What do we do with Jesus? Today is Good Friday and that's our title this morning. I've often wondered about this day and asked myself what good was what? What is good about today? We all know that for Jesus as a man, as a human being, it was not a good day. It was not a good day for God. Even if you think about it was the day of Son Jesus was killed. For Jesus as a man, definitely it was not good. The night before he prayed in the garden, didn't actually want to go through with this.
He prayed that God would remove the cup of suffering if that was his will, but it wasn't. If anything, on that day, the disciples of Jesus, for them things could not have been worse. We have no way of even imagining what it must have been like for the disciples to have this anticipation. He's the King of the Jews and he's going to be the Messiah. Extreme to extreme, their hopes and dreams dash to pieces further than they could ever
have imagined. The Bible tells us that God had planned this event, the crucifixion, to happen. God had planned for Son Jesus to come to earth, to live among us, to teach us, and in the end to give his life as a ransom for the sins of the world. We're told in Scripture that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever, whoever, who, everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This is an eternal gift.
It's free to, free of charge to us, given by an act of grace from God to us, and it's an eternal gift rooted in Christ, the Son of God. But this gift only has value if it's received. Any gift has value only if it's received. A rejected gift doesn't do anything. And for us to receive this, there's a condition. We must repent of our sins and put our trust and faith in Jesus. When Jesus died, we know he had. He had done nothing wrong. He didn't die for anything He had done.
He died for what humanity had done wrong, what we had done wrong. That's why he died. He had nothing to repent of. His mission was complete as far as the teaching goes. Now He had to just die yet, and then that would be finished. The evil people in the world, they would take his life, true, but the only reason they could take his life was because he was going to give it. He's going to lay it down. Jesus says he was the most humble, kind, patient, loving, forgiving person that ever
walked the earth. But the leaders of his day, they saw him as a threat to the establishment. They saw him as an intrusion, as an invasion in their lives. In their mind, he has to go because if he doesn't go, there will be problems for us. And so it was either their system, their structure, their way of things, or Jesus. And Jesus had to go. One of the things that really bothered the people of his time so much was he called people out on their sin. He shed light on the lives of
the people in his time. One particular group especially were the Pharisees, and they were the ones, the Pharisees, the religious leaders. They said he's got to go, He's got to go. That response to Jesus, even today has not really changed that much. People today, still in our time, primarily want to do one of three things with him. One, there's some who want to follow him. They hear him, they listen, they're convicted, they're drawn and they want to follow.
Not many of those, but there are those. There's another group. They don't really care either way, take or leave, it doesn't really matter much. They just ignore him, live as if he's not real. There's a lot of that, a lot of them. Then there's a third group. Well, they hate them with all they've got and everyone who follows them and they want this story, not just these, but the story. Everything has to be squashed. The truth is it is not myth, it is fact. It is story.
It's historical reality. What we cannot do is get rid of the story. History cannot be erased. The question then again, what do we do with Jesus in the New Testament? In the story of the crucifixion, we find many characters, different types of people, all who somehow had a role in this journey.
I want to read the crucifixion story out of the Gospel of Matthew this morning, and I'll be reading it out of Matthew chapter 26 to 27. I'll not read it in its entirety because it's too much to read for one worship service and one morning, but I'll take certain parts of it. And you will be following along in your Bibles. You see, Jesus knew what was going to happen when he came to Jerusalem. He told his disciples what the course of the next number of days would be.
The Passion week as we know it. Jesus was not surprised at was going to what was going to happen. Of course, he knew everything. But then his disciples, they didn't know anything of this. They just, oh, he's going to go Jerusalem become king. He's going to be the king. So I want us to start reading in Matthew chapter 26 and we'll read verse. It says verse one to five, and that is not that's not quite accurate there. Sorry. It is.
Yeah. It came to pass when Jesus had finished all these things he said to his disciples, you know, that after two days is the Passover and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. Then the chief priest describes and the elders of the people assembled at that palace of the high priest who was called Caiaphas and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill him. But they said not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.
So here's the the the top guys, the guys at the top, the leaders plotted to kill Jesus. That's their approach to these. Let's kill him. Let's get rid of him. Jesus as a human being, flesh and blood, as we are also the Son of God on that side. He knew all of this was going to take place, but he did not look forward to it. He didn't want to die an understandably soul, but the religious leaders, they did very much want Jesus to die. In fact, they needed him to die. They had to have him die.
And as we know in the garden, Jesus did not look forward to this. But Jesus informed his disciples this was going to take place. And these leaders, how they plan to do it. Well, they've tried trick they were going to do with trickery and evil deed carefully planned and again not doing the feast. They didn't want to riot. In other words, they want to do it no follow, no consequences.
They were going to play it safe, but this was an evil plan that God was going to turn around to his own use for the point of saving people from their sins. From this point on, Matthew gives a clear rundown on who did what in this tragic story of Jesus last days on earth. So we see the leaders plan and plot on how to get rid of him. Well, let's continue reading Matthew chapter 626 verse 6 to 13.
And when Jesus was in Bethany at the House of Simon the leper, a woman came to him having an alabaster flask, a very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when his disciples sought, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor. But when Jesus was aware of it, he said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? For she's done a good work for me.
For you have the poor with you always, but me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragment oil on my body, she did it from a burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her, the woman she anointed Jesus. So we have the Pharisees, the religious leaders, we've got to kill him. This woman, I got to anoint him.
You see the contrast? We we don't even told who she is. Some writers say that she was the woman recorded in John chapter 12 verse verse 1 to 8 Mary anoints to Jesus feet and they say the stories of a difference the same woman. We're not sure. Regardless, it's not her name that carries the weight, it's her character. I would say it this way. It's better to be a nameless St. than a popular hypocrite. This woman was a woman who had come to realize and understand
who Jesus was. She knew Jesus was someone special. She wanted to show her love and appreciation, loyalty for him. So she poured this expensive oil over him. It was a huge cost. Different writers have had their comments about that, but it was a it's an enormous sum of money. Jesus recognized and valued what she did for him. The disciples, they were indignant. This is waste could have been sold and given to the poor, but the woman had it right. She did what she could for Jesus.
She did not know at the time that there for the rest of history over the world her act of kindness would be proclaimed. She just wanted to anoint Jesus body, not knowing even that that he was going to be killed. When we do something for Jesus, we may not know the ramifications of that or the outcome of that, and we should not even expect to be understood. I'm sure she heard what the disciples were saying here. She's anointing Jesus with oil, pouring it over from the disciples there.
What a waste, what a waste. This should be sold for the poor. She probably heard that. Let's not expect it. Let's expect to always be understood when we do something good. It's only later sometimes that the real value of something comes out. This woman, out of the good character of her heart, did something good for Jesus. She honored Jesus, showed her love for Him. We can learn from her. Well, next in the story is another character. He's the opposite of this woman.
His name is Judas. Let's keep reading. Matthew chapter 2614 to 16. Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, what are you willing to give me if I deliver them to you? And they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. So from that time on, he sought opportunity to betray Jesus. So he's the third character. He sells Jesus. We do not fully know what was in his heart. What we do know is he was not loyal to Jesus.
He made it look as though he was, but in the end, his sin caught up with him. Judas had a mindset that he wanted to be in control. Different commentators mentioned different things about him. But one thing we can say with certainty is that Judas, when Jesus called Judas to follow him, Judas was thinking, yeah, I'm going to betray that guy one day. I'm going to sell him.
That's not what he was thinking. There was a series of events and experiences that happened, and he came to that conclusion one day. It's not working out the way I thought. I'm going to betray him. How can he do that? It's one of those things that people come to over a period of time, incremental choices, and Judas had reached a point where he's actually going to betray
his master. You see, when we start going down the wrong path, you never know where that's going to catch up to us. It's never right to start rationalizing sin and thinking I got this under control. We don't know what Judas really thought, but we know that he came out on the wrong side of things. He's a stark warning for us in Scripture about sin in our hearts. Well, the, the Pharisees, they're going to kill him. The woman, she anoints him.
Judas, what he sold him. Well, let's keep going. Let's read verse 31 to 35. Then Jesus said to them. Now this is a little bit further down. I'm skipping passages here. All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night. This is during the Passover meal, for it is written I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be
scattered. But after I've been raised, I'll go be before you to Galilee. Peter answered and said to me, Even if all are made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. Jesus said to me, assuredly. I say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you'll deny me 3 times. Peter said to him, Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And so said all the disciples. Now we're into boasting. The disciples boasted in themselves.
They did not see this happening yet. It had not yet registered what was going to happen. They did not know yet. They're very confident of themselves. Oh never, we never deny Jesus. Oh come on, what are you talking about? Especially Peter here to be set straight. They did not get it. They've been told, but their hearts were not there yet. They were not getting it. And let's not be too hard on these guys. We're not getting it either. So folks, there's so many things
we don't get. They just knew we're never going to do that. And then they did. You see? It's always the other guy who stumbles and falls, right? It's always the other guy. I would never. No, I would never. It's always the other guy who makes the mistakes. I'm better than that. How? How? How Can you believe I would do something like that? And do you think they were lying in their hearts? Of course not.
They did nothing. OK, we're going to say no. We're actually going to do it. They were not thinking that either. They were not thinking. OK, yeah, probably we will, But we're just going to say no now. No, they were convinced they were not going to deny him. They knew they were not going to. Jesus knew they would. And unless God protects us, we all fall. They would soon learn. Well, Jesus left the city, went to the Mount of Olives.
There in the garden he begins to be sorrowful in deep agony. He wants his disciples to watch with him. Let's see what actually happened. Now we come to the garden. Matthew chapter 26, verse 36 and on. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
Then he said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death, stay here and watch with me. He went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, Oh my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, What could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again.
The second time he went and prayed saying My, Oh my Father, if this cup cannot pass from my unless I drink it, your will be will be your will be done. And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy. So he left them, went away again and prayed The third time the saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold the hours at hand. The Son of man is being betrayed
into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. My betrayer is at hand. Commentators say, and I agree with this. This was the pivotal moment of Jesus earthly journey. The cross was horrible. That's true. The cross was, was, was awful. The physical pain unimaginable. But here's where that deciding moment happened. Will I or won't I? And of course we know he was destined for this. And, and, and, and God had told him and he said not, he said if it's possible as a man, he still wanted it.
He still didn't want to die. And what was the side was doing? What were they doing when he needed them the most? They slept. You see, when it comes to making promises and commitments, talk is cheap. Anybody can say, Yep, you can count on me, I'll be there. I'll do it when it gets critical. No, I'm done. I'm out. They meant well. They didn't go to the garden yet. I'll fall asleep and Jesus would pray. That's not what they thought. That's not what they thought. They just did it.
We do what's inside of us. Before we judge them too harshly, let's remember we're not better than they. How much do we pray when we should be praying? Let's be serious about this. I'm not trying here to say that we as a congregation don't pray and that our prayers are of no value and God doesn't listen to our prayers. But when there's pain and sorrow, too often we have not prayed and maybe not physically slept, but spiritually, emotionally. Well, let's keep moving on.
Here we have the story of how the betrayal went down and how Peter to try to save Jesus in a sense. Let's continue reading Matthew 26, verse 47 and on. And while he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the 12 with a great multitude of swords and clubs came from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now his betrayer had given them a sign saying, whomever I kiss, he's the one sees him. Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, greetings Rabbi, and kissed him.
But Jesus said to him, Friend, why have you come? Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took him. And suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. We know from the other gospels this was Peter. So he did take action, continued verse 52. But Jesus said to him, Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by
the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus in that our Jesus said to the multitudes, Have you come out against the robber with swords and clubs to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and you did not seize me. But all this has was done that the scriptures of the prophets
might be fulfilled. And then that last line in verse 56. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. What have they just said a few hours ago? We will never run away, Lord, No, we're not going to run away. We'll die with You. In fact, this was our surprise to the disciples. And it was Peter who started swinging the sword. He really wanted to defend Jesus because he's going to be king after all. You know what is Noteworth is how the arrest went down. Even though it was Jesus was
arrested. He was the only guy in control. He was the only guy who had it together. Not the disciples. They ran away. Not Judas. He was a betrayer. Not the Pharisees, the the gang they brought with him. Jesus was the only one in control. You see what's happened? The dominoes are toppling one after another. The leader plots his death, the plot his death. The woman anoints and Judas betrays and the disciples misunderstand and they sleep and they should be praying. They run and hide.
When Jesus gets arrested, it's not going so well. The disciples, they fled. The crowds thought they had this under control. In reality, they were just pawns under the power of the Prince of Darkness who were doing what He wanted them to do to get rid of Jesus. And God was orchestrating this. He's going to use it for redemption. See, no matter how well we may think we stand, we do not stand if we're not rooted and grounded in Christ. They all forsook him and fled.
See, first, they're not going to deny him. Second, they couldn't even watch Him pray with him. And 3rd, they all run. It's pretty tough. The saying is pretty tough. Where did well, where did it take him? Let's keep going. 26 or 57 and on says and those who laid hold of Jesus led him away to Caiaphas. The high priest were the scribes and the elders were assembled. But Peter followed him at a distance to the high priest courtyard. See, Peter ran away, but OK, he's in the distance now.
I still want to see what's going on. And he went in and sat with the servants to see the end. How's it going to pan out now? The chief priests and elders and all the council sought testimony, false testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward and said, this fella said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and build it
in three days. And the high priest rose and said to him, do you answer nothing? What is it? These men testify against you? But Jesus kept silent. You see, that's the interesting thing about Jesus. He doesn't need to talk. Solid people seldom need to defend themselves. And the high priest answered and said to him, I put you underoath by the living God. Tell us if you're the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, It is as you
said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of a man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming in the clouds of glory. Then the high priest tore his clothes and saying he has spoken blasphemy. What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you've heard his blasphemy, What do you think? They answered and said, he's they're deserving of death. And they spat in his face and
beat him. And the others struck him with the palms of their hands, saying, prophesied to us Christ, who's the one who struck you? Well, they put him through a mock trial. The men should have expected the men Jesus should have expected fairness from. He got the least of it, none of it where he should have got expected justice from. It was injustice. There was no foundation to anything that they had said or they just hated Jesus. That was it.
They had to come up with something and a false charge brought up. And As for the statement then when he was challenged, are you the Son of God? He said yes, knowing full well this would be used against him to get the death sentence from the Jewish leaders. But as we shall see, the statement here to get the death sentence, that was a different statement than they used for Pilot. That's what people like that always do. They use this here and that over there. Here it's about are you the
Messiah? Pilot couldn't care less about that. But for Pilot, they said something different. Well, let's see how Peter's handling all this. Peter's watching, you know. Now Peter said, continuing on 69 they were 74. Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard and the servant girl came to him saying, You also were with him, with the Jesus of Galilee. But he denied it before them all, saying, I do not know what you're saying.
And when he had gone out of to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who were there, this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth. But again he denied with an oath. I do not know the man. And a little later those who stood by by camp by came up and said to Peter, surely you're also one of them, for your speech betrays you. Then he began to curse and swear, saying, I do not know the man.
Immediately a rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the word of the word Jesus had said to him before. The rooster crows, You deny me three times. So he went out and wept bitterly. He didn't plan on denying Jesus, he just did it. He said. Peter denied Jesus three times. It's bad to fail once, to fail the same test three times. That's worse in our culture. Three time failure to strike out. I don't know what three times meant in that ancient history. I'm sure there's something to
it, but I haven't studied that. But nonetheless, there's significance there. It's not just one time Peter denied Jesus. He denied him 3 * 3 times Peter failed. There's something else here. Who was challenging him? Girls. I'm not saying anything against women and girls, OK? It's not the point. But these are the people he had. Leads to fear. If you fear me. If you're a soldier, some some fighter. But girls, they won't harm a man.
And it's just the words of 2 girls who get him to deny him. Where's Peter? And then he curses and swears he doesn't know him. But of course we're better than Peter, right? I mean, we wouldn't do that, would we? Come on, would we? Would we be like Peter? No, we wouldn't do that, would we? Do we? Do we deny Jesus or when do we deny Jesus?
You know, sometimes it takes so very, very precious little for us to just take a little bit of a detour, a little bit of an excursion, just a little bit of an avoidance. And we don't have to maybe say something about Jesus or we, we can compromise. And, you know, Peter had reason to fear because he gets killed. I might get killed. Well, he had Hacked Off the servant's ear before. Now he cowered in fear, he denied Jesus. Let's continue reading chapter 27 verse 15 now.
Now Jesus before Pilate, not the feast, the governor was accustomed to releasing the multitude to the multitude 1 prisoner whom they wished, and at the time they had a notorious prisoner called a Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas or Jesus who's called the Christ for he knew they had handed him over because of envy. Pilots are right through the whole charade.
He knew everything. While he was sitting on the judgement seat, his wife sent to him saying have nothing to do with that just man, for I've suffered many things today in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, which of the two do you want me to release to you? They said Barabbas. Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who's called the Christ?
They all said to him, let him be crucified. Then the governor said, what? What evil has he done? They all cried at all the more, saying, let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the molar did, saying, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person, you see to it. And all the people answered and said, his blood be on us and our children.
Then he released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. What did Pilate do? He was no better than anyone else. He condemned Jesus to be crucified. We have a number of people in this this section here. First there's Pilate. He has the power to set him free, but he has to answer to Rome. The emperor in Rome might not like if something goes wrong in Jerusalem. So he's got to think, got that to think about.
He's got to keep his job neat and tidy, make sure Jerusalem stays in order. He can't risk an uprising. But he also knows Jesus is innocent. But then he's got these pesky Jews to deal with. Then there's his wife. She's made her decision. She says set the man free. I dream bad things about him, and they're religious leaders, relentless. They're the worst of the worst. Then there's this mob. What is he supposed to do? He must have wished he was on
vacation or something. But to ease his conscience, his inner agony over what's going on, he relinquished control to the crowd and let the people have their way. And he hands these over, has him whipped and sent off to be crucified. And that's what they do. Let's continue reading. Now we're into math the chapter 27, verse 39, 35 and 39, it says in verse 35.
But then they crucified him. They've let him out to the to Golgotha, now to to Calvary. And there they crucified him and divided his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet. They divided my garments among them and from a closing cast lots jumping down to verse 39. And those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, Who you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. If you're the Son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise the chief priest, also mocking with the scribes and elders, said He saved others himself. He cannot save if he's the King of Israel. Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he wills have him. For he said, I am the Son of God. Even the robbers who were crucified with him reviled him with the same thing. The crowd mocked Jesus at the cross. The soldiers on duty.
They too had their fill of making life difficult for Jesus. They humiliated him, mocking him and torturing him, then nailed him to a cross. That bypasser by people blasphemed him, using words against him. Interestingly enough, the chief priesthood followed them there as well. They had to watch the whole thing go down. The suffering Jesus endured from humanity that day was total. There was no level of suffering that was spared on that day at all levels.
Emotionally, verbally, socially, physically, at every level from those who most trusted to those who most hated him at every level. It wasn't over yet. There was one more coming, He experienced abandonment was 45 to 50. Now from the 6th hour until the 9th hour there was darkness over all the land. In about the 9th hour Jesus cried in a loud voice Ellie, Ellie Lamasabatani with means my God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Some of those who stood there when they heard that said this man's calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine and put it on a Reed and offered him to drink. The rest said, leave him, let him alone, let's see if Elijah will come to save him. And was 50 And Jesus cried at it again, and with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.
God gave his Son over to death. First Second Corinthians 521 says, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we may become the righteousness of God in him. Even God could not look at his own Son when the sin of the world was on his shoulders. Jesus took it all. There was nothing left. Jesus traded places with us, the shame, the ridicule, the mockery, the punishment, the humiliation. We deserved all of it. And he took it and gave it, took it on himself.
Some theologians comment, well, did God actually forsake him? Well, we don't need to argue. We know God cannot look on sin. He destroys it in his infinite love. He took this path for us people. And because Jesus was perfect and holy and blamed this, He took that punishment on our behalf. Because he was holy, He didn't die forever. He died for three days and the God raised him back to life. And that's the story. We're looking forward to listening on Sunday morning.
When we come back here Sunday morning. Let's summarize this. The one main point of all of this is Jesus walked the path of suffering that we deserved. You see, first the leaders plotted to kill him. The woman she anointed him, Judas, what? He sold him. The disciples boasted to him about their loyalty. The disciples slept when they should be praying. When Jesus was arrested, the disciples fled. The religious leaders unjustly
accused and condemned him. Peter denied him, Pilate had him crucified, the soldiers mocked him, the crowd mocked him, and God turned his face away from him. It was either him or us. So the question what will we do with Jesus? Well, I would do nothing. That's a response. You can only do that for so long. So one day we will answer in this life, for a time it's possible to avoid him, to just
push him aside. We can do that, but there's words and scripture that teach us that's what's going to happen. Isaiah 45, verse 23, this prophet writes, I've sworn by myself. God says the word has gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return that to me. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. What happened in the story of Jesus? Everything that happened to Jesus was for a reason. Jesus experienced rejection so
we could experience acceptance. God is holy, He's just, and he rejects sin. We don't have what it takes to measure up. We can't meet the standard. We can't measure up, so we need him. Doesn't matter who we are. This gift stands today to everyone who repents and believes and surrenders their life to Jesus. Jesus died so you and I could have eternal life.