Acts 4:25b-28 - The Sovereig..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Well, brothers and sisters, quite often in the life of a preacher, a preacher comes to a point where he realizes he's bitten off far more than he can chew. And let me confess, I'm afraid this is one of those times.

because it's normally at this time that I'd ask you all to open up your Bibles to the Gospel according to John, to continue our exposition of the 12th chapter, which we've been going through for several years now, but I've decided instead we'll put the exposition of John on hold for this week, taking consideration the season that is before us, but instead I felt that it's prudent for us to commit this time to consider the events that take place leading to the crucifixion of our Lord, His death, and His resurrection. So it's needless to say my struggle this afternoon is I have so much to say and so little time. So I've scrapped the intro I prepared and I'm going to dive straight in. The man who stands behind this pulpit ought not to be merely concerned with the delivery or the finesse of the sermon. The man who stands behind this pulpit needs to be concerned to show God's people, Jesus Christ, the only Savior, to show the beauty of our Savior, to show the glory of our great God.

to put on display who we are as sinners and how desperately needy we are of Christ. And to see the love of God through Jesus Christ who has redeemed undeserving sinners like us and brought them unto himself to have a true intimate love relationship with the God of the universe despite our sinfulness, despite our unworthiness. And that's my intention this afternoon, to present to you Christ. Because it's all about Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ, who is the way and the truth and the life, we perish under the weight of our own sins.

Apart from Christ, this life is absolutely, absolutely meaningless. No matter what you do with your life, if Jesus is not the front and center, if Jesus' blood hasn't cleansed your sin and cleansed you from unrighteousness and opened your eyes to the glories of God and given you salvation, this world is meaningless. It means nothing. It's all about Jesus Christ. The One who is the Son of God who came into this world and lived a life of absolute perfection.

Faultless obedience to the will of the Father and He did it vicariously on behalf of others. It's about this Jesus who laid down His life, that perfect life, as a substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of sinners. Because God, the holy God of the universe, cannot look upon sin and unrighteousness. And those sinners who are everyone who's ever lived in this world, everyone who is born in Adam, is guilty of sin before a good and holy God. And this Jesus, he laid down his life as a substitute, bearing upon himself the unmitigated righteous fury of a good and holy God.

And it's this Jesus, by the power of the triune God, rose from the dead in a victorious resurrection to be the savior of all who believe. It's all about Christ. And I intend this afternoon to put Him on display. And I pray that even if it's just that much more that you see the glory and the beauty and the splendor and the magnificence of our Savior, then I walk away and I'm going to be thankful. My intention and the time that we have together is to do a rather high altitude view and concentrate primarily upon the last 24 hours before the crucifixion of our Lord or thereabouts, and then his death and his resurrection.

Now, as I said earlier, I have a lot to say, so I'll be sticking to my notes as closely as possible, because when I don't, then time escapes. So I'm gonna try to stick to my notes as best I can. I'm going to attempt to harmonize all four gospel accounts. As you're fully aware, we are so privileged to have four gospel accounts of the life of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and we have the Gospel of John.

And my intention is to harmonize those accounts, to bring out in chronological order the sequence of events that take place as they take place, bringing them all to bear. I think that would be helpful. But then, what I intend to do is return with some key points in the narrative and make a crucial point with a particular emphasis in mind. Now, you might be asking, what is that point that you wish to make? What is that emphasis that you wish to make?

Well, let's open our Bibles. We have to open our Bibles. It's about the Word of God. Let's open them up to the Book of Acts, Chapter 4. Acts, Chapter 4, we'll be reading from 25b through to 28.

Acts chapter 4 and 25b. Now just as you're opening up your Bibles, I'll give you some context. This is taking place after the resurrection, in fact after the ascension of our Lord and saving to the right hand of the Father. What had happened now is you have the Christians, the Christian Church in its infancy. Jesus is now ascended to the right hand of the Father, interceding on behalf of the saints.

And what has been taking place is that the persecution at the hand of the Jews has begun to escalate. And the Christian Church has come to press into the Lord in prayer, asking the Lord. for his power and his guidance as the persecution continues and escalates in Jerusalem. And what they say is this, why did the Gentiles rage? Of course, referring back to Psalm chapter two and the people's plotting vain.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against the anointed. For truly in this city, they were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, hear this, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Did you get that? The disciples had witnessed the events that had recently taken place that had led to the crucifixion of our Lord, His death, His burial and His resurrection.

They'd seen the evil that had taken place to put the Saviour to death. And despite the rank evil that they witnessed with their eyes, despite the horrendous flagrant wickedness that they experienced there in Jerusalem at the hands of Pilate and Herod and the religious leaders of the day, manifesting their anger and their hostility towards our Savior. They crucified the Lord of glory, the Son of God, the author of life. Despite seeing all that evil before them and witnessing it all, they're able to say, under inspiration of the Spirit of God, they're able to say that it was all according to the predestined plan of God. Not only according to His plan, but according to the works of His hands.

You see that in the text. To do whatever your hand and your plan has predestined to take place. God is unapologetic. This is His world and He's sovereign over it. Every part of it.

No rogue molecule. And that doesn't change when it comes to the crucifixion of our Lord. What the rulers and the authorities and the powers that be meant for evil, beloved, was precisely what was decreed by the God of the universe from eternity past for the greatest good. The horrendous suffering that we'll come to see in a few moments. The death of our Lord and all the details that pertain to that.

were not an avoidable tragedy. They were all part of the decree of the eternal plan of God. I want to say that again. They were not an avoidable tragedy. It's according to the eternal decree of God.

Now, no one was forced to do evil. Let's get that straight. God never is the author of evil. He never forces anyone to do evil. That's not our God.

It's evil that is committed from the heart of an evil man by their own volition. That needs to be clear. But all of it, the disciples are saying, and under inspiration of the Spirit, all of it, they're saying, was under the sovereign plan of God, under the hand of God, and God was in complete control all the way through. So when all is said and done, looking back, every minutia of detail that had taken place is exactly what God had written from eternity past. Every last bit of it.

So if your question to me stands, what are you going to emphasize once we've gone through our fly-through? What are you going to stress? Well, it's this. Christ was always in control. Christ was always in control in every element of the path of suffering that led him to death, to be crucified on the Roman cross.

I want us to see that from the very beginning, Christ was always in control. Jesus was always in the driver's seat. We'll come back to that. But beloved, we must acknowledge that truth. Because otherwise we'll dishonour His name.

Too often I fear our Lord is spoken of as a victim, in particular when we speak about His crucifixion, as though He was a victim of the circumstances, as though He was dragged and led to the slaughter against His will. As though he didn't go, things didn't go according to plan. It feels sometimes as though the preachers would open their mouth and try to evoke some sort of sympathy towards our Lord. After all, he is the Lamb of God and he was led to the slaughter. He is Jesus, the meek and mild.

He was taken advantage of. Jesus is the sheep led to the slaughter, that's true. And yes, Jesus is meek and mild. After all, he says so himself. He says, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart.

Praise God, he is, but he's also the great I am. He's also the all-knowing, all-powerful, sovereign of the universe, beloved. And although He set aside His pomp and splendor that He was deserving of in His incarnation, don't think for a moment He set aside His deity. Because in this world, when He walked this planet for three and a half years, this was God, fully God and fully man. He did not set aside His deity.

At the very moment he was walking this earth, he was at the same time upholding the whole universe by the power of his word. This is Jesus. We need to recognize that truth. We need to recognize that truth and I hope to show you some evidence of this a little later. Let's start in the upper room, shall we?

as a church, we're in a pretty good spot. We've been working our way through the gospel according to John. We've made ourselves our way through to around halfway through chapter 12, and that's only two or three days away from the upper room. So we understand the context. We can sort of tell what's going on.

Our Lord gathers his disciples on the night he is to be betrayed and together in that upper room they enjoy the Passover feast. The Passover feast in Jerusalem. Keeping in mind that the time of the Passover, as I've said on many occasions in previous sermons, Jerusalem is filled to the brink. There's lots of people, hundreds of thousands, even if we go by some reputable writings, even up to millions in this very small city by today's standards called Jerusalem. Now it's probably good for me to clear something up right now of what I said a few weeks ago in one of my other sermons.

I said back then that the size of the city of Jerusalem was about 40 acres. I misspoke, that's not true. It's actually the size of the temple precinct that is about 40 acres. Jerusalem itself was about five or six times that size. Now to give you an understanding of how big Jerusalem was, it was around about a tenth of the size of Pacific Pines.

About a tenth of the size of Pacific Pines. The last time I checked, Pacific Pines has about 20,000 residents. So here you have a city, which is quite small by today's standards, about a tenth of the size of Pacific Pines that is populated with about 100 times more people at the time of Passover. So that gives you an indication of how filled this city is. But Jesus and his disciples have found an upper room and they sit there and I take it they're probably enjoying some peace as Jesus unites with his disciples.

It's in this room that the Lord teaches his disciples crucial truths. Foundational truths. You see, these men that the Lord is going to leave behind These are going to be the pillars of the New Testament church. These men are going to lay foundation of the New Testament church. A foundation that is laid upon the chief cornerstone that is Christ himself.

So much is spoken this night in the upper room and we'll get into what is spoken as we work our way through the gospel according to John in the next few years. But none, not the least of which was spoken is the impending death of our Lord and also His resurrection. But that discourse was spoken that began with 12 in the room had been spoken with actually 11 now in the room. You know why? It's because among them there was the son of perdition, the son of destruction.

Or as Jesus says, among them was a devil. Judas Iscariot was among them. And this night, Judas Iscariot will betray the Lord. And quite early in the night, Satan takes hold of Judas. He departs to make that plan into action.

Now, late into the evening, around midnight, as midnight approaches, I should say, the Lord departs with His disciples out of the room. He'd spoken to them, the contents that we have, from John chapter 13 all the way to John chapter 17. And now He departs from that upper room, goes into the east. He goes through the Kidron Valley, up the Mount of Olives, into a garden. And the garden is called the Garden of Gethsemane.

You've heard that name. It's here where the Lord engages in some gut-wrenching prayer on three times, three occasions in that one evening before the Lord. Anguish has set into the heart of Christ like you and I would never imagine. Because He knows what lies ahead. Not so much the physical pain, although we should never diminish that, but what lies ahead when He has to bear the sin of the world upon His shoulders.

This pure, perfect, sinless, righteous Lamb of God. Luke tells us that as a result of that anguish, that sweat like great drops of blood fell to the ground. I didn't even know how to begin to explain how difficult that must have been for our Lord. His humanity is being shown in Him right here, right now. But it's also in this garden that Judas betrays the Lord.

So possibly midnight or slightly after, Judas arrives with a band of Roman soldiers and a great crowd according to Matthew. And the great crowd are armed with swords and they're armed with clubs alongside of Judas. Among them is the chief priests, we're told, elders which are likely the members of the Sanhedrin, and also officers from the temple. There's a multitude that have come, probably several hundred, who have come to the garden there with Judas. He comes to the Lord and he gives him the kiss of death.

When he kisses Christ, that signifies to all who had come with him, this is our guy. This is the one. 30 pieces of silver is all that he took. 30 pieces of silver. As I think about what took place, quite often the thought comes to my mind, Is there anything in the human experience more difficult than betrayal of a loved one?

Our Lord is captured and every one of his disciples flees. He's led back into the city and firstly he goes back to the house of Annas. Annas was previously, about 15 years earlier, was a high priest of Jerusalem, but now he's not, but he's a very highly respected member of the leaders of Israel, very highly. His word is, and his counsel is very much revered. He's led back to Annas for questioning, and it's here that our Lord is violently struck to the face by one of Annas' soldiers, or officers, I should say, rather.

But it's also here, outside Annas' home, that Peter begins to deny the Lord. His denials begin here, outside of Annas' home. Now, Annas doesn't get very far with his interrogation of our Lord. In fact, fairly soon after he begins, he palms off Christ to just down the road to Caiaphas. You all know Caiaphas is the high priest for that year in Jerusalem.

And he's also Annas' son-in-law. And it's Caiaphas' residence at Caiaphas' residence that the Sanhedrin, that's the Jewish High Court, the council, you can say it's like our Supreme Court, they gather and convene there. The Jewish leaders were all convened there at Caiaphas' residence with one purpose in mind and that is to bring an end to Jesus. That's it. We don't want this guy among us.

So they were looking for false testimony, the Gospels tell us. Anyone who would provide false testimony, just so he sticks, so that we can convict him and get rid of him already. They just wanted that conviction. Here's the thing, they couldn't find anyone credible enough to pull it off. So they resolved to enact a death penalty based on blasphemy.

Because Jesus did admit to them that he is indeed the Son of God. And based on that, they're going to claim that Jesus is a blasphemer, and a blasphemer, according to the Old Testament law, carries with it the death penalty. Now these are the wee hours of the morning, beloved. We're talking 1, 2, maybe 2.30 in the morning at the most.

These are wee hours of the morning. Everyone who's the who's who of Jerusalem are now here. They don't want to sleep. They don't want to rest. It's all about getting rid of the Son of God, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

This is the level of hostility and antagonism and hatred they had to our Lord. But think of Proverbs 4, verse 16, where we read, For they cannot sleep until they have done wrong. That's the heart of an evil man. And it's before Caiaphas and the Jewish council that the Lord is treated, beloved, rather shamefully. In fact, He's treated with the utmost disgraceful contempt.

He's blasphemed, he's mocked, he's spat upon, he's beaten. These so-called religious men play disgusting and appalling games with the Lord, blindfolding him and then striking him and then asking him or demanding of him to prophesy, who is it, son of God, who is it that's just struck you? Until daybreak. Our Lord endured horrendous abuse, horrendous treatment from the hands of those who were supposedly godly men. And to add salt to injury, it's about now, out front of the residence of Annas' home, that Peter or the rooster crows for a second time that evening and Peter just denies the Lord a third time.

He knows what he's done and he weeps bitterly. At daybreak, the council decide it's best to deliver Jesus to Pilate. The sun's beginning to come up, maybe five in the morning, close to six. And they decide to deliver Jesus over to Pilate, the then governor. They try to convince Pilate that Christ is worthy of death.

That's their goal. I mean, that's why they've handed him over. It's not just simply a trial and a slap on the wrist. The risk they're looking for, they're looking for the death penalty. They're looking for a serious conviction.

Luke tells us when they hand Jesus over to Pilate, they have three accusations before Pilate. They make three accusations against Jesus. The first is Jesus is misleading the nation. Why would that stick? Well, if there's uproar within Jerusalem, that's not going to work well, Pilate.

Caesar's not going to be very impressed with a governor who can't give the peace. And the Roman Empire was all about peace. The second accusation was Jesus was forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar. How sneaky is that? That's a lie.

That's a blatant lie. That may stick. And the third is he decrees, that's Jesus decrees himself to be king. That's true. But their angle is Caesar, if this Jesus declares himself king, then you may have an uprising on your hand, an insurrection on your hand.

You may experience treason. Pilate takes Jesus in and he begins to interrogate our Lord. He confirms from the lips of our Saviour that Jesus is indeed the King of the Jews, but he still finds no fault in Him. He can't, in good conscience, cave in to the Jews' request and execute the death penalty. He still finds no fault in the Lord.

So what's he to do? He has a dilemma on his hand. But when you realize that Jesus is from Galilee, a lightbulb moment, you realize he can pass the buck. He can pass the buck to Herod Antipas. Because Herod was the tetrarch, or you may say the governor of Galilee, and Jesus will come under his jurisdiction.

And so it happened, Herod Antipas was in Jerusalem that Passover, before Passover, And he was also fairly keen to meet Jesus, we're told. He was really, really, really keen to see Jesus perform a miracle or a sign in front of him as though Jesus was a circus act. But of course, Jesus gave him no such sign. He stands before Herod and his soldiers, and it's not long into that questioning time that Herod also begins to demean our Lord. with his soldiers.

They put kingly clothing on him and they begin to mock. They begin to deride, they begin to abuse our Lord and treat him shamefully. And when they've had their fun with the Lord of Glory, the Messiah, the only Savior of the world, when they've had their fun, they then palm him back off to Pilate and say, he's your responsibility now. And here you have Pilate, who has taken possession of Christ once again. And the pressure that he's getting from the Jewish people.

And he finds no wrong in Jesus, certainly no wrong worthy of death. And the stakes are even higher now because Pilate's wife comes and whispers in his ears and says, I had a horrible, terrifying dream last night. Don't touch this man. Have nothing to do with him. He's a righteous man, Pilate.

Don't do anything with this man. but all the while in the background. Because they haven't entered the venue, they didn't want to be unclean for the Passover. In the background they're chanting, crucify him! They're putting pressure on Pilate.

Crucify him! If you don't crucify him, you're not a friend of Caesar. If you release him, you're not a friend of Caesar. You listen to those accusations? He claims to be king.

How can you release him? You're going against your king. There is no king but Caesar. Crucify him. If you're worried, don't worry.

Let his guilt be on us and on our children. Just do it already. Final attempt he has to palm responsibility. The governor tells the Jews, he's cornered. Look, take him yourselves.

Judge him yourselves. You have a law. Look, I'm going to give him back to you. Why don't you just judge him according to your own law? No, the Jews will have no part of that.

They look back at him and say, no way. It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. Ball's back in your court, Pilate. What are you going to do? You're going to have to do it for us.

Knowing the type of trouble these Jews are capable of. Trouble they can bring in Jerusalem, and the lack of peace in Jerusalem, and getting in trouble with Caesar, or the type of trouble that can send message to Caesar and say, Pilate is now, he's aiding and abetting someone who wants to insurrection, cause an insurrection and push you off your power. He claims himself to be a king. So there's nothing he can do, it seems, in his own mind, so he caves in to the public pressure. releases a murderer called Barabas because he was accustomed to release a prisoner that time of year, then he flogs our Lord, he places a crown of thorns on his head and he says, it's done already, I'm sending him off to be crucified.

So after a quite eventful night, About 9am that morning our Lord is made to carry his own cross to a place called Golgotha. He didn't carry it all the way, somewhere along the line Simon Cyrene. from the country, he takes over and carries the cross for the Lord and when he gets to the site of the crucifixion, the Roman soldiers will then nail the hands of our Lord onto the cross and nail his feet upon that cross and then they'll set him up into place to hang there before all to see. on his right hand is a thief nailed and crucified also and on his left hand is another thief nailed and crucified also and above the Lord he puts a sign in Aramaic, in Greek and in Latin, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The Jewish leaders didn't like that at all but Caesar says, Pilate says, so be it.

It stays. All the while, all those hours, our Lord hung upon that cross. People passers-by mocked Him. They scoffed at Him. They derided Him.

And then at midday, something interesting takes place. The whole land, we're told, becomes darkened. Darkness filled the whole land until 3 p.m. Our Lord who was betrayed, denied by his own, mocked, beaten, falsely accused and now crucified, right now at 3pm, the very hour the Passover lambs were being sacrificed by the priests in the temple, our Lord cries out, it is finished.

He yields his spirit. Not wanting the bodies to remain hung up on the cross because the Sabbath day is a high day, it's coming, and having people hung up on the cross will defile the land. The Jews ask Pilate, please, why don't you break the legs of the men who hang on the cross? Because when you break the legs, then they cannot push and get a breath, and they will suffocate and they will die almost immediately. And Pilate, he obliges.

So when the soldier goes out, on the right hand, he breaks the leg of that thief, and on the left, he breaks the legs of the other thief. But when he comes to Christ, he pokes him in the side, and blood and water flowed. He's dead. He's dead. He's dead already.

This was so that the scripture would be fulfilled, that not a bone of his body would be broken. Joseph of Arimathea. A righteous man, a courageous man approaches Pilate and says, give me the body. And Pilate accepts. So he takes his body and with the help and aid of Nicodemus, we all know Nicodemus.

They take the body of Christ and they go to a newly cut tomb, a new tomb that belongs to Joseph, a man of wealth. They lay our Lord in that tomb and they seal the tomb with a stone. His disciples, the disciples of our Lord, are bewildered, they're puzzled, they're riddled with anxiety and fear, we're told, because they think they may be next. That's the high altitude flyover of the events that take place before the crucifixion of our Lord. But beloved, Not taking, well I did, I took into consideration the four gospel accounts that were leading to the crucifixion, so I've taken that and hopefully I've had them all in the chronological order as I see them.

But beloved, without diving into the text and really considering what is written, What is written for our edification? One could walk away thinking this Jesus was merely a passive victim of the circumstances in the hands of the evil authorities of the day. One could walk away thinking, look, he was a great man, and he's a great example of how to live your life, but bad things happen to good people all the time, and this is an example of such. Not so. Not so.

Firstly, what took place upon the cross of Calvary, I want us to be absolutely sure of this, is the absolute climax and apex of human history. When God created the heavens and the earth, and he created the universe and populated the universe, you need to know that he had the cross in mind. Because apart from the cross, he will never have a people unto himself. It is impossible. Adam sinned and every human being born in Adam is riddled with sin.

He's inherited sin. And a sinner cannot stand before a good and holy God. And there is no remedy to sin apart from Christ and Christ alone. So the very moment that God created the heavens and the earth and the universe, the apex of that, the very center of that creation is Jesus Christ. We need to acknowledge that.

And we need to acknowledge also, as we read in the book of Acts, that everything that took place in what I've spoken to you, in the quick overview that I've given, is precisely according to the divine, eternal purposes of God. We need to acknowledge that, because this is God's Word, and God's Word cannot be broken. The Son of God, beloved, God in flesh, He was not passively carried along during these events. No. He was in control.

How often did he foretell precisely of what was going to occur? How often did he open his mouth to the disciples and let them know that this is going to take place. It's going to take place. I'm going to be handed over to the hands of evil men and they're going to kill me. But then in three days I will rise again.

Jesus wasn't looking down the corridor of time to view what is taking place and knew that way. No, beloved. He knew because it was Him who decreed it in the first place. He's the one who's sovereign over it in the first place. And everything played out exactly as he planned.

Not a single rogue molecule, remember. Beloved, listen to this. It's a matter of power and authority. It's a matter of power and authority. And it's Christ who is supreme in that department.

Not the rulers of this world. we would do well to pay attention to the Lord's words, in particular when he speaks to his disciples in John chapter 10, verse 31. Jesus says, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority, I have power to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. The question is, do we believe?

Because we know what is written, we can point you to what is written, but we have to ask our hearts, do we believe what is written? Because I can tell you this, if you doubt any part of the book, you're going to doubt it all. It's either God's Word in its totality, or it's not. That's it. And Jesus says that He lays His life down, no one takes it from Him.

In other words, ultimately what Jesus is saying to His disciples before the event took place, He says, My life was never taken from Me. The Jews, no. Annas, no. Caiaphas, no. The Sanhedrin, absolutely no.

Herod, no. Pilate, no. I laid it down. But Jesus, we saw them drag you and take your hand, and we saw them put the nails in your hand. How can you say this?

He said, I laid it down. I was in complete control. Every moment, I was in complete control. At no moment did I lose control. No one, no one stays my hand.

No one can frustrate my purposes. It's a matter of power and authority. And is there anyone more powerful than the only God of the universe in Christ? The ruling authorities, they plan. They conspire.

And they have evil hearts. Their view and their goal is to put Him to death. And they do succeed, but they succeed not because they are strong, but because it is written that Christ will die in that way in that time, and that's all there is to it. Our Lord was in control from the beginning, so now let me quickly give you some evidence to back this up. Firstly, I want to show you He was in control.

the type of death he would die. That Christ was in control about the type of death he would die. Way back in chapter 3, our Lord alluded to the type of death that he will die, that he will die a death. crucifixion. You might remember when Jesus says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

And again in John chapter 12, our Lord says, And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Beloved, every occurrence you'll find that word lifted up in the gospel according to John. And they're just two examples. He's always speaking about crucifixion. Now think with me for a moment.

Who wanted Jesus dead? Was it the Romans? No. Pilate found no wrong with him. Who wanted Jesus dead?

It was the Jews, the Jewish leaders. They wanted Jesus dead, right? They wanted nothing more than to see Jesus dead. And that's a problem. That's a problem.

Because Jews stone people. They don't crucify them. So when Jesus said and spoke to his disciples, in no uncertain terms, that I'll be lifted up, I am going to be crucified, that goes against the logic of the day. Because how many times have the Jews tried to stone him or throw him off a cliff? Unsuccessful.

Because he was never going to die from stoning or being thrown off a cliff. He was going to die from crucifixion. And that means he needs to be handed over to the Roman authorities. That means when the Jews are given Jesus and said, you do as you please according to your law, they push him back and say, no, you need to do it. Because the only way he's going to be crucified is if you Pilate, convict him to death.

Jesus is in control of how he dies. When he was presented, when he was presented beloved, to Pilate in John chapter 18 verse 31. Listen to what he says. Pilate says to the Jews, he says, take him yourself, judge him by your own law. And Jesus said to him, it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death.

You remember that, I quoted that earlier. I didn't quote the last verse, verse 32. This is divine inspired commentary from the mouth of the apostle John, where he says, This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what means or by what kind of death he was going to die. It's so interesting. Because you and I have heard, this was to fulfill the Scripture.

This was to fulfill the Word of God. Here we have, this was to fill the Word of Christ on equal par with the Scripture and the Word of God. It's a matter of power and authority and Christ has it all. I want to show you also Jesus was in control of when he will be betrayed. Jesus was in control of when he'd be betrayed.

Again, years earlier in John chapter 6. It's been a while since we've been there. The Lord told His disciples after all the followers therein, the Galilean followers had deserted Him. He told the disciples that one of you will betray Me, He says. And it was no surprise to the Lord because He knows what's in the heart of man.

He knew that it was Judas that would betray Him. But hear this. For three and a bit years, Judas was with the Lord. He was following after the Lord. He never loved Christ.

He was never united to Christ. From the very beginning, Jesus says He was the Son of Destruction. He was chosen for this very purpose. So I ask you, why would He choose to betray our Lord precisely at the time of the Passover? Why did it just click that this is when I need to betray Him?

Was it a coincidence, beloved? Do we believe in coincidences? Was it a coincidence that the sequence of events that took place after Judas had betrayed our Lord, that one event after the other, after the other, after the other, after the other, so happened that Jesus was crucified at 9 a.m. and then at 3 p.

m. He dies upon that cross at the very moment that the Passover lambs are being sacrificed in the temple? What a picture. No, that's not a coincidence. Not at all.

Listen, in the upper room, our Lord initiated that timing. I want you to see this. He gave Judas his cue. Remember, our Lord is not the author of sin or the author of evil. Judas did what he wanted to do by his own volition, by his own choice.

But Jesus, our Lord, gave Judas the cue. When our Lord opens his mouth in John chapter 13, and he says, one of you will betray me. He is sitting there with food on the table and his disciples around him. You remember the disciples were confused. Is it I?

Is it I? They didn't know. And then Jesus narrows it down and he says, the one I give this morsel of bread to, he's the one. And who does he give it to? Judas.

Now listen, what happens immediately after Jesus gives him the morsel of bread? We're told that Satan entered Judas and he immediately ran out after Jesus gave him the morsel of bread. The restraining power of God in Christ Jesus was restraining the powers of hell and the principalities of darkness. Satan and his minions were held back because it's not my time. And when the time was up, you have Jesus in front of Judas and Jesus gives him the morsel of bread and then Jesus says, I'm gonna loosen my grip right now.

Now is the time. And immediately Satan runs out of here, possessed by Satan. Satan couldn't do what he wanted to do. Satan wanted nothing more than to get rid of Jesus from the day Jesus was born. We've seen how Herod wanted to kill every child, every male child under two years of age.

How often he wanted to attack and get rid of Christ, but he couldn't. Because of the restraining hand of God in Christ. Jesus says when he's going to be betrayed. And now, now is the time. That restraining hand, that grip was loosened.

Satan knew that was his cue. Something probably similar to when Satan comes before the Lord and the Lord says, has you considered my servant Job? But you have a hedge around him. That's right. But now you can touch his body.

Beloved, that precise moment until then, Satan's power was completely at bay until Jesus says, now, it's a matter of power. It's a matter of authority. And he's declaring, it's my time, not yours, despite what it looks like. It's according to my timing, not yours. I want you to show you that Jesus was also in control of the timing of his capture.

At the garden, John tells us, Judas turns up with a great crowd, including a band of robbers, a band of soldiers, my apologies. Our Lord and his disciples are greatly outnumbered. As I said earlier, it's not a far-fetched idea to say there was actually several hundred going by the language. But then our Lord boldly comes forward there in the garden when the armed soldiers and all the other people who are armed with swords and clubs, our Lord comes forward and says, who do you seek with his boldness? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth.

And then Jesus opens his mouth and he says, I am. He self-identifies with the covenant name of God, the name of Yahweh. You remember what John tells us there? They drop like heavy sacks backwards to the ground. Okay.

So if you're thinking right now that this is merely a reverence for the name Yahweh, think again. Because Roman soldiers have zero allegiance to Yahweh. Zero. And if you're thinking about the Jews, that it's the Jews that fell to the ground because they heard the name of Yahweh, the Tetragrammaton, that they heard Jesus say that, I am, and therefore, because of the reverence of the name, then again, think again, because the last time Jesus opened his mouth and said, I am, in John chapter eight, he said, before Abraham was, I am, without the predicate nominative, I am, they didn't fall to the ground. They did scoop to the ground to get stones to stone our Lord.

No, them falling to the ground is a supernatural thing going on. That's what we see here. There's something supernatural going on. And that would have been glued to the ground if it weren't for our Lord allowing them to come back up. The point was made.

You're not going to take me because you want to take me. Because if I want, I can leave you on the ground. You can't get up. You don't. But here's a glimpse of my power.

But now that the point is made, I will allow you to get back up and take me." Peter was quite upset, wasn't he? He was upset of deceit and what went on, and he drew his sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest that year. And Jesus says, no Peter, don't you know I say a word and the Father will send 12 legions of angels. Beloved, one legion is 6,000, do the sums.

But then Jesus goes on to say it must be for the scripture to be fulfilled. But know this, I've never lost control. I want us to see that Jesus was in control of even the terms of his capture. Terms. He let the multitude get back off the floor.

He allowed them to get back up. And when he realizes that it's Jesus of Nazareth that they're looking for, he knew that. And seemingly, he knew himself to be outnumbered. He has his 11 disciples and himself, and there's probably several hundred before him, maybe outnumbered 50 to one. I love the way he opens his mouth and he utters a command about how this is all going to play out.

Just imagine that. Imagine your approach, somebody's approach, maybe you and 11 other guys, 12, and there's several hundred and you're fully surrounded. Everywhere you can see there are people and soldiers and they've all got weapons. You've only got two. You've only got two swords, that's it.

And everyone has clubs and swords. And Jesus is standing and being confronted with this and he commands of how it's going to play out. You can take me, Jesus says, but you won't touch my men. So the description will be fulfilled. Is he in a position to bargain?

Why would they obey? I suspect the fact them falling to the ground and being glued there until Jesus allowed them to come up may have been part of the reason why they obeyed. But think of it logically. This Jesus is their rabbi. He's their leader.

They can imprison him. There's 11 there. Would they not possibly stage a queue? Wouldn't it be just logical just to take the whole lot since we have plenty in number? No.

They obey Jesus. He sets the terms of his arrest. You can take me, but you're not going to touch any of my men. And that's exactly what takes place. I want you to see that Jesus was in control of his interrogations and we're moving along.

I know we might be pushed a little for time. Before Annas, our Lord is struck in the face by the officer of Annas. He wasn't happy with the way Jesus was answering questions. He thought he was demeaning the high priest and he said, how dare you speak that way? And in that setting, an intimidating setting, where it's only Christ and we don't know how many people are in front of the officers and they might be all armed and whatnot, you think that it's an intimidating setting.

You get struck on the lip and you just sort of walk away and do nothing. But that's not what we see with our Lord. Remember, it's a matter of power and a matter of authority. And he exercises it as he pleases, but he opens his mouth and he commands with his authority that the person who slapped him across the face give an account for his actions. Listen, he says, if I spoke wrongly, bear witness about the wrong.

Otherwise, give an account why you struck me. Who does that? One must ask the question, who's interrogating who in this trial? And the same can be said when he stood before Caiaphas, the same can be said when he stood before Herod, but for the sake of time I'm not going to go there, we'll move on. I want to show that Jesus was in control even before the governor Pilate.

He stands before this ruler of Jerusalem, this governor, and he makes it clear that he's standing before him, not because he's a victim with no power, but because it is his will to stand there before him. Because when he asks him about his kingship, Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world, because if my kingdom was of this world, my servants will fight so I would not be captured. I'm captured, aren't I? means my kingdom is not. It's not of this world.

Jesus was showing us that he's inaugurating a spiritual kingdom that goes beyond flesh and blood. Standing before Pilate is required in order for him to inaugurate that kingdom. Jesus is looking at the big picture. He opens his mouth when he needs to, he closes his mouth when he needs to. He's answered some of Pilate's questions, but many he didn't.

In fact, from what we gather and glean from the gospel, he said far less than what he didn't. He remained silent for most of the time, and this would have started to frustrate Pilate. And then he says to the Lord these words, will you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority, there's that word again. Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and authority to crucify you?

Oh, if he only knew who was standing before him. And then Jesus answered with such grace, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. Beloved, need I remind you, according to our Lord's last words, in Matthew before his ascension, there with the disciples, to whom all authority in heaven and earth belongs to? Pilate, it may seem like you're in control, but you're not. I am.

The great I am is before him in this Christ that is in control. No one else. There's many more examples that I can give you, beloved, to speak to this. But let me fast forward to our Lord's death. I want to show you that Christ was in complete control over precisely when He dies.

Over the last nine hours or so, our Lord has endured horrific suffering. He's endured three religious trials, you remember? Annas, Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin. He then endured three civil or political trials before Herod, before Pilate, Herod, and then back to Pilate again. And it was about 9 a.

m. when he was crucified, and it's about six hours later, at the time of the Passover, at the time where the Passover lambs, my apologies, were being sacrificed in the temple, that our Lord willingly yielded up his spirit. Now it's natural to think that the exhaustion and the extent of the injuries of our Lord was so horrific that they were behind the timing and the cause of his death. And in a way that is true, but it's not all the truth. Because a careful reading of the text and you'll see that the timing of our Lord's death was not haphazard.

It wasn't natural at all. Listen to this. But rather he chose the exact time that he dies. In John chapter 19 verse 30, we read this, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he received it. He said, it is finished.

Then he bowed his head by his own volition and he gave up his spirit. Now my work is done. All that the Father has given me, I have accomplished. All that is required for the redemption of my people to be the substitutionary sacrifice, I have accomplished. The will of the Father, I have obeyed.

The law, I have obeyed in absolute perfection. Faultless obedience, I have done all that and now I hang upon that cross. Having accomplished all things, I declare it is finished and now I'm ready to yield my spirit. He voluntarily yielded up his life in that exact moment. After all, who is it that chooses who lives and who dies?

Who says, I am the way, the truth, and the life? All the events that took place, beloved, were precisely according to the eternal decree of God and according to the hand of God. Plan A is what we saw when we go through our Bibles and the four Gospels. It's not a mistake. It wasn't as though it was meant to be another way.

This is Plan A. There is no Plan B in God's account. There's only one plan decreed in the heart of God from eternity past. And Jesus was in the driver's seat of every single minutia of the detail of the way. Evil men will give an account for their rank wickedness.

Don't hear me say otherwise. Evil men will give an account before the Lord for their rank wickedness. But they were not forced to do anything. Yet God was in complete control. That may mess up your mind a little.

But so goes the sovereignty of God and the volition of man. Let me end with this, because time is escaping us. I can't speak of the death of our Lord and not his resurrection on Resurrection Sunday. just as our Lord was in complete control in every event, in every miniature of detail, in every little element that led to his death, and he'd spoken about them previously, and everything came exactly as he'd spoken, and also according to how the scripture has been written, so too in his resurrection. Our Lord foretold on many occasions that on the third day he will die at the hand of evil men and then be buried, and on the third day he will rise from the dead.

Over and over and over again he told his disciples, we have it in the scripture, And he said, he will, he will. Mary Magdalene was the first to come to the tomb. And she came at daybreak, the break of dawn. And when she came, the stone was rolled away. She informs the disciples, Peter and John, the stone has been rolled away.

So Peter and John, they frantically get on their feet and they race to the tomb. John gets there first and he enters and what they see indeed is a stone that has been rolled away and the tomb is empty. They're puzzled. They don't really know what to think of it. Although Jesus had told them on many occasions, they still don't know what to think of it.

So they return back to their homes. But Mary, Mary returned back to that site. I'm not sure why, but she returned back to the site. And when she does, she saw something remarkable. Peering into the tomb, the Apostle John tells us that what Mary saw when she came back was two angelic beings.

The slab where Jesus was laid And then one angelic being was on the head, and one angelic being was on the feet. Beloved, I believe that's very significant. Because the last time I can recall of that image is on the Ark of the Covenant. And that's important. Not because of the angelic beings themselves, no.

It's important because of the significance of what's in between them. On the Ark of the Covenant, the thing that lies between the carvings of the cherub and the angelic beings was what is called the mercy seat. That name, Mercy Seat, Mercy, should give us a hint of what it's purposed for. In Exodus chapter 25, verse 22, something of utmost importance is said. Now, Exodus chapter 25 is a chapter that gives specific instruction as to how the Ark of the Covenant is to be built and constructed with precise detail.

The Lord had filled His Spirit in the artisans to be 100% in the way they actioned their work, to make sure that everything is exactly, precisely to scale and according to how God wanted it to be. This Ark of the Covenant was told to Moses as to how to construct it. He said that once it's been constructed, it's going to be set into the tabernacle then. And it's going to be set in not anywhere in the tabernacle, but in the most holy place of the tabernacle. That cube-like room, which is the most holy place where the manifest presence of God would be among his people.

It's the place where God will dwell among his people. That tabernacle, sorry, the Ark of the Covenant was to be set in there. And what we're told in Exodus chapter 25 verse 22 are these words. Yahweh speaking, he says, it's at this mercy seat. Speaking about the tabernacle, about the Ark of the Covenant.

Sorry, my mind's not with me. You get what I'm saying? Am I confusing you? Okay. The Ark of the Covenant, he says, he says, speaking of the Ark of the Covenant, he says, it's at the mercy seat.

That is the very seat that is in between the angelic creatures. He says, it's at the mercy seat where he will meet with his people. Why the mercy seat? Because one day every year, and you know the story, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, one day every year the high priest would then, after sacrificing an animal to atone for its own sins, he'll sacrifice and bring the blood of that animal and he'll enter into the Holy of Holies through the veil, through the curtain. No other Israelite can go in.

You die upon coming in. Only one man, and only once a year, he enters into that curtain, that veil, and comes into the veil in the most holy place. And he sprinkles with that blood of sacrifice. He sprinkles the blood, where? Upon the mercy seat.

Why is that required? Well, this is why it's required. Because all of us are born in Adam. Not a single one of us is not untainted by inherited sin of Adam. We're born in sin.

The Bible says we're conceived in sin. And it's not long after conception that we claim that sin. And we revel in that sin. We go against God. And God is a God who is pure and holy.

He cannot look upon sin. He's perfectly righteous. He's thrice holy. And His eyes cannot look upon sin. He must destroy it.

No one can look upon God and live. He must, he must, he must destroy. There is no way. This is a dilemma. There is absolutely, absolutely no way that a good and holy God who's thrice holy can exist and dwell among sinful, wicked, rebellious people.

There is no way. There is no way. There's no way we can enter into his presence, beloved. There is absolutely, absolutely no way. How can a sinner enter into the presence of a holy God?

How can a good God dwell among his people? Unworthy to be in His presence and yet at the same time there is no greater privilege in the universe than to know Him and to be known by Him. No greater privilege in the universe for Him to be my God and me His child. No greater privilege. But how can that be?

There is absolutely no way but where there is no way, God has made a way. He made a way to meet with his people, and he gave us the picture in the old, so when it is fulfilled in the new, we can say, praise be to God, it was all about. And that way is through atonement. That way is through the sacrifice. Because without the shedding of blood, there cannot be remission of sin, there cannot be forgiveness of sin, there cannot be.

Why? Because that animal is a substitute. You deserve to die like that animal. But for now, I'm going to accept that sacrifice so that I can manifest my dwelling, my presence, my glory among you. But you need to know through the sacrifices that are offered yearly, yearly, daily, yearly, that you need to know there's something grander at play.

And I believe what Mary is looking upon now in the empty tube, I believe is a picture of that provision that God has provided. Because when that blood is sprinkled upon the mercy seat, the mercy of God is manifest. Beloved, we need to see this. Do you know what mercy is in its simplest form? It's not getting what you deserve.

It's not getting what you deserve. And the Bible is so ultra clear what we deserve is death. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sin shall die. Mercy is to not be given what you deserve.

Be careful if you come to the Lord and say, I want what I deserve. The Greek word for mercy seat in the New Testament is only, it's only used twice in that exact form. It's actually, as a root word, it's used another two times, four times, but in the exact way that it's translated mercy seat, hilasterion it is, it's only used twice. Once in Hebrews chapter nine, it's translated mercy seat. And one other time, beloved, in Romans chapter three, where it's translated propitiation.

God's wrath in full was satisfied upon that mercy seat that Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God. A wrath that is deserving upon sinners like us. He poured it upon His own Son. So that we would not have to bear what we could never bear. And endure an eternity in hell, where the wrath of God continues to pour.

The righteous fury of God, of a thrice holy God who cannot look upon sin, would continue to pour upon those who are in hell. And He's just in doing it. When Jesus declared it is finished and He yielded up His Spirit, Matthew tells us, beloved, that the curtain of the Holy of Holies in the temple, in that cubed room that is the most holy sacred ground in the land of Jerusalem, torn into from top to bottom, and the veil has been opened completely. We were told in Exodus chapter 25, verse 22, that it is at the mercy seat where he will meet with his people. And that mercy seat is in the most sacred of all places, in the Holy of Holies.

Does he still meet with his people about that mercy seat? He does! But not that one that's on the Ark of the Covenant. But through Jesus Christ who is the propitiation for our sins. That blood that was sprinkled upon the mercy seat was the blood of animals.

Yet Jesus Christ our Lord, he shed his own blood. He's both the high priest and the one who is sacrificed. That curtain has been opened because beforehand no one could enter in. They would die immediately because they are unholy, unclean. But now God is saying, I still meet with my people.

In fact, I meet with them in a better way, more fulfilling way, in a true essence of actually meeting with my people. And I meet with them through my Son, Jesus Christ. Not in a cubed room. Not in a box with angelic structures looking this way. None of that.

That is all gone. That is all pointing towards the once and for all sacrifice, Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins. Nothing done with human hands. Everything accomplished with human hands was to point towards Christ. It was a shadow.

It was a type. It was a picture of Jesus Christ to come. And now God still meets with his people, but he does it through Christ. through Jesus. through Son who willingly shed His blood to be the atonement of our sins.

It's His righteousness. It's not that we are clean now. It's not that we are inherently perfect, that we can come into the presence of God and dwell with Him and He can dwell with us, but we're wrapped in Christ and His righteousness. Yes, we have been forgiven of our sins, but we are now wrapped in the perfection of Jesus Christ, the life we never lived, He lived, the death we couldn't not bear he bore upon that cross so that those who believe in him who trust in him would be the recipients of all that he is not some and this beloved is absolute love in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins Yes, Christ died for sinners that pass over. And now three days later, Mary was looking upon an empty grave.

Because the one in whom the mercy and the love and the grace of God was made known, death could not hold him. He's perfect. He's sinless. He's righteous. And He has stepped on death.

He has received victory over death. He's put death to death. He's put sin to death for all who would believe upon Him. The One who provided His blood as a propitiation for our sins. propitiation for all who believe in Him, He didn't remain in His grave.

Because as Mary Magdalene came to that tomb a second time, yes, she's seeing these angelic beings, one at the head and one at the feet. And that slab in the middle, empty, actually had the linen of Christ right there. Empty. And she was saddened. She didn't understand at that point.

She was wondering what they'd done with the Lord. She didn't understand at that point. And so she asked them some questions and then before long she hears behind her a voice. And he speaks to her and she doesn't identify him until he calls her by name, Mary. Rabbona.

She recognized it was Christ. She recognized that He is risen. She recognized that this Jesus was not taken. He wasn't thieves, didn't come. The Jews didn't come and plot to remove Him from the grave, but rather He's the resurrected Savior.

Christ is risen. He's risen indeed. Let's pray.