The Only Innocent One

Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. The trial of Jesus Christ, the only time the perfectly innocent one, the only innocent one to ever walk this planet, was tried and found guilty and condemned to death by execution, death on the cross. Jesus Christ was the Lamb without spot, without blemish, and He was on trial, and it was a dark night.

It was illegal how He was tried. We're going to look at that today on Experienced Truth. I am Stu Epperson, and I'm so glad to be with you. The last part of the program we dedicate to opening God's Word, we're in Luke chapter 22 verses 63 through 71. We're also going to read verse 54, which sets off this narrative of the arrest and trial of Jesus Christ. And with me to help us through the questions and the reading is the famous Christian car guy, Robbie Dilmore, my partner in crime here at the Truth Network.

Robbie, jump right in, and we're going to get to it. The only time Jesus really even talked during this whole trial and execution, other than the seven powerful words on the cross, is right here in Luke 22. But jump on in here with the passage. Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest's house. Now the men who held Jesus mocked Him and beat Him, and having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who's the one who struck you?

And many other things, they blasphemously spoke against Him. As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying, If you are the Christ, tell us. But He said to them, If I tell you, you will by no means believe.

And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go. Hereafter, the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then they all said, Are you then the Son of God? So He said to them, You rightly say that I am. And they said, What further testimony do we need?

For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth." So last time we went into all the illegalities of the trial of Jesus, the fact they were trying Him at night, the fact they were trying Him during a holy feast, the fact that they had conjured up all these false witnesses in all of this kangaroo court. It was really awful, and they are accusing God of blaspheming against God. Verse 66, there's a little statement there, a little pivotal statement that says, As soon as it was day. Some of your Bible versions say, When the day came. And that's really important, because a lot of this chaos, a lot of these trials happened. Basically, there were six trials, three Jewish, three Roman trials that Christ would endure. But these Jewish ones were at nighttime, when they weren't supposed to be at nighttime. And it's funny here, and Jesus even pointed out when they had arrested Him. In the garden, He's with His disciples, He said, Wait a second, you're coming to Me with clubs and lanterns at night and weapons?

I was there in the temple teaching every day with the masses. And so there was this fear of the people. These guys were politicians through and through, and they hated Jesus, and they seized this moment, and Judas led them in His betrayal.

And then Peter denies Him, and then they seize Him. And you have this Sanhedrin court now that Jesus has now stood in front of some in this ordeal, an elite council of about 70 judges led by the high priest. Each town had its version of this. Every town throughout Israel had about a 23-member court. But the Sanhedrin was like the Supreme Court of America, the best legal minds, the highest ranking, smartest, most erudite, advanced judges of all the smaller towns were elected to sit on this esteemed Sanhedrin court, and they would be promoted.

So this was like a lifelong thing. So this was the most powerful court of the land. These guys were supposed to have their theological piece and cues together, but as we can see from their encounters during the day with Jesus, they missed it. And He stood them down, and they couldn't argue against Him.

And as we see from these trials at night, they misstepped. But here you have this key statement in verse 67. And I want you to ask this question, Robbie, and that's going to get us back into the text here in a good way. So what does His answer teach us about the hardness of hearts and how we should share the truth? Yeah, so Isaiah's prophecy says, As a lamb before his shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He was led as a sheep, you know, to the slaughter. So Jesus never opened His mouth. He took all of these beatings, these mockings, these guys saying, prophesy us who hit you. He took all of this and didn't say a word in front of Herod, in front of Pilate, in front of this mock trial.

But this is one of the few times He spoke, and Luke records it, because they asked Him some questions. And He said this in verse 69, Hereafter the Son of Man. Now those words, just those three words, you park on those for one second, those words are a title of Christ, both His deity and His humanity. And if you go back to the Old Testament, Daniel 7, and Daniel's prophecy, he talks about one as the Son of Man.

This was a statement of the coming, powerful King of Kings who Daniel prophesied, who would vanquish all the other idols and all the other gods, who would be the Prime King, the ultimate sovereign. Okay, so it's used over 80 times, this title, Son of Man, in the Gospels. I mentioned Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14. Jesus, by His own words here, claims to be co-eternal and co-equal with God.

And this isn't the first time He's used these words specifically or directly. If you read John 8, He says it. And then if you read John 10, they actually took up stones to stone Him, because He said, remember that statement? I and the Father are one. But my Jehovah's Witness friends say it's, I and the Father are as one.

Well, that as is not in the Greek. Their perversion of the Scripture does have that, and it's wrong. And if Jesus was claiming to be like God, the Jews wouldn't have taken up stones to stone Him. The Jews will stone you if you claim to be God. And when you claim to be the Son of God in Jewish vernacular, you're claiming to be God.

Just consult Proverbs 30. What is His name? And what is His Son's name? The one who has laid the foundation of the earth.

See? And then He goes on to say, every word of God is pure. So this is a direct claim to the deity.

Read Isaiah. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. So Jesus Christ is both the Son of God and He's God the Son. So to the Jewish ears, we've got to look at the Bible through the lens of Jerusalem, through the lens of the culture which was written to the ears of those there when He claimed to be the Son of Man. He's claiming to be God. Furthermore, He says, the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.

Let's look at that real quick. The right hand is the ultimate seat of power and authority. It is where the... Here you have Him standing being judged by these men, these evil men, these pernicious men, and He is telling them that He will sit at the ultimate seat of judgment and of power. Paul says it like this at the name of Jesus, Philippians chapter 2, verses 8, 9, and 10. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Paul says He'll be exalted to the right hand of God. So that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And then he says He will be judging the supreme ruler and He'll be sitting at the right hand of God. Now, really fascinating.

Remember these words very carefully. Fast forward to the final sermon of Stephen in Acts chapter 7. Stephen preaches one last sermon and Stephen says toward the end of that sermon, when they started bludgeoning him with stones, he says, I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Those same men who are trying Jesus, hearing Jesus make this prophetic statement of where He's going to be, are also bloodying and murdering Stephen, the first martyr, who sees Jesus and he cites that he sees Him standing. So Stephen is saying months later, maybe six months after this, at the Feast of Pentecost, and after that when the gospel's proliferating throughout there, they've elected deacons in chapter 6 of Acts, Stephen is dying and he says, I see the Son of Man, same title, standing at God's right hand. When he said that, that infuriated these bloodthirsty Sanhedrin and Jewish, among whom, by the way, was standing Paul, who was then Saul who became the apostle Paul.

So it's really fascinating. There's a direct connection to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 22 verse 70, and what Stephen says. And by the way, Stephen was the only one to see Jesus standing after his resurrection, after his ascension. Every other time, Hebrews, Revelation, he's sitting at the right hand of God. See? Stephen, he stood because he stood to welcome to heaven his first martyr.

Isn't that amazing? He stood. It's just a beautiful picture, and we'll get there in our study. We're going to do Acts after Luke and experience truth. So, are you the Son of God? They all said to him. So he said to them, you rightly say that I am. And that right there, that statement, again, I am, this is used by Jesus. You know, the I am statements that Christ uses in the Gospel of John alone over a dozen times.

I am the bread of life, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, on and I am the five. And when he says I write, you rightly say, he's actually speaking Hebrew to him, because he's saying, Zadik, I'm the righteous one. You know, you rightly say that would really mean something to a Hebrew. And then he hits the punchline with him like, ka-ching, bingo, ding ding ding ding.

That's right. It's a prophecy, it is a declaration of judgment, because he's saying, I'm standing before you right now, I'm bloodied to a pulp, and I'm about to go as the lamb of the slaughter, and I'm about to be wounded for your transgressions and bruised for your iniquities and striped for your sins, but one day you'll stand before me, and I am going to be the ultimate judge. And so his Messiah-ship, his deity, is so important here, and it's so central, and it's exalted. And the only time he opens his mouth in the whole trial is really, you know, right here. And whenever he opens his mouth, it's always so profound. Of course, he opens his mouth seven times from the cross. And then they said this, what further testimony do we need?

We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. Christ opens his mouth to give words of life. I have come that you might have life, might have it more abundantly, John 10. But these men, these vicious evil men, these religious men who sat on the seat of God's appointed country, and the only theistic nation in the world who should have had it right, who were there to dispense truth, who were there to lead people to the Messiah, who were there to bring people hope and truth and peace and pardon, who were there to usher in the Messiah, they were about to murder the Messiah and his disciples later in Acts, and they missed it. And they were condemning him, and instead of hearing from his mouth and receiving, he came into his own, his own received him not, John 1 11 and 12. So Robbie, read these last questions. We're out of time. So what do I do when the mob turns against Jesus?

And how can I find fellowship in his suffering? How excited am I about reigning with him? Yeah, so when you start talking about Jesus, when you open your mouth and talk about him, it's going to change some things. It's going to change the tone.

It's going to change the ecosystem in the room, the atmosphere. It's going to, it's going to heighten things. But you do this in a, obviously in a gracious way, but you bring him up.

And let me tell you, there's always going to be a mob. There's always going to be a world out there that hates Jesus, that doesn't want to hear about him. Even Christians, we talk about everything peripherally. When's the last time you asked another Christian, how is your relationship with Jesus?

Let's just get down to the what's really, really important. And by the way, the answer to that question will tell you someone's temperature right now. You want to take their temperature? Ask them how they're doing with Christ. Are you growing in Christ? Are you hearing?

Thank you for asking. Wow, you know, I haven't even taken a second to read his word today to listen to him. So today you're on trial, I'm on trial, for who is he? If he's standing before you, do you recognize who he is?

And are you willing to bow the knee now? Because if we don't bow now, we will bow later. And that's why on Experienced Truth, we call people to him. We proclaim Jesus. And at the trial of Jesus, there's a very real message for you and for me. The message of hope, if you're a believer, you will reign with Christ for eternity.

It's going to be unstinkin' believable. If you don't know him, you will bow your knee to him and be thrown into hell forever. And I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. But see, Christ was tortured and beaten and suffered, so we wouldn't have to, Robbie. He took our place on that cross.

So really, we come down to this question. Do you know him, and has he changed your life? This is Experienced Truth.

I'm Stu Epperson. I hope you will go deeper into Luke chapter 22 and the trial of Jesus. I hope you'll share this with a friend. And I hope before your head hits the pillow tonight, you'll share God's Word and invite people in this amazing adventure, in this amazing relationship, the abundant life of knowing Jesus Christ and making him known. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, just at Stu Epperson, and keep Jesus Christ at the center of your conversation. Hey, stop wasting people's time. Talk about Jesus. This is the Truth Network.