Amen. Now if you have the Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 23. Luke 23 as we continue to work our way through the last days of Jesus on the earth and His ministry on the earth. We've been looking at His sufferings.
Each of the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John focus our attention on these last events of Jesus' life on earth. Because we have before us the Gospel, we have before us the good news of what Jesus did on our behalf and for us and in our place. So when we come to the Bible to study it, we sometimes begin with questions like, well how does this help me? And what am I supposed to do?
And those are good questions to ask, but one of the best ways to read the Bible is to begin by asking in a different place, a different question. What does this passage tell me about God? What does this passage teach me teach me about who Jesus is and what Jesus did so that we stand back and see the salvation of the Lord in our Savior's work then ask? Now how does this help me and how does this change me and what am I supposed to do with this?
Well, what has Luke shown us so far about Jesus? Well, we have seen our short study. We have seen Judas B. Trehen.
We have seen Peter D. Nuyen. We have seen his followers flee from him. Last week saw the Temple of Dards torture him and the Council of Elders of the Jews condemn him.
And tonight we consider the trials of Jesus before Pilate and Herod before two Roman governors. What did the Roman government do with Jesus? Let me ask you to consider that with me tonight from Luke 23 verses 1-3-12 here now the Word of God. Then the whole company of them arose and brought him that is Jesus before Pilate.
And they began to accuse him saying, we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ a king. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, you have said so. Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, I find no guilt in this man.
But they were urgent saying he stirs up the people teaching throughout all Judea from Galilee even to this place. When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod who was himself in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad.
For he had long bezired to see him because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. So he questioned him at some length. But he made no answer. The chief priests and the scribes stood by vehemently accusing him.
Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. They then arraying him in splendid clothing. He sent him back to Pilate. And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day.
For before this, they had been at enmity with each other. Amen. This is God's word, making cut our hearts with it tonight. Let's look at him in prayer.
In our Father in Heaven, we do stand before Holy Ground as it were. Your Holy Word about your Holy Son and the horrible things done to him. And we are not worthy before him. I'm not worthy to preach about him.
We are not worthy to hear about him. But you are gracious and kind. Do far more abundantly. Be on all that we could ask for, imagine, for our good and his glory.
In Jesus' name I pray tonight. Amen. So who is Jesus? What is Luke telling us about him?
Why does that matter? And how does that help us? We want to ask those questions. I want to highlight the three things Luke is highlighting about Jesus.
Bring those before us and then ponder those other questions. And let me tell you where we're going. We want to see that Luke says Jesus is a perfectly innocent man. And Luke tells us that Jesus is the Messiah King.
And thirdly that he is the polarizing unifier. He's an innocent man. He is the Messiah King. And he is a polarizing unifier.
Let's think about these things in the first place. Jesus is a perfectly innocent man that comes through clearly in this passage. And this is vitally important because we need to understand that Jesus is not crucified because he deserves to be crucified. He is crucified in spite of the fact that he does not deserve to be crucified.
And that is made abundantly clear here. The best legal system on planet earth in that day declared Jesus innocent of the things for which they killed him. Verse 1, the whole company of them it says arose and brought Jesus to pilot. Now who is this that brought them and why are they taking him to the Romans?
This is the Council of Elders, the Jewish leadership. They've already had their trial and condemned him for the last of me. Now they take him to these Roman governors. Why did they do that?
Because in Jesus' day the Israelites were under the thumb of Rome. Rome was sovereign over that. And though they could have some of their own rules and they could do some of their own self-governing, they did not have the right of capital punishment. That was left and reserved to the Roman government.
And they wanted Jesus dead. So they want to bring him to the one who can get him killed. Now what did they tell Pilate about Jesus? Well notice that his accusers have changed their tune.
Previously they were concerned that Jesus had blasphemed. That he made himself up to be God. And of course it's not blasphemy if you are in fact God and say that you are. Jesus was not guilty of that.
But they want him dead because they think he is. And so they bring charges of treason before the Roman government. That's what really is going on here. They say he's a rebel.
He's leading an insurrection. He's doing all these terrible things against the king, against Caesar. Luke records three of their accusations here. He very briefly tells you in the first place that they say Jesus was misleading the nation of Israel.
He was leading them down the wrong path. This is their way of saying he was promoting rebellion or sedition here. He's guilty of treason. He's taking us away from Roman government.
That's the first charge. And of course Jesus did no such thing. Now the second charge is they say verse two, he forbids us to give tribute to Caesar. He told us not to pay our taxes.
And what government officials isn't concerned about the people paying their taxes. Now this was not just false. This was a flat out lie. You remember one of the most famous sayings of Jesus for many people is that Jesus said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
And render unto God what is God's when he was asked about money. In other words, pay your time and pay your taxes. This is what he told his people. And thirdly, they say, well, he says he's Christ a king.
He's a rival to Caesar. You've got to get rid of him. He's a threat. Now Pilate sees through the charade.
They accuse Jesus of misleading and the great irony, of course, is that they are misleading Pilate about Jesus. And Pilate will have none of it. He knows exactly what they're doing. And so what does Pilate do?
He acquits him. Look, verse four, to the chief priests and crowd. So that the chief priests can't go back and make their case against everybody knows. I find no guilt in this man is what Pilate says.
Later we'll see that Herod declares some innocent. You don't see that in the passage we read like stated specifically, but the conclusion Pilate draws down at verses 14 and 15 is that after examining Jesus, Herod did not find this man guilty of anything, verse 15, because he sent Jesus back to Pilate. So nothing deserving of death has been done by him. So both Herod and Pilate agree to Roman governors charged with the enforcement of law and the protection of the realm.
Say, these are false crimes. And of course they are. Jesus is innocent of any crime. He's innocent of any evil.
He's even the innocent of any sin. Pilate isn't saying he knows all that. But he is declaring a minister here of any crime. We know that Jesus went like a lamb to the slaughter.
A lamb without blemish, a lamb without spot, a pure and perfect lamb. And this is vitally important for us to understand and appreciate that it was absolutely necessary that Jesus be innocent. Without his innocence, he can't save anyone without his innocence. He can't be a perfect sacrifice and he can't be the perfect high priest who offers a perfect sacrifice on behalf of others.
And as we saw in Hebrew 7 earlier in the service, we read this. This is meant to help assure us that we can come safely to God in Jesus name. Hebrew 7, 26 and 27. Here it again.
It was fitting that we should have such a great high priest that Jesus wholly innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for the sins of others. Jesus didn't have to do any of that. Why?
He did it once for all when he offered up himself. And the writer of Hebrews is not lumping in our sins with some imaginary sins of Jesus. He's simply saying that one perfect whole complete final sacrifice, the innocent lamb of God. And it brings us safely to heaven and assures us.
Jesus is this offering. This is such good news for us friends. Are you a morally corrupt person? Jesus was morally pure for you.
Are you a guilty person? He was innocent for you. Have you been negligent in your duties to your government? He is free of all such failure on your behalf.
Does the devil accuse you? And is he right? Jesus stands accused in your place. On your behalf, though he is not wrong.
And before the judge of all the earth, God himself has that God shut your mouth and quieted your speech because you really beforehand, if you know him rightly, you have no defense for yourself. Has your mouth been shut? Well, Jesus speaks on your behalf. He always lives to intercede for you.
This innocent one has access as he takes us with him. And he's there on our behalf. That's the first thing. He's the perfect innocent man.
The second that comes through in his passages that he is, in fact, the Messiah King. He's the long-awaited Messiah King. That becomes clear in the interview both before Pilate and Herod. Now, who are these men?
Who are these Roman leaders that Jesus appears before? And what do they show us about Jesus? Well, for a long time, people thought Pilate didn't really exist. Liberal historians, a liberal scholars who would not believe what the Bible says about Pilate could find no mention of Pilate anywhere else in history outside the Bible.
And so they said he's a character in a made-up story. And then in 1961, a team of Italian archaeologists discovered this incident. They discovered this inscription at Herod's amphitheater in Caesarea and it went like this in Latin, of course. We went ponches, Pilate, prefect of Judea, has dedicated to the people of Caesarea a temple in honor of Tiberius.
Suddenly, liberal historians had to admit Pilate was a real historical person and a governor just as the Bible had always said. In fact, archaeologists have since discovered and uncovered the very pavement where Jesus stood on the morning of his trial before Pilate. Taking him to Pilate and doing so, the Jewish leadership actually virtually guaranteed that Jesus would be widely known to posterity. That what happened to him was not done in some secret dark corner of the world in some small and significant nation that nobody would know about.
But rather, that the most powerful nation on earth in that day, the mighty Roman government, would have something to say in the execution of our sacred. Now listen, I don't say all that to say, that the faith of Christians rests on whether we can find or Italian archaeologists can find inscriptions about admittedly more mind-proofing than the most powerful nation on earth. We can find more minor characters in the story of the Gospel. Our faith does not rest in that, and Christians of course have believed for thousands of years this story is true apart from archaeology.
Christians ultimately believe this story because they believe that this is God's Word and God's Word is true and God is true in that God has driven home to our hearts by his Holy Spirit, by his power, the truth of this Word. And ultimately, why we believe this Word, but do know this, the evidence of the archaeologists is one more reason you cannot deny the truth of the Bible. You can trust what the Bible is saying here, and you ought to. So Pilate has an interview with Jesus, and he asks him, so then are you the king of the Jews?
You can imagine Pilate's attitude. Here he's got a man before him who's been arrested, who's clearly been beaten. He has no army and claims to have no army. His followers have all deserted him, and the rulers of Israel completely rejected and want him dead, and he says to Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?
You? It's very emphatic. You're the king almost mocking in his tone, you can imagine. You don't look the part, but Jesus answers you have said so.
He's not denying the truth. He's affirming the truth of it. I am in fact. As you have said, I'm the long-awaited, long-promised Messiah, anointed one.
Jesus is the king of the Jews. We might say if Pilate had known his Bible better, he would have known that Jesus is more than that, that he's the king of all nations, as the Old Testament promises teach. Jesus, excuse me, John, tells us other information about what transpires here in the trial. We know that they actually have a bit of a dialogue about the nature of the kingdom that Jesus is king over, and John 18, 36, Jesus says to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. So Jesus tells him, basically, I have a spiritual kingdom, not a physical kingdom, and at this, Pilate believes that Jesus is no threat to the king of Rome, so he finds him not guilty of treason and all the other charges, but the Jews, it says, persist. Verse 5, they're urgent. I guess when you lose an argument as the saying goes, you just talk louder and faster in heart, right?
Be stronger. Well, they've lost the argument, but they continue on, but he stirs up the people, and he does it all across the land. Why from Galilee to today? He does it.
And when Pilate hears the word Galilee, his ears perk up, because he doesn't want to condemn Jesus to death here at this place. He declared him innocent, but he wants to appease the Jews just so they're not so much trouble for him, and he hears about Galilee, and he thinks to himself, well, Herod is in town for the Passover. Herod is here. He's keeping order like I am.
All of a sudden, Jesus is on to Herod, because we know that you could be tried not only in the place where you committed your crime, but you could also be tried in the place where you were from. And so he sends Jesus back off, or to go see Herod. Now, who is this Herod that he goes to see? And what does that trial do and tell us?
Well, don't be confused as you read your Bible. There are three Herod's. I've often been confused about that. I think I was a bit confused about it.
Do I study for this sermon? This Herod is the son of Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the king who murdered all the infant baby boys at the time of Jesus' birth, because he heard the king of the Jews was born and tried to get rid of him. That's Herod the Great.
That's the first one. This is the son. This is Herod Antepas. He's the one who married his own brother's wife in an incestuous and adulterous relationship.
Her name was Herodias. And John the Baptist called him out on it publicly, and this Herod had John killed later in the book of Acts. The third Herod is the Herod, Herod Agriba, the grandson of Herod the Great and the nephew of this Herod. And he's the one who killed James and put Peter in prison, presumably to kill him before Angel released him.
So one Herod ruled at the time of Christ's birth, one Herod ruled at the time of Christ's death, and one Herod with a church where the body of Christ was in her infancy. Another Herod ruled. The first killed the babies, the last killed James. This one killed John the Baptist.
It's a notorious family. They are from Edom. They are descendants of Esau, and the seed of Esau is evidently continuing to carry on its enmity and hatred against the seed of Jacob, if you know your Old Testament story. But that's what's going on here.
Now this Herod is interested in Jesus though. He's fascinated by him. He had heard of him. It says verse 8, and when he got to see Jesus, he was glad.
He had long desired to see him. He'd heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by Jesus. He had heard about the miracles, and he hoped Jesus would put on a magic show, so to speak, for him. So he questioned him at length verse 9, but Jesus made no answer.
He gave no reply. He performed no miracle. He stood silent before the accusers and this ruler. And that's silence, friends, is fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53 verse 7.
If you were to go back, Isaiah 53 is all about the Lord Jesus and his suffering, dying death and resurrection for us. In it, we hear these words in Isaiah 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that has led to the slaughtering like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. And that's what's happening here. And when Jesus refused to play Herod's game, Herod's curiosity turned to contempt.
And at verse 11, he and all his men with him mocked Jesus. They insulted Jesus. And then they hung around Jesus' shoulders a royal robe, probably a discarded cast-off old worn-out robe of the kings himself. They played make-believe.
They put on a stage play. Isn't he funny? Look, it's the king of Israel, and then he shot him back off to Pilate. Ironically, then in all of this, because Jesus is, in fact, the Christ and the King, whose kingdom is not of this world.
He proves in mocking Jesus that Jesus is in fact who he says he is. He came not, as Jesus said, as the Lord of a dusty bit of land next to the Mediterranean Sea, but he came to earth as the king of kings. And the Lord of Lords, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, whose kingdom shall have no end. And though he is no rival to Caesar of Rome, he's not there to dethrone Caesar.
This king came to do something much bigger than that, bigger than fighting a battle against the Roman imperialists. He came to die for the sins of the world. And this Herod and Pilate could not understand. They saw Jesus, but they did not see a king when they saw Jesus, and they could not understand the nature of his kingdom.
They could not understand it, because unlike the Roman kings of their day, Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And so we see something about this Messiah King, and that is who he is. The last thing we see in this passage is that Jesus is not only the innocent man, not only the Messiah King, but he is the polarizing unifier. Now what do I mean by that?
Well, he's polarizing. You either love him or you hate him. You're either drawn to him or you are repulsed by him. Now you may flirt with him for a time.
You may like Herod be glad to catch a glimpse of the truth about Jesus briefly, but eventually you either end up receiving him or like Herod rejecting him. He simply cannot stay neutral about the king of glory. He's polarizing that way, but he's also unifying. It's a strange kind of unity you see in this text.
What happened when Herod said Jesus back to Pilate, verse 12, which tells you they became friends with one another. That very day, sharing in a mutual joke, because before that day they had been at Enmity, or they had been in a state of hatred and war, fighting with one another. Each hates the other, but they hate Jesus much more, and that brings them together in a common cause. Now that was true of the whole company of the elders of Israel, the council, the Sanhedrin, because we know that they were made of Pharisees and Sadducees, men who disagreed strongly about all kinds of theological issues, men who disagreed all about all kinds of ethical issues, men who couldn't agree about much at all, but they agreed that Jesus has to die.
And it brought together Pilate and Herod. Politicians who for some reason or other, who doesn't say, had battled one another and become each other's enemies, yet in their mutual mockery of Jesus and his rule they become friends. And one more, unifying the Jewish leadership and the Roman leadership, are now in like-minded, sharing common cause in opposition to Jesus. And they despised one another, as only an oppressor and the oppressed can, but they unite against Jesus.
He's polarizing, but he's a unifier. Why is there this united opposition to Jesus? Why did this come about? The early church saw this as a fulfillment of prophecy.
And I want to take you to one last thing and look at one last text from Acts chapter 4. And if you've got a Bible and you want to turn there, please do. It's on page 912 of your Pew Bible. In Acts chapter 4, the early church had been persecuted and then they went to prayer.
They appealed to God. And in verse 24 it says, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of Ira Father David, your servant, by the Holy Spirit, and now they're going to quote Psalm 2, this is the Psalm of David. Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed.
Now look at verse 27, for truly in this city they were gathered together against your Holy servant Jesus, who you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Why this united opposition? Well, in part we could say because they hated Jesus. But in part we can say in fulfillment of God's purposes for Jesus.
And in answer to the prophecy of Psalm 2, that the peoples would plot in vain against the Lord and His anointed, His Messiah. Why this? Because in the same event you're looking at, both God's word is fulfilled and because God made certain that was fulfilled in the history and the life of the anointed king. Even as those who fulfilled it did exactly what they wanted to do in hatred against Jesus.
God's word promised it, God made sure it would happen. There'd be no salvation if it hadn't. He didn't leave the fulfillment of His word to chance. But don't misunderstand me.
The Council of Elders, the Pilate and Herod, they intended evil. And God intended good. They sought to destroy one person out of hatred. But God sought through this the saving of many people, people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation.
The early church understood, and this is not my word, this is their word, that God had predestined this. Whatever you think that word means, you have to have some conception of it. It's a biblical term. And God predestined the death of Christ at the hands of wicked men who served God's purposes to accomplish God's salvation even as they carried out their own wicked purpose to murder an innocent man.
That is the principle that's no surprise if you've read Genesis. It's the principle of Genesis chapter 51st 20. It's the principle at work in the life of Joseph, which gave him such comfort. Joseph, the man who'd been sold by his own brothers out of hatred for him into slavery.
They wanted to get rid of him. They hoped he'd be dead. And yet God was with him and his suffering, God exalted him out of that suffering. Joseph reunited with his brothers and he said, you meant it for evil.
But God meant it for good, for the saving of many lives. So it is with Christ. The hands of wicked men put into death and it was not good. It was wrong.
It was unjust. But God determined it should be for good. That is a truth that could comfort the most oppressed, the most abused, the most evilly treated Christian. When no servant is above his master.
I don't know what that is for you. But God's sons and daughters can take comfort in this, in Joseph's life, in Jesus' life, and most assuredly in our lives. That while others seek to do us far, God our loving Father in the same event seeks to do us good. He is Romans 828 working all things together for good, for those who love him, and a call according to his purpose.
So Jesus we see as a polarizing unifier. Now let me ask you, if you are a Christian, has the opposite effect taken place in your life, the opposite of what happened in Pilate and Herod and the council? Has your reception, not rejection, your reception of Christ, brought you together with other believers in mutual love? The devil can persuade wicked men to lay aside their hatred of one another in order to join forces in doing evil against Christ.
I'm asking you, if you're a Christian, has Christ persuaded you to lay aside your hatred of others, but to join in serving Christ for the good of others. Why would we do so because he's innocent for us? And he's our Messiah and King and our Savior who suffered for us. Let's pray.
Father, we bless you for the gift of your Son. Teach our hearts to know our need for him. Comfort us with his afflictions on our behalf. Comfort us and our afflictions as we share his sufferings for us, called in Jesus name, Amen.
Let's stand together and respond to the Lord's Word and sing to him.