Original subtitles

DSpins generate an Iron Best

Okay.

Well, this is hour 16 of Learning the Bible in 24 Hours, the final week of Christ's Ministry

on Earth.

A tough session for just the opposite of the usual reasons.

Many sessions we've had are very difficult to somehow summarize so many different things

within the one hour.

Book of Genesis there and whatever.

This is difficult in a different sense.

We're going to just talk about one week and our problem, our frustration will be that

we can't possibly probe the depth of this one week.

It has significance and meaning that we will spend an eternity trying to understand.

But having said all that, let's take a look at what we can glean from this final week.

And it is, I call this week the agony of love.

Six hours that he spent on our behalf to free us from eternity.

Well, the first questions that people get concerned about, was it Friday or was it Wednesday?

And let me say right up front, there are many good scholars that will support a Friday

crucifixion.

That is the traditional view of the church.

I can remember vividly, I was a co-host on a worldwide television broadcast.

And we had, as our guest, the guest that was scheduled at that time was Dr. John Warwick

Montgomery, the famous apologist.

And my associate host was, got in a discussion with him about where he was explaining how

you get three days and three nights between Friday and Sunday.

And John Warwick Montgomery, this very august apologist, was explaining, defending the

Friday thing.

When he finished, I turned to the co-host and explained, and says, you need to understand

that John is also an attorney, and that's the way they build.

And Dr. Montgomery almost fell off the couch laughing because he knew I was pulling his

leg.

I do a lot about him because he was such a close friend with Walter Martin, and Walter

and I were very close.

But indeed, eminent scholar, and he would defend a Friday.

But they all try to argue various ways that a partial day counts as a day, and that's

how they get the three days from Friday.

And I'm saying that because there are people that still, it's not just a church tradition,

there are people that will try to support that.

But there are three reasons why I don't think that is correct from the scripture.

We mentioned last time that he went from Jericho to Bethany six days before Passover,

which means, in effect, that Passover could not be on a Friday because you wouldn't be

six days before that would be a Shabbat.

And that's from Jericho to Bethany is more than a Sabbath day's journey.

And as an observant Jew, he would not violate that Shabbat.

There's another verse, and that is in the morning, we call Easter morning, when the

girls were going to the tomb with their spices and things, it says, after the Sabbaths were

passed, your English Bible may or may not notice this, but in the Greek it's very clear,

it's plural.

The Sabbaths were passed that Sunday morning, which means there was more than one Sabbath.

On the Jewish calendar, there are 52 Shabbats, that is what we call Saturdays.

There are also seven high Sabbaths in addition, one of which is the Feast of Unleavened

Bread the day after Passover.

Passover itself is not considered a Sabbath, but the day after is in the formal reckoning.

So the fact that Sunday morning there is more than one Sabbath passed means that not only

Saturday had passed, but either Thursday or Friday was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

When the Sabbaths were passed, they were free to go to the thing.

So that, again, is a refutation of a Friday crucifixion.

The one that's also the third thing is Jesus Himself said, as Jonah spent three days and

three nights in the belly of the fish.

So shall the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth.

And the way that's expressed seems to reject it being simply idiomatical.

Three days and three nights is clearly, you can't shoehorn that in between Friday evening,

and Sunday morning.

It doesn't work, so much as you might try.

So we hold, that doesn't mean we're right.

I just want you to know where we're coming from as we go through some of these other

discussions.

So six days before Passover we came to Bethany in John chapter 12, and more than a Sabbath

day's journey from Jericho and three days and three nights in the heart of the earth

in Matthew 12, verse 40.

Okay, so those are three reasons.

So Friday we see him at Bethany from John 12.

Saturday we have the triumphal entry by this reckoning.

And there's, I understand, different scholars will have slightly different resting.

We've leaned heavily on the very interesting work by Rister Salata that's been finally

translated into English, and it's a very excellent reconciliation in much of this.

Sunday is the one the fig tree is cursed and so forth.

Monday is when the conspirators counsel together.

And I want to point out something to you.

The plan by the conspirators expressly was not to take Jesus on a holiday because they

feared the Romans.

The Romans almost didn't care what you do as long as you did it orderly.

The thing, their report card, De Caesar gets punched by whether or not there's an insurrection.

So the Romans were very tight in keeping things peaceful.

They couldn't care less about the other controversies.

The conspirators wanted to take Jesus on a non-holiday.

That was the plan.

And I think it's very, very fascinating that Jesus controlled all the details.

And at the upper room, it's Jesus that announces that someone's going to be trained.

So you have to understand the spot that put Judas in.

He wasn't going to do it that night.

It's Passover the next day.

You've got to be kidding.

But Jesus announces that someone's going to be who's going to be trained.

The one that dips with me in the sun.

He turns to Judas says what you do do quickly.

Who's calling the shots here?

Jesus is.

I think that's fascinating.

Judas has to fish or cut bait.

He's got to do it that night or the word is out.

So he splits.

He's got to find his co-conspirators.

They've got to make arrangements.

They've got to make getting a point with a pilot early in the morning.

There's a whole bunch of things.

That's why they're going to get some of these so long.

It took them that long to get their act together.

Jesus is calling the shots, interestingly enough.

And of course we have the Last Supper, which is, and of course the Passover level is between

the evenings.

And so it starts at the sundown that goes to sundown the next day.

And he'll be crucified before sundown the next day.

And so there we have it.

And it fascinates me that it's controlled by Judas Christ.

This chronology would support a Wednesday crucifixion.

As you see, when you put John 19 and Mark 15 and Luke 23 together, that seems to be the

profile, if you will.

And then of course we have the next day is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as specified

in Leviticus 23.

And then Friday is when the women prepare the spices and so forth.

And Saturday they in rest.

And after the Sabbaths were passed in Matthew 28 verse 1 is a very key verse.

Check it in the Greek.

You'll discover it's plural.

And that's important to get it inside here.

And of course Sunday morning they discover he's risen.

Now there's some scholars that would argue that he actually was resurrected that night

before, obviously before sunrise.

And that's spreading hairs in my view.

The net of it is, is that clearly Sunday morning the women discover, it's interesting, the

women discover that he has risen.

And the apostles learn about it subsequently.

And we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute.

But that's, that's the quick profile.

That's one of the candidate, the reckonings of the final week, the so-called Passion Week

of Jesus Christ.

And so, so let's talk a little bit about the triumphal entry then.

This is by way of review from our excursions into this area when we were in Daniel chapter

9.

We have of course the prophecy that Jesus deliberately arranged to fulfill in Zechariah

9.

Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion.

Shout O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, thy King come with unto thee.

He is just having salvation, lowly, riding upon an ass and upon the cold, the full of

an ass.

This is recorded in all four gospels.

And there to take everyone a lamb, it's interesting that the Passover is technically not a Levitical

feast.

It was in the home, not in the temple.

Made, blessed by the temple of course.

I don't make too much of that.

But Jesus deliberately arranges to fulfill this.

It's the only day in the gospels that Jesus allowed himself to be proclaimed as a king.

Behold thy King come with unto thee unto Jerusalem.

He's presenting himself to Jerusalem as a king, formerly very real.

And it's interesting when you get to Luke 19, the crowd is singing Psalm 118 saying,

blessed is the King that cometh in the name of Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the

highest.

All of us, how many of you have heard this is the day which the Lord hath made, we shall

rejoice and be glad in it?

See we apply that to any day, but that's not what Psalm 118, what it's really alluding

to is this day, the day that the Messiah presents himself as a king.

That's what's really in view in Psalm 118.

But that's what they're singing.

And you and I miss the point.

Whenever we run the risk of not understanding the Pharisees come to rescue.

Some of the Pharisees from among them all said, I'm master rebuke thy disciples.

Why?

What's wrong with singing that song?

You and I as Gentiles especially would miss that.

But the Pharisees understood that the crowd singing that Psalm are proclaiming him the

Messiah and they assume he doesn't want his disciples blaspheming.

Well he never said he was God.

Gee the Pharisees thought so.

See because the significance of this is he's declaring himself the Messiah and they understood

that is blasphemy.

And they're assuming that he doesn't want in the enthusiasm moment his disciples to blaspheming.

Master rebuke your disciples.

It's fascinating to see his very diplomatic reply.

He says the answer to them said to them, I tell you that if these should hold their peace

the stones would immediately cry out.

So I love that.

And I usually admonish our people and our tours as they walk down from over that very

road which we do from Mount of Olives down to pick up a few rocks, put it in your pocket,

take it back home and mount them on a plaque and people ask what's that?

You're living in a room where you're dead.

You know that's one of the stones that didn't cry out.

You can give them the whole story of Daniel 9 and Luke 19 and so forth.

And of course just by way of review you may be calling that Gabriel gave Daniel a four

verse prophecy in Daniel chapter 9.

Gable said from the commander's door and Bill Jerusalem to the Messiah, the king would

be in effect 173,880 days.

This is all by way of review.

We know the commandment we're starting to build Jerusalem was the decree of our exirksis

lounge of monus which is dated at March 14th of 445 BC.

And of course the big enigmas, when did Jesus allow himself to be proclaimed as king?

And that's what we're watching here in Luke 19.

And as I indicated that before the previous session Christ ministry began in the fall

of 28 AD.

Why?

Because Tiberius was appointed in 14 AD and it was in the 15th year of Tiberius.

In other words 14 years later.

So it's 14 plus 14 is 28 so it's in 8028 that the ministry began.

It's on the fourth Passover that this is all occurring and so that is dateable.

What's interesting about that date if you do the arithmetic you discover several things

that all this is written by the way in the Septuagint translation which was codified in

270 BC, three centuries before the gospel period.

And in 300 years before all this, if you go through the arithmetic you'll discover

that between those dates occur by the time you go through the leap year and all the rest

of this stuff is 173,880 days.

And all of this is documented in Sir Robert Anderson's classic work in 1894 called The

Coming Prince.

I encourage you to take a look at that.

But it's interesting as Jesus writing this donkey Jerusalem when he comes near, comes

up over the brow of the hill at Mount of Olives and he sees the city.

What does he do?

He wept over it.

He knew what was coming.

He said, if thou hast known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belonged

to thy peace but now they are hid from their eyes.

This is this thy day.

This thy, he held them accountable to understand Daniel 9.

He expect them to understand that this is the day they were supposed to be expecting him.

And of course he also knew that four days from now he would be, the same crowd would

be yelling crucified.

But he goes on in Luke 19, he says, for that they shall come upon thee that thy enemies

shall cast a trench about thee and come to thee round and keep thee in on every side

and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not

leave in thee one stone.

Oh no, he's talking to Jerusalem.

And we all know from history, 38 years later the Roman legions, 15th, 12th and 15th Roman

legions, laid siege to Jerusalem for about nine months slaughtered over a million people,

another half a million died from the pestilence and what followed.

And they literally, they had planned to take the temple as a trophy but a torch went through

when windows started to fire, the wood burned, the gold melded Titus had instructed troops

to take the part stone by stone to recover the gold and that was literally true.

They did not leave in thee one stone left upon another.

Question, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, one of the biggest milestones, most terrifying

milestones in Jewish history.

Over a million and a half people, men and children killed.

Why?

Why was Jerusalem destroyed in 70 AD?

There are a lot of good answers to that.

Let's look at the answer, Jesus gave.

Why was this going to happen?

Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

That just gives me chills.

Jesus held them accountable to know the prophecies of Daniel 9.

And it's the same prophecy that Jesus tells his four disciples in Matthew 24 to understand

Matthew 24 15.

And when you see the domination of desolation spoken to by Daniel the prophet, that's an

illusion, that same passage.

Thou knewest not the time of visitation.

Well after those incidents, they'll say, gee, what's coming next?

Well after those three score in two weeks, shall the Messiah be carat executed?

But not for Himself, for whom?

You and me.

And the people of the Prince of Shilkam shall destroy the city in the sanctuary.

We know who destroyed the city of the sanctuary is the Roman army.

So in some sense, they're the people of what?

The Prince of Shilkam.

That's a title of a leader you have to show up.

At the end there, there shall be a flood or a diaspora.

And unto the end of the war, desolations are determined.

Cut out, to cut off, to eliminate, to kill, to execute.

The Old Testament has a prophecy in Daniel 9 verse 26 that the Messiah will be killed,

be executed.

That shocks many Jewish scholars.

It's in the Old Testament, it's in their words.

And did He wise?

If you want to candidate for the Messiah of Israel, find someone that was killed just

prior to the destruction of Jerusalem.

We've got a good candidate in mind.

The Prince of Shilkam, that's one of 33 titles in the Old Testament of this world leader,

you have to show up.

He has 13 titles in the New Testament.

So obviously the 69 weeks were fulfilled to the very day.

You and I are dwelling in that interval of verse 26.

After the 69, but the 70th week has not started yet, but we know from a lot of indicators

that it's not far away.

This last seven year period is about to start on the relatively near horizon.

In that interval we have the crucifixion and we have the destruction of the temple.

It's 38 years there, but we know it's actually lasted for 2000 or so.

This interval, by the way, is also implied in a lot of different scriptures.

They're in your notes for Daniel 9 review.

It's defined for you that they're blinded from the missing that from the day that Jesus

made that declaration, verse 42 of Luke 19, until the Romans 11, to tell Paul tells us,

until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

That's in the interval.

And the fullness of the Gentiles come in, the rapture of church.

That's going to close that interval and we'll be getting into the 73th week at annual.

This interval is the period of the church, an era that was kept secret.

The Old Testament, according to Jesus' own remark in Matthew 13, and is revealed to

us by Paul in Ephesians 3.

Critical study of eschatology.

The church was born at Pentecost and the prerequisites to the church was the atonement and the resurrection

and the ascension.

The spiritual gifts are only given after the ascension.

Christ is taken out so the comforter can come in in his unique way during this period.

Okay, the final week.

Let's take now a look at the last supper in detail.

Interesting time.

It was not to be on a feast day according to Matthew 26.5.

That was the instruction.

But Jesus is only after announcing that it's going to happen in public in the meeting.

He turns to what thou doest do quickly and Judas has to split and somehow figure out

what he's going to do here.

Then when the Garden of Eden, it's interesting when you get to the Garden of Gethsemane and

they're praying there and these soldiers show up, Jesus advances to them.

I love this.

If you look closely at the narrative, he's running the show.

He advances and says, who do you seek?

Jesus of Nazareth.

He says, I am he.

And they're smashed against the wall.

They're shook by that.

Because I believe he's making a very key theological statement.

You didn't say I'm the guy you're looking for.

He says, I am.

He's using his key title there.

He says that seven times in the Gospel of John.

Then he starts giving orders.

If I'm the one you're seeking, let these go their way.

Who's calling the shots here?

Not the soldiers.

Jesus is.

In fact, understand, all the way through, he's in charge.

He's controlling the timing.

Why?

Because there are hundreds of specifications that have been and will be fulfilled in the

next few hours.

Every detail has been laid down in advance centuries before.

The crucifixion is not a tragedy, it's an achievement.

It's what he came to do.

But notice who's in charge.

Jesus Christ is in charge.

There are six trials that will occur between his arrest and the crucifixion.

There are three Jewish trials before Anas, before Caiaphas, and then before the Sanhedrin.

Those are obviously recorded in the scripture.

Then there are Roman trials.

He's put before Pilate.

When Pilate hears the word Galilee, ah ha, Herod's in town.

It's his problem.

He sends him over to Herod.

Herod says no way back to Pilate.

These administrators are trying to wash their hands of this problem.

Six trials.

Every one of them, every detail of every trial is illegal.

It's illegal.

Interesting.

The illegalities.

The binding of a prisoner before he was condemned was illegal.

He's bound.

That's illegal.

The judges participated in the arrest of the accused.

That was illegal.

No legal transactions, including a trial, could be conducted at night.

This is a cangere, cangere, as we would call it, going on in the middle of the night.

While a quittle could be pronounced the same day, any other verdict required a majority

of two and had to come on a subsequent day.

That was in the law.

That was the law.

They didn't obey any of this.

No prisoner could be convicted on his own evidence.

Of course that's the only evidence he had.

That's a fine he does it.

When the High Priest finally said, they couldn't get the witnesses to agree.

I adjured he by the living God tells who you are.

He's under oath now.

That's the only time he makes a statement.

He's what he's under oath to do.

You said it, buddy.

The next time you see me, I'm coming and you know what I'm saying.

It's simply no prisoner can be convicted on his own evidence.

That evidence convicted him.

That's the only evidence that convicted him was his claim that he was the creator.

That's staggering.

It was the duty of the judge, by the way, to see that the interest of the accused was

fully protected.

You got to be kidding.

This is a railroad job, as we might call it.

The use of violence during the trial was apparently unopposed by the judges.

They slapped my own.

The judges sought false witnesses against Jesus.

The judges sought these false winners.

Try to get them to agree.

They couldn't agree.

In a Jewish court, the accused was to be assumed innocent until proved guilty by two or more

witnesses.

These ideas, by the way, you notice have their roots biblically.

They're cherished rights that we try, clumsily perhaps, we try to imbue in our jurisprudence,

our legal system.

In any case, they're certainly violated here.

No witness was ever called for the defense except his own self in permitting in their

mind.

By the way, the court lacked the civil authority to condemn a man to death.

That's why they had to make these arrangements see Pilate and seeing Pilate took special arrangements.

They couldn't just go see Pilate.

I mean, he's the personal representative of the ruler of the world.

He happens to be in town, but they have to go to him to get done what they want to get

done.

It was illegal to conduct a session of the court on a feast day.

And certainly a feast day, it's, you know, it's Passover.

The sentences finally passed in the palace of the high priest, but the law demanded that

it be pronounced in the temple in the hall of Hune Stone.

They didn't do that.

It was in the high priest's own palace.

But also the high priest tears his garment.

That was against the law.

He was never permitted to tear his official robe.

That's Leviticus 21 verse 10.

And by the way, without his priestly robe, he couldn't have put Christ under oath.

So you got to, he can't have it both ways.

If he put him under oath, he must have had his priestly robe.

He couldn't do that.

If he has to be sure he wasn't supposed to tear it.

There is a habit of tearing a robe under certain things, but he wasn't allowed to.

That was against the law.

Let's talk about Pilate.

Pilate tried hard to get out of this.

I feel very sympathetic to Pilate's dilemma, understanding the pressures on an administrator.

Jesus Christ was pronounced innocent by the personal representative of the ruler of the

world.

I find no fault in this man, he declares to the crowd.

But he tries to get out from under this.

He passes it off to Herod.

The Herod's a pretty slippery character too.

Then he tries to pass it off to the crowd.

Every year we let a prisoner go.

He thought surely they would, they got this murderer that's a rival here.

Certainly they're going to take this guy that there are so many, apparently he followed

him.

He tries to pass it off to the crowd.

But they've been bribed and managed by the experts.

Prisoner of choice is released.

You want Barabbas or your king?

What kind of interesting?

He declares him a king.

Well you know the story.

Barabbas is an interesting story.

You need to understand Barabbas.

We don't do much studying at Barabbas here.

He stood under the righteous condemnation of the law.

He did not declare any basis of being innocent.

He's guilty.

He knows he is.

He knew that the one that was about to take his cross and take his place was innocent.

Barabbas knew he was himself guilty.

He knew this guy that was being accused that was going to take his place for freedom was

innocent.

He knew that.

He knew that Jesus Christ was for him a substitute.

From his point of view Christ was substituted into his shoes.

Otherwise he would have been freed, right?

No.

He would have been condemned.

But because they picked him he's freed and Christ is condemned.

They switched places in a sense.

And he knew that he had done nothing to merit going free while another took his place.

I want you to understand Barabbas' situation here.

They're changing places.

The murderers, bonds, his curse, his disgrace and his mortal agony, that's Barabbas' were

transferred to the righteous Jesus.

While the liberty, the innocence, the safety and the well-being of the Nazarene became the

lot of the murderer.

You understand how they switched places?

He's installed all the rights and privileges of Jesus Christ while the latter ends up on

all the infamy and horror of the rebels' position.

The delinquent's guilt cross became the lot of the just one and all the civil rights and

immunities of the latter are property of the delinquent.

Where are you and I?

We are in Barabbas' shoes.

We're not innocent.

We know we're guilty.

We have nothing to justify anything but the punishment that we deserve.

Jesus is innocent and we are switching places.

We gain him, his situation, and he endures ours.

That's what's going on here.

Barabbas is more than just a bystander here.

He's a representative, you and I.

Okay.

So we get to the crucifixion itself.

And thanks to Mel Gibson's work, many people are critical of some of its colorful overtones,

but at the same time it's an incredible piece of work to which we're indebted.

Now to refresh your memory from Genesis chapter 22, you may recall that the Mount Moriah is

a ridge system starting at Salem or O'Fell near the base about 600 meters above sea level.

You get up to the temple area which is a saddle back, the thrashing floor of Aruna, but the

ridge continues uphill.

The bedrock goes up till 777 meters above sea level, a place called Golgotha.

And the place that Abraham offered Isaac, I believe, is the exact spot that another

father offered his son, is an offering for sin.

There's a Jewish tradition that Abraham offered Isaac at the Temple Mount, but that's just

a Jewish tradition that doesn't seem to conform to either the topography or the scripture.

It's at Golgotha that I believe Abraham offered Isaac and it's at Golgotha that Jesus Christ

is offered on our behalf.

All testament prophecies.

We went through a lot of these in the previous session about being born of David's family,

born of a virgin, born of Bethlehem, and live in Galilee, raised in Nazareth, announced

by Elijah like Harold on the Baptist, the massacre of Bethlehem's children, the jubilee

to the world, the mission to include the Gentiles, his healing ministry, and teaching through

parables, all that we were covering in the last session.

Now we have these whole series of these just in this week, the triumphal entry is betrayed

by a friend for 30 pieces of silver.

He'd be like a smitten shepherd, his flock being scattered.

He'd be given vinegar and gall, the psalmist tells us.

They would cast lots for his garments.

This is the very vocabulary is quoted.

It's like it's following a script from Psalm 22.

His side would be pierced.

Not a bone would be broken.

That was a specification of Exodus for the Passover Lamb.

It's also, it numbers 9 and Psalm 34 and it was also fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

A Roman soldier was ordered to break the legs and this guy refused his orders.

He got to do his Christ and throw up a spear on the side instead.

Did he know he was fulfilling prophecy?

I don't think so.

Was he fulfilling prophecy?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

He died among malefactors and indeed he did.

His dying words were foretold.

He would be buried by a rich man and he would rise on the third.

All this stuff is written in the Tanakh, the Old Testament.

His resurrection would be followed by the destruction of Jerusalem.

That's in Daniel 9, 11 and also in 12 and of course Jesus amplifies that also.

He was crucified on a cross of wood.

Yet he made the hill on which it stood.

What held him to that cross?

It wasn't the nails.

He was the Creator hanging there.

He could have at any time said enough already.

I'm out of here.

No nails could hold him if he didn't want him to.

What held him to that cross is his love for you and me.

Staggering, staggering thing.

He was his love for you and me.

My friend Joe Fos from Philadelphia, we were together in Yorkshire, England and Joe gave

a message that he doesn't give very frequently.

There was an incident in his life where his son, one of his sons, was seriously in need

of emergency care in the hospital.

When we get to the hospital they got a lot of harassment by filling out forms.

It's his witness wasn't too good as he explained to them that they don't get to take care

of him.

They're going to need emergency care.

Anyway, as he describes the agony of a father in his anxiety over his son, he pointed out

something that few of us think about probably.

We focus on the agony of Jesus Christ hanging on that cross as so dramatized, at least the

physical aspects of dramatized in the movie.

Can you imagine the grief of the father?

He watches them spit on his son and beat him and insult him?

The forbearance of the father is astonishing to reflect on in this whole scenario.

Imagine a father having to endure that being done to his son, yet knowing if he interferes

to blow the mission.

An interesting thing occurs when Pilate is there and John 19, it says Pilate wrote a

title and put it on the cross.

I mentioned it wasn't Pilate's servant or assistant.

Pilate, personally, apparently put this title on the cross and notice what Pilate said.

The writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.

This title then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nine

of the city and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Now that first of all, it intrigues me that Pilate is fluent in those three languages.

It's written in Hebrew because he's on duty in Judea, so he learned to speak in right

Hebrew apparently.

He's also fluent in Greek as everyone was in that world because that was the standard

commercial language.

He's also obviously competent in Latin because that was the official language of the Roman

Empire.

As the years go by, Latin will begin to supplant Greek in many places, but still.

What's interesting, Pilate wrote this personally.

I think this is interesting for a number of reasons.

Let me show you a surprising one.

When you and I missed the point, there again the priests and the Pharisees come to rescue.

Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, right not the king of the Jews, but

that he said I am the king of the Jews.

Notice they're willing to say if he says I am the king of the Jews, they're happy with

that.

That's surprising isn't it?

What are they upset about?

What's the difference?

Whatever the difference is, Pilate did what he did deliberately.

He said, what I have written, I have written.

He's about to budge.

Now you and I, as we watch this, can't figure out what's the difference.

I'll show you the difference.

Here's what Pilate wrote.

Remember Hebrew goes from right to left.

He wrote, that in Hebrew will be four words with four initial letters.

The initial letters of those four words is a yot, a he, a vav and a he, the unpronounceable

name of God.

Now, who is right?

Now you could conclude from this that Pilate is authenticating Jesus Christ's deity here.

I might not go that far, but clearly he knew that it was the habit of the Jewish leadership.

They love acrostics.

Many of the Psalms are acrostics.

The Jewish leadership loved word games.

They always took great stock in the first, you know, in act what they call acrostics.

That is deliberately writing this as an acrostic of the, of, of YAHUVABI as the Jews

might say, or YAHova or Yahweh or however you want to pronounce it.

It's the unpronounceable name of God.

Either he was just doing this to tweak them, probably upset that these guys put him in

this spot of having to be entangled in this controversy or maybe just possibly he may

have had insights that go beyond what we generally accredit to him.

He was profoundly impressed the way Jesus conducted himself personally.

Jesus pointed out to him, you have no power of me unless God gave it to you.

I mean, he is his, that whole interview with Jesus, out of which he brings Jesus out to

the cross, says, I find no fault, this man, what a statement.

How simple it would have been for him to find, you know, kill this imposter or whatever.

No, I find no fault.

He wanted him off.

Now his wife was telling me dreams of, hey, you're dealing with something here that's

bigger than you think it is.

Now, there's another incident that comes forth and I'll show you that too.

I, I, I, it would not surprise, I have no evidence of this.

There may be documentation to the contrary what I'm about to tell you.

But I personally will not be surprised if when I get to heaven I meet Pilate.

I wouldn't be surprised at the ordeal of that day when coupled with subsequent reflection

maybe other reports he hears would cause him to suspect that Jesus Christ really is

who he claimed to be.

And if that's true, it's possible.

I don't know if I have any evidence that he might have come to faith.

It wouldn't surprise him if we meet him there.

I feel very much for Pat, because I understand that having been in those kinds of predicaments,

that someone that's in charge and has administrative responsibilities often gets torn with a decision

he has to make.

And he was in a tough spot.

He was there.

His job from his boss was to keep the peace.

And he tried hard to try to do that and couldn't.

Now there is an unrecorded conversation with Pilate that I want to touch upon.

And as you may know, Joseph Arimathea comes to Pilate the next day to beg the, or that

evening actually to beg the body of, of, of Jesus Christ.

That tells you a great deal about Joseph Arimathea.

You do know from a lot of indications he was a very powerful person, very rich, one

of the most powerful guys in the area.

In fact, the very fact that he can approach Pilate tells you he had stature.

What's even more astonishing, Joseph was in hiding.

The scripture says that he was, the way it's recording your Bible, he was secretly a follower

of Jesus.

That's a mistranslation.

The Greek word there, if you change one letter, you have to change one letter to make it,

you know, an adverb.

In the sentence in the Greek, it's an adjective.

It should be translated.

He was secreted as a disciple of Christ, meaning he was in hiding.

He wasn't just secretly, he was undercover.

He had to hide because they were going to try to kill him.

He had the appendages before the Sanhedrin in a previous occasion.

That's another reason why Pilate was probably startled that he shows up, but he certainly

has access to Pilate.

And he begs the body, it tells you a second thing about Joseph Arimathea legally apparently

had to be the next of kin.

It was Roman law and maybe Hebrew law that the next of kin had the responsibility of

disposing of a body, even of a criminal.

No one, not just anyone could go and get the body.

It had to be the next, the one responsible.

And Joseph Arimathea apparently was the next of kin.

So he had personal access to the procuator and he was the next of kin.

Pilate was surprised.

Now what you don't read in the scripture, but I have it on good authority, what Pilate

said to Joseph Arimathea, I don't understand.

You've got this brand new tomb for your family and you're going to give it to this

criminal.

And Joseph says, Oy vey, it's just for the weekend.

I'm a dead-end Chuck Smith for that apocryphal story.

I have a good authority because Chuck wouldn't say so, it wasn't true.

So it's just for the weekend.

It's just a little toss away for you.

What did happen next morning is the scribes and Pharisees came to him, the chief priest

came to him and said, Sir, we remember that the severs said, while he was yet alive, after

three days I will rise again.

You know it's interesting, the disciples didn't get it.

Jesus told him several times on the third day I'm going to rise to him.

It didn't register.

The only people that understood it were his enemies.

They were expecting him to rise the third day and also some women.

They understood.

The disciples didn't get it until later.

Anyway, they say after three days that was the boast that they were afraid of.

He said, command therefore that the sepic herb he made sure until the third day, lest his

disciples come by night and steal them away and send them to the people he has risen from

the dead.

So the last error shall be worse than the first.

I think that's interesting, Mark.

They're admitting that it was a mistake, but they did so far.

So they didn't plan to do it on the holiday, but it all went from their point of view pretty

sour.

And I love Pilate's response.

Notice what he says.

God said, you have a watch.

Go your way.

Make it as sure as you can.

I love that phrasing.

Do you hear in his words a certain cynicism?

I don't think Pilate was surprised when his own soldiers come and say, by the way, he's

gone.

I think that's a...

Pilate, I suspect, was not surprised with a resurrection.

You have a watch.

Go your way.

Make it as sure as you can.

I dare you, so to speak, almost.

You hear it in there.

A taunt, if you will.

You have your way.

Make it as sure as you can.

Well, okay.

So we get to this incredible day.

He is risen.

He is risen.

And the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most important validation in the history of the

universe.

Now, just to review a little bit, you may recall when we were in Genesis, the art came to rest

on the seventh month, the 17th day of the month, the mountains of Arad.

That's when the new beginning starts under Noah, remember, in Genesis chapter 8.

Why did the Holy Spirit give you that detail?

I mentioned then at that time, if you're normal, if you're normal, a normal, well-adjusted

person, the art question, the seventh month and the 17th day of the month and the mountains

of Arad, you read on.

But if you're into one of my Bible studies, you are no longer qualified as a normal, well-adjusted

human being.

You remember that I made this ridiculously mark, that every detail in the Scripture is

there deliberately by design.

Why did the Holy Spirit want you to know that the art came to rest on the 17th day of the

seventh month?

I mean, why is that important?

Well, as you know, the Jews have two counters, the civil counters, Tishri in the fall, Rosh Hashanah,

the new year, typically in our September time period roughly.

The religious year starts in the spring because of Exodus 12, when God ordains the Passover,

he says to Moses, this month, that is month of Nisan, shall be unto you the beginning of

months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.

That means the Jews have two counters.

The Genesis calendar, the old calendar, is the one they celebrate in the civil sense.

Rosh Hashanah is in Tishri in the fall, first month.

The seventh month is to them Nisan.

But since the Exodus, since the Passovers are ordained, the religious year starts with

Nisan and it rolls around so that Tishri is the seventh month of the religious year.

You get the picture?

Okay.

So, here's the situation.

He's crucified on the 14th of Nisan.

He's in the grave how long?

Three days.

That means his resurrection occurs on the 17th of Nisan, Nisan being the seventh month

of the Genesis calendar.

So God's new beginning on the planet earth for Noah was on the anniversary in advance

in anticipation of our new beginning in Jesus Christ.

I think that's significant.

I think it's fascinating.

It demonstrates God seems to love to deal in very precise ways.

I never use the word approximate in God in the same sentence.

Well a lot of appearances after the resurrection.

Mary Magdalene sees him first, early Sunday morning.

I'll come back to that one.

Other women that morning, too on the Emmaus Road that afternoon.

We talked about that briefly.

Peter sees him sometime that day.

The 11th see him that night but without Thomas.

A week later, actually eight days later, the 11th see him with Thomas and we have that

famous confrontation.

Then the seven are up in Galilee in John 21.

And there's a breakfast there that I want to talk about before we're through.

And then the 11th see him again in Galilee.

Then there's 500 that see him in Galilee.

And what's interesting to understand is many of those 500 are present in the church at

Corinth when Paul is writing his letter to the Corinthians.

He makes reference to them in his first Corinthian letter.

How many of you would buy the idea, if I tried to sell it to you, that John of Kennedy

was killed in Dealey Plaza in 1963 with the bow and arrow?

You laugh of course because you know I could not fly that story.

Why couldn't I fly that story?

Too many eyewitnesses here.

Too many of you have first hand experience to the contrary.

And that's exactly the argument that Paul makes in his Corinthian letter.

He's talking to people who are up in Galilee that witnessed his post resurrection appearances.

And of course James is, there are two James at the cross.

The third James was Christ's brother.

He believes in him after the resurrection.

And that's also alluded to there in the first Corinthians.

And then of course Luke, then there's the final appearance and ascension recorded in

Luke 24 and following in the book of Acts and so on.

And then there's another appearance that we often overlook and that's to Paul on the

Damascus Road.

You know, all of us have things in the Bible that bother us.

People have difficulties with various things.

And I want to share with you a difficulty that I have.

It's been bothering me for years.

And let me just be candid to you.

What really bothers me is I can't help but notice that it seems that after his resurrection,

people seem to have difficulty recognizing him.

It's never quite overt and yet it just lurks behind these encounters.

The encounter with Mary in the garden, in the interest of, I will try to put all the

Scripture on, we'll just recall it.

She goes there in the garden and she stoops down and looks in there and he's gone and she's

crying.

And she hears a voice, who are you looking for?

I'm looking for my Lord, where have they laid him?

And she turns and she thinks the person she's talking to is the gardener.

Right?

Remember that?

And she says, tell me where he'd laid him and so forth.

And he says to her, Mary in Aramaic and she says, Robona and Master, she apparently doesn't

recognize him when she's, maybe it's because she's got tears in her eyes.

But she was not a casual acquaintance.

This is Mary Magdalene.

She loved him.

And it isn't until she hears that familiar voice that she puts it together and realize

it's Jesus.

That bothers me.

Something doesn't quite compute there in my mind.

That afternoon, two disciples are on their way to Amaeus.

That's about seven miles out of Jerusalem.

On that road, he encounters, he encounters these guys.

And he says to them, why are you guys so sad?

Because they're really down, obviously, they're talking to each other, really blue.

And he's like, why are you so sad?

And they turn to him and say in effect, where have you been, fella?

And they recount to him the events of the last few days, how they took the Lord and they

crucified him and now his body is missing and they're all shook up.

And it's interesting what he says to them, he doesn't say, hey guys, that's me.

He didn't say that.

He says, wasn't that what Christ was supposed to, it was supposed to happen to him?

And then he gives them a seven mile Bible study.

He starts at Moses, goes through the prophets and the son.

He goes through the Tanakh, I don't think he's carrying scrolls.

All these were well versed enough, they could do it for memory.

But he recounts to them how all these things were the things that Christ, and he's speaking

of them to them in the third person, Christ that guy.

They're walking with him, right?

These are two guys that will be in the upper room that night.

They're not strangers, yet they don't recognize him.

They walk seven miles with him, don't recognize him.

Until they get to where they're going and by them they're so entranced, they insist he

stay for dinner.

He was going to keep going.

No, no, no, no, you got to say, they insist he come for dinner.

And they're sitting around having dinner and Jesus breaks the bread.

Now that's a violation of normal protocol.

The guest doesn't do that, the host in a Jewish home breaks the bread, right?

No, Jesus takes it and breaks it.

And when he does, they realize who he is.

And he disappears.

And they say to another, didn't our hearts burn with us on the way?

But what's puzzling, what was it?

They didn't recognize his face, but when he broke the bread, they realized who he was.

What do you suppose it was?

Right?

Exactly right.

They saw the nail prints.

In fact, they go to Jerusalem that night.

And when they're mixing with the disciples, they explain what happened and they recognized

them, they say, in the breaking of the bread.

Well, why does it take the breaking of the bread?

Why didn't they recognize who he was?

He's tangible.

He'll say to them later, handle me and see a spirit doesn't have flesh and bone.

He's tangible.

Yet for some reason, they don't recognize him.

In the upper room that night, they're all there behind locked doors, frightened, confused,

feeling that they're probably wanted men, they're worried.

And he shows up right in the middle of them.

And he says, be not afraid.

They're terrified.

Be not afraid.

And handle me and see a spirit doesn't have flesh and bone as you see me have.

Well, there's a couple other things, but let's skip ahead to John 21.

They're up.

They're all sort of frightened.

Some days have gone by.

Peter says, I go fishing.

You know, that's good therapy.

You know, if you're under stress, one of the things you should do is indulge in something

you're good at that's a change of seeing.

Maybe a game of handball or golfer or just a good workout or whatever, but you do something

that is unrelated that you're good at.

That's a normal.

That's a good healthy hygiene from a stress.

So Peter, he's a fisherman.

I go fishing.

Yeah, we go too.

So there's a group of them that go out on the Sea of Galilee all night long and catch

zip.

Nothing.

And John 21 records how in the morning, in the early missive morning, they've struck

out.

Not a thing.

They see someone and I can understand they can't tell who to somebody on the shore.

He says, hey guys, you catch anything.

No, put your net on the other side of the boat.

Like that's going to make a difference, you know.

But they do.

And the net gets so full of fish they can hardly handle it.

And John connects the dots.

That's the Lord.

How does he know that?

Because that happened once before earlier in the ministry.

Same kind of thing, roughly.

Well John, right?

That's the Lord.

Peter, lovable Peter, he drops his coat and dives in.

He can't wait for them to pull them.

They're all struggling to get these fish in.

But anyway, he gets so they pull it in.

And when they get there, this is the part that's interesting.

When they finally get there to shore, Jesus has cooked breakfast for them.

How many of you have had a biblical breakfast had fish this morning?

Fish and bread is what he had.

He had over the fire.

He had a breakfast cooking.

But there is a state, when I get to heaven, there's a lot of things I probably want to

do.

But among the first things I want to do, I want to go to John and say, what on earth did you

mean by verse 12 of the last chapter of your gospel?

Because it puzzles me.

Verse 12, Jesus said, come and die.

And none of the disciples dersked ask him who art thou knowing that it was the Lord.

What on earth does that sentence mean?

That's one of those sentences that creates doubt rather than resolves it.

Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Let's assume you're driving to a social engagement an hour away from home and you're halfway

there and you turn to your wife and say, did you turn off the stove?

If she says, yes, I did, you keep driving.

What if she says, I'm sure I did?

What do you do with that?

It's one of those kinds of statements.

It sort of creates doubt rather than, none of us dared ask him who art thou because we

knew it was him.

Do you hear in this some kind of enigma lurking behind the scenes?

Well, our whole premise in our ministry is that there are prophecies that are fulfilled

and fulfilled precisely.

And I'm going to suggest to you that there is a detail of the crucifixion.

First of all, I'm glad that Mel Gibson apparently didn't take advantage of in his movie or it

would have been even worse than it was.

There is a detail of the crucifixion that's prophesied in Isaiah that I believe was fulfilled,

that you don't find recorded in the gospels.

There are descriptions of the crucifixion in Psalm 22, many details, the vinegar and

all the rest of it.

Isaiah 53 is an eloquent summary of this.

In fact, in Isaiah 52 verse 14, Isaiah 53 really starts a couple of verses before that chapter.

You may recall we went through it.

But the last verse in chapter 52, before 53 starts, he was so beaten he no longer looked

human.

I mean, that's as far as Mel Gibson went, that even goes perhaps a little further.

And there's also a verse in Isaiah chapter 50 verse 6 that I'll call to your attention.

Isaiah 50 verse 6 says, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked

off the hair.

I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

Apparently this verse by Isaiah indicates prophetically that they ripped off his beard.

Now that's vivid to me for a number of reasons.

There was a time when I was in charge of a large company that had a very substantial

software department.

The head of that department happened to be a guy that had a very large full black beard.

That was just a style.

And one day, I came to work early and he was coming down the hall and I would not have

recognized him, but fortunately another employee said, hey Joe, and got into conversation, I

picked up, that's Joe.

I was so used to this big full beard, when it was gone, I wasn't prepared for the face

that you saw.

It was just a different shape than you think.

He just looked so different.

I would not have recognized him.

And he didn't have scar tissue or any of that sort of stuff.

What I'm beginning to suspect is the reason they didn't recognize him, well the reason

that Mary didn't recognize him, as she was used to seeing his beard.

There was scar tissue where the beard was.

The reason that these two disciples on the Emmaus road could go seven miles in a Bible

study with them and not realize who it was until they saw the nail prints, because they

were looking perhaps at disfigurement, scar tissue, whatever, in lieu of the features that

they were used to seeing during those years of training.

That evening in the upper room, when they're so startled, it took a while to re-handle

me and see, and so forth.

And I suspect that's what's lingering in John's summary when he says, none of us dared ask

him who are you, because we knew it was him.

I would, the other indications, his voice, the nail prints, overcame some other aspect

that was in the way.

One other thing I might mention, do you get this across perhaps?

I'm told of a woman who had a little daughter, a single mom, that had a very disfigured

face.

And she was so disfigured that the little, the girls in school, when the little girl

went to school, the kids in school made fun of her because of the disfigurement.

You know how cruel little kids can be sometimes.

She often came home crying.

When the girl, the little girl became old enough, the mother explained to her that when

she was a baby and they lived in an apartment, there was a fire, and she saved the baby's

life, but at the cost of sustaining very severe facial disfigurement.

So from that day on, the little girl was no longer ashamed of her mother, because every

time she looked into her face, she knew how much she was loved.

Now one of the things that I don't know the answer to, I don't know what it's going

to be like to view the face of Christ.

I do understand that he still bears the marks of his humiliation because they're the marks

of his glory, but I don't know what it'll be like to look into his face.

I don't know what we'll see.

I do know we'll know how much we're loved.

There's a passage in Zechariah 12, 10.

I think we touched on when I was in Zechariah, but I still got to get in.

There's a passage there.

It's often quoted, they shall look upon me whom they've pierced.

This is an allusion to Jesus' return, his second coming, and they, Israel, will look

upon them, up on me whom they've pierced.

When you look at that in the Hebrew, there are two letters that are not translated.

They shall look upon me, the aleph and the tau, whom they've pierced.

That's the Jewish equivalent of the alpha and the omega.

The aleph and the tau, the et, if it's linked with a makheph, it can be the indication of

a direct object of a verb.

It also has three other uses, about four different uses for that.

It also can be an indefinite pronoun in the second person masculine singular, which I

believe it is here.

It's called a hypocatastasis in the Greek.

It's putting underneath.

It's a hidden but declarative implied metaphor expressing a superlative degree of resemblance.

This also occurs in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven,

the earth, and so forth.

If I look at the book of Revelation, we have that climactic event occurring in Revelation

chapter 5, where John says, I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four

living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood the lamb as it had been slain.

Not a lamb as it's in your Bible, it's a d lamb actually, but the point is, who is

this the Lamb of God?

It seemed to indicate that he will bear the marks of his glorification.

I think we may spend an eternity trying to understand what it really cost him that we

might be there in fellowship with him.

Let's stand for a closing word of prayer.

Let's bow our hearts.

Father in heaven, we come before your throne, acknowledging our unworthiness, acknowledging

our sin, sins of commission, sins of omission, sins of presumption, sins of ingratitude,

more than we can number.

And yet, Father, we come before you throne with gratitude for what you've done.

We thank you for the extremes that you've gone to that we might live.

We thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.

We thank you, Father, for his enduring, the shame, the pain, and yes, the isolation from

you that he endured on our behalf.

We acknowledge, Father, that even an eternity may be inadequate to convey to us the price

he paid.

We recognize God that he didn't get a discount, that he paid for each of us and each of our

individual sins of each of us, that we might live.

Father, we just thank you.

When we do pray, Father, that through your Holy Spirit, you would make ever more clear

these extremes that you've gone to on our behalf, that you would open your word to

our hearts and lives, that we might more fully understand and apprehend our Savior, our Redeemer,

and the lengths he went to for us.

And we also thank you, Father, for the lengths you went to on our behalf in providing your

Son that we might live.

Father, we would ask that through your Holy Spirit, you would help each of us to grow,

embrace, knowledge, and understanding, help us, Father, as we live each day to recognize

that we have the opportunity, if I can use that word, to add to his suffering on that

cross as he stepped outside of time to pay for our eternity.

Oh, Father, help us to be more effective stewards of these treasures you've given us.

Help us, Father, to grow and grace in the knowledge of him and help us, Father, to be

more effective stewards of these things as we commit ourselves without any reservations

whatsoever into your hands, pleading the name of Yeshua, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Amen.