Mocked and Accused

So they said, are you the son of God then?

Notice their understanding that to be seated at the right hand of God, he has to have a special unique status, position, nature.

And he said to them, you say that I am.

Jesus is not being coy with this declaration. Too often, liberal Christians or liberal scholars, they want to say something silly like, oh, Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God. I don't know what book they're reading. The evidence of what Jesus is saying is so clear. It's clear to the original hearers. Notice how they respond.

What further testimony do we need We've heard it ourselves from his own lips.

They understood what he was saying. Do we? Now, they're going to understand he's making a bold claim. Yes, he is the Christ. Yes, he is the Christ who's the son of man. He is the son of man who has all authority. He has the very power of God. He is himself the son of God. They're going to turn and want to accuse him. because they will not believe. Friend, if you're here and you're not a believer, you need to understand this is who Jesus claimed to be and we're gonna see this is who Jesus proved to be. You must believe. A Christian, this is what we profess. Jesus is a Christ. He's a son of man, he's fully God. He has all authority. This morning, as we think about The beginning of Adam and Eve. There's three truths here that we need to memorize and meditate. First, Jesus is the Christ. The beginning question, are you the anointed one? Are you the one who has been promised? We call these scarlet threads. There's so many promises in the Old Testament, and they all come together in different lines and different themes, and then they're all united together in the one person, Jesus Christ. If you want evidence that amends a verdict, go back and read your Old Testament with all the different promises that come into clear fulfillment in the one person, Jesus Christ, over hundreds and even thousands of years. He's the anointed one. He's the help we need who has come from outside. He is not just any prophet. He's not just another priest. He's not a king who's gonna die and his reign end. No, he's a son of God, the Word of God, who proclaims God fully and perfectly. He's the true prophet, the absolute prophet. He's the priest who once for all satisfies the wrath of God. He's the priest who offers a sacrifice that takes away the sins from all who believe. He doesn't have to continue to make a sacrifice. He's the king who reigns forever. Because he's risen. All right, it's Christmas, but we can still say that. He is risen. There we go. Christ, he rules in all righteousness. He is the one who comes to help us. The second declaration. He's the son of God. Oh, I'm sorry. Second declaration. He's the son of man. He's the son of man. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm so excited about it. He's the Son of Man. Tied to the Son of Man is, he's gonna suffer. He has the authority to rule from the right hand of God, but he's also gonna be exalted and lifted up in suffering. We're comforted that he has ascended. He was lifted up to die on the cross, and now he at the right hand, he is the one who has died for us, he is the one who intercedes for us, he has all authority and power. As you may think about what his reign looks like, His reign is executed by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, whom he sends to dwell in our hearts, who he sends into this church and to other churches to empower the proclamation of what Christ has given to us. He has all authority. He is the Christ. He is the Son of Man. He is the victor over demons and our sin. And then the last one, Son of God. He is only able to be the one who can sit on the right hand because He already is the Son of God. He is the one who fulfills all those promises of prophet, priest, and king because He is the Son of God. We need to recognize this is His eternal name because He has always existed with the Father. This is His true identity. As much as we understand an identity of the Son, He is the only begotten Son. This is what qualifies Him. to make that once for all sacrifice. This is what qualifies him to come down from the bosom of the Father to make known God in a way that he had not been known before. If we were just to go back and look at the lyrics of Come All Ye Faithful.

Born the king of angels.

He isn't the king of angels because he was born. He has always been the king of the angels. He's the one who's reigned over and ruled the heavens, and He came and entered into this earth He created through the womb of a virgin by becoming flesh. He's the

Word of the Father now in flesh appearing.

The very power of God walked among us. The very power of God and the knowledge of God has been known to us. He alone can restore what we have broken. This is why we want to think about and meditate upon these songs. He is the Christ. He's the Son of Man. He's the Son of God. Now, considering He's the Son of God, He is one who is worthy of all worship. He is one worthy of all obedience, of all honor, of all thanks. We need to see how His people received Him. Our second point, Jesus accused. Jesus accused. They have gotten the confession they want, they're going to take that confession of Christ, and they're gonna twist it. A good lie has to have some kind of aspect of truth in it. That's what makes it very deceiving. Notice in verse one,

then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate.

Pilate is the governor there, responsible for the place of Rome, he's a Gentile.

And they began to accuse him. saying we found Jesus, this man, misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.

Now there's three parts to this lie. One, he's misleading Israel. He's leading the people over against how the chief priests are leading. And let's just step back for a minute. What's the job of the chief priest? To lead God's people to worship God. They're misleading God's people by pointing away from Christ, by wanting to destroy Christ. He's forbidding to give tribute to Caesar. Well, we've already seen in Luke 20, 19 that he clearly taught to give the tax to Caesar. So there it's an outright denial of what Jesus said, But that last part, he has himself declared himself to be a Christ. He's a king. He is wanting to set up a new kind of revolution. He's wanting to set up a new kind of nation that is a threat to Rome. Here are Israelites who are under the oppression of Rome, falsely accusing the true king. Pilate asked them,

are you the king of the Jews?

And Jesus says,

you have said so.

Then Pilate said, the chief priest in the crowds. Notice how important this is. The Roman ruler says,

I find no guilt in this man.

He's not guilty of the charges he brought before. The Israelites, they need to be able to bring the accusations to Rome because they don't have the authority for capital punishment. So they need to convince him, they need his stamp of approval to do what they want to do. But the Roman ruler seems more interested in justice and righteousness than God's people. And that's supposed to be confusing. They would not accept this as an answer. They urged him.

He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all of Judea, Galilee, even this place.

Now, if you want to see the longer version of what this conversation was with Pilate, you want to go to John 18. Luke has shorthanded this answer. And what really convinced Pilate that he's not guilty is we know from John 18 that when Jesus says, I am the Christ, as you've said, he also adds,

my kingdom is not of this world, or from this world.

Christians, I wanna ask that you would meditate upon what that means. That seems pretty pertinent today. that Christ would say his nation is not of this world or from this world. Christ is ruling with all power and authority in his church. There's a way in which there's a revival that God desires and has brought about in many places at many times. But we need to be able to meditate upon what Christ's words mean, that his kingdom is not of this world, in a way that Pilate recognized he's not setting up a different political state to rival Rome. Pilate declares, I find no guilt in this man, but seizes the opportunity. Notice what takes place. He says, well, he's caused trouble all over Galilee. Pilate, wanting to remove himself from it, says, oh, he's a Galilean. Well, let's send him over to Herod, because Herod's jurisdiction is Galilee. So he's trying to push him off. This is not Herod the Great, who we would read about in the Christmas story. This is his son, Herod Antipas. This is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist. This is the Herod who's already said he would like to see Jesus because he wants to see a sign. Notice verse eight, he was glad because he wanted to see some signs done to him. He would like to be entertained by Jesus, the miracle worker. But it ends with accusations again. Verse 10 from the chief priest. Herod himself and the soldiers, they treated him with contempt and mockery. Jesus' accusation continues, and Herod sends him back to Pilate, saying, I have nothing to do with this man other than he's gonna mock him. Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people again, verse 13, and said to them,

you brought me this man as one who is misleading the people, and after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to me. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.

Jump down to the next text, verse 22.

A third time he said to them, why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death.

Three times, Pilate, has declared him not guilty. Why? Why? Well, for one, it's true, he's not guilty. But two, he wants us to see that when we're going to read about in a few weeks Christ being crucified, the most shameful, painful death Rome had in their power, we're gonna be reminded, we need to remember, He's not dying because he deserved to die. He's not being treated with that kind of contempt because he did anything deserving of it. The scriptures already tell us the Roman ruler is testifying. He's done nothing to deserve this. It really should give us pause to see how much anger and a hatred towards God can stir us up into foolishness. As we consider this, this is injustice at its core. We live in a culture that's very passionate about justice. Justice and righteousness are good. God is a God of righteousness. God demands justice. I mean, look at what's happening here. This is the greatest injustice. The most sinless man treated as if he's done the worst sin. The one who has even been declared not guilty, he's gonna be sent to the most shameful, painful death. He's falsely accused, abused, condemned for sins he did not commit. If we go to the beginning of Jesus' ministry, John the Baptist baptized for repentance. those who would come out of the wilderness, he baptized them for their sins, and they would have to confess their sins, and the baptism he would give them was one of repentance, that they'll be washed of their sin as they're repenting of it. And then Jesus came out to be baptized, and John the Baptist rightfully kind of says, this isn't right. You should be baptizing me, his cousin. I don't know if John the Baptist remembers doing somersaults in the womb of his mom when Jesus walked in the door, or when Mary walked in the door. But he has a clear awareness of who Jesus is and says, no, I should be baptizing you. And Jesus' answer is, no, it must be done to fulfill all righteousness. He who was perfectly righteous, he did not get baptized for any repentance of his own. He was baptized to already identify with us in our sin. He has already come in the baptism, the beginning of His earthly ministry there, to identify, not as someone who needs repentance, but someone who is perfectly innocent and righteous, but has come to identify with us in our unrighteousness. Jesus suffers this great injustice. I want us to see four things here. God sees us when we are suffering injustice. He's not distant in our difficulty and pain. I've walked alongside a couple of members of this church who have been falsely accused at work or at school. It's paralyzing to be falsely accused, to have somebody rob you with a lie regarding your character. It's a unique evil. So what we need to be recognizing here is that God is the God of all justice and righteousness. He sees us. He knows us. Secondly, even more so, Jesus is able to sympathize with you in the midst of your injustice. Jesus is able to suffer. He has suffered the greatest injustice. He's able to sympathize with us in the midst of that injustice. That's what the author of Hebrews tells us. He came to be like us in every way. He came to suffer in every way so that he's able to actually comfort us in every way. God sees us. Jesus can sympathize with us. Thirdly, Jesus will demand an answer for everyone who gives this kind of false accusation. God's word is very clear. He is a God of perfect righteousness. He is the avenger. Now with that, he actually, in Romans, Paul tells us, we're not supposed to seek your own vindication. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying to protect the honor of others when a false accusation comes. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be seeking to care for the widow and the orphan in the midst of their vulnerability. There's something important to recognize that God is the one who will bring about a perfect judgment against all injustice. He is the perfect judge. Fourth, Jesus is a model. There are times when we are called to give an answer. There are times when Jesus says the Holy Spirit will give you an answer. Notice Jesus is committed to what God's will is. He remains silent. He himself is led to the slaughter. He knows that his name will be vindicated by the one true father who will not only resurrect him, but give him the name above all names. Jesus is a model in the midst of our suffering injustice to know how to conduct ourselves. Our third point, Jesus condemned. Notice Pilate is really working hard in verses 13 to 16 to be very clear he's done nothing wrong. There's nothing deserving of death. Again, the Romans aren't worried about punishing somebody unnecessarily. I'll punish him and release him. But deserving of death, and you're asking for the cross, he's done nothing anywhere near that. We've reserved that for the worst criminals. He says, I will therefore punish and release him. Verse 18, but they all cried. Well, they all, that's those in verse 13, the chief priests, the rulers, and the people. They cry out together,

away with this man, and release to us Barabbas.

Okay, who's that? He's a man who was already thrown into prison. He's committed insurrection, what they've accused Jesus of doing, and he's a murderer. He's someone who really is guilty. He's someone who has committed the kind of crimes that the cross is reserved for.

Pilate addressed them once more, desiring the release of Jesus, and they kept shouting. Crucify him. Crucify him.

Then he declares once more his guilt. Jesus is not guilty. But they were urgent and they insisted with loud cries. This is an incredible moment. Again, the people of Israel are more inclined to injustice than Rome. The people of the God of all justice and righteousness is more inclined to an unjust sentencing than the people of Rome. Back up one more time. This is the holy God. Their creator. He is the one who is the perfect judge who will demand from everyone a declaration, an answer for all the sin we've committed. And they're shouting out crucify. Again, this is the sin we all participate in. When we refuse to honor God as he deserves, when we insist that our self-love should rule our decisions rather than a love for God, this is how we treat God? We need to take into consideration who we really should be thinking about in this story. Are we committed to his glory because he's our chief then or like these folks, do we just want to have our own way sometimes and revolt? If you think about who you might want to be in the story, maybe it's Herod. Maybe you're not a believer, but you're someone interested. Who is this Jesus? Could he entertain me a little bit? Is there something he might give me for a little while that I would like to hold on to and so I'll receive him and maybe think about it. I think we probably could all think we're very much like Pilot. I like him, he's a good guy, but safe distance. Some might truly feel, yeah, we're like the chief priest. We mock him. We hate him. I want us to consider the character we really should relate to the most, though. It's Barabbas. who was guilty and should have been led to the cross to die, but instead was set free so Christ could die on the cross. If you want to meditate on who you should relate to the most, it's the one who has committed great sin and insurrection against God. You've committed adultery with your lust. You've committed murder with your hate. If there's someone we're going to think, this is who I would relate to, it's Barabbas, who's a wicked sinner. who gets a pardon, who gets a pardon so that Christ would go and die in his place. Friends, this is the gospel we're celebrating at Christmas. Jesus is the Son of Man with all authority. Jesus is the son of God who took on flesh. He is perfectly guiltless. Pilate doesn't even know what truth he's saying when he says he's guiltless. He is completely sinless. And yet is treated and submits himself to and goes forward to be treated as if he has committed every sin. Not just on the cross, but as a man, he suffered the wrath of God. for all our sins. We are guilty. We deserve that wrath. We deserve this death. But like Barabbas, we can be set free. Barabbas is set free by the Declaration of Pilate because of the people's sin. Here's the invitation. The only way you can be set free from the death you deserve The wrath you've earned is to believe in Jesus who died on the cross for your sin. That's it. That means you're giving up any idea that you have a control over your life, that you can make yourself good enough before God. It means you're giving up the idea that you have some kind of continued reign that is sinful, that you're going to hold onto over against God. You're recognizing, I've made a mess of my life. My own decisions continue to corrupt, destroy. But God, he sent his own son to become like me, to live the righteous life I've refused to live, to die on the cross for my sin, to rise again to give me new life. You can be forgiven, freed, found, by believing in Jesus Christ, who died in your place. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you did not leave us alone in our sin. We thank you for the clarity with which you've given us these words, your word, almighty God, so that we can see Christ who was guiltless. We can see your son who was treated with such disdain. We can see your own sin. We can see that he came to die in our place. Father, help us, especially in this season of busyness, chaos, lots of glitter, lights, things that are attractive and fun, Lord. I pray we would know how to slow ourselves down to meditate, to receive and to witness to this great gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you that we have good news this morning to believe and to proclaim. Help us, Lord, to meditate that that child born, was born the Savior, was born to die for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let us sing our song of response, stricken, smitten, and afflicted. Please stand and sing.