Hello friends, and welcome to Sabbath School Study Hour. A very special welcome to those joining us across the country and around the world for this in-depth Bible study. I would also like to welcome our members here at the Granite Bay church. Thank you for coming out this beautiful Sabbath morning and studying the Bible together. For the past few weeks we have been studying through our lesson quarterly dealing with the Gospel of Luke.
Today we find ourselves in the final lesson on the series - lesson #13 - entitled crucified and risen. We have a free offer that goes along with the program today, it's an Amazing Facts study guide. The study guide is entitled the ultimate deliverance and we'd like to make this available to those of you who are watching. If you would like to receive this free study guide, just give us a call - the number is 866-788-3966 - that is -study-more - and you can ask for offer #105. That number one more time is 866-788-3966.
The study guide is called the ultimate deliverance. If you do not have a copy of the lesson and you'd like to follow along with us, you can download today's lesson at the amazing facts website - just amazingfacts.org - click on the link that says Sabbath School Study Hour and you can download today's lesson. Well, before we get to our study this morning, we would like to invite our song leaders to come out and join me and we're going to begin with praise for God's goodness to us. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Ross.
As we always do before each of our studies together, we like to sing together. So I invite you to turn in your hymnals on page 166 - hymn #166 - Christ the Lord is risen today. We are going to sing the first, the second, and the last verses. Christ the Lord is ris'n today, alleluia! Sons of men and angels say, alleluia! Raise your joys and triumphs high, alleluia! Sing, ye heav'ns, and earth, reply, alleluia! Lives again our glorious king, alleluia! Where, o death, is now thy sting? Alleluia! Once he died our souls to save, alleluia! Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia! Soar we then where Christ has led alleluia! Following our exalted head, alleluia! Made like him, like him we rise, alleluia! Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, alleluia! You know that is the culmination of the redemption story that Christ died and rose again and that way, since he rose again and he gives us life and he wants to impart that life to us right now, we can experience him even before he gets here. What a privilege that is.
Let's turn to hymn #171 - thine is the glory - we'll sing all three verses - hymn #171. Thine is the glory, risen, conquering son; endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won! Angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away, kept the folded grave-clothes where thy body lay. Thine is the glory, risen, conquering son; endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won! Lo, Jesus meets thee, risen from the tomb! Lovingly he greets thee, scatters fear and gloom; let his church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing, for the Lord now liveth; death hath lost its sting! Thine is the glory, risen, conquering son; endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won! No more we doubt thee, glorious prince of life; life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife; make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love; bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above. Thine is the glory, risen, conquering son; endless is the victory thou o'er death hast won! At this time Pastor Ross will have prayer and we will get into our study. I invite you just to bow your heads as we begin with prayer.
Dear Father, we thank you, once again, that we have this opportunity to gather together and study the Bible. And today, in particular, we're talking about the resurrection of our Lord - just a wonderful theme. What hope we find in the Scriptures for a promised resurrection when Jesus comes the second time. Father, we ask for the Holy Spirit now to guide our hearts and our minds, for we ask this in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Our lesson this morning will be brought to us by Pastor Doug. Good morning everybody. I want to welcome, again, those who are a part of the extended family studying the Sabbath school lesson with us from around the world. In a moment we'll get to our lesson, but you know, today's lesson - #13 - is the last in this quarter's study and I'm excited to let you know that for the next 13 weeks, starting next week - at least in our class here - we're going to be studying biblical missionaries. And for those who are watching, what we do here at the granite bay church is we study the lesson three weeks in advance so those who are streaming it right now, you know that you're watching a lesson that really will not be studied by the worldwide church for another three weeks.
This gives us time to edit. We also need to closed caption the lesson so that it is prepared for people who are reading the subtitles/closed captioning on the screen, and get it out to the various networks. And so, that's part of the reason for that. But I'm looking forward to studying biblical missionaries. Alright, with that we're going to get into our lesson.
I've enjoyed the study on Luke and today's lesson #13 - he is risen - and we have a memory verse. I always enjoy if you can say it with me - a short one - it's from Luke 24:7 - Luke 24:7 - are you ready? "The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again." Now that was foretold by Jesus many times and so when it happened, it was amazing that the disciples had forgotten because, in fact, the enemies of Jesus remembered that and they went to pilate. So to begin our first section, for Sunday's lesson, we're going to talk a little bit about Gethsemane. Gethsemane. Now we're going to have some of you maybe help us read a few verses.
I'll get someone set up real quick. Who has John 18:1 and 2? Okay? We'll get to you in just a moment. And I'd like to start by reading from Luke 22 - Luke 22, verses to 46, "coming out, he went to the mount of olives, as he was accustomed, and his disciples also followed him." - This was coming from the last supper - "when he came to the place, he said to them, 'pray that you may not enter into temptation.' And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, 'father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done.' Then an angel appeared to him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
When he rose up from prayer, and had come to his disciples, he found them sleeping from sorrow. Then he said to them, 'why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.'" Now you notice he says that twice? You can see in verse 40, "pray that you may not enter into temptation." And then he says again, in verse 46, "why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation." So one thing we learned from this study on Gethsemane - what is something practical we can do to avoid the typical temptations that come? Pray. And that might mean praying - getting up a little earlier when you may be sleepy and dedicating time to pray. It really does give you spiritual fortitude. And I can't explain it physiologically, but the Lord can somehow compensate and that extra 15 minutes of sleep that you may have lost, you can get new energy through the Spirit of God, that will sustain you.
You remember when Jesus was witnessing to the woman at the well, he hadn't eaten all day. He had low blood sugar and the disciples said, 'oh Lord, quick - eat!' He said, 'I've got food you don't even know about.' He had been refreshed. He had been invigorated by being able to share his faith. Prayer can do that for you as well. And Jesus was just as tired as they were, if not more tired, but he knew how important it was to pray that he was completely surrendered and connected to God.
What happened there in the garden of Gethsemane really represents the supreme battle that anybody could fight. Now, before we say more about that, I forgot, we have a verse we want to read from John. So why don't we do that next? John - what is it? 18:1 And 2? Go ahead. "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. And Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place; for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
" Alright, John gives us a lot of other insights in addition to Luke. For one thing, they came from the last supper in Jerusalem. They went down toward the mount of olives. They had to go across the kidron. Now that's significant for people that understand what was happening that week.
They were having the passover. Where did the blood go from the temple from those? Josephus tells us that during the passover week there could be as many as 250,000 lambs sacrificed in the temple. There was a virtual river of blood that was flowing from the temple. Now if any of you - have any of you been to Israel? Did you go to the dome of the rock? You know how there's that big hole inside the dome of the rock? That is a cave - it is a pipe that goes from where the altar of where the temple used to be, down to the kidron valley. They used to run the blood away from the temple into the kidron - it would eventually wash down to the dead sea from there.
Meaning that, during that passover week, when Jesus went across the kidron - during the passover, crossing the kidron meant 'crossing the blood.' And that was a real passover for Jesus. And just something like when the children of Israel went through the red sea, Jesus went across the kidron there. And it also tells us that it was a place Judas was aware of. It wasn't the first time he had gone there. He often went there to be alone.
He could have, maybe stayed in one of many homes. Someone would have donated an upper room for him to stay. Jesus liked just being out in nature sleeping under the trees sometimes. It was spring. And so he went there to pray.
Now the name for Gethsemane, it means 'oil press' or 'place where grapes - olives - are crushed' and so Jesus actually went through a crushing there. It was a terrible temptation - to the point where he actually perspired blood. And I could be mistaken, but I think Luke is the only one who mentions that and, being a physician, that would be appropriate. But I don't remember the name of the condition - there is a medical term for a condition - where a person is experiencing so much internal stress that their capillaries can actually break and they can appear to perspire blood. And so Jesus, the stress that he went through there in the garden, is incomprehensible to you and me.
And so there he is, in that garden press, and he's being crushed - something else that's interesting, one of the titles for Jesus is not only 'The Son of man' - he was called The Son of who? The Son of God - son of David. Son of David. Do you know that there's a story where David left with a few followers from Jerusalem. He crossed and he went up the mount of olives weeping because there was an attempt being made to destroy him by one of his own. By his own son.
Here, now, Jesus, with a few followers, leaves Jerusalem, crosses the kidron, because one of his creations - lucifer - is trying to destroy him. And so Jesus is actually echoing an experience that David had had that was very similar. So he goes to this battle - God sends an angel to comfort him. I think Luke, also, is the only one who mentions this angel. Was there an angel who came to help Elijah in the wilderness? Amen.
Were there angels that came to Jesus and ministered to him after his 40 days? And here you have an angel in the garden. I think the angel came after he prayed the third time and said, 'not my will but thy will be done.' In answer to our prayers when we are struggling with temptation, does God send angelic help for us. That's good to know. But was it one prayer or three prayers? What is the hardest prayer that anybody can pray? It's the prayer that Jesus prayed. 'Not my will, thine be done.
' Not my will, thine be done. Isn't that part of the Lord's prayer? 'Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven'? Our big battle is who - whose will are we going to surrender to? His will or our will? Now, what was Jesus so concerned about in the garden? What was the greatest burden that he bore? Was it the anticipation of the torture of the crucifixion? Or was it, perhaps, his dread of being, for the first time in eternity, separated from The Father? Was it the dread that he faced the second death for you and me, which is eternal separation from God? And he who had never experienced sin was now going to feel, weighing upon his soul, the sins of the world. The garden of Gethsemane experience was the turning point. Many times in Jesus' life and ministry he said, 'now is not my hour.' You remember when his mother said, 'let's turn the water into wine'? He said, 'my hour is not yet come.' And he told the disciples on several occasions - his brother said, 'you've got to go up to the feast.' He said, 'my hour is not yet come.' Several times he said this is not my hour yet. When he got to the garden of Gethsemane, three times he said, 'now is the hour.
' When did the sufferings of Jesus begin? One the cross or Thursday night? Thursday. This is important because you'll read in Matthew chapter and, oh, I think it's verse 38, Jesus said, 'it's an evil and adulterous generation that seeks after a sign and no sign will be given but the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so The Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.' And a lot of people have mistakenly thought 'heart of the earth' meant the tomb. 'Heart of the earth' meant the clutches of the world. The word 'heart' there in Greek is the word cardia - where we get, like, cardiac arrest.
And the word for 'earth' there means 'the world.' Jesus surrendered on Thursday night. He began to bear the penalty for the sins of the world. Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night - three days, three nights - he was in the clutches of the enemy paying for the sins of the world. Just as Jonah was captured by the whale, Christ was in the hands of the devil. When Judas came with that mob, Christ began suffering for our sins.
Does that make sense? It says, 'heart of' - 'in the heart of the earth.' When you pray 'thy will be done in earth' - does 'in earth' mean the tomb? No, it means in the world. And so that - people have often assumed that meant that he would be - this was talking about the third day he'd rise - three days in the tomb. It's not saying that. By the way, in Luke, when he talks about the sign of Jonah, he does not even mention the three days and the three nights. And so he says, 'as Jonah was assigned to the ninevites, so The Son of man will be to this generation.
' How is there a similarity between Jesus and Jonah and the ninevites? Still talking about the garden of Gethsemane - Jonah went to nineveh - 'nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey' - I'm quoting - 'he entered the city a day' - that means half of a day - the twelve hours of the daylight time - so that's three and a half - 'and then he preached in forty days it would be destroyed.' That's what Jonah did. Jesus said, 'a greater than Jonah is here.' Jesus ministered not three and a half days, but three and a half years and he said, 'this generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled' - namely not one stone being left upon another in the temple. Exactly 40 years after Jesus made that prophecy, Jerusalem was destroyed. Jesus was a type of Jonah. The people of nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah.
God's people did not repent at the preaching of Jesus and so the judgment did come - not 40 days later, 40 years later. You see what I'm saying? He said, 'that's how Jonah would be a sign to this gen - and, of course, I mean, when you are in a fish for three days and you come out, it's a resurrection. And so Jesus and Jonah have a type of resurrection - that's another - did Jonah sleep in a boat? Did Jesus sleep in a boat during a storm? Both of them? And so there's many, many parallels there. Alright, so that was the hour of the suffering. And then, after he prayed the third time he went back to the disciples.
What three disciples did he initially take with him? Peter, James, and John. So you know, when Jesus gets to the garden - he gets into the garden, he's got eleven apostles because Judas left at the last supper. People thought he was taking care of paying some bills or something. They didn't know where he went. Nobody said - Jesus just said, 'do what thou doest quickly.
' He gets to the garden with the eleven and then he says to Peter, James, and John, 'come with me.' He goes a little deeper into the garden and he says, 'pray with me.' So they knelt down and started praying with him, and he went a little further away from them. So you've got Jesus off here and then Peter, James, and John, and then the other - what's left after you take three from eleven? Eight. Eight, thank you very much. And then you've got the other eight. Have you noticed how often at critical times in Christian history, when the people of God should be praying, instead they are doing what? Sleeping.
When Jesus talks about the second coming and he shares the parable of the ten virgins - you've got five wise, five foolish - that's 50/50 - what percent were sleeping? Hundred percent. A hundred percent. And that would put you and I in what category? The sleepy category. When Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on the mount of transfiguration and Moses and Elijah appear, and he's praying that they'll have a Revelation to strengthen their faith, while he's praying, what do they do? They go to sleep. It says in Luke, 'they were heavy with sleep.
' So often, at the crucial times when God's people should be praying, they're sleeping. Could it be that in the last days, that'll be a problem? Doesn't Jesus say, in Mark chapter 13, speaking of the second coming, 'watch, watch, watch, watch, lest he come and find you sleeping'? So it doesn't mean you're not allowed to go to sleep, what it means is, spiritually, we should be awake to what's happening and be alert - be sober - be vigilant the Bible says. Okay, Judas. Now Judas is not a bad name, but I don't know anyone who names their children Judas. Judas' name is a derivative of one of the signs - tribes of Israel, judah.
And there were several people named Judas - most of them, in the Bible, were good - in the new testament. It's - it comes from - it's where you also get the word 'jew' - there could be the female version is judith and he was - it's interesting - didn't Jesus choose Judas as an apostle? Christ said, 'have I not chosen you twelve and one is a devil?' Why would Jesus choose a devil to be an apostle? Evidently, he's the only non-galilean, and as he began to see the power of Christ, he was pressing close to the other disciples and they kept recommending him to Jesus and so, to go along with their recommendation - they said, 'oh, he's so bright. He's got so much talent. He's a good accountant. He can be trusted.
' Jesus - at their recommendation - he included Judas as one of the twelve. It was the last one the other disciples would have expected. All the Gospels, interestingly enough, when they list the apostles, who do you think is at the end of the list? Judas. Now there was another one who is called 'Judas' - or at least some of the time his name is listed as Judas. Some of the apostles have two names, like Simon Peter - cephas - Peter's usually at the top of the list, Judas is at the bottom of the list.
He was known as also a miser and a thief. Probably - if you read the book Desire of Ages, there the author says - in Matthew 8:19, "a certain scribe came and said to him, 'teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.'" - She says that was Judas - "and Jesus said to him, 'foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but The Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'" - So he was saying, 'look, if you're following me for some kind of earthly advantage or treasure, just know, foxes and birds have more than I have on earth. If you're following me because you think you're going to have houses and lands and wealth and fame, you're following me for the wrong reasons.' So Jesus told him right up front. But it says, 'a certain scribe' - so Judas may have been a scribe. John 6:64 - and, no, somebody here has got John 6, verse 70 - who has that? We'll get to you in just a moment.
In John 6, verse 64, Christ said, "'but there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray him." I need to ask you a question. Did God look down from heaven, during new testament times, and say, 'look, I need somebody to be the fall guy - that would be the bad guy - the heavy - that will betray my son so that the prophecies could be fulfilled and so, you know, I hate to do this to anybody but, well, I'm going to pick this guy down there named 'Judas' and I'm going to make him the bad guy'? So since it was foretold that someone would betray him and it would be a close friend, did Judas have a choice? Yes. Yes. It wasn't that God made Judas the bad guy so that he couldn't repent. God knew what he would do - it was entirely as much Judas' choice to betray Jesus as it was Peter's choice to deny him but later repent.
All of the apostles had a free will. God is simply saying, 'I know in advance' what was going to happen. And you can even hear Jesus pleading with Judas. He's telling him, at the last supper, 'I know one of you is going to betray me.' It's almost like the Lord is hoping that Jesus will thwart - Judas will thwart the prophecy and say, 'no, I repent.' He wanted to when Jesus was washing his feet. But he hardened his heart.
Or maybe he kept waiting. Or maybe he thought, 'you know, Jesus is so meek, I've got to help him - I've got to help him along - pronounce himself the son of David and if I turn him into the Romans, then he'll have to use his miraculous power to deliver himself. Then everybody will know and it will trigger things - this revolution we've been waiting for.' He probably thought, 'and then I will be seen as the wise one who took initiative.' He was probably telling them all that, but the bottom line was he could have betrayed him for free. He asked for money. And then John goes on to tell us he was a thief and he took what was in their meager offering bag that the disciples kept.
And so there was covetousness in Judas' heart. Oh how sad. Alright, read for us John 6, verse 70. Jesus answered them, 'did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Read the next verse too. He spake of Judas iscariot, The Son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve.
" Now one thing encourages me about the story of Judas. People often say, 'I don't want to go to that church because there's hypocrites there.' Or 'there is somebody in that church and they were so unkind to me. If that's what Christians are like' - and I remind people if Jesus was alive in the world today, would you follow him? If he walked the earth today, would you want to follow him? Would you be part of his group if he was right there. If he was the preacher in the church, would you come? Did Jesus have a Judas way back then? And so, should it surprise us if there are still Judases in the church today? Don't be discouraged by that. God has not changed and the devil hasn't changed and there are going to be counterfeits.
The devil's going to have his representatives and let's just make sure it's not us, amen? That all of us are faithful. You know, think about the advantages and opportunities that Judas had. You can read in Desire of Ages p. 716, "He (Christ) endowed Judas with power to heal the sick, to cast out devils, but Judas did not come to the point of surrendering himself fully to Christ. He did not give up his worldly ambition and love of money.
Just think about that for a minute. You know the Bible says he sent out the twelve. He gave them power over diseases. They cast out devils. They worked miracles - performed wonders.
Was Judas completely converted at that point? No. Can God give his power to people that are following him but may not be completely converted? Yes. Did he give that same power to Peter? And after Peter was out preaching and teaching and casting out devils and he came back, Jesus said to Peter, 'Peter, satan has desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you that your faith does not fail and when you are converted, strengthen the brethren." Even Peter was not thoroughly converted. That's why he denied Jesus. So, don't wait until you think, 'I'm not going to work for the Lord until I'm thoroughly converted.
Did you ever consider that God could even use you when you're not totally converted to work miracles? - And do not think, because God is working miracles through somebody, that means that they're infallible, right? I sometimes meet people that they went to a - some dubious healing crusade or something and they say, 'you know, God really worked a miracle for me and I experienced healing.' Or 'I experienced conversion and gave my heart to the Lord.' And then later you find out that pastor that led out in that series, he ends up in the headlines of the national enquirer. Now it doesn't mean anything. People who had been healed by Judas read about his name in the papers later. God heals people and he often says, 'your faith has made you whole.' He doesn't say, 'the televangelist's faith made you whole.' Isn't that right? It's your faith in Christ. So we learn a lot from the story of Judas.
It says - and you can also read in page 716 - same page in Desire of Ages - "he had fostered the evil spirit of avarice until it had become the ruling motive of his life. The love of mammon over-balanced his love for Christ." - You can't serve two masters. And how much did he sell Jesus for? Thirty pieces of silver. It's interesting - Exodus 21, verse 32, "if the ox" - if you've got an ox and it gored someone else's male or female servant, you were to give their master 30 shekels of silver - it was the price of a slave Christ was sold for. The Bible says, in Luke 22 - we're studying Luke - "satan entered Judas, surnamed iscariot.
" And, by the way, the name 'iscariot' - there was a place called 'kerioth' and it meant 'a man of kerioth' and it was just telling about the place where he was from. Alright, let's move on here and why don't we get down - either for him or against him - this is under the section that there's only two categories - for him or against him - somebody's going to read for me, Luke 11:23 - over here - in just a moment. Mark 9:38 through 40, "now John answered him, saying, 'teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.' But Jesus said, 'do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me. For he who is not against us is on our side.'" You know, when I was first studying and trying to figure out - after I accepted the Lord and became a Christian - I wanted to figure out 'where do I go to church?' You know, I was very open minded and somewhat naïve at the time and I thought as long as a person says they're a Christian, it really doesn't matter. And so, I worshiped with many different Christians in many different churches and I believe that God has people that love him in many persuasions.
I was kind of discouraged, though, because I'd go to one church and they'd say - one denomination would tell me, 'unless you're a member of our church, all the others are lost.' And I'd go to another church and they'd say, 'unless you speak in tongues, you don't have the Holy Spirit.' I'd go to another church - I'd study with them and they'd say, 'unless you're one of us, you're not one of the 144,000 and you're doomed. And one of the things that actually attracted me to the Seventh-day Adventists was the teaching that we believe the greatest part of Christ's true followers are actually not in our church. They may not understand the Bible as perfectly as they could, but does God also work through Christians of other faiths? Of course he does. And so Jesus said, 'well, if he's teaching and preaching and casting out devils in my name,' - James and John said, 'we told him to stop it. We have not given him license to do that.
' - And Jesus said, 'don't forbid them.' You know, I - well, I don't have time to tell you that story, but I have met people before that believe exactly what we believe and they've never even heard of Seventh-day Adventists. I picked up a hitchhiker one time and started studying with him as I was going down the road. He was a Christian - had a bag full of Bibles and books. He started telling me, 'you know the seventh day is the Sabbath?' I said, 'oh, really?' I had just studied that and learned it for myself, but I was still going to church on Sunday. And then he said - he was talking to me about that - 'are you aware there is a lake of fire but it doesn't burn forever and ever and ever?' I said, 'you're a seventh-day adventist.
' He said, 'a what?' Never heard of them before. I said, 'where'd you get all this?' He said, 'it's in the Bible.' And God has people out there that he's leading and we've got to be careful not to say that 'if you're not with me, you're against me.' But there are those who try to play the middle. Now Jesus - go ahead, let's read that verse in Luke 11:23. Are we ready? "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters." That's pretty clear, isn't it? If we're not with Christ we're against him. That doesn't mean that unless you're all part of the same denomination, you're automatically the enemies of Jesus, but there really are, how many roads? Two - true and false - right? You've got broad is the way that leads where? To destruction.
That's a road - to destruction. You know, you can put it this way: there's one road and two directions. You've got up to the city of God and you've got down to the other direction. But there's really two roads the Bible speaks of, the road of life and the road of death. And there's no switzerland in the battle between good and evil.
You know, switzerland managed to skirt world war I and skirt world war ii by being neutral. There is no neutral country in this war between good and evil. If we're not with Jesus, we're against. Have you noticed that during the trial of Christ - and you might turn in your Bible to - you can go to Luke chapter 23, for instance - pilate and herod - they kept kind of trying to offload the responsibility of actually condemning Jesus. Herod was - he was very guilty about what he had done to John - but now I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's look in Luke chapter 23, "then the whole multitude of them arose and led him to pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, 'we found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to caesar, saying'" - did he say that? That's a lie. Jesus didn't say that. He said, 'give to caesar what is caesar's.' - "'Forbidding to pay taxes to caesar saying that he himself is Christ, a king.' Then pilate asked him, saying, 'are you the King of the jews?' He answered him and said, 'it is as you say.' So pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, 'I find no fault in this man.'" How could pilate hear Jesus say, 'it is as you say, I'm the King of the jews' and turn right around from that and say, 'I don't find any fault in him.' He could tell by the context of what Jesus said and by the look of Jesus, he was speaking entirely in spiritual terms and he was no threat. Everything about Jesus said he was a man of peace.
Pilate had seen many Jewish rebels before. He had seen the violent zealots. He looked at Jesus and he said, 'this is a rabbi who's speaking in ethereal terms. I don't - he's not a risk. What are you talking about?' Everything about Christ talked about meekness.
His whole countenance exuded that. He said, 'I find no fault in the man.' - "But they were the more fierce, saying, 'he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place.'" And pilate said, 'Galilee?' - "When pilate heard about Galilee, he asked if the man were a galilean" - as soon as he knew that he had originally come from nazareth, which was in Galilee, - "...he belonged to herod's jurisdiction" - he tried to offload the responsibility and he sent him to herod, who happened to be in Jerusalem for the feast that weekend. I'm paraphrasing. "Now when herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him, and he hoped he would see some miracle done by him." - So now herod's so excited - 'oh, I've heard so much about him. I wanted to see him for myself.
I've heard he's raised the dead. I've heard he's opened the eyes of the blind. He's healed lepers and here I get a private audience. I'll bring in some sick people and say, 'do a miracle.' And so they went out in the streets and they gathered together some lame and sick and blind and they brought him in and said, 'here Jesus, do a miracle.' Now Jesus has been terribly beaten through the night and the whole thing is just a - it's an insulting sham - and Jesus, he spoke to pilate but he did not open his mouth and utter a single phrase to herod. Why? Who was the greatest prophet that ever lived? According to Jesus, John the baptist.
Who got to hear John the baptist preach whenever he wanted? Herod actually had him imprisoned and he said he would often listen to him. He would have him brought in and preach to him - put him back in jail. He not only rejected the preaching of God's best messenger, Christ said, 'if you don't believe Moses and the prophets, then you won't believe though one rise from the dead.' And herod had John the baptist executed at the whim of his step-daughter after dancing - had the greatest prophet killed - and he knew it was the wrong thing to do. And so now - as far as God was concerned, he had committed the unpardonable sin and he completely ignored him. Isn't that a frightening thought? That we could so reject the messengers of God? See, here, he could have talked to Jesus personally, but he had rejected the messenger of Christ.
Christ said, 'if you reject them, you reject me.' That's a really sobering thought. And because herod had so completely rejected the messenger that God had appointed, he said, 'I have nothing to say to you.' And so he said, 'well, if you're not going to talk to me' - he cut him lose for the soldiers who then proceeded to mock Jesus. And it says here that "he questioned him with many words, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes stood and vehemently accused him. Then herod, with his men of war, treated him with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe," - he had one of the glorious purple robes brought out, they stripped him of his robe, they put a reed in his hand, they put a crown of thorns on his head, they beat him with the reed on the head, they bowed and mocked him, they spit at him and, it says, he "sent him back to pilate.
That very day pilate and herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other." Isn't it interesting that the sadducees and the pharisees were adversaries but they managed to come together when it came time to crucify Jesus? They were the church. Pilate and herod were the state. They were enemies but, over persecuting Jesus, they came together. In the last days, is there going to be a confederacy of church and state that will come together - 'you mean there could actually be something the democrats and republicans would agree on?' - That church and state could come together? That protestants and catholics could come together for one common cause? To persecute those that have the seal of God. What happened to Jesus? He said, 'if they've done this me, they'll do this to you.
' History is going to repeat itself, friends, I don't think it's very far distant before we will see those words fulfilled. Pilate and he - "then pilate, when he" - verse 13 - I'm in Luke 23:13 - "then pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, 'you have brought this man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him; no neither did herod,'" - now notice: they're saying, 'we find no fault - I or herod - "'for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him.'" - If he's done nothing wrong, why are you whipping him? "'I'll therefore'" - he's trying to compromise. You see how dangerous that is? "'I'll chastise him and release him' (for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast.
)" He'd pick a prisoner and they had a lottery or whatever, and he'd release a prisoner and they all cried out at once saying, 'away with this man!' Don't even give us him for free. "Away with this man and give us barabbas, who has been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder." Now you know what the word 'barabbas' means? Bar means 'son of'; abba means 'father or papa.' They said barabbas was The Son of The Father. Jesus was The Son of The Father. He's basically saying, 'give us the counterfeit son of The Father in place of the real son of The Father. We want our man-made Messiah.
You see, barabbas, one reason he murdered is because he thought he was going to use his own strength to overthrow the Romans and so he was scheduled to be crucified with two of his associates that day. And so, here barabbas is the ringleader of these zealots that were fighting the Romans - last person in the world the Romans wanted to release - and barabbas was released and Jesus died on his cross. By the way, Jesus died on our cross. We are like barabbas in that sense. So I need to hasten along.
I've got a lot still left to cover and we haven't even gotten to the resurrection yet. So moving along, they're - he said, 'you're either with me or against me.' They tried to find the middle road, but in trying to find a compromise, they ended up being against Jesus, didn't they? Pilate said, 'no, there's got to be a middle road.' And he ended up handing him over at the end. Now something else happens. He has Jesus scourged, he's delivered to be crucified, washes his hands - pilate - as though it's not going to taint him, but Christ falls on the way to the cross. They place his cross on Simon's shoulders, they bring him to the place of crucifixion, he prays for the forgiveness of those who are executing him, the other two thieves are placed on the right and the left, and then you read in Luke's story, that you do not find in Matthew, Mark, or John, "then one of the criminals" - this is Luke 23:39 - "then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him, saying, 'if you are the Christ, save yourself and us.
' But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, 'do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.'" - Alright, I want to pause. Why does it say, in other Gospels, that he was crucified between two thieves and the mob mocked him as did both of the thieves? He was not only reviled by the mob but it says, both of the thieves, initially, were mocking him? How long was Jesus on the cross alive? Six hours. Jesus was on the cross for about seven hours. Isn't that interesting? Six hours alive and one hour resting - isn't that interesting? From the time he died until Joseph took the body down they estimate it was about an hour based upon it was before the Sabbath, the Bible says. And - but somewhere during the day, as the events unfolded, as the thief on the right hand of Jesus, hears Christ pray, 'eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani' - 'my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Which is a quote from psalm 22 - and you read later in that psalm and it says, 'they pierced my hands and my feet.
The dogs have surrounded me. They cast lots for my clothing.' This thief sees - he hears Jesus say, 'my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' He looks above the head of Christ with his sweat, blood, and his eyes and he sees a sign that says, 'this is the King of the jews' in three languages. He starts to remember that psalm from childhood - they pierced my hands and my feet. They mock me. They surround me.
' He sees the roman soldiers gambling at the foot of the cross for Christ's clothing. 'They cast lots for my vesture.' This is all in psalm 22. That's why Jesus quoted that psalm, not because Christ believed he had been forsaken by The Father, Jesus knew exactly what was coming. The last words of Christ were 'into your hands I commend my spirit.' He was quoting from the psalm rhetorically, saying 'why had The Father forsaken him?' The answer is for us. And the Holy Spirit illuminated that thief's mind and his - his attitude changed.
Before Christ died he turned to Jesus and he said - and this is also in that same passage there, Luke 23, verse 42, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Do you realize how significant that is? That's a very short statement. It's a short prayer. First of all, he's calling Jesus Lord. Was anyone else around the cross calling Jesus Lord that day? Did he look like a Lord? He's also calling him a king. I mean, doesn't a king have a kingdom? Right? He says, 'remember me when you come into your kingdom.
' Your kingdom - boy, that took a lot of faith. The statement of the thief probably quieted the whole crowd. He said, 'you are the Lord and you are the King.' And Jesus, as much as he was suffering - Christ had his hands nailed to the cross, but the devil could not keep the Savior from saving. The reason Jesus came into the world was to seek and save the lost and the only gleam of joy that came to Christ in those closing moments on the cross was the joy of being able to save one last person, even though he was dying himself. And he made a promise to him.
He said, 'verily I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.' And I know that a lot of people have argued about where do you put the comma - there was no punctuation in the original. Some people say Jesus was saying, 'verily I say unto you, today you're going to be with me in paradise.' But there's a problem with that. You get to John 21 - Jesus says to mary, 'do not cling to me' - that's Sunday morning - 'I have not yet ascended to my father.' So Jesus had not yet gone to The Father Sunday morning; how could he be with the thief in paradise that day? The other thing is a day begins and ends at sundown and the thief - they broke his legs to accelerate his death because they wanted him to die before sundown. And so, what Christ was really saying was, 'verily I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.' 'Today, even though I don't look like a king, I don't look like a Lord, I don't look like I can save anybody - I'm going to make you a promise today, when everyone else, including my own apostles, are standing afar off, today I'm going to make you a promise: you will be with me in paradise.' You see what he's saying? And he's going to keep that promise. Isn't that wonderful, that the Lord - was that thief - did he get down from the cross and go get baptized? Did he get down from the cross and open an orphanage and a hospital and do a lot of good works? Was he saved by faith or by works? By faith.
A hundred percent by faith. Now, if you had been able to get him off the cross alive, would his life have been different? Yes. But that reminds us that we are saved by the promise of God. He repented of his sins - publicly - he said, 'we are getting what we deserve.' He confessed Jesus publicly - confessed his sins - he asked publicly and he was forgiven. Those are the criteria for salvation.
He followed all of that. Now - he is risen - this is the title for the lesson - I finally got there. Luke 23 - they took his body down, they wrapped it in linen and placed it in the tomb - and this is Luke 23:53, "that day was the preparation," - what day of the week is that? What we call Friday - "and the Sabbath drew near." What is the day that follows Friday? Saturday, right? What we call Saturday, which would be the Sabbath. The Sabbath is following the preparation day. "And the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid.
Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Jewish Sabbath according to the Jewish commandment." He didn't say that. He states it as a self-evident truth that was in existence in his day that was still practiced. They rested the Sabbath according to the commandment. He doesn't have to say 'what commandment?' They know what commandment.
He doesn't have to say what day of the week it was, they understand this. Now, that means that after three and a half years of Jesus teaching, the disciples still believed the Sabbath was so important to Christ, they weren't going to break it even with the labor of love of embalming his body. They knew that would displease the Lord. They're waiting until Sunday morning to come back and finish because they said, 'the sun's going down. This is starting to look like work.
Let's finish after Sabbath.' Wow, if the early church took the Sabbath that seriously, then should we today? Amen. Alright, moving on. Go to Luke 24:1, "now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body.
..and it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments" - angels - "then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, 'why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how he spoke to you" - they're saying, 'he told you this. You weren't listening.' - "...how he spoke to you in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'' And they remembered His Words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest." Now that's Luke's account. Go ahead, read for us John 20, verse 1, please, noemi. "Now on the first day of the week mary magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
" We just read Luke and it says all of these women came and it names them. John says mary came. How do we reconcile that? Evidently, mary was the first one there. Mary was also the last one to leave. Mary came, found the stone rolled away, she didn't go in yet, she went back and she saw the other women who were en route - they're coming from different locations - they rendezvous because they know they're going to finish the job.
Mary then goes with them, she sees the angels, the women go to the upper room, mary sees Peter and John. She goes back with Peter and John to the tomb. Peter and John look inside. They don't see an angel. They leave.
The women have left. Then Jesus appears to mary while she's the last one there. So, you know, I wrote a book on this where I did a deep study on the sequence and it all fits together perfectly and it matches up with the Gospel. Alright, last thing I'm going to share is about emmaus, and this is the wonderful story in Luke 24, verses 13 to 16, "...two of them were traveling that same day" - this was before he met them in the upper room, they are going from Jerusalem to emmaus - Jesus appears to them and what does he do? He opens the Scriptures. He says, "o foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
" How much of the Scripture is about Jesus? All the Scripture. Moses - was there a new testament yet, when he said this? No. Can you read about Jesus in the old testament? Yeah, the teachings about Christ, Christ said, 'these are they that testify of me.' And so they get to the fork in the road - little town of emmaus - and the main road continues on and he makes like he's going to keep going. They don't know it's Jesus yet. They said, 'come and abide with us.
' That's where we get that song abide with me. He goes in, they all ask if he'll break the bread. In the process of breaking the bread, suddenly their eyes are opened. They recognize that it was Jesus that had been walking with them for that two and a half hours from Jerusalem to emmaus, opening the Scriptures. And then he disappears.
And they said, 'did not our hearts burn within us when he opened the Scriptures to us along the way. They go back to the upper room now - they're so happy - it's dark. They go uphill, but they've got good news, they can't keep it to themselves and they say to the disciples, 'Jesus appeared. He's alive. He was known to us in the breaking of bread.
' And while they're talking about Jesus - by the way, is Jesus still known to us in the breaking of bread? Amen. It's through the Bible that he's known to us. While they're talking about Jesus, he appears again. He had gone with them from emmaus back to Jerusalem, except they didn't see him. He enters the room, he says, 'peace to you.
' And then you find that he continues to open to them the Scriptures and in the Gospel of Luke it says that everything that happened was according to the Scriptures. You know, Luke, over and over again, just even like the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, 'if they believe not Moses and the prophets, then they won't be persuaded though one should rise from the dead.' The emphasis throughout the Gospel of Luke is we need to believe the Word of God and we'll know that Jesus is the one, amen? I want to remind our friends two things before we close: one is we have a free offer we'll send anybody. It's called the ultimate deliverance - great story of salvation - and just ask for offer #105. You can also read this online at amazingfacts.org - and call -788-3966 and we'll send that to you. That's 866-study-more and also, don't forget we have our new Sabbath school quarterly coming next week: biblical missionaries - so those of you who are part of our live-streaming class or the class here, you'll want to get your lessons and be ready for next week.
It looks really good - the missionary nature of God - Abraham, the first missionary - the unlikely missionary - Jonah, the saga - exiles and missionaries - got some great subjects. God bless you until we study together again next week. In six days God created the heavens and the earth. For thousands of years, man has worshiped God on the seventh day of the week. Now, each week, millions of people worship on the first day.
What happened? Why did God create a day of rest? Does it really matter what day we worship? Who was behind this great shift? Discover the truth behind God's law and how it was changed. Visit 'Sabbathtruth.com'. Did you know that Noah was present at the birth of Abraham? Okay, maybe he wasn't in the room, but he was alive and probably telling stories about his floating zoo. From the creation of the world to the last-day events of Revelation, Biblehistory.com is a free resource where you can explore major Bible events and characters. Enhance your knowledge of the Bible and draw closer to God's Word.
Go deeper. Visit 'Biblehistory.com'.