The People on the Road to the Cross, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. See, when you realize how sinful you are, how utterly worthy you are of judgment, you have no choice but to cast yourself down in complete surrender on God's mercy. Because everything is grace. Your pride and your independent claim over your life simply cannot coexist with Jesus. Welcome to another day of solid biblical teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. On the way to the cross, Jesus encountered a preoccupied man, a superficial man, a religious man, a guilty man, and a disciple along the road. So let me ask you, which one are you?

And more importantly, are you even on the road to begin with? We desire every day on this program to direct you toward the cross. So we pray that you're not only seeing Jesus clearly, but also responding to him no matter which character you might resonate with the most. We are rejoining Pastor J.D. in the middle of a message we began yesterday. So grab your Bible and a pen and let's listen in as he continues teaching in Luke chapter 23.

Look back up here at me if you would. Look how Herod's story ends, verse 11. Then Herod with his soldiers treated Jesus with contempt, mocked him, dressed him in bright clothing and sent him back to Pilate. That very day Herod and Pilate became friends.

Previously you see they've been enemies. When Jesus would not satisfy Pilate's curiosity, I mean should be Herod's curiosity, which Jesus never will by the way, for those who aren't seriously seeking him, Herod's interest, you catch this, turns into mockery. That is where this refusal to come clean always ends. If you are not seriously seeking Jesus, if you have unconfessed sin, you will find, I don't care how much you know about the Bible, you will find that you begin to mock those who do seek Jesus sincerely. It is your guilty conscience that is fueling that mockery.

You better be careful. Galatians says do not be deceived. God will not be mocked. If you do not deal with your sin, that's going to lead you to the most extreme hostility toward Jesus. That's why verse 12 says on that day Herod actually became best friends with Pilate. Previously they've been enemies, now they're friends. Deadening the voice of your conscience ends up making you friends with Jesus's worst enemies. It leads you to a place you do not want to go, and I'm just saying don't do it.

Don't do it. There's a third group in these verses, verse 10. We skipped over this. The chief priest and the scribe stood by vehemently accusing him. Person of interest number three, the chief priests. Let's call them the religious. The chief priests were powerful people, proud people, and Jesus insulted their pride. You see, Jesus had taught that these religious leaders, despite their lofty status, despite their many degrees and many good works and perfect outward adornment, he taught that they were no better than any other sinner. They were as sinful as the tax collectors and the thieves and the prostitutes, and they needed to be forgiven just like them.

Just like them. But see, they'd spent their entire lives trying to demonstrate that they were better. They were made out of better stuff. They were of a higher class. They were endowed with greater wisdom and greater moral strength, and they felt like by this point in their lives, because they'd accomplished what they accomplished, they felt like they proved their point, and they hated Jesus for insulting their pride. And so they opposed him. Not just a little, they opposed him vehemently, verse 10. They vehemently accused him.

Their opposition to him was the strongest of any of the groups in this chapter. Coming to Jesus requires a humility and a surrender that most people, particularly proud religious people, are unwilling to show. I'll go ahead and tell you right now, churches today are full of chief priests. They're hard to spot because they're faithful at church, sometimes the most faithful. They're often in leadership positions.

They know every word, every song on positive and encouraging K-love because they listen to it on repeat. They frequently use the name of Jesus. But in their heart, they've never actually come to him. They've never reckoned with how sinful in God's eyes they are. They've excused away their sins as not that bad compared to others. They underestimate how sinful their sin is in God's eyes. Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, said to a room full of religious people, every sin in its essence is a killing of God.

Do you comprehend me? Every time you do what God would not have you do, you do in effect as far as you can put God out of his throne. You disown the authority which belongs to his Godhead.

You do in a tent so far as you can kill God. That is the drift of sin. Sin is a God killing thing. So I'm not that bad except for resenting God and attempting to kill him. No wonder Jonathan Edwards, the puritan, said the holy God that we have sinned against is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire because of your sin. He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight because of your sin. You are 10,000 times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. Friend, it is only by the grace of God that any of us don't fall into hell this very moment.

The question is are you willing to admit that? You and I are so corrupted with sin that it taints everything. And imagine that you know somebody has the COVID virus. That means everything they touch has got to be wiped down.

It means the chairs they sit in, the doorknobs they touch, even the air they breathe is contaminated. That's how we are to God but 10 billion times worse. By the way, if you think that's a little harsh or you think that basically you're a good person and God understands, then you're a chief priest. Listen, when I ask most people why they think they're going to heaven, and I do that a lot, they almost always tell me about a bunch of things they do that make them better than the average person. Well, I don't break the law and I'm a good person and I come to church and I try to be a good spouse and I give a little money. That's the answer of a chief priest. And you will oppose the true Jesus and you will resent his rule over your life. That's why why Billy Graham used to say that it's not people's sins that usually send them to hell, it's their good works.

Because the good works keep them from coming to Jesus for forgiveness of their sins. That's why in the south, the more difficult job is getting somebody lost. Once you get them lost, getting them saved is pretty easy. But the most difficult part of my job is getting people lost so that they know they need salvation. And I don't mean like pray a little prayer and did the religious thing and got back. I'm talking about where you know that apart from the grace of God, you are under judgment and you are worthy of it. And you have no hope except for the grace of God that is expressed in Christ.

And by the way, let me tell you a little secret. When you think you got some goodness that sets you apart. When you're like, well, I go to church, right? I tithe.

I'm moral. You'll resent God's absolute claim over your life. You want to negotiate with God. All right, God.

Okay. But because I do this, because I've been a good person, because I've been faithful, because I go to church, I expect you to bless my career. I expect you to heal me, expect you to find me a spouse, expect you to make my kids turn out right. And when God doesn't do that, you resent him because you're like, he's not living up to his end of the bargain and he owes me. He owes me.

I did all this stuff for him. Why didn't you fulfill your part of the bargain, God? But see, when you realize how sinful you are, how utterly worthy you are of judgment, you have no choice but to cast yourself down in complete surrender on God's mercy. Because everything is grace. Your pride and your independent claim over your life simply cannot coexist with Jesus.

That's why the chief priests vehemently oppose him. It's like, I always say in every heart, there's a throne and a cross, right? And if you're on the throne, it means Jesus has got to be on the cross, but if Jesus is going to be on the throne, you got to be on the cross. Now, what does it mean to be on the cross? It means to die to your pride and your worthiness. That cross is me. I'm recognizing that that cross is what I deserve. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain, I count but loss. Everything that I thought set me apart from others is loss, and I pour contempt on all my pride. That means I hate it.

I think it's stupid. So see, we got the preoccupied, we got the superficial, we got the religious. Let's keep reading. Verse 13, Pilate called together the chief priests, the leaders of the people, and he said to them, he brought this man as one who misleads the people, but in fact, after examining him in your presence, I found no grounds to charge this man with those things you accuse him of. Neither is Herod because he sent him back to us.

Clearly, he's done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I'll have him whipped and then release him, but they cried out together, take this man away. Release Barabbas unto us. See, Barabbas had been thrown into prison for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder. A person of interest, number four, is Barabbas. Let's call him the guilty. To try and get himself out of this mess, Pilate turns toward an age-old custom of letting one prisoner go free at Passover. And in what he thinks is a stroke of genius, he offers them what he considers to be an easy choice, Barabbas or Jesus.

Now y'all, it should have been no question. Barabbas, as indicated here, was a truly bad dude. He was guilty of domestic terrorism. He had murdered fellow Jews. In fact, the irony is that of all people, the Jewish leaders should be the last ones to want Barabbas freed because revolutionaries like Barabbas hated the religious leaders. They thought the religious leaders were part of the problems, that they were sellouts to their own people, and they wanted to kill them. This Barabbas was a genuine threat to the safety of the people, and he had been rightfully sentenced to execution.

So why? Why choose Barabbas? Well, for one, Barabbas did not insult their pride and they could contain Barabbas. Tom Skinner, who was an African-American pastor in Harlem, I think he probably said it the best, Barabbas is the guy who's going to destroy the system. Barabbas is the guy who's going to burn them out because they were part of the establishment. Barabbas was going to kill them. Why would they want Barabbas?

Here's why. If you let Barabbas go and he starts another disturbance, all you got to do is push a few tanks into his neighborhood. You can find where he's keeping his guns. You can always stop Barabbas, but how can you stop Jesus? How do you stop a man who has no guns, no tanks, no ammunition, but he's still shaking up the entire Roman Empire? Jesus was starting something they couldn't control. He was starting a revolution that would turn everything upside down. It was starting with their own pride and hatred. And see, people back then, like today, they don't want to give up their pride and power. So they chose Barabbas. They'd rather choose a public nuisance.

They'd rather choose a threat to their safety than they would be to surrender their pride and power. But see, that's where the story becomes really personal for me and you because we're supposed to see in ourselves that we actually are Barabbas. Barabbas was rightfully condemned in his sin, and so are we. Barabbas got to walk free because an innocent man died in his place. Barabbas is the first in a long line of people who are going to be set free because Jesus dies in their place. Pastor Ricky said it last weekend. He said, we tend to forget that the people in the Gospels were real people.

And so sometimes we don't put ourselves in their shoes and think about what was this like for them? I want you to think for a moment about Barabbas. Later that day, peering out toward that hill where Jesus was dying. And I want you to picture him thinking that should be me. I should be the one dying. He is dying in my place. Friend, that's the Gospel. He didn't just die for me. He died instead of me because the sinless Savior died. My sinful soul is counted free.

For God the just is satisfied and looks on him to pardon me. Every one of us who have come to Jesus have to get in line after Barabbas. We have to say, I'm on Barabbas's team to identify with him and say, another bore my guilt and died in my place. Let me tell you something really interesting about Barabbas's name. In Aramaic, that's the language that Barabbas is in. In Aramaic, Barabbas literally translates as son of a father. Bar, son of. Abbaz, a dad. Son of a dad. Let me talk about a generic name.

Right? Barabbas. If you're a son or a daughter of a dad in here, you've got his name in Aramaic. That's intentional because he represents all of us.

His story is the story of every son or daughter of a dad in here. This is the essence of the Gospel. By the way, one thing that I want you to notice here, this whole trial is unjust.

You see that? Nobody really cares about the truth. Jesus is just a pawn.

As politicians try to protect their position and proud people try to protect their privilege and get their revenge. Verse 23, but they kept up with the pressure demanding with loud voices that he be crucified and their voices won out. Verse 24, so Pilate decided to grant their demand. Verse 25, and he released the one that they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for rebellion and murder, but he handed Jesus over to their will. Jesus dies as a victim of horrible injustice. The trial is a sham.

And by the way, can I just add this real quick? I hope that that gives some of you comfort when you suffer unjustly. The most innocent man ever to live was tried unjustly and died under false pretenses. I'm telling you that so you understand that he understands when you go through it. My friend, a pastor at the Beatty said, we ought to stop and consider the fact that Jesus, the most innocent man to ever live, who did everything right, was falsely accused and condemned by a court, an unjust court, so that when it happens to us, we know we have a savior who understands, who entered into that injustice with us, who feels it with us, who feels it with us, and came to deliver us from it.

So why? Why did Jesus go through with this? Well, see, when you see that you're Barabbas, what you see is that he was burying our injustice. Luke tells us that in the midst of all of this unfairness and all this unjust accusation, that Jesus just stood there silently. Can I ask you, when you stand silent before an accuser, when you stand before somebody, whether it's in a courtroom or not, who is accusing you of things, and you stand there with no response, no objection, what are you conceding? Guilt. So why was Jesus conceding guilt? What was he ever guilty of? In that moment, he was pleading guilty to my sin. You see, behind the chief priest and behind the religious leaders and behind Pilate, pointing all their fingers at him and accusing him, listen, Jesus saw God the Father, who was pointing at him. And in that moment, he was accusing Jesus of J.D.

Greer's sin. And Jesus stood there and pled guilty to my sin. He pled guilty to your sin. He pled guilty to Barabbas' sin. And he died in our place, guilty, vile, and helpless. We, spotless Lamb of God, was he full of tome.

Can it be? Hallelujah. What a savior.

We are Barabbas. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. See, there's one more person I want to show you real quickly before we close. Look at this, verse 26. As they led him away, they see Simon, the Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country and laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus. Person of interest, number five, our final one, Simon the Cyrenian, the disciple, that's what we'll call him.

Hey, here's a question. Why do you think Luke stops to tell us this man's name and where he's from? I can understand why Luke records the story. It's a significant moment. Jesus is so weak and staggering under the weight of the cross that he stumbles and stumbles and guard has to get somebody to help him carry the cross.

It shows us how much Jesus was suffering. So I get why he told us about the situation, but why give us his name? And by the way, not just his name, but where he's from. In fact, listen to this, in Mark's account, Gospel of Mark's account, Mark also mentions the names, not just of Simon and where he's from, but also Simon's two sons. He said his sons were named Rufus and Alexander. Now, gospel writers don't typically mention the bios of other random people in the gospels and the guard who gave Jesus vinegar to drink was named this, and this was his favorite color and this I'll tell you.

He didn't say any of that. The one who saw the veil torn, he didn't give any of that detail. So why all that detail about Simon? It's because Simon of Cyrene was a known figure in the early church. First readers of Luke's Gospel would have been like, oh, Simon of Cyrene?

That dude's sitting right over there. The dad of Rufus and Alexander, I know him. I didn't realize that he was there for all of this. By the way, Romans 16, 13, the apostle Paul says to greet Rufus, who is chosen in the Lord and his mom, who's been like a mother to me also. Scholars say it is almost certain that that's the same Rufus mentioned in the Gospel of Mark as the son of Simon. That means that Simon went on to become a follower of Jesus. And not only that, he led his wife and his two sons to faith in Christ. I don't know if you pick this up, but in Romans 16, when Paul greets him, Rufus is the only one that Paul describes as chosen in the Lord. You see, the apostle Paul recognized that there on that road to Calvary, even as Jesus's body staggered under the weight of the cross, he was still sovereignly choosing a man and his wife and his sons to follow him and become his disciples. When you pull back the veil, what you're going to see in Luke 23 is that this was not a weak savior who needed help.

This was a strong and sovereign savior who was extending salvation to those that he chose, even at the moment of his death. And see, that leads to my last little bit of good news. Simon's story is an invitation. It's an invitation to you. He's extending that invitation to you. He is calling you right now from Luke 23 to become his disciple.

We've been talking about this for the last several weeks. We're not looking for you to pray some prayers and raise your hand and even just get baptized. We want you to really become a true disciple of Jesus, a follower, not just to believe, but to lead your family and your friends to Christ and to carry the cross that he has for you into the world. Just like he chose Simon and offered him a cross, he is choosing you and offering you that cross. He's got great things for you. He's got a specific mission for you to fulfill, people that he wants to use you to bring to Jesus. He's got a role for you to play in his kingdom that will impact eternity.

The invitation of Luke 23 is, are you going to accept? So who are you? Who are you? Are you the preoccupied like Pilate? Are you the superficial like Herod? Are you the religious like the chief priest who's never really humbled yourself and cried out for God's mercy? Are you the guilty? Have you acknowledged that you're the guilty like Barabbas?

Have you become the disciple like Simon of Cyrene? Hey, these first three right here, these first three are why people resist Jesus, even especially people in church. See, friend, once you come to realize you're number four, that the sentence of condemnation is on our heads and it's rightful.

Once you realize that, you're on your way to becoming number five. The good news is that Jesus died for all these groups. To the distracted, Jesus says, Isaiah 118, come now, come now. Let us reason together, says the Lord, that your sins are like scarlet. I'll make them as white as snow, that they're red like crimson.

I can make them as wool to the superficial and to the religious. Jesus says, 1 John 1 8, hey, if you say we have no sin, you lie and the truth is not in you, but if you will confess your sin, he will be faithful and just to forgive you of sin and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. And to all of us, he says, John 1 12, as to as many as received him to them, he gave the right, the privilege, the power, the responsibility to become the children of God, even to those who believe on his name. So the question is, are you going to receive that invitation?

Are you going to receive it? Jesus died for all of us. So which side of the cross do you fall on? Will you become like his disciple Simon or will you reject him? Thank you so much for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. Pastor JD, in our current teaching series, Working Through the Gospel of Luke, you emphasize stepping out in faith by committing to do whatever God calls us to do.

How does the discipline of memorizing scripture or any other spiritual discipline for that matter, help us do that? You know, I've heard it said, Molly, that the best way to confront a lie is to know the truth. And our world is filled with lies.

And we know that our enemy uses lies. I mean, one of my favorite definitions of a demonic temptation is a demonic temptation is a sinful thought with a will behind it. Like it's almost like it's trying to press in and invade your thinking and change it. And you're trying to forget about it and you just can't shake it. Well, you can't just stop thinking about it. You know, it's the illustration of I say, don't think about a green monkey.

You probably haven't thought about a green monkey ever, but all of a sudden, you can't just be told not to think that because it pops in your head. Well, the way that you counteract Satan's lies is you memorize scripture and be able to apply the right scripture at the right moment. And so one of the things we want to do at Summit Life is help people know scripture better. That comes not just through preaching. It also comes through memorizing scripture.

Sometimes it's the journey of a thousand miles. I don't know how to take the first step. So we produce some scripture memory cards. We'd love to be able to give you these.

I think it would be a great tool. Some specifically chosen verses that will enrich your spiritual life, take you deeper in the gospel and help you counteract the lies of Satan. We put together a pack of 50 of these for you. If you want to carry these promises in your heart, our new Summit Life memory verse cards make it easy for you to memorize scripture. So take a look and reserve yours today at jdgreer.com. That's really helpful.

Thank you, JD. This will be a resource that will take you through the entire year and beyond, and we'd love to get it to you today. It's perfect to carry with you as daily encouragement that you can share with a friend, and no doubt having these scriptures in your mind will bring comfort and peace during these difficult times. The Rejoice Always scripture memory cards come with our thanks when you donate today to support this ministry, helping more people dive deeper into the message of the gospel each and every day. Give and request your set when you call 866-335-5220. One more time, that's 866-335-5220.

Or you can request the set when you donate online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Betovitch. Be sure to join us again tomorrow as we continue our study of Luke. Pastor JD walks us down the path to Jesus's tomb. We'll see you Friday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.