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. Glad
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Thankful. for today, and our reading today is
being found in Luke 23. Once again, Luke 23,
the first 25 verses. Now, if you were in our
church family yesterday, I preached Luke 23,
1 through 25, and shared a lot about it. We've
been in it, so last... Tuesday, last Friday,
and then on Sunday, and then now today, the same
text over and over again. I was trying to explain
this to somebody over the weekend that they said,
why do you put us in the same text multiple times?
I said, because the more you put it in your heart,
the more you put it in your mind, the more you
think about it, you're allowed to then meditate
on it. It allows to kind of flow in your mind
and your heart. And then whenever I get up to
share the word or share something I've preached,
what happens is Your mind is connecting all these
things together. It's connecting all these pieces
that you then want to learn more and know more.
And you can connect things that God has shown
you and revealed to you that maybe God didn't
even reveal to me this week. Or maybe that God
didn't reveal to somebody else. He's going to
reveal it to you. And then whenever you hear
the word proclaimed, then you can, again, connect
it to things that are even deeper within your
heart and in your soul. It's a good thing for
all of us. I think it's healthy for us to be
in the Word together and to look at the Word
in separate times and then when we come together,
it's wonderful and it's awesome. So I encourage
you, read Luke. 23, 1 through 25, once again
today. I just want to bring out a couple of things
towards the end of the chapter, or the end of
the passage that we're looking at. I know I shared
this a little bit in the sermon yesterday, but
I also want to jump into a couple of things that
I didn't have time to share, and that is found
down in verse number 21 and following. Here's
what the Bible says, but they kept shouting,
crucify, crucify him. A third time he said to
them, Why? What evil has he done? I have found
in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore
punish him and release him. But they were urgent,
demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.
And their voices... prevailed. As we looked at
that yesterday, this is Pilate. Now, by this
point in the narrative, in the storyline, Jesus
has been arrested in a garden. He's been mocked.
He's been beaten. He's been put on trial. He's
been lied about. He stood there silent. He's
answered questions. He's stood silent again.
He's been brought from one governor to the other.
He's been tried on multiple occasions. And now
we're at this last couple of points where Pilate
is there. Again, we... I shared yesterday a little
bit about what it meant when it says at the end
of the, in verse number 24 and 25, Jesus was
handed over while Barabbas was released. In that
text, there's something powerful and something
amazing to see Jesus was handed over, or he was
delivered into the hands of the next group. And
I was talking about how that word, delivered
or handed over, is a word in the Greek language
that means it's a progression, it's an action.
It wasn't just somebody said something one time,
but it was an action to deliver Jesus into the
next group. place. And we look from the time
of Judas, whenever he betrays Jesus, he hands
him over to the mob. The mob hands him over to
the first trial. The first trial hands him over
to the chief priest and the chief priest hand
him over to the next trial and the next trial.
He keeps getting handed over. And we're going
to see, I believe in tomorrow's reading, when
he gets handed over to the last place and the
last stop, whenever he then no longer gets handed
over. After Jesus completes his mission, there
is no more handing Jesus over. is him coming
to reign in the end. But I want to talk today
just for a minute about these chief priests and
these people that have come up and arrested Jesus
and put him on trial. Now they're yelling crucify.
Why? Well, one of the reasons is they are trying
their very best to shut down any talk that this
is the Messiah. They're doing their very best
to say this guy is not the one the Old Testament
was talking about. So how are they doing that?
Well, multiple ways. One, they're doing everything
they can to arrest him and beat him and kill
him and just wipe him out because he was still
young considered as a rabbi. He's still in the
early stages of his ministry. He's just been
in the ministry, quote, three years or so. And
so now they're saying, how can we get rid of
him quickly? Let's eliminate him very, very quickly.
So they shout crucify because in Deuteronomy
chapter number 21, down in verse 23, we read
that God says, cursed is everyone who hangs on
a tree. And we see that because in Paul's letter
to the church of Galatia in chapter 3, verse
number 13, I believe, he says that Jesus died
on a cross and he took on the curse for us because
everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed. So
the religious leaders are saying if he gets crucified,
we know because of the Mosaic law, he'll be cursed
even in his death. So let's say he's done everything
right so far. Let's say he's crossed every T,
dotted every I, and done everything exactly the
way the Old Testament says. We'll beat him this
way. Here's the loophole that we can continue
to stop his ministry from going any further.
Because the last thing they wanted was a martyr
Messiah that then people would have this uprising
after he died. So they said, we'll even have
him die in the way that is cursed by God to make
sure once and for all. Well, what they didn't
realize is they kept doing the wrong things and
it was fulfilling. more of the Scripture. That
term that it talks about when Pilate handed him
over, he handed Jesus over, that term is found
all the way through. It's connected all the way
through Scripture. Back in Isaiah 53, over in
the book of Acts, we see the piece that the Son
of Man must be handed over. Why? To suffer. Handed
over means he's gone from now the accusations
of being accused of these crimes to now suffering
in those crimes. Each time he was handed over,
there was more suffering that came. Every time
we're going to see tomorrow and tomorrow's reading
more about that suffering that had to come. But
as I look through the text, I think, why in the
world did this happen this way? Why are they
yelling crucify? Why did they keep handing him
over to the next thing? And there's one other
word that really stands out to me in the text.
And it was found in verse number 23. And it says,
but they were when when Pilate says, listen,
we've tried this guy multiple times. The third
is the third time I'm telling you this. I can't
find anything wrong with him. I know you're yelling
crucified. That seems extreme for somebody that's
not done anything wrong. He hasn't broken any
laws. There's nothing deserving of death that
I can find, that Herod was able to find. You
all are making stuff up, and you want this guy
dead, and I don't know why. I'm going to release
Barabbas. I'm not going to release this Jesus.
It doesn't make any sense to crucify this Jesus
and release this prisoner who's known for murder
and causing an insurrection, all kinds of problems.
What are you doing? Then in verse number 23,
it says, but they were more urgent. And that
word stuck out to me today. I'll be honest, before
I didn't even know this, whenever I was studying
to preach the sermon this past Sunday, but that
word urgent jumped off the page to me today.
And I thought, why is that word jumping off the
page? And I looked it up, and I tried to figure
out what the word meant and tried to figure out
why. Because I want to get in the scene, right?
This is a courtroom. There's a lot of energy,
a lot of passion. Jesus stands silent. The crowds
of Pharisees, the crowds of the scribes, the
chief priests are yelling. and they're throwing
all these accusations out. What is it? Why is
it so urgent? I want to know. I want to feel
it, right? I want to experience the scene that's
happening. And what I noticed was that word urgent
is the same. It carries the same connotations,
the same understanding of being thrown on hot
coals. So it's the response your body would give
if you've been thrown on hot coals. I want you
to think about how hard you would jump. That
is an urgent thing. As soon as that sensation
hits you, you are jumping. There's no thinking.
It's a shout that's immediate. So I want you
to picture this. It says they were urgent. They
were demanding or calling out or saying, here's
our demands. Here's what we will say, and we
will not take no for an answer. I just think
how in the world they kept demanding that he
be crucified. They said we, they were so urgent.
So I want you to imagine if you've been thrown
on coals, how urgently you're going to jump off
of them. How urgently you're going to try to
get away and get out of the situation that you're
in. That urgency is that panic mode that comes
up in your mind, in your heart, in your body.
So these chief priests, this crowd becomes that
urgent. And they're saying, this is the third
time Pilate says he's not guilty. We have to
strike right this second. That's the intensity
in the room. Pilate finally says, okay, have
it your way. I'm going to hand him over. I'm
going to free this prisoner who has been accused
of all these things, who have been found guilty
of all these things, who was on death row. I'm
going to free him, and I'm going to allow Jesus
to be handed over to the violent men of our time
and let him be crucified. Today, I don't know
exactly. what to encourage you with other than
don't always think that the most urgent voices
are the ones you need to listen to. The urgent
voices, why? Because urgent voices come with
passion, right? If you are trying to get off
of hot coals, your whole body, everything about
you looks like you are needing to get to the
right place. You are in a dangerous spot. Your
body's in this fight or flight mode and you're
going as hard as you can go. Sometimes the urgent
isn't important, and sometimes the urgent isn't
right. Just because something sounds like you
have to do it right this second is not necessarily
what you need to do. I want to encourage you
today in this. Settle in what the Lord wants
you to do. Listen to His heart. Listen to His
voice. There's a lot of scenes that take place
in Luke 23, in these first 25 verses, a lot of
moments where Jesus keeps getting pushed. place
to place to place. We talked about last week
a little bit, you know, Pilate finds him not
guilty and still says, you know what, let's just
beat him up. Well, that's not what, what is,
what are you doing? He's trying to appease everybody.
Stop trying to appease everybody. We serve one
God. We're trying to honor one father. He's in
heaven. That's who we're trying to honor. Stop
trying to please men. Stop trying to look for
the approval of men. Pilate was looking for the
approval of men. Herod wanted to be Lord over
Jesus. Do this for me. Do this for me. Do this
for me. Jesus stands silent. You want to stop
God's voice? Tell him what to do. He's not going
to respond to you. He's not going to talk to
you. He then gets handed back over to Pilate.
Pilate says, you know what? This guy should be
set free. And the urgency of the people, the
passion in their campaign was so strong that
Pilate finally said, okay. Your voices will prevail.
I'm going to hand Jesus over to the violent men
of the world. I want to encourage you today and
tell you today that Jesus did every bit of this
so that he could honor his Father in heaven,
bring glory to him first and foremost, and bring
us into his family. He did all of this so that
we could be the Barabbas in the story, to free
us of what we were found guilty for. Take on
our punishment so that we can be with him forever.
Christians should rejoice. We should find a little
bit more humility, a little bit more joy, and
a little bit more peace knowing that he did every
bit of this so that he could have us in his family.