← ArchiveLuke (That you may know)Sunday, March 27, 2016DateMarch 27, 2016Speaker—TextLuke 23Passages in this sermonLuke 230:35Luke 23:443:40Acts 1638:05Matthew 738:53TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00it is said that everyone has a price and the price of my salvation the price of your forgiveness was bought by the redeemer and his name was jesus redemption means that he purchased your forgiveness with his life and today is the day that we get to unashamedly celebrate that redemption if you have your bibles with you your copies of god's word please turn to the book of luke we have been journeying as a church through the book of luke we have actually been0:30working through this gospel to the cross and now we look towards the empty tomb today luke chapter 23 the gospel of luke 23. welcome to resurrection sunday some of you might know it by easter some of you might know it as pasc or the pascal service0:56you say well what is that wait till the end of service we'll answer those questions today we're going to look at the death of jesus christ we're going to look at the burial of jesus christ and then we will end with this question the same question that was asked 2 000 years ago why do you look for the living among the dead so what are you looking for today because we all look for1:20something do we not what are we looking for some estimates say that there are 2.2 billion christians in the world think about that 2.2 billion christians and if that is an accurate estimate that means there are 2.2 billion people around the world worshiping the savior this morning1:49what a wonderful thoughts and my heart is that we add to that number this morning that if you are here and you say i don't i believe about jesus but i don't know if i trust in him yet i pray that god will move your heart in a way that you will respond to the gospel that you will look at the empty tomb and you say lord i need you if this story of easter is an old old story to you2:20i pray today that you will be restored and renewed that today as the bible says that he will restore to you the joy of his salvation because many of you have heard the easter story for many many years what what can be said again about this story but yet we know that god refreshes our hearts with his salvation if today this story is new to you i pray that you will believe it i pray that you will trust in it2:50and i pray today that the story of the resurrection will today be your story that you can tell the world that we believe in a savior who is raised from the dead he is no longer in the tomb he was but he is not today thank god he is not today let's read luke 23 and then we will begin looking at god's word together luke 23 beginning in verse 443:20jesus died jesus was buried and what do we do about this what are you looking for luke 23 44 now it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour then the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two when jesus had cried out with a3:50loud voice he said father into your hands i commit my spirit having said this he breathed his last so when the centurion saw what had happened he glorified god saying certainly surely this was a righteous man let's pray father4:15we stand here today we sit and sing your praises not because of the strength of our voices or the strength of anything that we have within us but we are here today to worship our father because our father sent his only son that whoever believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life4:42lord i thank you that you did not send your son into the world to condemn the world but that we might be saved through him lord lord lord i thank you that we can say today that he is risen he is risen indeed lord stir our hearts let us know that the deepness of our sin lord let us know the price that was paid for us5:11the redemption of the redemption of our souls through the cross to the tomb through the resurrection lord may we be changed because this day is the day that changed the course of history oh change our hearts may we believe may we trust and may we glorify the risen savior today5:39and i pray this in jesus name amen and amen we are going to back up here and i just want to walk with you through the crucifixion how did jesus get to this point in luke 23. how did jesus get to the point that he was on the cross between two criminals and if you were here last week with us that one criminal looked6:07at jesus christ the word jesus means he will save the people from their sins how can one criminal look at jesus and say if your name means what it says save yourself and yet the other criminal look at jesus and say we are guilty but you are innocent lord remember me and jesus says i'll do that better i won't remember6:30you but today you will be with me in paradise how did we get to that point how did we get to the point where we need the resurrection well let's walk through the crucifixion the end the ending chapters of matthew lay this out and so i'm going to walk through this and we are6:58going to see that jesus of nazareth was in fact killed jesus died for you he died for me he did not die for his own sake because he was innocent we do not believe in the substitutionary theory that it wasn't jesus that died but someone that looked like jesus the bible is very clear that it was jesus christ himself that died the bible is very clear that he actually did not he was not murdered he was not7:26killed but jesus christ gave up his spirit for us i do not believe in the swoon theory that says well jesus didn't die he was just in a weakened state and when he was so weak that the soldiers thought he was dead and they pulled him off the cross and they put him in the tomb and miraculously there was a miracle but it wasn't that he died and rose again he just god gave him the strength no the bible is very clear7:52and this is important for us because you can't have the resurrection without the death that jesus clearly died on the cross so how did we get to that point several nights before the crucifixion the religious folk the sanhedrin the pharisees the scribes they hated the message of the messiah8:15which is religion will not save you so you need a savior and his name is jesus christ religious people don't like to hear that their religion will not save them and that was the same two thousand years ago that's the same way today how do i know that because i was that person and so they concocted a plan to have fake witnesses testify against jesus that he was blaspheming against8:47god here's the struggle with that though they were too hasty in getting their liars together so as liars often do the liars couldn't get their lies straight so let me just kind of warn you if you're a liar look the less you lie the less you have to remember9:17and the lie they were saying is what jesus says he is the son of god they didn't realize that wasn't a lie that was truth he is god and they bring jesus before the high priest and the high priest looks at him and one of his guards strikes jesus christ across the face and they the high priest rends his garments he tears it and says blasphemy what more do we need let's9:41kill him here's the struggle and the problem with that they had no jurisdiction to kill him so being wise they said well let's find someone who can kill him so they bring jesus to the one that who can the roman guards a man named pilate who was in that jurisdiction pilot brings christ before this council and10:09during this process they blindfold jesus they say you are the prophets well let's test you they blindfold him and began to slap him across the face repeatedly saying this if you're a prophet prophesy who hits you if you've ever been hit in the face you realize how difficult and how stinging that is we have a10:31three-year-old at home and we wrestle a lot sometimes we wrestle when we shouldn't wrestle mom would tell you that but there are times where he's overzealous and hits me in the face and i can't tell you sometimes just the the the pain that being hit in the face being hit in the nose of the lip causes and can you imagine being slapped repeatedly this is after jesus was probably already dehydrated from the night before10:59the guard sensing opportunity and knowing that jesus christ called himself the king of the jews said well let's let's have some fun with this and so the guards said well if he's king let's find a royal robe and they stripped him and they put this beautiful robe on him and they gave him a nice reed as his staff they fixed upon his head a beautiful crown of thorns not blackberry thorns as we're used to in the south11:26but these large thorns from this tree and they pressed it upon his head you are king we will delight in that matthew tells us that actually jesus was then scourged a process of scourging was usually not associated with the crucifixion because scourging in itself could kill a person jewish law said that you11:53could only be hit 40 times minus one because they believed that 40 lashes would kill a man so we would have 39 lashes and they would hit the person they would strip them and they would hit them with a flagellum that was a small whip with with thick leather straps and at the end of those straps they would have some type of metal or lead or iron balls so that as the straps would would hit your12:19back the metal would then slash you over and over and over again and there are two men involved in this process for the romans i do not forget that the romans were trained interrogators this is waterboarding to the nth degree they were professional killers they are professional mercenaries12:41and so one man would be the man that had the whip the other man was just there to to look at the criminal at the prisoner and that when that prisoner was near death he would say stop and so they struck jesus over and over and over again until he was near death pilate's hope was that13:03he could almost kill jesus and bring jesus out and say look he is innocent he did not deserve this but i did this anyway leave him alone and yet the crowd cried crucify him crucify him we do not like the message that he is god crucify him not knowing that the one they killed would bring them life13:33after this lengthy process of jesus was worn and battered and beaten they then put the the cross beam upon his shoulders it was about 650 yards to the place that they call the skull golgotha and yet the centurion in charge noticed that jesus was not carrying it fast enough and so they found a13:58man in north of north of north african descent and made him carry this cross beam of the cross to the place of the crucifixion because jesus physically could not do it dehydrated beaten wounded and when they brought him to the place of crucifixion they the romans would nail the prisoners feet together through the arches of their feet then they would take the cross beam and nail the cross beam14:27to the cross they would take the arms of the prisoner and nail them through their wrist through your major nerves that they would put you on the cross not necessarily to die from the pain but to watch that person die because they could not breathe because to get breath you had to pull yourself up if your arms were too tired and too painful you pushed with your legs and when your legs were too tired and painful you push with your arms and when your body was giving out you just died14:56and yet at the end of this christ said father into your hands i commit my spirits he did not say the Romans have killed me have vengeance on them he did not say for the scribes have mercies on their soul he said lord into your hands i commit my spirit because i have to die for them lord forgive them we do not know15:25what we do jesus christ died not for his own sake he died for you he died for me but he didn't just die for us the bible says he was actually then buried so let's look at the burial of jesus christ verse 5015:52now behold there was a man named joseph a council member he was a good man and just and he had not consented to their decision and deed he is from arimathea a city of the jews who himself was also waiting for the kingdom of god this man went to pilate and asked for the body of jesus he took it down16:16he wrapped it in linen he laid it in a tomb that was shewn out of the rock where no one had ever been laid before that was the day of preparation and the sabbath drew near saturday and the women who had come with him from galilee father followed after and they observed the tomb and how his body was laid they observed the tomb and how the body was laid we see this in the death and the burial16:45when jesus died two phenomenon happens one it was dark now why was it dark it wasn't dark time it was about noon and not only was it dark as we back up here in verse 44 that the sun was darkened why was it dark why was it dark when jesus was died and buried it was because the father was showing his17:11displeasure at the events taking place the father was saying that this is not what should have happened because this man jesus christ is innocent and while it was dark this curtain that was in the temple this huge curtain that kept people for getting too close to god lest they'd be struck down in his wrath17:38this curtain was torn in two now why was the curtain torn when it was dark if god was showing his displeasure to the world for the crucifixion what was god saying about religion it cannot fix the brokenness the curtain was torn in two because you and i cannot fix our relationships17:56through any religion it will not happen it cannot happen god showed us this and not only was a temple there was a curtain torn in two for god to show his displeasure but what was the the function of this curtain to keep people out of the presence of god god was telling us because of the death18:25because of the resurrection there no longer is a boundary between us and the presence of god even if you tried you couldn't make it to heaven but god said i'll send my son from heaven to come to earth that you might be in the presence of god because he died he died for you and he was buried for us why the burial just reminds us of the historical18:50nature of the death why do we bury people i mean let's let's kind of walk through this this it's not necessarily rocket scientists thank goodness because i'm not a rocket scientist why do we bury people i have conducted many funerals in my life and i have never expect as we're near the graveside as we're19:22reading scripture i never really had the expectation in my heart this person is going to jump out of the grave because if that ever happens the associate pastor is going to be there doing that graveside service right sorry brad so we bury people with the expectation that they stay in the grave and everything here in the scriptures to this point everyone is expecting jesus christ to do what19:53stay in the tomb look at verse 50 there's a man named joseph he was just and good he did not consent to this horrific deed and so he went to pilate and asked for the body so he takes jesus down according to the the law in deuteronomy that a body could not be hanging after sunset so he pulls the20:21body down they didn't have time to prepare the body which is why the women were there the next day to bring spices to prepare it in a right way so they bring the body to the tomb that's never been used because they expect this man to stay in the tomb he was crucified for your sake he rose again for20:49our sake but that is not the end of the story as we're accustomed to in a tv world but wait there's more and it is glorious and it is wonderful so let's look at verse 1 of chapter 24 together now on the first day of the week what day is it today21:18which is the first day of the week this morning they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing spices which they had prepared now again why are they going to a tomb to prepare spices because they expect when they get to the tomb21:47to be a body when you go to the graveside what do you expect there to be dead people that's why we go to graveyards you say well why are you emphasizing this wait so we go to the graves to see the dead verse 2 but they found the stone rolled away from the tomb that is an22:10odd situation because in in this time they would build the grave size the the tombs into the rock they were actually not these huge edifices they were they were small caves and so you'd have to stoop down and if you've ever been seen the garden tomb in jerusalem i would say that the opening is only about22:37a yard three feet high so you have to stoop down into this hole to get into the grave and there would be a large rock that would be in some type of channel and you would roll the rock into place and cover the grave so if you're coming to the grave to see a dead body and the stone is rolled away that's not a good start to your day there's several reasons this is difficult one did someone take the body did someone steal the body23:08now matthew tells us that that could not have happened because they were two trained roman guards on either side that stood there and their lives depended on that stone staying in place and from every indication they were not believers so these are not men that would just desert their post in order to die for something that they probably did not believe in and so they go these women go to23:37the tomb looking for something so we see that jesus died for us he was buried for us so what are you looking for what are you looking for two thousand years ago they were looking for a dead guy we are all looking for something that's why you're here today isn't it that's why i'm here today so i just want to kind of take a moment24:04just to ask and press in on that question why are you here some of you are here because this is easter sunday in this tradition and this is what you do because if your mom or grandmother found out you weren't in on in church on easter sunday you would be in the grave if you're if your grandmother's like mine24:28right so you just kind of you're here i mean it's just automatic that's what we we do that's why we're here some of you might be here today because you've had a family member or a neighbor or a co-worker they've been pestering you about going to worship for years and you finally said look leave me alone i'll go once and easter's not a bad day to go25:01some of you are here because you are just broken you are beaten and you are worn out by the life that is before you your relationships are torn apart your body is failing you you you're walking through cancer or there have been deaths or you can't you don't have the money to pay any of your bills and you just say lord i don't know what to do but lord i'm just going to go to easter service and maybe something will25:26change by the way it did some of you are here because you trust in jesus christ and this is your spiritual super bowl if you're like me i just woke up i woke up at 5 30 the alarm hit at 5 30 instead of hitting snooze i turned that thing off i popped out of bed i said let's go if there's any day i'm just25:52going to wake up and it's a great day and my spirit is overflowing it is today but here here's the beauty of the gospel for us every single person whether you just stumbled in here by accident or whether you are dragged in here or whether you walked in here whistling and singing we are here because god is pursuing you pastor how do you know that because he died for you26:20you said well i betrayed him he died for his betrayers so why are you here and the second question i want to ask is this so what now are you looking for you saw a pastor called me out he must have someone tipped him off he knew that i hadn't been here before no one tipped me off what are we looking for because we all look for something26:462 000 years ago these ladies were going to the grave looking for the dead christ and we have a tradition most of us that we we do on easter around easter where we just teach our kids to look we brought our son and daughter to an easter egg hunt last night that was glow in the dark it was dark and so you know you have these kids you just release the hounds it's like this swarm last week at here our service we we dropped 6 000 easter eggs some of them dropped in the field some of them we just dropped on the kids27:17um and and and we sort of teach our kids hey look for something and what you look for you will find and whether we know it or not there's a lot of truth in that because even as adults that's what god's word shows us now if we're only looking for easter eggs we're looking for the wrong thing because we need to look27:44deeper and look at our hearts and look to the cross and go to the tomb and when we do we say uh-oh this stone is rolled away so what are you looking for today because no matter what you're looking for everything that you look for in your life everything that i look for is found and finds fulfillment in the cross of jesus christ28:12everything that we look for finds fulfillment in the cross you say you say well pastor i don't understand it all how can someone die for me because pastor you don't know me like i know me and i would say well you don't know me like i know me because if you knew me like i knew me and god knows me how could he die for me28:39and yet he did yet he did and may we look to the power of the resurrection so let's look at the resurrection right now verse three they find the stone rolled away and they went in and by the way let me just say i'm a scaredy cat if i go to the grave and their29:07stone is rolled away i'm not going in you know i'm just not so uh women you are braver than i that i would ever be so they found verse two the stone rolled away they went in and did not find the body of the lord jesus and it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this and before we say well i can't believe29:32they didn't understand jesus look none of us have ever seen someone raised from the dead so before you point your fingers and say i can't believe that they didn't believe we wouldn't either they were perplexed and to make things more difficult verse four two men stood by them in shining garments so if an empty tomb is not difficult enough now we have these angelic messengers show up30:03you're thinking this is not good where did our savior go and then one of the most beautiful verses the world has ever known one of the finest pieces of literature that has ever been written and spoken verse five they were afraid and they bowed their faces to the earth and just let me just remind you they are bowing inside a tomb30:32the angel said why do you seek the living among the dead why do you seek the living among the dead and before we say i can't believe they didn't believe why do you go to graves let's just remind ourselves of that why do you go to the grave side to see dead people so why were they going to the grave30:55and so the answer for these angelic messages for us would be we're going to the empty tomb because if jesus died for us verse six he is not here and if we stop there we say well where did he go who took his body how dare they desecrate and mock our savior again they've already mocked him31:25in this this horrific ugly game of let's play king he is not risen comma though he is not here comma he is risen remember how he spoke to you when he was still in galilee saying the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise again what are you looking for31:54because everything that you look for for fulfillment and purpose in life is found in the empty tomb and the resurrection easter is the answer for the deepest questions that we will ever have well pastor is easter going to pay my bills no but when we pray to our father because of the32:22resurrection our father give me my daily bread our savior responds well pastor is is when i'm scared is easter going to answer that question no easter gives us the chance to pray father even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i know you're there easter the resurrection is the answer for32:45every longing of our hearts you say well pastor i don't know what you're talking about i've never been scared i've never been hungry and i'm really not that bad of a person oh but you are because our sin sin is sin against the eternally infinite holy god so how do you seek forgiveness from an eternal sin33:11because you don't have eternity to ask for forgiveness so what does the resurrection do for us just quickly the resurrection because we see verse 6 he is not here he is risen we can have new life jesus says i have given you new life abundant life33:38that you might be born again that is not possible without the resurrection you cannot have new life without the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ we have new life in the resurrection in the resurrection we are justified pastor that's a big word we are made right before a holy god34:08i know that my redeemer lives why did jesus die he died because you and i can't make it right and because we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god what that means for us is there a there is a permanent curtain between us and god that you can't tear and jesus died to make things right and he showed us that because he tore the curtain from top to bottom34:39as the song that i love i i sang this this morning as i was praying over this sermon man of sorrows lamb of god by his own betrayed the sin of man and wrath of god has been on jesus laid silent as he stood accused beaten mocked and scorned bowing to the father's will he took the crown of thorn35:01the sin of man and wrath of god has been laid on jesus christ that you and i might be justified and made right without that you do not have a right relationship with god you say well pastor i'm a good person you're not well that's a horrible lesson that's a truthful lesson i'd rather you get mad at me find repentance35:26and salvation in the cross than leave here happy and by the way there is no joy greater than salvation in jesus christ because you're talking to the chief of sinners who found joy in christ he died for our justification he makes you right in the resurrection the resurrection shows us that he frees us from35:53death he frees us from sin and he frees us from the devil he frees us from that well how do i know because he died and he wasn't guilty and he rose again why because the grave couldn't contain him and because god accepted the sacrifice if he was guilty jesus christ would not have raised from the36:18dead which is why you and i do not raise to life on our own because we are guilty but thank god in the resurrection we have power over our sin we have power over the grave we have power over the principalities of this world in the resurrection the resurrection also reminds us this36:44that one day you too will be raised to life some of you whose bodies are breaking down are saying thank god some of you who are built like you go to the gym every day i want this body you're gonna have a better body that protein can't build a wonderful body new life i'm gonna be seven foot tall and a basketball37:08player i long for the day and if god makes me short again i'm gonna say god you know just give me a voice i'll sing i don't need to be tall but i thank god for the day that i will be raised in new life because of the power of the resurrection the resurrection also shows us that one day37:38all of creation will be transformed that because of the resurrection you and i in this world will pass will pass away and there will be a new heaven and a new earth so pastor what do we do if jesus died for me if he was buried for me if he was raised a new life for me then what do i do and i've been thinking of act 16 where this jailer walks in he's about to commit38:05suicide he walks in because he thinks his prisoners have left and there's this old man paul standing in an empty cell and he asked paul sir what must i do to be saved and paul says this believe in the lord jesus christ he didn't say believe about think about be sorry for your sin he said38:27believe in the lord jesus christ believe in the resurrection and i have to believe that some of you are like me that you grew up in church you grew up in church on easter you grew up in church on christmas and you believe a lot about god i want to remind you that that matthew 7 says not everyone38:53that says lord lord will be with him in the kingdom of heaven well how can the bible say that because many of us have gone to church and we sing songs about my redeemer lives but we don't really know what we're singing we believe about it but we don't believe in him and maybe today you need to humble yourself acknowledge your sin and say for the first time lord i don't understand everything it's a39:19mystery but i know you died for me because i'm guilty and i need to believe in the power of your resurrection maybe you're here today and you've never heard the story of easter and you said it's unbelievable it is but it's true maybe you need to put your hope and trust in that maybe you're here today and you walked in thinking i'm a pretty good person i got my suit on got my hair39:49did yeah i know my bible verses when pastor said turn to luke i was the first one there but yet you don't fully understand and you are unwilling to acknowledge the depths of your sin your sin is so deep that it took the son of god dying for you so pastor are you telling me if i'm the only one that's ever sinned he would die for me yes that's what i'm saying but i'm in that boat too40:18and here's the beauty of our salvation jesus died to make you right justification jesus died to pay the wrath that you have been building up reconciliation that every time you sin the wrath of god has been building up towards you for god the world for god loves the world so much that he sent his only son40:44that whoever believes might not perish but have eternal life verse 17 for god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him so we are already condemned because the wrath has been building up he died to pay that wrath why was the world dark why did41:04the curtain rip because the wrath was poured out on the son of god by the heavenly father the resurrection also though reconciles you redeems you it brings you forgiveness you say well you don't understand the sins i've done i don't i don't need to but there is no sin that you can commit41:28that was not forgiven if you believe but there's more the resurrection also the bible says and some of you need to hear this it adopts us into a new family that we might have the right to be called sons daughters of the king that's why when we pray we pray our father and how how beautiful is that picture that our salvation41:57adopts us into a new family because some of you grew up without a father or you grew up with a father that really wasn't much of one and god says i'm here and he also died to justify you to reconcile you to redeem you to adopt you he died to give you new life that whoever has been born again the old has passed away and the new has come42:27so if you have never believed in the crucifixion if you have never believed in jesus christ i'm going to ask you just where you sit this is a relationship between you and the lord he knows your sin you know your sin he died for you will you make that right you said pastor how do i do that the thief on the cross said this lord i'm guilty you're not remember me and jesus looked and said i will son42:56we say lord i know i've sinned and i know your savior died for me for today i believe in your son if you have never done that i'm going to ask that you would you say well pastor i've done all that i believe i pray today that you will just bow your head and you will say god refresh renew the joy of your salvation lord may the easter story be fresh again that i may declare your gospel to every person43:26to every country because the world is in need of a savior you will bow your heads with me← Previous in Luke (That you may know)Sunday, March 20, 2016More sermons on Luke →
