Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.northharris.freechurch.org/sermons/24448/161022-am/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Good morning. A warm welcome to the service this morning. It's good to see some visitors or returning visitors with us this morning and you're especially welcome. There's tea and coffee after the service. If you're able to stay behind, please do so. The notices have been on the screen before the service began, so if I'm and I'll just flick through them. We'll just take a moment to go through. Evening service is at 6. Evening service is at 6 and you're all welcome to that. Kirk session meets tomorrow night at half past 6, so please note that. Ladies' fellowship on Monday and possibly Thursday. You'll get details of that if you're in the fellowship. Road to recovery on Tuesday and is Little Fishers on this week, I'm not sure. No, no Little Fishers this week, but Road to Recovery on Tuesday as usual at half past 7. I hope to be on holiday from this coming Wednesday for a week and this Wednesday night the prayer meeting will be taken by John McSween, so that's a treat for you. If I'm not travelling, I think I'm going to try and log in myself. And the services next Sunday, both ends will be taken by the Reverend Kenny I, who was in [1:21] Stornoway. Any pastor, speak to one of the elders in the first instance and Ian McCritchie is on standby if anyone should need him. Prayer meeting on Wednesday, as you've got there. [1:34] No jam and connect over the course of this week. The services next Sunday, you've got that there, sorry, as well. There's an intimation in Stornoway movement for a mission and you have that on the screen. Rita Nakemba, the founder of Dwelling Places Uganda, will be in Lewis in October and she will be speaking in Stornoway 25th of October at half past 7 at the MA Hall. [1:59] I know she's also in Graver Park on Wednesday evening at half past 7, which is our prayer meeting. But if there's any who can't make Tuesday and who really want to hear what she asked to say, you can have a free pass to Graver for the evening. And Shona can write things, transport if required. I think that's all the intimation. So let's begin now this time of worship and we'll stand to sing to God's praise. We'll sing Psalm 100. Psalm 100. [2:29] All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with mirth, the Lord with cheerful voice. His praise forth tell, come ye before him and rejoice. [2:39] praise. For people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with Lord with cheerful voice. Him serve with prayer. Come ye before him and rejoice. Know that the Lord is God in Without a way he did us take [3:39] We are his block he doth us feed Our morning sheep he doth us take Oh enter then his gates with praise Approach with joy his courts unto Praise Lord and bless his name always For it is simply so to do For quite the Lord our God is good [4:44] His mercy is forever sure His truth at all times firmly stood And shall promise to it Let's unite our hearts in prayer. Let's pray. [5:24] Amen. Our Heavenly Father we thank you for this your day and we thank you for this call this invitation that you've given us to come and to join together in person and join together our hearts in worship of you. [5:48] And we thank you Lord that you've given us the desire and the opportunity to be here that we have the freedom to meet comfortably in this place. [5:59] With that determination in our hearts to come and to give you the worship that you are due. So we ask Lord that you would help us as the psalmist append these words that we would unite our voices and that we would sing from our hearts to the God who is worthy of all our praise. [6:22] To all people on earth. Every nation, every tribe, every tongue. This is a call that goes out to all places, to all people at all times. To sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. [6:35] To serve you Lord with mirth, with joy. And to tell forth the message of the gospel. So help us Lord we pray to do so. [6:45] We thank you that you are our God and we thank you that as we sing the words of the psalm we are reminded of who you are. We thank you that you are our maker, our creator, the one who made everything that we see and everything that we are. [7:01] We look around us at the majesty of the landscape in this place. We are sometimes caught with a sense of awe at the power of the elements around us. [7:12] And we thank you that behind the elements we thank you that you are the God who has made all things. And not only have you made what we see around us but you have made us ourselves. [7:24] And you have made us to have a soul thirst that is cleansed only in a relationship with you. And so we pray that you would help us, each one of us, to come to Jesus. [7:35] We thank you that we so often remember the verse where Jesus says, Come to me all who are weary, all who are burdened, and I will give you rest. [7:46] There is no rest in any other place in this world but found in Jesus. So give us Lord the faith we pray to come to Jesus and to find him as our saviour. [7:59] We thank you Lord that you are the God who is good. And because you are good we know that sin has to be punished. And we as sinners that fills us with fear because we know our own hearts in some measure. [8:13] But we thank you that such was your love for us, Father, that you sent your Son into this world to take our sin into his body as he went onto the cross to pay the punishment for our sin. [8:27] We thank you that in Jesus there is mercy, in Jesus there is grace, in Jesus there is forgiveness of sin. And so we pray that each of us would come and say with the man of old who sat in the place of worship with his head bowed, Lord have mercy on me, the sinner. [8:48] So we ask Lord for that mercy, we pray for that grace, we pray for that salvation. And we pray Lord for your help. We ask that you would be in particular close to those who are struggling today. [9:03] We think of those who are grieving. We think of the family of Willie Fulton and the friends of Willie Fulton who was so well known here. We pray for your comfort and for your strength to be given to them. [9:17] And we thank Lord of Christina who comes here when she's at home, having lost her granny. And we pray for her and we pray for the family as they also mourn. [9:30] We ask Lord that they would find comfort that is not of this world, but comfort that comes from heaven. And for Shillabost as well, Lord, we pray for the Morrison family and for the friends and neighbours around. [9:44] As again, death has come to this place. We ask Lord for your comfort for all who are grieving. We pray that they would know the comfort of God, the compassion that comes from the heart of the Father to those who are sore. [10:03] And we ask Lord that they and that we would know the hope of the gospel. We thank you that Jesus not only died for our sin to take away the sting of death, but we thank you that he rose from the grave and said because he lives, we too shall live if we are trusting in him. [10:24] So we pray for that gospel hope even as the community comes together to hear your word being read. We ask Lord that the hope of the gospel, that we would come away from services, sin in Christ alone and my hope is found. [10:41] We pray Lord for those who are sick at this time as well. We think of some who have had difficult diagnosis in the course of the week. Some who may be coming towards the end stages of life and we pray for your presence to be with them. [10:59] We pray that they would know that Jesus loves them. We pray that they would know that Jesus is the Savior who takes hold of us and carries us even through death into life everlasting when we are believing in him. [11:15] So for those who are sick, for those who are waiting for treatment, for those who are anxious because they don't know what's wrong, we ask Lord that you would minister to them in their need. [11:26] And for all others Lord, we know that from the huge things in our lives which overwhelm us to the smaller things in our lives which distract us and trouble us, we thank you that we can take everything to the Lord in prayer. [11:44] And so we ask that you would be with us, whatever troubles us, whatever distracts us, whatever may give us a sense of fear in the week ahead, we pray that you would help us. [11:54] We pray for the young ones as they travel off to the mod, give them safety in travel and help them as they sing. Not to be overly nervous, but to know that you are with them. [12:05] And we thank you Lord that our identity is not found in what we can do and how we can succeed. But we thank you that you are the God who is our Father and you love us. [12:19] Our identity is found in Jesus. So hear our prayers. Bless each of us, we pray. We thank you for those who are with us on holiday. Give them refreshment, we pray. And bless the congregations that they may come from. [12:32] And for others Lord who have gone out from us to different places on holiday, we pray that they too would know even on the far side of the sea that you are God and that you are with them. [12:44] So hear our prayers. Take away our sin, we ask. In Jesus' name. Amen. Boys and girls, would you like to come out please? Amen. How are you all today? [13:13] Good. Are you happy to be on your holidays? Yes. Anything exciting happening on your holidays? Yes. Pardon? You can come around here so I can see you. [13:31] Pardon, Shoney? I want people to go to Cyprus. A lot of people are going to Cyprus. So you're looking forward to your holidays so I don't know if you're going to Cyprus. [13:42] But not as much as the mod surely. You'll be looking forward to the mod more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I've got something to show you today. You probably don't see these things very often. [13:56] But something to show you and you can tell me if you know what they are. What are these things? Fraser. Fraser. They weigh your weight. [14:10] They weigh your weight. That's right. And they're called... Go on, Michael. A weight. Pardon? No. It's not called a weighbridge, no? Sometimes I need one. [14:24] Go on, Katie. Scales. So you know what to do with scales, don't you? What do you do with scales? How do they work? They stand on them. Connecting houses. So you stand on them. [14:35] So, wait a second, Michael. We'll just get there in a second because this is part of the point. So you... How do you work the scales? You stand on them, don't you? [14:47] And then they tell you... What do the scales tell you? They tell you how much you weigh. So that you know how much you weigh. [14:58] So, if I was to ask the boys and girls here, does anybody want to stand on the scales? Any volunteers? I'm not going to ask you all to come, but put your hand up if you would be willing to stand on the scales. [15:14] See, almost all of you are happy to stand on the scales. But see if I was to turn over this way. And see, who'd like to stand on the scales? [15:27] See, when you get older, you're not so keen to stand on the scales. Michael, you're really keen to stand on the scales. So, let's have a truth about you. Five stone, one and a quarter. [15:40] Perfect way. Now, I'll... No, I won't. See, no, no. You can shout, do it all you want. [15:51] I'm not standing on them. No. No. So, now here's the point, right? What do the scales tell us? Shawnee. [16:02] How heavy you are, yeah? I'm looking for... I'm looking for one word that scales tell us. Michael? Your weight. [16:14] It's a good guess, but it's not the word I'm looking for. That's right, but it's... The word I'm looking for is something else. Really? Tell you how much you weigh? Yeah? But I'm looking for something else. Keep going. [16:25] Not that, no. But it's good to hear you. Do the scales tell us lies? [16:38] What do the scales tell us then? They tell us the truth, don't they? So, if you've got... They tell us the truth, Corrin, yeah? [16:52] They tell us the truth. Yep. And see, when you're younger, you're not bothered about standing on the scales. Because you're growing. [17:03] And you're growing up. And as you're growing up and getting older, as you stand on the scales, your weight goes up. And that's telling you that you're healthy. Because you need to grow taller, and you need to grow broader. [17:15] And it's good to be having weight that's going up when you're younger. But when you get to my age, when you get to... [17:27] Well... The age is over there. We don't so much grow up, but we tend to sometimes grow out. [17:39] So, Mary was saying to me a couple of weeks ago, she says, I think it's time you bought a new jacket. That one looks a bit tight from the back. And the button is a bit tight. [17:51] If it pops, I think that window's going to get broken. But see, when we're older, and we're growing out of the way, we're not so keen to actually hear the truth about our weight. [18:05] So, the scales tells us the truth about our bodies. Go on, Michael. What is it? Well, we'll talk about that tea. [18:18] Okay. The scales tell us the truth about our bodies, don't they? Now, where do we learn the truth about our hearts? Fraser. [18:32] God. And how does God tell us the truth about our hearts? Really? The Bible. So, as we open the Bible, in a way, it's a bit like kind of standing on the scales. [18:50] And, you know, when we stand on the scales, we're kind of standing there, and then we're looking down, and we're waiting for the truth to pop up on the thing. When we open the Bible, we're told the truth by God. [19:04] He tells us the truth about himself, about who he is. We sang in that last psalm about the truth about God, that he's good, and that he made us, and that he's full of mercy. [19:17] What's mercy? Michael? Not sure? Mercy's when God holds back from us the punishment that we deserve because of our sins. He's full of grace. [19:28] That means that God gives us his forgiveness. He's good to us. And, God in the Bible, he tells us the truth also about us, our hearts. [19:41] Now, what's the truth about my heart? What does the Bible tell me about my heart? Yeah, at the back there. Well, it does tell me that I love God. [19:54] I want a bit more, Katie, that I sin. That's right, yeah. God loves me so much that he tells me the truth about my heart. [20:08] And he says to me, your heart has sin in it. Your heart's not healthy. And how can my heart become healthy? Michael? [20:20] By praying and asking who, what. What do I pray if I want to have a healthy heart? Because this is a really important question because there might be some people here, some young ones here, there might be some older ones here as well and they've never yet prayed and asked God to make their heart healthy. [20:40] So, what do I need to pray if I want God to make my sinful heart healthy? You start, Michael. Ask him to forgive me. [20:51] Katie? Ask him to come in to my heart. And the truth is that if we do that, he will forgive us our sins. [21:03] Because of all that Jesus did on the cross and he will come in to our hearts and he'll give us new hearts, he'll make us born again. And so that's good news. [21:14] The truth isn't always good news when I stand on the scales. But the truth is good news when I open the Bible because I learn that Jesus came into this world to save sinners like me. [21:30] And I have asked him and I hope all of you boys and girls have asked him to take your sin away and to make your heart healthy. So let's pray together, will we? [21:40] Lord, we thank you for this day and we thank you for your word. We thank you that your word is the truth and it stands firm through all ages like we sang in the psalm. [21:54] And we thank you that Jesus himself said, I am the truth. He is the one who tells us the truth about who God is because he is God the Son. And as we look at Jesus, we see the truth of who you are, Lord. [22:09] And we thank you that Jesus is the one who tells us the truth about who we are and how much we are in need of him. So we pray, Lord, that as we see our own hearts, we pray that you would take our sin away, that you would wash us in the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross for us. [22:30] And we pray that you would come into our hearts, that we would be born again, that we would become children of God, that we would know that we have hearts that are healthy in this world and then forever. [22:43] So thank you, Lord, for the good news of your truth. And we pray that you would help us to believe and to act on that. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing now and we're going to sing about the deep, deep love of Jesus. [22:58] 522 on Mission Praise. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. O'er the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless free, glory, God's mighty ocean, in its fullness over me. [23:48] Underneath me, all around me, is the current of thy love. [24:02] Leading onward, leading homeward, to my glorious rest above. [24:17] O'er the deep, deep love of Jesus, spread His grace from shore to shore. [24:33] Though He loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore. [24:46] Though He watches for His loved ones, die to call them, call His own. [25:02] How for them He intercedeth, watchers o'er them from the throne. [25:17] O'er the deep, deep love of Jesus, love of heaven, love of heaven, love the best. [25:32] Tis an ocean, vast of blessing, tis a heaven, sweet of rest. [25:45] O'er the deep, deep love of Jesus, tis a heaven, all blessed to be. [26:00] And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to thee. [26:15] healing, may I pray. O'er the deep, the known Vasquez,ո'er the deep, energ musician, earth. [26:38] If we could turn now in our Bibles, please, to Luke chapter 22. [27:03] Luke chapter 22. And we're reading just the last section of this chapter as we're continuing studying through Luke's gospel. [27:19] So we see Jesus has been arrested. He's been betrayed by Judas. He has been disowned, denied by Peter. And now we see the continuance of the sufferings of Jesus. [27:36] Verse 63. The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, prophesy, who hit you? [27:47] And they said many other insulting things to him. At daybreak, the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together. [27:58] And Jesus was led before them. If you are the Christ, they said, tell us. Jesus answered, if I tell you, you will not believe me. [28:11] And if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God. They all asked, are you the Son of God? [28:24] Then? He replied, you are right in saying that I am. Then they said, why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips. [28:39] Amen. And may God bless that reading of his word to us. We're going to sing again now to God's praise. We sing from Psalm 93 and the first two stanzas, first two verses of the Psalm. [28:55] As we read the verses there about where Jesus is today. I mean, think about that. It's a great thing to think about that at this moment, the Son of Man, Jesus, is seated at the right hand of the mighty God. [29:14] And one day soon, he will return. He came as an infant. He came with such humility and so quietly as the carols go. [29:28] But one day soon, when he returns, he will come in majesty. He will come as judge and king. We sing a little of that in the psalm. [29:39] The Lord doth reign and clothed as he with majesty most bright. His works to show him clothed to be and girt about with might. The world is also established that it cannot depart. [29:51] Thy throne is fixed of old and thou from everlasting art. These two verses, we sing this in Gaelic and we remain seated to sing in Gaelic. The Lord doth reign and clothed as the Lord of God. [30:07] The Lord is seated. The Lord is seated. The Lord is seated. The Lord is seated. The Lord is seated. [30:24] The Lord is seated. The Lord is seated. The Lord is seated. [30:58] The Lord is seated. [31:28] The Lord is seated. [31:58] The Lord is seated. [32:28] The Lord is seated. [32:58] The Lord is seated. [33:28] The Lord is seated. [33:58] we'll pray our heavenly father we thank you for your word we pray now for your help as we come to a passage that has such weight within it as we see Jesus your son our saviour suffer as we see him approaching the cross we ask lord that you would help us to see this with fresh eyes help us to see that this is not something that is disconnected from us but this is something which is very much connected to our lives help us to realise that all that Jesus endured was because of our sin in order to save us so although we read a record of what happened in history 2000 years ago we pray lord that you would bring this with power to our minds and to our hearts and to our lives that we would see Jesus as our saviour and lord that we would reach out in faith to Jesus the one who is able to save us from our sin we pray lord for your help as we speak and as we listen and as we respond we pray for others who are like us and who meet around your word in different places at this time for the congregations that are around us here lord we pray that you would help them and that you would speak your word through those who are opening it this morning we pray on for Ian Myrdo and we ask lord for his recovery we pray for [35:52] Stuart as he preaches in Carloway at this time we pray for Gordon as he prepares to open your word in Scalpy in just a few minutes and we ask lord that whatever the bible is opened whatever Christ crucified is preached that you would add your blessing that you would build your church a church that crosses denominational and national lines and brings us all together in Jesus we pray for the young ones as well as we hear them next door we ask that in their early years that they would come to know Jesus as saviour that they would not stray into destructive courses but that they would follow the one who said I am the way the truth and the life the one who promises that we can come to the father in and through him so hear our prayers and help us we ask in Jesus name Amen sometimes we come to an article maybe in the newspaper or we are watching a report on the news and it's it's hard to watch or it's hard to step through in terms of the the piece there are some documentaries there are some news reports and they don't make easy viewing and truth be told we'd perhaps sometimes rather not see them but we recognise that even though there are some articles that are hard to to work through we need to read them sometimes we recognise that although there are journalistic pieces that are broadcast that make for disturbing viewing we need to keep on watching you know for example war we see the accounts we read the accounts of war and it's distressing to read it's painful to read but we we need to know what's going on so that we can pray into it and so that we can pursue justice in as far as we are able and as we go through [38:13] Luke's gospel when we've come to this section today it makes for hard reading and if we glance at the context there we see Jesus he's been betrayed by one of his own disciples a man that he invested three years of his life so closely with and he's been betrayed by that man Judas and he's been denied by one of his closest friends Peter Peter who said doesn't matter what anyone else will do I'll be there for you and when it came to the crunch he wasn't and three times he denied Jesus we've seen Jesus here and he's been seized he's been arrested he's been led away and as we step through these verses we see [39:13] Jesus suffer and it's hard to read but it's important that we read this it's important that we know about the sufferings of Jesus and I want to spend some time this morning looking at this short section and thinking a little about what Jesus suffered and how he suffered for us the first thing that we see in this short account is that Jesus suffered because of injustice that's the first point injustice look at verse 63 it says there the men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him and immediately here we see injustice when Jesus he's been arrested he's been led away but for what reason what are the charges well at this point no charges have been made the trial hasn't yet began and yet [40:24] Jesus has been treated right from the beginning here as if he was a guilty man that's not justice and the men who have been employed to guard him they would have been religious men they wouldn't have been Roman soldiers guarding him at this stage but these these temple police essentially who'd been employed by the religious authorities they're supposed to be guarding Jesus they're supposed to be protecting Jesus until it comes to the time for a trial and yet what are they doing here well it says they're mocking him and they're beating him they're deriding him literally they're thrashing they're scourging him is the words that are used in the Greek it's not a few playful slaps this is a beating and if we ask the question even at this very early point is this right is this correct is this in alignment with the legal procedures of that day and the answer overwhelmingly is no the correct legal procedures have been absolutely disregarded because of this sinister desperation to pin guilt whatever guilt they could find they're trying to pin it on [41:48] Jesus because they're not interested in innocence or guilt they just want to kill him so there's crass injustice here that's the first thing that we see Jesus suffer under it's the injustice of the system and just as a side application here it's not the main application but a side application is in this world at times we will face injustice I think all of us as we think through our lives we can think on occasions where we've felt that what's happening to us is not fair and it can be hard to bear when we face injustice or when we see those that we love facing injustice it's something that we suffer under when we face it and sometimes when we face it we don't know who to go to to actually seek some comfort we don't know who we can go to who will possibly understand what we feel that we're going through but one comfort that we have here and this first point is that [43:02] Jesus understands so whatever degrees of injustice we have to face in this world whatever depths we feel we may have to sink to in terms of suffering under injustice Jesus has gone lower he suffered more so you can come to him so that's the first aspect of the sufferings of Jesus that we see here injustice the second thing that we see here is injury Jesus he suffered injury in the midst of this ordeal look at verse 64 says they that's the guards they blindfolded him and they demanded prophesy who hit you now I think one of the most disturbing things that we can see is to see another person being struck with force in the face with a fist you know it's a horrible thing to see [44:18] I can still remember the first time I saw it up close it was in a park in Aberdeen must have been 10 years old I'd seen a few scuffles in the playground but not much but I remember being 10 years old and there was a game of football going on and these gang of guys came out of nowhere and they set upon another gang of guys and they were bigger than us and the fists were flying and I can remember seeing guys getting hit in the face and noses bursting and lips bursting and blood and I can still remember on that occasion the sort of sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and in this account Jesus is struck in the face with force repeatedly the literal rendering here is and having blindfolded him they were striking his face and they were questioning him and saying prophesy who is the one having struck you and the word used for strike in this text here means to wound to inflict punishment and the word used in the [45:36] Greek for being struck means to sting it's pain so even at this stage we're beginning to understand the reason behind this Jesus was being struck he was being punished and we ask the question for what and the answer is for sin and the question is for whose sin he had no sin the answer is ours and again if you stick to the literal of the text Jesus was beginning to feel the beginnings of the sting we can ask the question the sting of what it's the sting of death the death which is the wages of our sin so there's a spiritual suffering going on here as Jesus is abused by the temple guards but I think it's important that we don't overlook the physical suffering yes there's spiritual suffering and that's the greater suffering but sometimes we're conscious of that and so we just we almost bypass the physical suffering and yet [46:52] Jesus physically suffered in this account don't overlook the brutality of this scene don't overlook the pain that Jesus was suffering in his humanity sometimes when we think of Jesus we we focus on his divinity we focus on his godness and yes he was God but he was also man which means that he could feel pain he could bruise he could bleed and here in our mind's eye we can only imagine the bruises on Jesus face and the swelling around his eyes and the blood around his mouth because these guards they hit him they struck him and they didn't get in the way they didn't guard Jesus against anyone else who wanted to strike him and because they blindfolded [48:01] Jesus he wouldn't be able to see the blows coming so he wouldn't be able to guard his face so at this point Jesus is injured he is marred as it said in Isaiah 53 he would have been hard to look at in this hour as it says in verse 53 where darkness reigned the powers of darkness fueled the hate of people and there is such violence against Jesus and you know still we see that in a lesser degree even in our own experience sometimes we can be in conversation with the nicest people but when the name of Jesus comes up or when they see something of Jesus in you there's there's just this instant turning there's an aggression that seems to come to the surface there's a there's a hate that rises [49:12] I'll always remember a guy who was in India I was in India for three weeks at one point and I remember going to a service much smaller than this in a wee back room and towards the end of the service this guy staggered in there was a big commotion at the door and this guy kind of staggered in to the service I thought he must have been somebody sleeping on the streets who was coming in to cause a disturbance but he came in and he sat down and he settled down his face was battered he was clearly sore his clothes were ripped and he was disheveled and what had happened was he was going out to church that morning but his family were Hindus he had heard about Jesus he believed he came to faith his family didn't like it didn't want it so they were at him and at him and this particular day he was heading out to church and they caught him and they battered him and he took the battering and then he came and it's because of [50:32] Jesus you know we can expect injury sometimes even physical if we are with Jesus in different parts of the world this happens all the time it hasn't come here yet but we can be mindful of those who still today are injured for Jesus sake so we see Jesus as he suffers there is injustice there is injury the third thing here is he suffers under the insults of the people verse 65 says and they said many other insulting things to him they being the guards and possibly a crowd that was gathering and they said many other insulting things to him now if we think back childhood days I'm sure most of us heard the rhyme sticks and stones will break your bones but names can never hurt you we were told that so that we would feel a bit better when we've been called names but we knew the reality was something quite different names do hurt you names insults they affect us they hurt us emotionally and Jesus again remember in his humanity fully human and fully [52:00] God and Jesus in his humanity he would have been hurt at the emotional at the psychological level he was mocked as a so-called prophet verse 63 and 64 and verse 65 they said many other insulting things to him Luke is discreet Luke doesn't tell us exactly what was said it would have been X-rated the word in the Greek is the word blasphemuntes it was blasphemous talk would have been distressing to hear but Jesus heard it all and as the fury of the crowds grew the volume and the venom of the insults intensified until eventually the streets would shake with these cries from the whole crowds crucify him crucify him and you know we can't imagine what that felt like and it's here for us to read but we can't really get hold of this we can't imagine what this felt like the most loving man ever to have lived the most sensitive man ever to have lived because remember you know we become desensitized because of sin [53:36] Jesus had no sin so he felt everything in a greater way than we feel it nothing has been numbed by sin in Jesus he's the most sensitive man ever to have lived and yet he was the most hated and the most insulted man ever to have lived and today by contrast when we think about our lives we we can be so sensitive to insults we in this particular age are so quick to become offended often about the most trivial things but no one had to suffer insults more than Jesus did and he did it for us so we see here the insults that Jesus suffered under the fourth thing inconsistency [54:44] Jesus suffered because of the inconsistency of religious people daybreak verse 66 the council of the elders of the people both the chief priests and the teachers of the law met together and Jesus was led before them now why have we been given this detail well I think we've been given this detail just so that we can see the hypocrisy of these religious people in their desperation to take Jesus down they set aside all legal process already they've broken the law by dragging Jesus away by starting legal procedures in the middle of the night that was against the law they're questioning him directly they're not calling the witnesses because they can't find the witnesses and that was against the law so everything about what they're doing is procedurally wrong and they recognize that so first thing in the morning at daybreak they meet formally to try to make it look as if everything they had already done was correct procedurally [56:02] Hendrickson the commentator says the reason this meeting was called was in all probability to give a semblance of legality to the proceedings against Jesus so they've made their minds up already they know what they want to do they just don't know how they can yet do it they're not bothered about procedures they'll go rush over procedures just so they can get to Jesus but they're recognizing if somebody comes and looks at this afterwards we're going to be in trouble so let's call a meeting and let's have some kind of a paper trail that makes it look as if we've done the right thing here even though they know that they haven't done the right thing there's such crass inconsistency in the lives of these religious people they don't want to be guilty of holding a meeting at the wrong time they don't want some internal auditor to come and say you held a meeting in the middle of the night you held a meeting at festival time that's against the procedures they want everything to look outwardly legal and correct and yet inwardly they were guilty of conspiracy to murder the sinless guiltless son of [57:22] God and that didn't bother them that was of no consequence to them and I suppose one lesson for us to learn in passing is religion doesn't save us we can be the most religious people around these guys were rule keeping cannot save us any religion that does not centre on Jesus and cause us to look in faith to Jesus and reach out to Jesus it cannot save us but it will often expose the hypocrisy of our hearts and the inconsistency of our lives inconsistency [58:27] Jesus suffered because of the inconsistency the hypocrisy of religious people and the final thing we see here is Jesus he suffers under this inquisition look at verse 67 and verse 68 and they're asking questions of Jesus directly here they shouldn't have been doing that but they're so desperate to pin guilt on him that they're going directly to him if you are the Christ they said tell us Jesus answered if I tell you you will not believe me and if I ask you you would not answer and so Jesus as he comes under this inquisition as he listens to these questions from this gathering of high hedons in the religious world he knows their questions are not genuine questions he knows that all this is simply a trap to incriminate them [59:34] Jesus knew what was in them remember at the end I think it's of John chapter 2 and the crowds are all flocking to Jesus they're gathered around Jesus and there's that verse at the end of that chapter that says something along the lines of Jesus did not entrust himself to them because he knew what was in man he knew that at the beginning of his ministry and he knows that in this instance here he knows what's in them he knows that these men are not asking questions to get to the truth they're not asking questions because they want to believe they don't want to believe they don't want to see the truth about who Jesus was and that's still true today even in this room [60:41] Jesus knows those of us who are here who are genuinely searching and who want to know the truth about him and who want to come to know him and he also knows the hearts of those who do not want to believe and who read the Bible perhaps and who listen in some measure to the sermons perhaps but they're listening for things that they can use against Jesus to justify their unbelief rather than to believe if that's you I can't see it but Jesus knows it Matthew Henry says none so blind as those that will not see but let's note the fact here that their failure to believe the truth it didn't change what was true and so [61:53] Jesus at this point even though he knows they don't want to hear this even though he knows they won't accept this Jesus at this point he declares the truth openly and says in verse 69 but from now on the son of man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God and at this point this is when they light up they're thinking now we've got him because Jesus in his answer he goes into the old testament scriptures which they were the experts in and he takes this term son of man from Daniel 7 and he takes the other section from Psalm 110 sitting at the right hand of God and in doing so he takes two key verses from the old testament and he identifies himself as the son of God as the Messiah and they knew it they knew what he was saying and so in verse 70 they all asked are you then the son of [62:54] God he replied you are right in saying that I am and that's a better translation than some of the other translations that are a bit more vague then they said why do we need any more testimony we have heard it from our own lips and so Jesus at this point he spoke the truth and they didn't like it and they wouldn't accept it but it didn't stop it from being the truth and that's something perhaps that we've lost sight of today you know that the truth is the truth no matter how we feel about it the truth is still the truth you know [63:56] I stood in the scales for the first time in a long time at the beginning of this week and I got the truth I didn't like the truth but I had to accept the truth and it told me the reason why my button is overly tight just now and I'm trying in some measure to act on the truth and you know it's a sobering thought but as we think about these individuals who are gathered around Jesus at this point and firing questions at him and throwing punches at him it's a sobering thought but today present tense all these men who are challenging Jesus in these verses they now presently know the truth that Jesus is the son of man they know the truth that Jesus is the son of [64:58] God they know the truth that Jesus is the one who is seated at the right hand of God as the judge of the living and the dead and so all these men in these verses they realized the truth ultimately but they realized it too late and the truth will not save them but the truth will actually damn them eternally and the question for us is what will the truth do to us will the truth about Jesus will it set us free and save us because we believe it and we accept Jesus or will the truth that we are hearing today be one of the reasons that we are sent to a lost eternity because we would not believe and we will not believe mckinley the commentator says in a sense god condescends to allow each and every one of us to pass judgment on him of course he is god and jesus is the son of man whether we choose to acknowledge that reality but god permits us to decide what we will make of his son jesus whether he is worthy of an exclusive love and worship and devotion as he claimed or whether he is a blasphemer and liar as his enemies believed in that sense every person who hears the message about jesus must put themselves in the place of the religious leaders and decide what they believe him to be so as we finish we see jesus speaking the truth with great clarity and courage and it antagonizes the religious leaders all the more and it intensifies his sufferings as he nears the cross and the question i want to finish with is the question we began with and it's the question of why do we need to see this why do we need to read about the sufferings of jesus you know when we hear stories about suffering in this world think about x factor in these kind of programs we hear stories about someone who's at a hard time it's designed to provoke sympathy in us so are we here being asked to look at the sufferings of jesus so we can feel sorry for her of course not so what do we take with us as we go what do we learn about jesus through this i want to give you three things just as we walk out the door first of all take with you the truth of the deep deep love of jesus for you because in spite of all the sufferings that he endured so far and all the sufferings that will intensify and are to come jesus kept on going all the [69:01] way to the cross and he did it for you and for me so as we see jesus suffer we learn about the deep deep love of jesus for us the second thing we see is the divine plan of jesus because notice nothing about this took jesus by surprise he's told his disciples in advance this is what's going to happen this is what's up ahead and everything that was predicted hundreds of years in advance from isaiah we see in real time in this section and none of it catches jesus off guard he knows it's coming and so all of this as hard as it is for us to to read it was part of the divine plan of god to save us and the final thing we take with us is uh you know that conviction about the divine power of jesus we see the deep love of jesus for us we see the the divine plan of jesus to save us and we see finally here the the divine power of jesus because if this story ended with suffering if the story ended with jesus dying on the cross and that was it then we would perhaps be stopping at the point of sympathy and sadness this but jesus here he declares his divinity he tells those who are listening this is not the end he will overcome death he will go to be with his father from now on the son of man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty god so as we see the sufferings of jesus today we look there and we must look there and we must follow on all the way to the cross to see how jesus suffered for us to take away our sin but remember today jesus is not hanging on a cross on the third day he rose he ascended to heaven and right now he sits at the right hand of the father and one day soon he will return or he will call us from this world to stand before him so how can we be ready for that day well by believing and asking him to be our saviour and bowing before him as our lord and our king let's sing to conclude mission praise 458 where our focus is taken once more to jesus the man of sorrows 458 in mission praise man of sorrows what a name for the son of god who came a ruined sinners to reclaim hallelujah what a saviour for the sorrows what a name for the [73:01] Son of God who came ruined sinners to be paid hallelujah what a Savior faith shame and scoff he brood in my place content he stood sealed my pardon with his blood hallelujah what a Savior guilty violent helpless we sought blessed now of God was seen through the torment come with me hallelujah what a [74:10] Savior lifted up was he to die died he died in his finished was his cry now in heaven and songs and high hallelujah what a Savior when he comes our glorious name all all is ransomed home to pray then a new song will sing hallelujah what a Savior and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the [75:11] Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forever more amen all come you can sing fucking be with us I can hang wait har to will God have shown together human will see one again come and come And amen comment am and let in the husbands bear , and amen moment Another