Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Jesus Was Killed | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 22-23

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're learning how to follow Jesus by working our way through the Gospel of Luke. We've talked before on 10-minute Bible talks about how Christians and non-Christians alike, often misunderstand what it means to follow Jesus. We treat Jesus like a lucky rabbit's foot, one who will keep us out of the hospital, who will cause Christians to win important sporting events, who will give us a good family,

Starting point is 00:00:37 and who will generally cause life to turn out exactly the way we want it too. What's interesting is that the wrong expectations that modern-day Christians have mirror in a lot of ways the wrong expectations that the Jewish religious leaders had in the first century about the Messiah. They looked for a Messiah who would come and overthrow Rome and deliver his people from political and military oppression, they wanted a Messiah who would establish a kingdom by sitting on a throne in Jerusalem. Instead, Jesus wanted to sit on a throne in heaven. Instead of defeating his enemies, he died for his enemies.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Instead of winning by political and military triumph, he won by dying on a cross. Jesus is going to go on trial in Luke chapter 22 in the beginning of chapter 23. starts before the Cyanhedron and then moves to Pilate and Herod and back to Pilate. And what we see is Jesus, the faithful witness, standing in stark contrast to Peter, his chief disciple that has just denied him. When Jesus is before the Cianhedron, which is the Jewish Supreme Court made up of scribes, chief priests, and elders, we find that the main question is, who are you? In verse 67, they ask him, if you're the Messiah.

Starting point is 00:01:59 tell us. In verse 70, they say, are you the son of God? The question on their mind is who is Jesus, and they're trying to get him to reveal something about himself. The earliest record of Jewish law with regard to capital cases is found in the Mishina. And what we find there is that there are a certain set of rules that all capital cases had to follow. And that night, when Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedron, they broke a lot of the rules. For example, a trial had to be confirmed a second day, but they didn't follow that rule. They rushed Jesus off to pilot right after convicting him late at night. The only way a person could be convicted of blasphemy is if they cursed God in the Sanhedron's presence. But of course, Jesus never cursed his father.

Starting point is 00:02:50 What's going on here? Well, I think what's going on is that there is a sense in which Jesus is not conforming to their expectations. He's not the kind of Messiah that they wanted. Luke has stripped down all the dialogue to focus the question on who is Jesus. And that's an incredibly important question because how we answer that question affects not only what we believe about Jesus, but what we believe about our life. If our life is to conform to Jesus, to his mission, what he's about, then it will make a tremendous difference to us, not just what we intellectually believe about Jesus, but then what it means to follow him in our life. So the Sanhedron's opening question gets right to the point. If you are the Christ, tell us. Now, Luke's gospel has really left no doubt that Jesus is the

Starting point is 00:03:45 Christ. He is the Messiah. Those two terms are synonymous. Both mean anointed one. Both draw upon Old Testament imagery of the coming king. Messiah is the Hebrew word and Christ is the Greek word. And from the very beginning of Luke's gospel, he's made it clear that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Messiah. Before he was even born, Gabriel announced to Mary that her son would be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David. Now that never explicitly uses the word Messiah, and yet it was obviously true that only the Messiah could sit on David's throne. When Jesus was born, the angel said to the shepherd, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who was called Christ the Lord or the Messiah.

Starting point is 00:04:41 When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, there was a man named Simeon who said that it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And of course, when Jesus asked Peter who he was, Peter answered, You are the Christ. So Luke leaves little doubt who Jesus is. And yet, Jesus rarely asserts his messianic title. He generally avoids the term Messiah, partly because that term was so politicized. In Jesus' day, the title Messiah was not generally thought to be a divine title, but an anointed person, a descendant of David's royal line, who would overthrow Rome and restore Israel. That is what the people wanted. But the term Messiah smacked of rebellion. See, Rome wouldn't care if someone claimed to be God, but to claim to be the Messiah, well, that was revolutionary language. And a person who made that claim had better well, watch out. So the Sanhedron knew that if they could get Jesus to admit that he was the Messiah, that Rome would have no choice but to kill him. Jesus gives them an elusive answer. He says,

Starting point is 00:06:02 if I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask you, you will not answer. Jesus knew that it was pointless to answer them, for they had already come to a conclusion about who he was. They had already rejected him. They had already hardened their hearted their heart toward them. Their questions were not sincere at all. Turn the page into chapter 23. It says, then the whole assembly rose and led him off to pilot. And they began to accuse him saying, we have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payments of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah a king. Now that charge of opposing payment of taxes to Caesar was absolutely false. To the claim that Jesus was the Messiah, Pilate asks him, are you the king of the Jews? You have said so, Jesus replied.

Starting point is 00:06:55 Now that little interchange between Pilate asking him if he's the king of the Jews and Jesus saying, you have said so, that is repeated verbatim in all four gospels. And I think it draws upon Moses' conversation with Pharaoh. Because Moses said to Pharaoh, as you have said, I will not see your face again. So there's the sense in which Moses first and then Jesus later is agreeing with First Pharaoh and then Pilot that what they said was true. But there's more going on here than I think First meets the eye. If we were at a Star Wars convention and I I came up to you and said, I am your father. Well, who am I pretending to be? Well, of course, I'm pretending to be Darth Vader, and I am saying that you are Luke Skywalker. Now, we all know that just because of the phrase, I am your father. I didn't need to say who I was. I didn't need to

Starting point is 00:07:57 say who you were. It's obvious to everybody who knows the story of Star Wars. Well, in the same way, these Jewish leaders, they knew their Old Testament better than you know Star Wars. And when Jesus says, you have said so to Pilate, what he is saying is that he is the greater Moses. He is the one who has come to deliver his people from a new Exodus. And that Pilate is the new Pharaoh. He is the one who oppresses the people of God. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He is. He is the king that God promised would come and rule over his people, but he will not conform to the expectations, but he will not conform to the expectations of the Jewish religious leadership. He is not the kind of king they expected, but he is the kind of king that every one of us needs.

Starting point is 00:08:59 He is the compassionate king, the servant-hearted king, the wise king, the powerful king, the good king, who can heal our broken bodies and fix our broken world. When Kanye said, Jesus is king, he got it right. This king does not come to use his power to dominate, but to serve and forgive, rescue, heal, and protect. Jesus is the compassionate king, who cares for the needy and the broken, who seeks out those in the margins.

Starting point is 00:09:28 Jesus is the wise king, in whom all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found. Jesus is the humble king, choosing to be made like us in every way. Jesus is the powerful king who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus is the suffering king, giving his life for others. Kings spill the blood of their enemies, but Jesus' blood was spilled for his enemies. That's why Rome killed Jesus, not because he was an itinerant preacher who went around and taught

Starting point is 00:09:58 about love. They killed Jesus because he was a revolutionary, because he was the king. of a greater kingdom, and he was coming to establish that on earth. Jesus calls us his followers to win by sacrificing, to win by suffering, to win by self-giving love. He calls us not to try to defeat our enemies at the ballot box, but to love our enemies and to pray for them. So what does all this mean for us? Well, it sure means that Jesus is not a lucky rabbit's foot. It means, it means that we will not be kept from the trials, difficulties, and hardships that every person experiences in this life. It means that God won't protect us from the difficulties that come

Starting point is 00:10:47 our way. Instead, what he'll do is he'll use those difficulties and how we persevere and trust him through them to redeem a broken world, to show people what it means to follow after a Savior who gave his life and sacrificed for other people. Jesus may not be the king we expected, but he's definitely the king that we need. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating.

Starting point is 00:11:17 That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations. stations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Jesus Was Killed | Learning to Follow Jesus | Luke 22-23

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.