people to a standard.
And Father, use this church. Use your people. Use so many churches in this city, father. [00:48:00] I know many of the pastors I know they love you. We may not agree a hundred percent, but I know they love you. They love Jesus. Transform your church, create unity, and let us transform the world because we believe this story.
Father, we ask this in the name of your son. We ask this because you've poured out your spirit upon us. Again, we approach boldly, not out of arrogance, but out of humble dependence. And may we live lives that are pleasing to you, and all of God's people said, amen. Amen.
