The End of the Beginning — Luke 21-23

0:00 We'll start with a word of prayer. Father, we we do thank you that we can we can be here today. We're thankful that you are faithful. Lord, you'd been you've been faithful to us in so many ways. You've given us your word.

0:13 So as we open it up today, we pray that you would illuminate it to us, that you'd speak through me, and that it'd be your words, not mine, that are that are captured, and you... We will see you as faithful. It's in your son's precious name that we do pray. Amen. So there we have it.

0:33 We're trying to try and finish chapter 23 of Luke today. We have spent quite a bit of time in Luke. I think, if you... Turn it on. Go.

0:46 If you remember, we started on 12/03/2023. That's not a typo. Twenty twenty three, we've been slow walking our way through. I got the privilege of starting us off. And my last time that I spoke was in December of this year, and it was regarding chapter 21.

1:04 So here we are in chapter 23. We're making it, but it's important to take our time. And this is a good time to take some time near the end. Okay? We have the privilege of having all of a sudden, we started this just before Christmas so the Christmas story could start on Christmas or thereabouts.

1:27 And then we are going to end the story, if you will, next week. Not the whole book, but we sort of end the story with the resurrection next week, okay? So we're looking forward to it. It kind of fell in that way, so this is a setup, okay? I'm setting up Will who's coming next week.

1:45 So I'd like you to take a look at the journey that we've been on, okay? And think about the book of Luke as a biography today. Now we know that's not the case. It's a gospel, okay? It's a gospel, I didn't know this, but maybe a little known fact for me was that a gospel is actually a actual literary term.

2:06 Okay? It was created because of the good news, that's what the gospel is, that was presented in these four books. Okay? But today, it's important not to cheat. Now, Luke wrote with the benefit of hindsight.

2:21 And so did Matthew, Mark, and John, and Paul. Okay? I want you to throw that out, okay? And it's gonna be really hard for you to do that today because Easter is next week. Don't think about that.

2:35 Okay? It's going even harder as I looked up here today and saw he's not here. He is risen. I mean, you're gonna have a heart. Don't look at these today.

2:42 Look up there. Okay? Look up there. We wanna just talk about the story that we've been. Imagine yourself as part of the story as we've come through.

2:53 You are walking along and you are participating as Jesus lived and then he's now died. Okay? So at the end of this, we're gonna see a dead body of a great man. I'm foreshadowing. I'm telling you where we're gonna end.

3:09 Okay? And I think you're gonna have to ask this question. Is there any hope? And with the evidence that we're gonna present today, okay, and the portion that we're gonna cover, you have to return this verdict. I'm gonna act like a lawyer today.

3:25 People have accused me of being a lawyer at times and said I missed my calling. I keep calling myself an outhouse lawyer, but I don't know. So the point remains that you must return this verdict if you read this text. No. No.

4:05 And the whole crowd who came together to that site, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. But all his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to their decision and deed. He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God.

4:37 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock where no one had ever lain before. That day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew near. And the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils and they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.

5:13 Okay, this is our plan for today. Again, I'll tell you where we're going, I'll remind you where we've been when we're done. Our plan is to talk about six different groups. You may have only counted five in that passage, but I'm gonna add a six out. You'll understand why when we get there.

5:26 We're talk a little bit about their expectations, their motives, the conclusions they came to, and let you come to your conclusions too. We're gonna present some evidence that led to those conclusions, some evidence of what actually happened or what they saw, what they were thinking, how they believed or, you know, in that category. We're gonna look at a parallel story. There might be something else going on here that we're not really shown, not really forefront in this passage, but I wanna take a look at that too. But the end of this conclusion is the great man is dead.

6:05 That's the end of this passage. Like, if you will, so many others. This might be a verse that we could take away from us. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. Some would say sorrowed or other translations would say people feel sorry for us if this is only the case.

6:28 So it's my job today to prove that's true. So here are the six groups. Let's talk about the first one. The first one's a centurion. The centurion, as Don sort of touched on this passage last week and said, the centurion responded, certainly this was a righteous man.

6:47 Right? Now we we can think about the centurion, but also the soldiers that were with him. Now the centurion was a commander of up to a 100 people. Centurion, century, 100, okay? So he was on duty here as an agent of Rome, okay?

7:04 Now Rome was a very powerful entity at that time, we all know that, right? And the power of Rome was enacted, enforced, put to the grind, if you will, actually made it happen. Who made it happen? It was these guys, okay? A centurion was a career soldier.

7:25 He had probably spent his life as a soldier. He may not have been married, he might have been married. We saw Cornelius had a family, had a household servant, was married. So this would have been a man of stature, but a professional soldier, Okay? And he would have been commanding others to do what was necessary to be done.

7:45 Okay? In this case, carry out Pilate's instructions. What were Pilate's instructions? Crucify this man and two others. So that was his job.

7:55 And he had, we're told in the other gospels, four that were with him. Or he might have been one of four, I don't know. But it says that they cast lots and they divided his garments among four individuals, right? They didn't want to tear the one piece, so they cast lots for that one. That was the big prize of the day.

8:15 Now this would not have been uncommon, don't think. A soldier lived by plunder at those days. They couldn't carry and transport like we do today. Food, supplies, whatever. So they would have plundered as they went.

8:29 In this particular case, this was probably part of that soldier's payment of the day. He took home a pair of shoes or in this case, one case, a tunic. That was the best prize of the day. So this guy took it home with him of the four. Now we don't know why there were four, do we?

8:47 But I like to think of it this way. You know, in order to put somebody on a cross, I have to believe most people don't wanna get on the cross. How do you get them on there if you don't want? You impose your will upon them. Now that's what Rome did.

9:03 They were imposing their will upon a man to get on the cross, to stay on the cross. And so I think maybe he had one man holding one arm. One man holding the other arm. One man holding or grasping his legs to keep him from fighting his way off. And then the fourth, to drive the nails home, right?

9:25 So they had imposed their rules. Now I don't know if the centurion was telling these four to do it or if he was one of them. I don't know, but they, somebody, all four of them maybe, went home with some token that they remembered this day by. One of them with that prized tunic that they won by lots. So here's the centurion, and he gets to the end here, and what does he say?

9:48 Certainly this was a righteous man. What did he expect? This is not the first time they'd crucified somebody, right? This is not the first time this had happened. They were well practiced and were not gonna be embarrassed in front of a crowd.

10:01 They knew what they were doing and they expected, wait till you see them get up there. It all comes out when they're on the cross. The truth will come out. I've seen it a 100 times. They get up there, they squeal like whatever.

10:15 And they'll tell you what's really happened. Well, we got to the end of this one and what did he say? This is a righteous man. Now, I know he's just doing his duty, right? He's following orders, but how do you feel about that?

10:32 I just killed a good guy. Imagine him going home, right? And with his wife, his family. Hey, how was work today? Well, I got this memento.

10:47 But he got the wrong guy today. Kind of a sick feeling, right? Wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you feel like that, I followed my orders. I did what was right, but I did what was wrong.

11:15 And they whipped the mob up as they were watching Pilate give this decree. Take him out and crucify him. They went out of town. And what happened? The mob went with him.

11:25 And this was just that. A mob led by some that were saying, go, go, go. Others that were saying, yeah, this is gonna be great. I can't wait to see what's gonna happen. This ought to be a spectacle.

11:36 This is something they would have watched regularly. They went out town to see what was gonna happen. And what did they expect? They expected something too. They expected the truth to come out.

11:49 They expected this to happen, or something to happen. Maybe a miracle would happen. We heard about this guy. This one in the middle, he had some... Let's go see...

11:57 I wanna see what's gonna happen. And that's what they did. They went out to see what was gonna happen. But they left. How did they leave?

12:07 Beating their breasts, it says. Sorrowful, sad. The same way. Oh man, what have I done? I was one of them ones back there that said, crucify him.

12:21 And now, we did a bad thing to a good guy. I can't, I don't feel good about that. You feel good about, we don't feel good about that. Then there was the friends and acquaintances. Says the women were with them.

12:38 Now these were the folks that had followed him all the way from Galilee, it says. They they were coming along. Their troop was coming along. What were they coming to Jerusalem for? Well, for Passover, for sure.

12:48 But these folks thought there was gonna be a kingdom coming. They were gonna see this king rise to the occasion, rise at the right time as part of Passover while everybody's in town. This is gonna be great. What would they have seen? They would have seen many things that the Lord Jesus did.

13:05 What did he do along the way? And particularly in Galilee. He healed people. He saved people. He rose people from the dead.

13:17 Okay. So so they're standing here watching. What's gonna happen? Why hasn't he done anything yet? All these things that he's done before.

13:29 What about now? What does he think about me? What about me? I was following him and he's gonna leave me like this. What were they expecting?

13:40 They were expecting him to triumph near the end. But what happened? He didn't. What about Joseph of Arimathea? There's Joseph, right?

13:51 He says he was a council member. Now what does that mean? In our today, in our days vernacular, would mean he's a career politician. He had probably rose up through the ranks and he was sent, I believe, from Arimathea to Jerusalem to be part of the political establishment. Now most people and good people in politics think what?

14:17 I can make a difference. Yeah, there's lots of trouble here. Rome is really pestering us. But they give us the right to rule and I'm gonna make the best out of it. With with my opportunity, I can be there.

14:33 I'll represent my people, but we are gonna do what's right. We're gonna do what we think should be done. I am gonna vote. I'm gonna put my cast, time. I'm gonna fight for the people.

14:46 I'm gonna make it better in my time. And what does it say after he was all done? What does it say? It says he didn't consent to not only their decision, but their deed. What they decided and what they did.

15:02 So he leaves there going, oh man, what did we do? Is this the group I'm part of? I've devoted my life to this. I thought I could make things better. And this is the way we treat this guy?

15:33 Joseph of Arimathea said, may I have the body? And at some point Nicodemus shows up with him and says, here, here's some spices. Let me help you. He was part of the activity there. Now Nicodemus, we know Nicodemus from other parts of John.

15:49 And Nicodemus was a very religious man, a Pharisee if you will. A teacher. And here he is saying, I had some questions for this guy. You remember the question he asked? He left it at this, how can this be?

16:04 Jesus just left him hanging there with that question. How can this be that I must be born again? Well, there's Nicodemus with his question unanswered. And finally, the women. Says these women, what did they do?

16:25 They went and they watched. Apparently, Joseph and Nicodemus, I don't know, maybe they didn't do it quite right. Maybe they didn't finish the job. Maybe they had, they were rich people and they had servants that did it for them when this had to be done, dealing with the dead body. But the ladies knew how it should be done.

16:46 And they said, you know what? Let's get prepared, we're going back. So they did, they prepared their spices. What were they doing? Well, have you ever heard that old World War II saying from England?

16:58 Keep calm, carry on. That's what ladies do. Because, you know what? It doesn't matter what's going on in life. The baby still needs to have the diaper changed.

17:11 The baby still needs to be fed. You know what, the food has to go on the table tomorrow. And don't we all appreciate the strength of a mother? The strength of a wife? The strength of a woman who carries on in spite of the circumstances of, here they are.

17:30 I don't know what just happened. I thought I came all this way for something else, but here we are. We're gonna have to carry on. They had their all their hope placed in the physical things. They were thinking about these physical things, what was actually happening right before their eyes.

17:49 And I'd ask you to just question, in your own hearts where have you placed your hope in this life? Have you also asked this question, where are the 12? Where are these apostles, these supermen that have been with him the whole time, the ones he personally chose? Where are they at? Well, we know where one of them was.

18:08 Peter's long gone. Right? He had messed up, looked the Lord in the eyes, and said, I'm out of here. He had ditched, run away. John, it appears, is down here hanging with the ladies.

18:23 I don't mean that in a bad way, but he's like in and amongst, you know, Mary his mother, who was with Mary Magdalene and others, the wife of Clopas. Somewhere it says at a distance from the cross. So there was John. Didn't look like he was. And by the way, there's no record of anybody standing up and saying, stop!

18:46 Don't do this! We can't do this! It was happening. And it wasn't being stopped. The rest, no idea where they were.

18:55 But it appears that they were not there. Or they were at a large distance. Not sure. So let's take this verse home with us at this point. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

19:13 He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. You see, that's the point. They didn't expect what they saw. What did the soldiers expected? They expected the truth would come out that he was, you know, had done something bad.

19:38 The friends thought maybe something funny is gonna happen or a miracle. Nobody expected him to just lay down and give up his life. Why? Why did he do that? So that's why they left there going, what happened?

20:22 And Luke starts off with, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do. That's a typo, what they do. What does that mean? He's on the cross. They knew exactly what they're doing.

20:36 The crowd says, yeah, we wanna see him get up there. We wanna see what's gonna happen. The soldiers were pounding the nails in. They knew what they were doing. What what does he mean?

20:46 They don't know what they're doing. Something's something's not right here. And then he said, assuredly I say to you, today you will be with me to... In paradise to the one criminal. What's paradise?

21:00 And how does he think this guy is headed there? How does he know he's headed there? Look where he's headed. This is the death of a cross. Now, I should have said it before, but do you understand that this was not him being killed?

21:16 This was him being tortured. He ended up dying because of it after he gave up his life, But most would have died because of being tortured like this. He was nailed to the cross so that his body weight would pull him down until he couldn't breathe very much. And then he had to push up with those legs, which hurt because his feet were nailed, right? To be able to get a breath and repeat until his arms came out of their sockets and then he had to do so they would break the legs of the guys at some point so that they couldn't push up anymore and that just it hastened things.

21:52 And by the way, his legs were not broken which is a fulfillment of prophecy. We could talk all about that kind of stuff. But what did happen? They stuck a spear in his side. Now do you think that Roman soldier walked up and just went boop.

22:08 He just gave it a little prick so that the water rushed out? No. He's thinking, I want this guy dead. I don't wanna have to struggle with this guy. And so if he would have taken that spear, where do you think he would have stopped?

22:22 From here to somewhere in here. Right? Inside, it would have hit everything, I believe. So he he was dead. So surely, where is he going?

22:37 Paradise? What what do you mean paradise? And then he says at the end, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. What an act of faith. If you're dying, you have to believe to say this, Father, I trust you now.

22:54 I'm giving up this life that I have. I trust you. John would say, he said, Woman, behold your son, behold your mother, and then I thirst. And then finally, it is finished. What's finished?

23:07 I don't understand that. What do mean it is finished? Are you saying you're finished? Are you saying it's what is finished? If you keep going, he also said, and this was referred to in the first service, Eli Eli, lama sabachthani, which means my God my God, why have you forsaken me?

23:25 Who's he talking to and why? If you're a casual observer, if you're one of those six that we talked about watching what's happening, you're listening to this and you're thinking, this is not what I expected. I didn't expect him to act like this. Why is he acting like this? Something else is going on.

23:45 What was his focus, right? His focus was on the father. His focus was on those around him. His focus was not on himself or saving himself. What was the focus of everybody else?

24:01 Well they said, they said it out loud. Let he saved others, let him save himself. No. They said, let God save him. They said, I wonder if Elijah's coming down.

24:15 When he said Eli, Eli, lama sabachta. He said, oh, maybe he's calling for Elijah. We heard about that earlier today too. Maybe Elijah is coming to save him. This should be good.

24:25 Don't... Hold on. Don't don't give many... Get that sponge. I wanna see what's gonna happen.

24:30 That's what they were saying. They expected... This is what they expected. And then the criminals said, what did they say? Forget about him.

24:37 Save us. Would you save us? I have to believe that those people that were watching felt betrayed. Wait a minute. You have the power to come down, but you're not.

24:55 You have... You could have been the king, but you won't. You... You're, What's going on? Is there another act in this drama?

25:08 Is something else happening that we're not seeing when we just look at it this way? Particularly when you look at these passages from Luke, there's a theme here that sort of strings out, Father forgive them. Surely I say to you, into your hands I commit the spirit. The same thing with these verses out of Matthew, Mark, and John. And then he shows that he's human, right?

25:32 He's worried about his mom. He's caring for her and by placing her under the care of John. He says, I thirst, meaning he was dehydrated. This was real suffering by a real man. This wasn't like fake or anything.

25:49 Romans remind us, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. He's dying. You have to take away, he's dying for others. He's got a purpose other than himself. And that appears to be what's happening here.

26:22 Everybody has, right? You throw a stone into the pond or a penny into the wishing well and what happens? It plops into the middle and then it ripples out from there. So if we can say that that's what happens, if we were to come up and see this picture, what would you say? You could confidently say that by the case of this fact that there's a ripple here and a ripple here and a ripple ripple ripple, something happened here, right?

26:53 Something happened here. The stone went into the water there. So I want you to count backwards with me and and think about what was the stone, alright? Let's count backwards. We just talked or we just talked about the seven last words of Jesus, and I'm gonna consider this like a fourth wall glimpse.

27:13 Does anybody know what the fourth wall is? The concept of a fourth wall? Well, when when you have a play or a musical or TV, the easier way to say it, you are seeing the action right before you. Right? And you see a wall on the left, a wall in the back, a wall on the right.

27:32 Something's happened right before you, but there's a fourth wall in every room that we know of. Right? There they are. One, two, three, four. Well, what's on the fourth wall in the TV?

27:41 It's the people with the cameras. It's the director going, yes. No. Over there. Right?

27:47 It's a fourth wall. So something is happening behind the scenes. So while this acting is actually happening, there's something going on back here too, around the set, behind things. Okay? So let's take a look at that.

28:00 If you look at these seven last words from they know what what they do to it is finished, it points back to something before that. He's talking about something that I don't know about. You see, if I was on the cross or if most people were on the cross, what people expected to hear was the Billy Joel song. Right? Have you ever heard that one?

28:24 I am an innocent man. Right? I can't I can't... I am an innocent... He gets really high up there.

28:31 I am an innocent man. You can't... Please don't do this. I'm innocent. I didn't do it.

28:36 Don't crucify me. But it's exactly the opposite here. So something doesn't make sense. There was a prayer at Gethsemane. He says, not my will, but yours.

28:50 What does that mean? Not my will, but yours. It gives us a glimpse backwards. Unfortunately, nobody has seen this. Nobody is seeing this real time.

29:02 We know that during this time, the three that were with him were asleep. They had just enough to see that he was praying. Not my will, but yours be done. When he entered Jerusalem, the people cheered and roared. And they said, teacher, don't let them do this.

29:24 This is unbecoming. He says, look, if it wasn't for these crying out, the rocks themselves would cry out. Why? What does that mean? Who else?

29:35 How do rocks cry? What what is this pointing back to? Well, he predicted that this was gonna happen three times. Each time, he had people with him and he told them, this is what's going to happen to me. Three times in Luke he said, the the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem.

29:55 He's gonna be mistreated by those that are there, the ruling party, if you will, and he's going to die. Meaning, I'm gonna die. Listen to me. And each time, they were either asleep or misunderstood. The first time, Peter got what?

30:12 Peter got rebuked, didn't he? Peter, get behind me, Satan. I looked that up. That's the same phrase he used to Satan himself when he was tempted. The transfiguration where he was with Moses and Elijah.

30:41 We would have seen all of these things happen. And you could probably think of many more that highlighted this. This is like a different act. Have you ever seen where these actors are acting this part in the play? These actors are acting this part in a play?

30:54 And they never come together until the end. But we're not at the end yet and they haven't come together. And this is the other act. What's happening? Well, it seems to me that there was a commitment long ago.

31:09 And the father sat with the son and asked him, please bear with me to be able to describe this to you as an undercover mission. I want you to go undercover. I want you to pose as just a man. I have a mission for you. You must go and pay for the sins of those others.

31:30 Are you willing? Of course. And then he got down here and he found out just hard... How hard it was to be willing. It says that he grew in wisdom and stature and favor amongst men.

31:43 But when he got to this point in particular, where he's at the Garden Of Gethsemane, it's bearing down on him. I know what's coming. I know what's gonna happen. Do... If I was a man I wouldn't want to continue, but I'm not.

31:59 And I've made disagreement, Lord. I agree to do what you're asking me to do. Therefore he can say, Father, they don't know what they're doing. They don't understand what I understand. They don't know that we have this agreement.

32:14 They don't know that we've agreed from long ago that I would do this and I agreed to do it. I made a promise, I am here to fulfill your will. You remember, like we talked about. I will complete the minition. I will go through with it.

32:31 I don't care what's happening in this act in front of me, but the act that I'm part of, I will complete my mission. So it's like Jesus is in two acts at once, right? He's playing the part in the screen, but he's also playing a part behind the scene. So the two acts are coming together as one next week. Unfortunately, we have not seen the end.

33:02 Did he complete his mission? If we just read here, we don't know. If we just read the portion we have, we don't know if he completed the mission or not. From that time, Jesus began to show us to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. I cut it off there for a purpose because this is where they're at.

33:24 This is what they saw. This is what people were experiencing that day. In order to appreciate what's coming next week, we have to understand where they were at at this point. Okay? Conclusion.

33:45 Let's review those six people... Six folks, six groups, types of people, if you will. Here were the centurion and his soldiers. They were following orders, weren't they? But it left them kinda, I think, wanting in the end.

33:59 The crowd was following others. Yeah. He's going. I'm going too. Everybody's going this way.

34:05 I'm with them. The friends were following the man. I had big hopes for this guy. I thought he was going to take us forward. I thought he was gonna be the king and I was gonna be one of the...

34:19 Pick a name. Joseph, he was following his politics. I thought I could make a difference. I thought I had the chance. That's why I went.

34:29 Nicodemus was following his religion. I can work my way to heaven. I will find favor with God because of my actions, my teaching, and my activities. And the women were just carrying on. We just gotta keep going.

35:08 So he was. And we could think of the miracles. And we could think of, here was a great man. But just like the mystery on TV that you read though, one of those cop shows or something, I don't see any evidence of a crime here. You mean other than the dead body?

35:28 Well yeah, there's that. Well that's what we have. We get to this point, we have a great man dead. That's it. Unless you read ahead.

35:42 Unless you foreshadow. Unless you've been looking aside. Don't look aside. This is where we're at. In order to appreciate...

35:49 Next week, we have to get to this point. In order to appreciate the salvation, we have to get to the point where we don't think there's any other hope. So now, all of these folks do what? In their sorrow, in their grief, in their sickness, in their pain, what do they do? The whole day to do what?

36:15 Not much. To reflect. To think. I mean, couldn't do any work, but it was in their head. It was in their hearts.

36:22 They had this whole day to think. Well, you have a great opportunity now. You have a whole week to think. Dwell on this, my suggestion. Dwell on the hopelessness that this life provides.

36:37 So that when you come next week and we hear about the next act in the play where everything comes together, you can be surprised. You can be, this is great. You can see the way others need to see it. The way that that those that haven't seen it, that haven't read it, that haven't studied, they haven't heard it, haven't done like you've done all your lives, can now say. You can understand what they think.

37:08 There's no hope in this life. There's no hope. I don't have hope until I'm sure. Until I'm sure, as I said at the first meeting, I felt a little guilty. I almost had to say that because I was gonna preach this today.

37:27 There's no hope unless I'm sure this payment was made in full. There's no hope. I don't understand it. And I think that's where these folks left at this point. So I hope I didn't discourage you.

38:21 It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.