This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome back. Today
is Friday, March the 20th. So thankful you have
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Now, on to our reading plan for today. We are
back in Luke chapter 23 again, the first. 25
verses. That's the text that we're going to read.
It is what I will be preaching on Sunday. Lord
willing, everything goes well. We will be preaching
out of this text on Sunday. So it's good to put
it in your mind a few times before we jump in.
I want to share with you just a couple of verses
and a thought or two about this text today. I
don't know about you, but every time I go through
a new text that I know I'm going to preach or
I'm going to try to do a deep study on, what
will happen is the first time I read it, it's
hard to get through. through. Even the first
time we talked about Luke 23, the first 25 verses
on the episode on Tuesday this week, it was the
first time we kind of walked through it together.
And it was kind of difficult. It was a little
bit hard for me to work through something that
happens every single time. Don't think that just
because I'm a pastor or because I do this for
a living, that as soon as I open the word, it's
this refreshing spirit of God that just flows
over me. It's not really the way it works. Sometimes
I've got to get in there and I've got to dig
and I've got to figure it out and I've got to
read and I think, well, what concept is in here,
Lord? Like, show me the thread. Show me and help
me understand it, which is why this is an everyday
podcast because what happens is we built on that
theme that we read the first time and then we
looked at a couple of other places in the Scripture
and then now we read it again today with some
fresh eyes and fresh ears and it becomes a little
bit easier to grab some new concepts or some
new truths or new realities to be revealed to
us. I love... The further we get in a text, the
more times we read it over and over again, the
more it jumps out to me, and the more it makes
me glad to be prepared and ready to teach it
or to proclaim it. And so I want to read just
a couple of things out of this text. Obviously,
here's the scene. We've already been through
it once before. Jesus is brought before Pilate.
This is Pontius Pilate. We know he was the governor
in this area from about 26 or 27 A .D. to 38
or 37. so 9 AD. So he's there for about a decade
or so there in Rome, and he is in charge of the
place in Jerusalem. Now, here's what's going
on. Jesus gets arrested, falsely accused, brought
in front of Pilate to be sentenced to death.
That's what the chief priests and the scribes
and all are trying to get to happen. Well, we
know that according to this text, Pontius Pilate
does not find anything against Jesus and finds
out he is from Galilee. So he says, oh, I'm going
to send him up to Herod Antipas, the other guy
that's in charge up there. He's the one that
covers those things. Now, Herod is also in Jerusalem.
This is Passover. This is a big season. Everybody's
come to the capital, right? So they send him
over to Herod. Herod's excited. Herod's the one.
to meet Jesus. Here's the interesting thing about
Herod, though. This is the same guy that beheaded
John the Baptist. This is the same guy that took
the life of Jesus' close relative, his best friend
on earth, who Jesus says no greater man has been
born of a woman outside of John the Baptist.
So this is the man that was responsible for John
the Baptist's death. Now here's what I find intriguing
about this. So Jesus gets brought before Pilate.
Pilate says, I can't find anything wrong with
the guy. And then the religious leaders are like,
he deserves death. So then he says, I'm going
to send him over to Herod because he's from Galilee.
Jesus gets over to Herod. Herod says, hey, I've
been waiting to meet him. Do some signs for me.
Jesus doesn't say a word, doesn't do anything.
He questions Jesus, doesn't say a word. I want
to read the text, in fact, to show you where
I'm getting this from. In Luke 23, listen to
what it says in verse number 9. So he questioned
him at some length, but he made no answer. That
is, Herod is questioning Jesus, and Jesus is
standing there silent. There is something big
that I saw come revealed out to me in this time
that I was in the Word right now. I was reading
it, and I thought, Lord, what is it about this
text today that I can get a new mercy from? And
that verse jumped out. And when that verse jumped
out, it made me think, Herod stopped the voice
of God. Herod stopped the voice of God. I have
not thought about it that way. Jesus is God,
right? And Jesus gave no answer, made no remarks.
Herod begins, even in the narrative of how Herod
is interacting with Jesus, both Pontius Pilate
and Herod, neither one, they were intimidated
by Jesus. He had a big group of followers. He
obviously had miraculous signs around him and
about him. People knew about him. Herod sees
him and is a little bit nervous at first, kind
of asks him for a couple of things, doesn't happen.
And so Herod gets more and more bold, and the
voice of God is stopped. Herod cannot hear the
voice of God in his life. If you want to know
how to not hear the voice of God, do what Herod
did. Begin questioning Jesus. Begin questioning
things. Try to ask him to do things for you.
Ask him to say, hey, I want you to submit to
me and do the things I've asked you to do. You're
not going to hear the voice of the Lord that
way. It's not going to happen. Then, as I kept
reading, Herod begins to mock Jesus, puts a fancy
robe on him, sends him back over to Pilate. Now,
when he sends him back to Pilate, he doesn't
give any verdict or any kind of charge against
Jesus either. He's like, I can't really find
anything about him either that is wrong. I'm
a little nervous about the guy. Sends him back
to Pilate. He gets back to Pilate. By this point,
the religious leaders are ready to say, crucify,
crucify, crucify. Now before, I know I've heard
it preached sometimes that when Jesus makes his
triumphal entry into Jerusalem, you can go and
see when that happens a few chapters earlier.
He comes into Jerusalem for the last week of
his life, for the Passover week, but he comes
in. It's the triumph, the Palm Sunday, as we
say. We hear this crowd, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna.
heard it said before that that same crowd, just
a few days later, is now yelling crucify. But
the truth is, this is not the full crowd. This
is the religious leaders that are yelling crucify.
These are the ones that are against Jesus in
every form, every... shape, every mindset is
all against Jesus. This is just that group that's
doing that. Now, there may be a few onlookers
that are kind of figuring out the trial that's
going on, but ultimately, it's not the whole
nation, right? It's not the whole gathering that
was at the parade a few days earlier. These are
the ones that are against Jesus. They say, crucify
him, crucify him. So, Pilate Pilate still doesn't
make a full decision. He says, I'm going to wash
my hands of this. You can go read that in Matthew.
He says, I'm going to wash my hands of this so
that I'm clear of this. I don't find the guy
guilty. So here's what Pilate does. This is frustrating
too. If Herod silenced the voice of God, Pilate
smothered it. I mean, just smothered the voice
of God. Because what happens next? Pilate says,
he's not guilty. I want to set him free and ends
up crucifying him. That's what happens in the
Pilate situation. Why? Because of the next place
in the scripture I want to read in verse number
24. Listen to what it says. So Pilate decided
that their demand should be granted. What was
their demand? Their demand was that they release
Barabbas, the murderer, the one who is in there
for robbery, for murder, and for causing an insurrection.
Here's what Pilate's saying. There's no way.
What I'll do, I'll appease the people and I'll
let Jesus go because it's Passover. It's a tradition.
We've let people go before on Passover. It's
kind of a thing we can do. We can kind of get
around this idea of crucifying this guy, Jesus.
And instead they say, if you're going to release
somebody, release to us Barabbas. Now Pilate's
thinking, I'm not going to release Barabbas.
He's a top -notch criminal. We've captured him.
We're going to take him out. We're going to crucify
him. And the people say, no, we want you to crucify
Jesus instead. So Jesus takes the place of Barabbas.
But the thing that jumped out to me today is
Herod silenced the voice of God because of the
way he treated Jesus, his pattern, his characteristics.
Pilate was smothering the voice of God. And what
I mean by that is he was more concerned with
his reputation, his influence, than he was his
character and the way that the Lord would look
at him. I think about when Jesus is standing
there before Pilate. Pilate is trying to judge
Jesus. Can I tell you what's really going on?
Jesus is sitting there judging Herod and Pilate,
both of these guys. These guys were the judge
in order to sentence Jesus to death. Jesus is
standing there the whole time. He's not the one
on trial. They are. Their character is. Their
heart is, just like we are. I think we're getting
in a very dangerous spot whenever we think, well,
I wish Jesus would just show me this. I wish
God would just give me this sign. That's us saying,
God, we want you to perform for us. That's what
Herod did. And what happened? Herod heard no
word from the Lord, none. We've got to be careful
in how we interact with this God. He's great.
He's mighty. He's holy. Today, my encouragement
to you, read the text. Let's see what stands
out. But I encourage you, don't. Don't silence
or smother the voice of the Lord. Be more in
tune with what He wants than what you want.