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Well, thank you, Guns, again for your welcome and it's a delight to be here with you. Today we turn to the testimony of Jesus, I beg your pardon, the testimony of Luke, the testimony of Luke, to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to do a fair bit of work in Luke's gospel.

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So it will require some flicking around with the Bible and taking on board what's being said. I make no apologies for that, I trust that you're accomplished Bible people and we'll be able to follow the thread of the sort of things that we're saying.

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I want to begin though by a point I've made earlier and that is that sometimes when we come across material such as in the gospels or in the Acts of the Apostles and it refers to the death of Jesus, not all of the atonement theology is there that we may expect. And sometimes seems odd to us that really you have to go to the epistles for these great

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words on reconciliation and on substitution and on penalty paid and on victory one over Satan. And the doctrinal teaching of the epistles is needed to understand the death of the Lord Jesus described for us in the gospels.

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And we wonder what the gospels are doing here if they're just telling the story and why they would be merely telling the story and not giving the significance of the story. But you see that's to misunderstand what the gospels are doing. The story has to be told and that's very important that they do tell the story.

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But stories as I say here, stories are more than mere stories. It is how they are told which brings out the significance of the story. So for example, it would be very interesting indeed for us to try to tell the story of Gallipoli from a Turkish point of view, the defense of the Fatherland, the way in which

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the British, perfidious British as ever, betrayed the Turks by keeping two great big ships that they had built just before the war and keeping them for the Royal Navy instead of giving them to the Turks and what had happened then. And the way that brave Turkish soldiers and sailors defended the straits against the British

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ships and then later on the astonishment of the men pouring ashore and how Kamalata Turk and the others rallied the troops and made sure that they didn't get very far on shore and so the story could go on. Be very interesting and how they gave their lifeblood for the defense of the Fatherland.

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So what we are thinking about is the most marvelous beginning and marvelous in one sense, beginning of Australian nationhood with the blood of our finest being shed on the beaches and the way in which they were so heroic and the pride we take in them, we never see it from the Turkish point of view who are after all only defending Bondi Beach after all and trying

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to keep people off, so to speak. So the way you tell a story reveals a great deal about the significance of the story. And so it is in the Gospels, they are not just the story of Jesus. He came, he taught, he was crucified, he was raised from the dead.

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No, it's the way in which the story is told which contains within itself what the significance of the story is. After all the Gospels are not just simply the story of the whole life of Jesus as a terrific amount of gaps in that case, all sorts of things which we would like to know like what

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he looked like for a start, silence as far as the Gospels were concerned, whole years, decades of his life are passed by in complete silence. And if you look at the Gospels and compare them, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, if you look at them and compare them, you'll see that the material in the Gospels is very carefully

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selected from a wider group of material, very carefully arranged, sometimes the Gospels writers seem to tell us the story in sequence, at other times they bring things together like a whole clutch of miracle stories for example. So it's carefully selected, carefully ranged and carefully, I can't think of the right

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word here, but I'm going to say carefully pointed. Things are said which if you know what's going on here, the penny will drop and just say oh yes of course, mainly because you know your Old Testament and again and again these weeks I've been stressing the importance of the Old Testament for an understanding of

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the New Testament and particularly the material about the death of Jesus. So the Gospels narratives are not empty of doctrine or not empty of theology, they are actually full of it, but full of it in a different way. Because you see what God does in our midst is not just come and shout at us in a megaphone,

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he comes and does something in our midst, he creates a story in our midst. He does, he takes history and he inserts himself in the person of his son into history and certain things happen and those certain things have immense significance and that is word of God for us.

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So the Gospels reflect this matter, this way that God has of approaching us. Now of course from the very beginning of the Gospel, each Gospel, they knew that the death was going to be the end. I suppose if you could think of the, could you imagine reading the Gospels for the very

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first time and not knowing what was going to happen? I met a lady like that once, I've been in for else, she just become a Christian and she was reading the Gospel, or she was very interested in Christianity, she was reading the Gospel for the first time and she said to me, do you know what Peter did?

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I said, well, he taught him, he betrayed the Lord and she was so amazed and astonished by this thing, at the impact on her was a reminder of what it would be like to read things for the very first time, which most of us, of course we're long time readers of the Gospel and we've sort of forgotten.

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So Lucas, he unfolds the Gospel story, of course he knows what's going to happen at the end, doesn't necessarily mean that every reader knows what's going to happen at the end and Luke, because he knows what's going to happen at the end, he gives us clues beforehand. We see something happening here, we sense that something dreadful is about to occur as

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we read Luke's Gospel, he sends the signals down the line, assuming that somebody's reading it, perhaps for the first time. By the by, in preparation for this, I read through Luke's Gospel again, it reminds me to say to you, it may be a good idea sometime in your Bible study group, simply to take a Gospel,

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marks the shortest, and prepare, you'd have to be prepared, and perhaps the best reader in the group, to read the whole thing at one sitting. I don't know how long it would take, maybe an hour, I don't know, but to read the whole Gospel, Luke would be even better, but Luke's the longest.

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Maybe you could read a section of it, five or six chapters at a time, or something like that, and I think you would be astonished at the way in which the story unfolds, and it gets us away from doing what we normally do, which is laboring half a chapter, half a chapter, half a chapter, or a verse, or something like this.

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It's a good way to read the Bible, that's fine, but to read it as an unfolding story also is pretty overwhelming. Well, what we need to look at, therefore, is what you may call the context of his death, if we do understand his death, and Luke gives us a particular context.

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Now, that was not the introduction, that's just the sort of introduction of the introduction, now we come to know of any kidding, that was the introduction. That was pretty good, in my opinion, I'm deliberately not looking in any particular direction here, but that's it, that's the introduction.

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We're done. We now come to the kingdom and the kingdom, the king and the kingdom, because we're now looking at Luke and saying, "What, how does he tell us the story? What do he think needs to be put in to give us the context so that we can understand the

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meaning of the death of Jesus, not just that he died, but the meaning of his death?" Now, four elements here, first, the promise of the kingdom. Once again, let me remind you that the New Testament writers, all of them, Luke in particular, though, was very conscious of the way in which the Old Testament stood there, ready to

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be fulfilled. The idols of the ancient world were dumb idols, dumb idols, they never spoke. One of the points that one of the ways in which Israel knew there, God was the true God, was that he spoke, and what he said came to pass.

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God says what the future is going to be, then the future happens, and that's one of the ways in which God demonstrates his Godness, because human beings can't do that. We can only marginally organize the future, and it's always with question mark over it, but God shows his Godness by saying, "I'm going to do this," and doing it.

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Now, the Old Testament is really his big book of, "I'm going to do this." The interesting thing is you can read the Old Testament and say, "Well, something's going to happen," and then you read the New Testament and say, "Wow." The Old Testament is a sort of portrait of Jesus in advance, but it took the real Jesus

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to come and fit the portrait. It wasn't as though you could take your Old Testament and write a gospel in advance, but when the gospel is written, you say, "Yes, of course, it's the key that fits the lock." Now look at Luke, chapter 1, look at how he begins, 1 verse 1.

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Many have undertaken a drop. We're not going to read the whole thing, don't worry. Many have undertaken a drop in a count of the things that have been fulfilled, keyword, fulfilled amongst us, just as they were handed down by those who were eyewitnesses and so forth, fulfilled.

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In other words, what you're going to read here is the fulfillment of that great Word of God, which is the Old Testament, the promises of God. Now, in the Old Testament, the story of the Old Testament is the story of Israel. We see Israel had started as a family, or started as one man in a sense, then a family

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and then a nation, and at each stage God asserts his kingship over the man Abraham, over his family, over the nation. God asserts his kingship by giving them a covenant, coming into a covenant relationship. The word covenant means promise, a covenant relationship with his people.

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So God the King asserts his kingship over his people by way of a covenant, a promise. In the story that we read in the Old Testament, one of the great high points of course is when they get a king. Now God was the king, and he made that point clear to them, but when they decided they

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would like their own human king, like the nations around about, God provided them first with Saul, but eventually with the great king, namely King David. And so in the Old Testament, the kingdom of David is one of the great high points, and of course David, and the line of David, was going to be the line of the promised Messiah.

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They had David as their king, but they continued to sin, and they continued therefore to suffer the punishment of God. When they sinned against God, they were punished for it, as God said they would be. And ultimately, the people of Israel suffered the catastrophe of division, with Judah and

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the south becoming the little kingdom. And Israel in the north, the bigger one, and then Israel gets dispersed amongst the nations and almost disappears. And little Judah in the south then suffers when the Babylonians come in there.

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Jerusalem is destroyed, and the people were taken off into exile. They do come back, they rebuild Jerusalem, but then other nations come in. And when the New Testament opens, we discover that the people of Israel of course are living under the rule they are enslaved by, if you like, the Romans.

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And the sort of lackeys of the Romans. And this is not just a historical accident, one of those things. It's actually part of the unfolding judgment of God upon his people, that instead of living as they did in the days of David as an empire, they were living under the rule of an under

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the brutal rule of another empire. Once surprising then, when the story opens, we see in 1 verse 5 in the time of Herod King of Judea. Herod was a sort of an ally of the Romans.

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So in the time of Herod King of Judea, we introduce to a priest called Zachariah. Zachariah is the father, Elizabeth is the mother of John the Baptist. Here we have the stirring, the first stirring, the first little signs that God is going to act to deliver his people.

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Look at how John the Baptist is described. In say verse 16, chapter 1 verse 16, many of the people of Israel, he will bring back to the Lord their God. He will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of

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the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make up people ready and prepared for the Lord. The Lord is coming. The Lord is going to come to redeem his people.

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The Lord is going to come to set up his kingdom once more. And John the Baptist is the forerunner and he's going to prepare the people by calling for and receiving the repentance of their hearts. God is acting.

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Furthermore, as we read then a little later on, when Mary encounters the angel, look at verse 32, 1 verse 32, where she hears about Jesus. Look at how Jesus is described. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high.

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The Lord God will give him, here we are right back again into Old Testament and so forth, he will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will never end. So the Lord is coming and Jesus is going to be the king in the Lord's kingdom and his

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kingdom is going to be an everlasting kingdom and he's in the line of David. All this, if you knew your Old Testament, you'd be a quiver with the promises of God about to come true. The fulfillment of the promises, we read chapter 1 verse 68 following.

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This is where Zachariah is prophesying, praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel. He has come and has redeemed, notice that word, he's redeemed, he's people, he's purchased them back from the slavery in which they find themselves. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David.

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As he said through his holy prophets long ago, salvation from our enemies, from the hand of all who hate us. And so he goes on, I won't read it all, but so he goes on. And he says, "You child will be called the prophet of the most high."

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This is verse 76, "You will go before the Lord to prepare the way for him." This is John the Baptist, "to give people the knowledge of salvation through hitting the Romans for six." No, it doesn't say that actually.

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He says through the forgiveness of their sins. Their political and military problems are spiritual problems at root. And the solution to their military and political problems is not an insurrection, its salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.

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So says Zachariah. Well the promises are going to be fulfilled and our promises of forgiveness, of redemption, of salvation. Again and again in these early chapters we're reminded of the political realities.

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Chapter two, look at that verse one, "In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a censor should be taken of the entire Roman world. When Jesus is born it's because he's had to go to Bethlehem, the city of David, of course, to fulfill the rules of that census."

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Well have a look at the beginning of three, chapter three verse one, "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrak of Galilee, His brother Philip, tetrak of Iteria, and so forth and so on." In other words the political situation they found themselves in is right there as part

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of the context of the ministry of Jesus. But you've got to understand it in spiritual terms as the punishment of the Lord upon them for the guilt that Israel had incurred. One or two other little points, two verse thirty-eight, where we read the prophetess Anna, "Look

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at how she describes what's going to come." She says, "Coming up to them at that very moment, the baby's in the temple. She gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to what, the redemption of Jerusalem, the liberation of Jerusalem in other words.

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God was about to do something mighty to redeem His people. They weren't expecting a Jewish military force, they were expecting God to do something to set His people free." Hence the promise of the kingdom.

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Then comes John the Baptist, then comes Jesus, the power of the kingdom. In chapter three we see a reference to the ministry of John the Baptist, and it's a very successful ministry, somewhat weird in appearance. He preaches strongly, powerfully.

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Look at three verse seven, "You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the coming wrath, produce fruit in keeping with repentance, don't say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father. I tell you out of these stones, God could raise up children for Abraham and so forth and

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so on." A fairly powerful potent stuff, not the sort of thing you get at nine thirty Sunday mornings in most Anglican churches. Unfortunately, and John great crowds come to John, the soldiers, tax collectors, some

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of the leadership and there's a genuine work of repentance begun amongst the people he is preparing the way for the coming of the Lord. And he prepares the way by preaching and by through his preaching people coming to repentance. Their hearts are open, they are ready to hear the word of God.

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John himself points out that he is only the Forerunner. Look at verse sixteen, "John said, 'I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to one tie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, the fire of judgment."

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As you can see from the next verse. Then comes Jesus. The ministry of Jesus begins in chapter four. Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit, Mark

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says he was cast out by the Spirit, strong word, into the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. The ministry of Jesus begins with conflict, but doesn't begin with conflict against his human enemies, they had yet to develop, but it begins with this intense spiritual conflict.

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Its model so much is not here in order to tell us how to beat temptation, that might have that effect, but that's not why it's here, it's here to sort of redo the history of Israel. Just as Israel was sent out into the wilderness and was tempted in the wilderness and fell in the wilderness, so the Son of God goes forth to war against the evil one.

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He goes into the desert, he goes into the wilderness and is tempted powerfully three times. And as we know by trusting in knowing and trusting in the Word of God, he repels Satan, sends him away and overcomes him. The ministry of Jesus begins with a great victory against the spiritual forces that

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assail him then and throughout his ministry. Very significant verse 13, if you've got it there 4/13, when the devil had finished all this tempting or testing as we may call it, he left him until an opportune time. And throughout the unfolding story that Luke gives us, the evil one comes in or his minions,

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the evil spirits appear from time to time until very significantly there's another reference to the evil one himself right up there against the death of Jesus. I'll come to that a little later. So Jesus begins his ministry with great power.

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In the power of the Spirit, he and by the Word of God, he sends Satan away and determines to continue the course that he believes rightly that he has been called to do. He gives a kingdom charter, he goes and speaks to his own people in Capernaum and he gives a kingdom charter in chapter 4 verse 18 and following, quoting Isaiah.

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The Spirit of the Lord is on me, he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners to recover sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. Or you could summarise it by saying, I have come that I may preach the coming of the kingdom

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of God. Because that's not a bad little description of what God's kingdom will be like. Of course it's literal because he did give sight to the blind, but it's metaphoric in the spiritual in the sense that he gives sight to the spiritually blind and he releases

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those in captivity to the evil one. He comes to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. And so the ministry of Jesus begins with power, with great power, he exercises that power against the evil spirits.

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Have a look for example at 4 verse 31 and following, or 33. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out in the top of his eyes, ha, what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?

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I know who you are, the holy one of God, be quiet, Jesus said. Come out of him, very, very simple words, isn't it? We had a youth group once, or a children's club that was down in Ultimo, and the children in Ultimo in those days, of course, not now.

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The children in Ultimo in those days were fairly wild lot. And we used to have to discipline them sometimes by physically restraining them and so forth. Mary Dean was in charge of this club at one stage. I inherited it from him and anyhow, it didn't seem to be going so well, but I'll never

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forget, that's very unfair, I'll never forget Alison McCann, who was a friend of ours and a schoolteacher came one night, and she never laid a finger on any of the children. She just said, sit down, and they did. She said, now I want you to listen, and they did.

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And the really powerful people don't need to do something physical, really powerful people just pick up the phone and it happens. Really powerful people just speak and it happens. And that's what Jesus is like here.

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He doesn't need to sort of go through mumbo, jumbo, incantations, holding things aloft. He doesn't need to go through all the nonsense you find in films on possession or something like that. He just says, be still, come out, and the demon comes out and has to obey Jesus.

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That's the power of this kingdom that Jesus is introducing into the world. His power against Satan, his power of evil spirits, his power against death. In just four verse 38, for example, we hear about Simon's mother-in-law suffering from a high fever, and that sounds to us like a fairly, you just take an aspirin, it'll be

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okay. No, a high fever meant she was on the point of death. She is very, very seriously ill mother-in-law at this point. You know, behind every successful man, there's a very surprised mother-in-law.

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Yes, okay. So this dear mother-in-law is very, very ill indeed at the point of death. And Jesus simply again speaks. He rebukes the fever.

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It leaves her and she's so well, she can get up straight away and get on with the work. That's power. That's the power of Jesus. And right through this section, again and again, look at four verse 40, for example.

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The sun was setting, people bought Jesus all at various kinds of sickness and He laid hands and He healed them and so forth and so on. The whole picture is of this great ministry going forward. But notice that it isn't just healing people, he's not a faith healer.

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Notice what he says he's come to do. People come to him and they try to keep him where he was, that was in verse 42. But he said, I must preach the good news of the kingdom to other towns also. That's why I've been sent.

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Yes, he did heal. Yes, he did sort of exercise the powers of the kingdom. It's as if to say, look in the new world that's coming, there will be no sickness. There will be no death.

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There will be no evil spirits. He's bringing the new world into this present world to show what it's like. But His purpose in coming, looking again at 42, is 43, I must preach the good news of the kingdom.

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That's why I've come. So preaching takes priority, he's preaching, announcing the kingdom and calling people to repent. You see that in 5 verses 1 to 11, where he gathers his disciples together, he attaches

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people to him, his first disciples there. Interesting little section there isn't it, in verse 8. Jesus does the miracle which astonishes them and Peter says, he falls at Jesus' feet and says, go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man.

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He reminded once again that the ministry of Jesus, not just about faith healing, it's really about the state of the heart, it's really about the guilt of sin, it's really about forgiveness, it's really about the deep personal and true issues that assail us, which have led to all this disease and illness and suffering and unhappiness in the world.

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Same point in the next, have a look at chapter 5 verse 21, where the man is let down through the roof and Jesus says verse 20, when Jesus saw their faith they wanted healing for the man, he said, son, your sins are forgiven. He went right to the heart of the person's problem and then of course the man was healed

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as well. Well Jesus comes and frankly transforms lives and again and again, particularly in Luke, but of course in all the gospels, we see people have come in touch with Jesus and walked away changed, transformed lives, is central to the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

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Now I had a particular reference here, but I feel it's been written down wrong, so I can't do the one, four of us, 27, five verse 27, is that it? Oh yes, Levi, there it is. After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector, this is five 27 tax collectors were fairly

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despised as you know they were often collaborating with the enemy and he says follow me and Levi got up and left everything and followed him, it's that left everything that tells you that he's been transformed. What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry

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everything to him in prayer, oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to him in prayer. We are friends who come into your life who change your life forever and he is the greatest friend, he is the friend of friends and when Jesus comes into the human life, he changes

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it forever, he is a great life transformer and look at what they said, Levi held a great banquet for Jesus to his house, a large crowd of tax collectors and others, scum of the earth frankly, we are eating with him and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belong to their sect complained to his disciples, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors

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and sinners and Jesus says not they healthy, I have come to help the self diagnosed healthy, I have come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, what a great answer straight to the heart of it, that's the power of the kingdom, that's the power of the kingdom it transforms lives.

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The kingdom is something yet to come, clearly when Jesus, so we are now into points three, the presence of the kingdom, clearly when Jesus announces the kingdom it is to come, they are looking for the kingdom, they are on tiptoes watching for the way in which God is going to erupt his kingdom, releases people, transform their situation, redeem Israel, redeem Jerusalem,

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they are looking tiptoes for the kingdom of God to come and when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray father your kingdom come he says, so there is an element in the New Testament all the way through of the coming kingdom, it is not yet come we are looking for the coming of the kingdom but there is also more than element in the New Testament and Luke's gospel

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is typical that the kingdom has come it is both future and present, have a look for example let's move on now to 1120, 1120 where Jesus is accused by his enemies of casting out demons by the power of Satan and Jesus strongly repudiates this and he asks verse 20 if I drive out demons by the finger of God by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come to

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you yes the kingdom is future but there is a sense in which the kingdom is right there and now confronting them with choice confronting them with a decision which they have to make look at verse 23 he who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters the kingdom has been asserted right into their midst there it is now they must do

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something about the kingdom because it has arrived how can that be well Jesus speaks of that a number of times for example 13 verses 8 and following sorry 18 13 18 and following where he talks about the kingdom is like I got that right yep he talks about the kingdom as a mustard seed that's right the mustard seed is very small but it's going to grow into

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something huge and he says the kingdom is here and yet its future is still to come it's both here and here and now and then the kingdom is arrived and yet it's not fully arrived is what he's saying in that sort of parable or look at verse 20 what shall I compare the kingdom of God it's like yeast that a woman took a mix to a large amount of flour until

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it worked its way all through the dough it's here it's working it's invisible but it's here or classically in 17 verse 20 17 verse 20 when he was asked where is this kingdom where is the kingdom and he says to his interrogators the kingdom of God does not come with careful observation nor will people say here it is or there it is because the kingdom of God

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is now careful here he says within you it doesn't mean inside you personally he means in the midst of you plural the kingdom of God is in the midst of you is the better translation there the kingdom is present how so well point four of course in the person of the king the king is here that's why the kingdom is here John the Baptist preached the kingdom Jesus

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also preached the kingdom but whereas John the Baptist was a prophet of the kingdom Jesus was the king in the kingdom and that's the difference between the two he has all sorts of interesting titles now I'm not going to go not going to get you to look them up I'll tell you what they are he is called the son of the most high and the son of David 1 verse

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32 if you're making notes 1 verse 32 he's called the son of God 1 verse 35 he is called Lord 1 verse 43 the mother of my Lord has come to see me says Elizabeth he is called Christ the Lord in 2 11 by the angels he's called the coming one in 3 verse 16 in other words the predicted one the one of promise he is called the son of God in 4 verse 1 again he is called

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the holy one of God in 4 verse 34 he is called the Lord in 5 verse 8 he is called by a special title the son of man the son of man in 5 verse 24 which goes back to Daniel chapter 7 in a picture of this amazing ruling figure the son of man in Daniel chapter 7 he's called himself the Lord of the Sabbath interestingly in 6 verse 5 the Lord of the Sabbath and he

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is called a prophet in 7 verse 16 but immediately he's called a prophet he corrects this and says yes a prophet but much more than a prophet he commands the sea and it abays him 7 verse 25 all these titles and many more and that's just from the beginning of Luke's gospel indicate that we're not dealing here with a John the Baptist we're dealing here with the Lord

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himself the king in God's kingdom indeed he draws a comparison between himself and John the Baptist at one point and he says John was the greatest of those who have come but the least in the kingdom is greater than he and I think by a phrase least of the kingdom he's speaking ironically of himself the least of the kingdom is greater than he have a look at the sort of

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history of Israel that he gives in chapter 20 chapter 20 where he gives a parable verse 9 he talks about a a vineyard a man planted a vineyard now you have to know your Old Testament here you have to realize that in Isaiah the vineyard is Israel so a man plants a vineyard goes away for a long time at harvest time he sends a servant so they'll give him some of the fruit of the vineyard the

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tenants beat him and sent him away empty handed he sends another servant to see that verse 11 but one also beaten treated shamefully sent away sent a third they wounded him then the owner of the vineyard said what shall I do I will send not another servant I will send my son who my love perhaps they will respect him and when the tenants saw him they said that's the air let's kill him and the

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inheritance will be ours now that's the history of Israel so to speak that's his version of the history of Israel when the prophets have come you've rejected them now the sun has come what do you propose to do with the air the sun now all of this is building up to a picture of how important Jesus is you're not just dealing here with Isaiah Jeremiah Zechial Moses even you're dealing

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here with someone who is unique unique and shares with God the divine nature as well as with human beings the human nature at least that's how you sum it up I think in the end so the king has arrived why what's he planning to do we've already seen he says he's come to preach if you go back to 9 verse 53 you'll see another reason that he gives is to why he's come 9 verse 53 I'm

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big a partner got the wrong reference there it's 55 the disciples think that he ought to destroy some Samaritans who have been rude to him and he says don't you know what kind of spirit you are of the son of man he said did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them even Samaritans he came not to destroy but to save or go back to 5 verse 32 5 verse 32 where he says and we've

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already looked at this not the healthy you need a doctor but the sick I've come not to call the righteous but sinners he says to repentance and then 19 verse 10 19 verse 10 he speaks to Zacchaeus for the son of man came to seek and to save what is lost and of course it's in this gospel you

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have the marvelous chapter 15 with its three parables the lost sheep the lost coin and the lost boys because both brothers were lost really and the way in which the Father God reaches out and seeks the lost sheep and seeks until he finds it and in that word until he seeks until he finds it in that word until we have a cross because he had to go to the cross to find his sheep

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the coming of the kingdom okay throughout the gospel there are hints about the gathering storm remember right back at the beginning the word to Mary this is if you want to look it up to verse 39 where Mary is warned in these terms and this is sort of a prelude to what's going to happen sorry it's not 39 it's 35 this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in

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Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce your heart also you're not just telling the story is he he's he's he's warning us in advance a sword we don't know yet if you're just reading this the first time you say oh oh all the joy of Christmas as we now know it and right in the middle of it there's this

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sort of warning and a sword will pierce your heart also to his mother or take the fate of John the Baptist that we read of they need to look it up in but John the Baptist of course is arrested and then later murdered the four-rounder of Jesus is put to death there's a reference to that in 319 or Satan having a go at Jesus at the very beginning is again an indication of the spiritual forces

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gathering up against the son of man and remember what I've said 413 he left him until an opportune movement should arrive when he went and preached at Copernium they got up and drove him out of the town this is 429 if you're making notes they drove him out of the town took him to the brow the hill on which the town was built to throw him over the cliff so angry were they

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at what he said from the very beginning his ministry was marked by rejection hatred scorn and violent action we've already referred I've already referred in 9 verse 53 to the Samaritans why did the disciples want to bring fire down on the Samaritans because when Jesus wanted to stay at the Samaritans for a little while the people didn't welcome him 9 verse 53

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from almost the beginning there is criticism by the leadership we won't look it up now but 5 verse 21 for example 5 verse 30 there is criticism by the Pharisees and the lawyers and others Sadducees they are against Jesus and they begin plotting against Jesus very early on indeed they see the danger now why did they do that just didn't like the look of

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his face I take it because he was preaching the kingdom and in preaching the kingdom and doing the mighty acts of the kingdom he was threatening to disturb the order in which they found themselves in which they were living relatively comfortably with the ramens were they prepared to see in this one the king who was to come was he the king to be their mighty couldn't possibly be the king

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he was too humble too lowly too insignificant to be the king that they were expecting all they could see in the coming of Jesus was troubled and when they listened to what he said he was very critical of them they were part of the problem not part of the solution and so naturally they gathered their forces against him he warns his disciples 5 verse 33 he refers to himself there as a bridegroom

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he's asked why his disciples don't fast they seem to be rather happy group and he says well the guests don't fast while the bridegroom is with them but the time is coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them 5 verse 35 in those days they will fast so he's projecting forward to the awful possibility of his own death and then as time goes on of course he predicts his

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own death 9 verse 21 for example we won't look at it now but 9 verse 21 and again in chapter 12 verse 49 and following he predicts his own death in fact he says he's going to be baptized but not a nice water baptism he's going to be baptized he's going to be engulfed in a tidal wave of death it's a very striking strong image he's going to be drowned in the death that awaits him

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not drown physically he's going to be engulfed by death and that's how he describes it and it's talking about a baptism they were trying to kill him a contest over his authority was in train there were darkening clouds and towards the end of his life in particular Jesus talks about in this sort of apocalyptic language about the end of the world the destruction of the

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temple about signs in the sky about the darkness that was about to come and we see him talking about that say in chapter 21 of Luke when you get to that part of the gospel you'll see that he talks in these big terms about the evils that are about to come upon the world and I think we see in these evils not just the historic future but also what was going to happen to him

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it was a description of his own death now let's turn particularly to the end of the gospel and see how Luke gives us the death of Jesus 22 verse 3 Judas someone had to betray Jesus he wasn't easy to arrest Judas is the one and he gives he accepts money he was a greedy person

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Satan used the ordinary sins didn't he of this ordinary man to bring about this horrible crime verse 6 he consented and watched an opportunity to hand Jesus over them when no crowd was present but look at verse 3 then Satan entered Judas called a scarif remember Satan went away to an opportune time he's been there but now at this opportune time he enters Judas

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and inspires this weakened greedy man to this awful crime Satan has struck against Jesus Luke is beginning to give us the context of the immediate event Jesus scatters his people together his disciples together for the last what we call the last supper which in Luke's gospel is a Passover the Passover as you know was a highly symbolic dinner

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it was a dinner in remembrance it was an anniversary dinner it was intended to remind people of a great redemption a great salvation interestingly earlier in the gospel Luke has said Jesus was on his exodus use that words exodus and so it is here he comes to the Passover meal highly symbolic when Israel was saved through the shed blood of a lamb and Jesus takes the Passover feast

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and transforms it well not quite transforms it it's still there but he applies it to himself the true lamb look at how he describes it here he takes the cup they used to say certain words over the cup and then over the bread to remind them of what was going on and he says verse 15 I've eagerly desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer I tell you why I will not eat it again now

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this is he's swearing an oath here he's saying he's making a promise let me say it's not just a casual remark I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God he has a work to do and he's committed himself to doing it I won't eat the Passover again until I eat it in the kingdom the kingdom is about to come and after taking the cup he gave thanks and says take

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this and divide it among you in other words each of you share of this if I tell you again I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes now Lucas telling us here that this coming death of Jesus is to do with the coming of the kingdom of God God's great act of redemption liberation setting people free his great act of reversing the guilty verdict for that's what it

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was and when he took the bread he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body so each one of them participates in the body in the in the bread and hence symbolically the body given for you Jesus the great substitute like the lamb whose blood was shed and whose blood was put on the lintel of the door the one who died in the place of the elder son this one Jesus

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gives his body for you do this in remembrance of me he says and so the last supper the Passover becomes the last supper the last supper becomes the Lord's supper which to this very day we do in remembrance and then he took the cup and said this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you he says and they drink that too and it's a reminder of Exodus again and the

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way in which the elders drank or was sprinkled with blood sprinkled with sacrificial blood remember sprinkled with say as a acceptance of the covenant the old covenant and here is the new covenant in my death in the death of Jesus God is entering into a new covenant with his people the new covenant predicted by Jeremiah the new covenant with his people remember the covenant is the tool by which

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God rules over his people God is setting up his kingdom through the death of Jesus now there's much more here the way in which he describes himself for example as the servant and he says I am among you as one who serves verse 27 the way in which he says I'm going to give you my kingdom verse 29 just as my father conferred one on me so that you may eat and drink at my table in my

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kingdom my kingdom is coming through what is about to occur is what he's saying and yet this was not a military rebellion as we read when in chapter 22 a little bit later when they asked we strike with our swords this is verse 50 and one of them actually did Jesus says no more of this and he healed the man who lost his ear in that fracas this was not a military insurrection

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Jesus is not that sort of king his kingdom goes deals with much deeper and truer issues than merely roaming over Lordship over Israel all through the story that now unfolds there is the theme of judgment Judas has judged Jesus and rejected him Peter decides that he cannot identify himself with Jesus and in that sense reject him Pilate Pontius Pilate sits in judgment on Jesus the judgment

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of Pilate is both negative and positive it is after all Pilate who puts him to death and yet Pilate says verse 4 23 4 I find no basis for a charge against this man and he reiterates that in verse 14 you bought me this man I've examined him in your presence I found no basis for the charge against him there's a thread right the way through this material in which people declare that

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Jesus is innocent beginning here with Pontius Pilate Pilate sent him to King Herod notice that Herod sends him back and notice how Pilate describes this verse 15 I find no basis for the charge against him neither has Herod for he has sent him back so Pilate testifies to the innocence of Jesus Herod testifies to the innocence of Jesus when Jesus is put to death there are two

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thieves one on each side of him and one of them rails against him the other one verse 40 rebuke the first criminal and said don't you fear God since you are under the same sentence we are punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve but this man has done nothing wrong the centurion after the death of Jesus verse 47 seeing what had happened praised God and said

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surely this was a righteous man and then as a sort of last testimony to the righteousness of Jesus and the innocence of Jesus there is the word of Jesus himself verse 34 for as they crucified him Jesus in absolutely remarkable and unforgettable words says Father forgive them they don't know what they're doing who but Jesus it's for this reason I love quoting it even an enemy of the Christian

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gospel once said Socrates died like a philosopher Jesus died like a God for he forgave so Jesus is declared innocent by his judges he's declared innocent by the criminal beside him he's declared innocent by the centurion put him to death and at the very point where you may expect one of us to be yelling out and screaming and abusing and cursing you find him enacting his

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innocence and his righteousness by praying for those who are putting him to death our judgment on him as he dies and we're invited to take part in that judgment that's what Luke's doing he's telling us the story he's putting us inside the story do you see it's only stories that will do that he's not writing a doctrinal textbook here he's doing something far more significant

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he's taking you and putting you inside a story and he's getting you to judge he's getting you to take part in the story too and as you read the story you hear what Pilate has to say and say yeah that's right he was innocent you hear what Herod had to say and you say yes it's true you hear what the dying thief had to say and you say yes that's true you hear what the centurion had to say

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you say it's true and when you hear what Jesus had to say yes I know it's true this man had done nothing wrong and he didn't just suffer a death like being knocked over in a car accident he suffered a judicial death a death in which the world and all his enemies combined together to give the great big negative over his life this was judicial assassination and it was a judicial

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sentence a sentence of condemnation and it was a sentence in which they believed they were doing the will of God and they were doing it in a way in which portrayed the will of God because if you remember the Old Testament itself says he who is hanged upon a tree is cursed by God and so they were enacting the curse of God upon this totally innocent man

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and at this time of crisis we have this extraordinary interchange which I love so much and think of so often where the title on the notice above him with terrible irony but it's triple irony really isn't it or double irony this is the king of the Jews and where one of the thieves says aren't you the Christ save yourself and us but the other criminal again you see are you in this story

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yes it's an in this story involves us you could never tell this story in one of the epistles yet the pistols work differently don't they this is indispensable for us for we have to identify ourselves in this story too and there's the one thief that rejects him utterly and the other thief that says we have deserved what we're getting and you see he speaks for us there

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for you will never see the truth about Jesus unless you say we deserve what he is getting we deserve until you see yourself identified with the dying thief upon the cross receiving only what you deserve and with nowhere to go hopeless utterly hopeless and yet able to turn to Jesus and say remember me how could he say such a thing how could you

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say to someone on a cross that you're going to have a kingdom one day remember me when you come in your kingdom it's Andy when you recognize your own hopelessness that you could possibly turn into such a hopeless savior and say remember me when you come into your kingdom nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling naked come to thee for dress foul eye to the fountain fly

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wash me savior or I die and Jesus said to him I tell you the truth today you will be with me in paradise your sins are forgiven remember when the queen came some of us do 1954 the gothic wasn't it coming through the heads half a million people just to see majesty was enough standing in the show ground all that in the hot sun waiting to have the land Rover went by

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there she is there she is the pomp and circumstance of majesty utterly completely totally different from the majesty we see here Jesus reigns from the cross his throne is a cross and it's not as though that is a moment in his life and he moves on now like there were lots of incidents in his life this is the pivotal moment in the life of Jesus the saving moment for the

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rest of us and if and I've said this to you before again and again because it is the teaching of the New Testament unless the cross is at the very center of your faith and piety that I can't understand how you can be Christian at all because it's the death of Jesus in which the son of God loved you and gave himself for you how can you ever forget it how can a single day go by

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when you forget it how can you allow yourself to be ruled and reigned by anybody else than the son of God who loved you and gave himself for you the dying thief who had absolutely nothing knew it is another one in this story too isn't there there's Burabas what about him what a hopeless drunk thrown into prison for insurrection and murder he knew what was coming to him he knew he deserved it

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and suddenly there was a substitute suddenly he was released suddenly even a hopeless case like Burabas was allowed to go free because someone had taken his place in my place condemned he stood sealed my pardon with his blood that's what Lucas telling us here and the veil of the temple was torn in two because at the point of the cross God and man were reconciled God and man were reconciled

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at the point of the cross the sun stopped shining for the judgment of God was there too for God's judgment was also against his son so to speak not because he hated his son for the son and the father are one but rather because he bore in himself the penalty for our sin but this great know over Jesus culminated as you know in a great yes for on the first day of the week there was a resurrection

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from the dead and Jesus rose again appeared to his disciples and was clearly Lord of all look as the end of the story in chapter 24 where he meets with his disciples and he says why are you so surprised this is 44 24 44 everything must be fulfilled written about me in the law of Moses the prophets and the Psalms and he opened their minds to understand

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the scriptures look again reminding us it's all in the Bible he said this is what was written the Christ will suffer and dries from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached notice the the content of the gospel repentance and forgiveness of sins notice the scope of the gospel the dying Jesus on the cross opens the kingdom of heaven to all

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nations he dies for his church he dies for his people his intention in dying was for you his people the quality of his death was for all all may come his people do come you he says are witnesses to these things a sentence repentance and forgiveness is a reprise of my name to all nations beginning to choose them you and my witnesses I'm going to send you and so forth and sorry this stuff

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has been written here for 2000 years you could trace this back virtually 2000 years it was written 2000 years ago it was absurd ridiculous even to write it down how could repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached in his name to all nations how could you say that the kingdom of this man who died and across would be a kingdom that went on forever and ever how could you say that what I'm

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saying to you that the New Testament prophecies have proved absolutely true we we forget it because it's obvious we know it's true but how astonishing it is that it has been preached to all nations even in Tasmania it's reached the ends of the world it's he said it wouldn't it has you see only God can say what's going to happen and then what does happen and he's done it again and if you say well

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did did the kingdom of God come I have to ask you well did the Jesus did the kingdom of Jesus come and you know as well as I do there are millions and millions of people all over the world and down through history for whom Jesus is King Jesus is Lord whatever it's just a fact of history that the kingdom of Jesus came and that it was introduced by his death on the cross in which forgiveness was

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secured the evil one defeated and Jesus attached his people to himself this is the great work that Jesus has done for us and our gratitude should be if we know ourselves as we ought it should be unending and I don't suppose there'll ever be time and all eternity to praise him sufficiently for what he did for us that day when he died on the cross that's praying now gracious God and

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loving Heavenly Father we thank you for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for the coming into existence of his kingdom which is your kingdom we thank you that since that moment there's always been a kingdom of Jesus in the world and that kingdom grows and grows we praise you for the coming of the kingdom we pray that your kingdom will come your will may be done in earth as it is in heaven

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and dear Lord and loving Heavenly Father we pray that you will give us hearts to praise and thank our dear Savior the best of friends who died for us on the cross that we may have the joy of forgiveness of knowing you as our Heavenly Father and of being owned and possessed by the Holy Spirit and so we pray these things in his dear name Amen