The Acts of the Apostles 12

Subtitle: Peter Preaches Again part 2

Acts 3:17-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 7, 2022.

We pick up Peter’s second recorded sermon this morning, which we started last week.  Let’s get into the passage.

God had sent Messiah and they killed him

Peter has outlined how they have been fighting against God in their actions.  God had sent Messiah, but they had crucified him.  They were more than simply resisting God’s directions.  They were hostile to them.

Yet, in verse 17, Peter points out that they and their rulers had done it in ignorance.  Jesus on the cross had prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  They didn’t realize that they were actually killing Messiah, but that doesn’t make what they did good.  It is simply a mitigating factor.  At many points, the rulers and people had mistreated Jesus, refused to accept the truth, and then put to death an innocent man.

Ignorance speaks to the knowledge and understanding that one has.  There are many things we simply do not know.  In fact, we are born 100% ignorant of life.  We begin to accumulate knowledge and understanding little by little.  Can we not see that the things of which we are ignorant are practically infinite?  What we do know only scratches the surface of all that can be known.  Thus, the most knowledgeable among us may not be ignorant compared to the average person, but compared to God they haven’t even reached 1% of what can be known, much less the stuff that we cannot know because God has not designed us with the capacity to discover them.  A wise person recognizes that the more they learn, the more they become aware of just how great their ignorance really is.

This brings up the subject of willful ignorance.  The truth can be staring us in the face, but we refuse to recognize it because of certain ramifications we are unwilling to accept.  Where is the line between inherently not knowing, like a child, and being stubborn and willful in refusing to accept the truth?  Only God can perfectly judge those kinds of issues of the heart.

Peter brings up the fact that God had foretold all of these things through the prophets.  They were told in advance that the Messiah would suffer in many different ways through many different prophets.  This doesn’t mean they should have had perfect understanding of what Jesus was doing and who he was, but they could have had enough understanding to be more careful.  Even John the Baptist, who demonstrated great understanding of the identity and work of Jesus, wrestled with the way things were going.

The people and their rulers could have had a better understanding than what they had.  They had become curiously incurious about certain passages and teachings of the prophets that would have at least helped them be more careful.  Yes, we can’t help a certain part of our ignorance, but some of it we can.

In fact, the most important part of this whole issue is not even our knowledge level.  It really comes down to being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  Peter, John, James, and all the others, didn’t reject Jesus and call for his crucifixion.  They were able to get to that place by responding in repentance and faith at critical points in that 3 ½ years that Jesus ministered in Israel.

We are not so very different today.  The Church can be very proud about the great amount of knowledge that we have received through Jesus and the apostles.  However, that cannot take the place of sensitivity to what the Spirit of God is doing now.  Many very learned people have so systematized the biblical information that they are willfully ignorant to things that contradict their theological traditions.  Sound familiar?  We can become so enamored with the things of this world that we don’t seek God for the truth.  We can be happy with a surface knowledge of many things, or a rationale that we have adopted, but those things need to bow before the authority and power of the Lord Jesus.

Have I become a student of the Lord Jesus?  Think of it.  In the Bible we have a written document of the things that the Creator of all the universe wants us to understand, wants you to understand.  Many people who are ignorant in the eyes of the people around them will be found holding on to the Lord in the days ahead, having wisdom in the one thing that truly matters.  And, many who have the most biblical knowledge will be found fighting against what God is doing, lacking wisdom in the one thing that truly matters.  Jesus is working to give us a love of the Truth (2 Thess 2:10-12), so that it is love for him that will bring us through in the end, just like Peter all those years ago on the shores of Galilee in John 21.

Here is the good news.  God is still gracious.  Peter tells the crowd that they can still repent and turn to God.  In English, the word “repent” focuses on turning back to sorrow for one’s actions (for sin), as opposed to continuing forward in them.  This covers several important aspects of what the Bible says must happen in our hearts.  However, the word it is used to translate also has a meaning of a change of mind.  Of course, one must have a change of mind in order to turn back and have sorrow for sin, so I am not quibbling with the translation.  Rather, I am homing in an unseen aspect in this text.

We must have a change of mind about our life, and not just an alternate rationale created by us.  We really must adopt the mind of Christ.  We really must allow him to be the lord of our life.  This change of mind will turn us back from resisting and fighting what God is doing.  It will lead us to put our faith in Jesus, his commands, and the teachings of his apostles.  It will keep us from sacrificing Jesus for the sake of our willful way.

In this life, we will have a continual need for learning.  Thus, repentance will always be a part of the believer’s life.  It must never become a thing of the past.  Instead, it must become the daily path on which we walk.  Many are the exits that will take us off the road of repentance.  May the Spirit of God keep us on that Highway of Holiness, that good path, that we can only know through relationship with Jesus and the Word of God.

This brings us to verse 19.

Repentance will bring blessings

If we repent, then there are some good things from God that we will enjoy.  But, if we do not repent, then we stiff-arm the blessings that God wants to give to us.

Peter tells them that they need to change their mind and turn back into their sins being blotted out.  The direct result of changing their mind about Jesus and putting their faith in him will be the blotting out, or wiping out, of their sins.  It is the cancelling of the official record of our sins.  Sure, the fact that there are blots speaks of sins, but the fact of them being blotted out means they cannot be held against us before God.  Oh, this world will continually try to pin you to your past sins.  However, God offers freedom from those sins, and will not use them against you in the future.  Hallelujah!

In Isaiah 44:22, God promises Israel that, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (ESV)  Praise God that our sins can be blotted out when we repent, take on the mind of Christ, and exercise faith in the Son of God and the Word of God.

A second blessing is mentioned in verse 19, “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”  The word “may” here does not question that they will come, but rather repentance removes a hindrance that keeps the Lord from sending them.  When it is removed, then he will send them as he determines.

In this life, we cannot get very far without being refreshed.  However, don’t settle for mere refreshing of your body and mind, your flesh.  I guess we could call those “refleshments.”  We not only need our bodies and minds refreshed, but more importantly, we need our spirits refreshed by the Spirit of God.  This is what Peter is talking about.  We need God’s periodic spiritual refreshment in order to successfully navigate this life, and He knows when we need it.  Yet, the problem is that our flesh and the enemy seek to consume us with refreshing the flesh to the exclusion of our spirit.  Another problem is that His refreshment doesn’t always look like such to us.  They had destroyed the refreshment of Messiah in their midst, but here was God offering them a second chance to drink from the wells of salvation and receive the Messiah back into their lives.

This is intended for them as individuals, but also as a nation.  Salvation gives us a relationship with the Lord of Life who cares for our soul and is the good shepherd.  Yet, it is clear that Peter ties in their repentance as a nation to the next blessing- a Second Coming of the Messiah.  It is interesting that the book of Zechariah pictures a great work of repentance in Israel where they will “look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10 NKJV).  Then, in chapter 14 of that same book, God promises to save Israel from complete destruction at the hands of the nations of the world by coming down out of the heavens Himself.  This is the Second Coming of Christ that pictures his feet touching down on the Mount of Olives and splitting it in half.  What a refreshing time that will be for the nation of Israel!

Thus, the next blessing Peter mentions is that God may send Jesus back and begin the Restoration of All Things (verses 20-21).  Jesus must stay in the heavens until the time of The Restoration of All Things.  The earlier refreshments by God’s Spirit would keep them sustained until they came to that Great Refreshing that God has promised in His Word.  All the prophets pointed to a time when all that has gone wrong in this world and in the heavens will be restored to their proper state.  The Bible can be seen as a story of how everything went wrong (think Genesis), and yet how God is bringing everything back to a restored state that is even better than the original (think Revelation with its New Heavens and the New Earth).  That day is set by God.  We have a destiny in the future that cannot be avoided.  Yet, there is a sense where repentance could perhaps speed it up.

Peter specifically reminds them of the prophecy of Moses found in Deuteronomy 18 (esp. vs 18).  Moses leads up to this prophecy by warning Israel against listening to spiritists and those who practice divination.  God had not given Israel over to these lesser Elohim.  They had a greater destiny than the nations who were following the wrong Elohim.  Their destiny was to first receive the word of the One True God through Moses in building up the nation of Israel, and then later, God would send them another Prophet like Moses. 

Hebrews 3:1-6 emphasizes this connection by pointing out that Moses was faithful as a servant of God to build the house of Israel.  However, Jesus Messiah was faithful “as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” (Heb. 3:6 NKJV).  This speaks of the “house” of the Church.  We don’t have time for it today.  However, this language of a house being built by the son for himself so that the Church can live with him is the wedding analogy that Jesus used so often.

In Jesus, Messiah had come to make an offer of betrothal to Israel.  As a nation, they rejected it, but Christ takes a remnant and sends them to the nations in order to raise up a bride that will be married to him at the end of this age.  All the prophets warned of this critical period, and Moses stated that those who rejected this Prophet, Messiah, would be destroyed from among God’s people.  They were in danger of losing their place, their lot, their inheritance.

In verse 25, Peter reminds them of their heritage.  They are the sons of the prophets, and the offspring of Abraham.  This means that they had inherited the writings of the prophets, and the promise of Abraham that the families of the whole earth would be blessed through them, i.e., Israel.  All that we know of God is passed to the Gentile nations through the people of Israel.  Israel is far more important than any other nation in the sense of God’s work in the world.  However, His work is for the sake of all the nations of the world.  In fact, God did not just choose Israel from among the nations back in the days of Abraham.  Rather, God rejected all of the nations, and instead, created a new nation by His own hand as Adam was created directly by God.

This is why God sent His Servant Jesus to Israel first.  They had been and still were the instrument through which God had spoken to the nations.  They were God’s witness to the world.  However, the word first, implies others.  The Gospel of Jesus would go to the nations through his faithful believers, and thus, all the earth would receive a second witness through the Church of Jesus.  Here we are today hearing these same words that Israel heard 1,990 some odd years ago.

O, how America needs a time of refreshing in which we are turned away from our sin into full faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus the Messiah.  It will only happen as Spirit-filled believers, who are keeping in step with Jesus, interact with a people who are steeped in all manner of ignorance.  May God refresh his people today so that we can renew our battle against the works of Satan upon those around us!

Peter Preaches Again 2 audio

The Waiting King

Psalm 110:1; Ephesians 1:19-22; Hebrews 2:5-10.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 12, 2021.

We know that we are told to be patient and trust that God is waiting for the right time in order to bring this present age to an end, and to bring in the promised Kingdom Age.  Of course, this is not a waiting of inactivity.  Instead, we live our life in order to glorify God, regardless what we face, and we testify to others about the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Yet, we rarely think about the fact that God has not asked us to do anything that He is not doing Himself.  Today, we are going to look at the reality that our Lord Jesus is also patiently waiting, and yet not inactive.

Let’s get into our first passage.

The now, but not yet, kingdom

Psalm 110 is a Messianic Psalm that prophesies about the coming Kingdom of Messiah.  It is quoted three unique times in the New Testament.  The first is by Jesus himself during the week leading up to the crucifixion (Matthew 22:44, and in the other synoptic Gospels).

On one hand, Jesus is pointing out this psalm to the religious leaders to silence their badgering of him.  The rabbis generally saw this psalm as messianic, but there were some cryptic aspects to it.  The Messiah is of the line of David, the ultimate Son of David who would come and restore the kingdom of God.  However, verse one has David calling the Messiah, “my Lord.”  If the Messiah is David’s offspring, in what way can he be David’s Lord?  Before we jump in with some suggestions, we should understand that the culture in the Near East was not like ours.  This would hit the religious teachers as a difficult puzzle.  There is something about this Son of David that would be so unique that David recognized him as greater than himself.  David literally says, “Yahweh [Jehovah] says to my Lord…”

The Apostle Peter also points to this verse during his sermon at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:34).  There he points out that this is what has happened with Jesus.  He was victorious over the grave, but the Father has decreed that he is to sit at His right hand.  Of course, Peter also points out that Jesus isn’t just sitting there twiddling his thumbs.  He was directly responsible for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon God’s remnant people.

The writer of Hebrews also points to this verse in Hebrews 1:13. The emphasis there is that God does not minister to angels, or serve them.  Rather, angels minister on His behalf to us.

All of these passages, point out the concept of a kingdom that was initiated in the first century after Christ’s resurrection, and yet had an aspect that wasn’t yet.  These verses picture God the Father having the Messiah sit at His right hand until his enemies are made his footstool. 

The ascension of Jesus was clearly preached as a fulfillment of this prophecy.  Where is Jesus?  He is at the right hand of the Father.  This implies a picture of participation in the rule of the Father.

One should not miss the use of the word “until” in this verse.  This sitting and waiting of the Messiah will not last forever.  This makes the phrase following “until” very important.

The phrase is until “I make your enemies your footstool.” (NKJV and ESV).  This almost sounds like Jesus does nothing and it is the Father who “makes” the enemies of Jesus his footstool.  However, there is more going on with this verb than can be seen in the translation.  I would point out that Revelation 19 does not picture Jesus setting still and the Father subduing his enemies.  Jesus clearly participates in this.  So, what about this phrase?

First, the verb is a continuous thing that is future to its writing.  It points to a time when God will be making the enemies of Christ to be under his feet.  Second of all, the verb can also mean to make in the sense of appointing or decreeing.  As we are going to see, there are ways that the enemies of Christ are already under his feet, and ways that they are not.  These can fit nicely with the sense that there is both a decreeing that happens and an enforcing of the decree.  Thus, there are ways in which this is “now, but not yet.”

There does develop a confusion over just when this “enforced” aspect of the kingdom would occur within the Church.  The early Church understood that they had spiritually joined the Kingdom of God, but that the enforcement of all things under Jesus, would not occur until he returned.  They saw themselves as warning others of a coming kingdom that they could spiritually join ahead of time by faith in Jesus.  It wasn’t until the A.D. 300’s that this began to change.  First of all, the emperor Constantine issued an edict of toleration in A.D. 313.  This gave to Christians the protection of the empire and shut down much of their persecution.  By the time we get to the 390’s, things have changed.  The emperor Theodosius was a Christian and was making paganism and its rituals a capital crime.  Historians often point to this vast change of the Roman empire as a separate kingdom (Byzantine Kingdom).  However, that is somewhat special pleading.

Over the next century, Bishop Augustine and others fueled a reinterpretation of the kingdom to fit with what they saw happening on the ground.  They still held to the believe that Jesus would come back, but now they understood the kingdom to have been handed over to the Church as Christ’s representative.  Jesus would rule over it spiritually from heaven instead of in person on earth.  The Church would march forth and bring all the enemies of Christ under the feet of Jesus in the name of the Father.  We are now at the end of 1600 years of the Church wrestling with how to make that happen. (Note: not all Christian groups adopted this modified view of the Kingdom, nor hold to it today, but it is widely prevalent). 

The patience of our Lord

Just as Christians have been called to be patient, we must see that Christ is being patient too.  We can be guilty of thinking of patience as something only we humans have to do.  God is not just choosing patience.  His nature is patient, where ours is not.  It is God’s patience with a lost world, with sinners, that we must emulate.  Similarly, the Messiah is put in a now, but not yet, situation that calls for patience.  Surely, after Jesus is resurrected, it would be the time to attack and take over the kingdom.  Yet, the Father says, “Sit at my right hand until…”  This is contra our human nature.

Let’s walk through several New Testament passages in order to get a handle on this and perhaps also unravel some of the confusion.

Ephesians 1:19-22 seems to be clear that everything is already under Christ’s feet in the 1^st Century A.D.  Verse 22 says that God “put all things under His feet…”  The Greek word used for “put” is a verb that often means “put” in the sense of appointing.  All things in heaven and on earth have been given a station that is under the feet of Christ.  Clearly not all things are choosing to submit to that “setting,” or appointing by God.

This all makes sense as early Christians were persecuted to the point of being fed to lions for Rome’s pleasure.  They were rejecting the rule of Christ.  Neither Rome nor the majority of the world came under it even in the sense of being forced into that position.  Yet, it is taught and believed in the first century that Jesus has a position that is above all powers and authority.

Now, let’s look at Hebrews 2:5-10.  This passage is a little long, but verse 5 obviously states that the time of subjection to Christ is in the “world to come.”  The Church Age had begun.  Christians were proclaiming this appointment by God the Father of His Son to the place of a cosmic Emperor.  This gave/gives room to people to choose allegiance or not without being forced.  Yet, the “until” would eventually come to an end.  Jesus would not stay in heaven forever.

In fact, verse 8 even recognizes that what is promised, and what we are seeing in this age, are at odds with each other.  “We do not see all things under his feet.”  This reminds us that part of the patience of our Lord begins with the incarnation, his suffering as a man, and now his patient waiting in heaven.  Our Savior Lord ahs not asked us to do anything that he isn’t doing himself.

So, verse 10 ends making the point that it is fitting for a suffering people to have a suffering savior.  No matter how hard you have it, it has always been hard for our Lord Jesus.  He is not absent, but is our fearless captain leading us through the suffering, the waiting, and into the joyful reward that lies on the others side.

Another passage that is important is 1 Corinthians 15:26. All of these passages have Jesus in the heavens waiting.  However, in 1 Corinthians 15:26, we are told that “the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.”  This is actually pictured in Revelation 20:14, “then death and hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire.”  It is not the Church’s job to put death and hades into the Lake of Fire, but that is the path that some have put themselves on.  Notice that at least the completion of the enemies being both appointed and made to be under the feet of Christ is after his second coming.

This brings us back to today.  If God grants repentance to a large number of our society, then our nation will see great political change.  However, there is a tension here.  We can be tempted to see favorable events as a sign from God to “force” the issue of the dominion of Christ.  God help us to become like Him, patient and yet quick to glorify God in what we do and speak, rather than trying to force the world into subjection to Christ.  That day is coming, but it is not this day.

Waiting King audio

Before Pilate

Mark 15:1-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 28, 2021.

I am using the title Before Pilate with double-meaning.  Jesus was literally brought before Pilate who was the Roman governor, or better, prefect of Judea.  As the chief executive officer of Rome on the scene, Jesus was in Pilate’s hands and at his mercy.

However, Jesus is no mere man.  He is the eternal Word of God who had stepped down from the heavens into this world, taking on the nature of a human.  In this sense, Jesus is before Pilate in several other ways.  Jesus existed long before Pilate was ever born.  He was the eternal Son of God and Word of God, present with the Father before Creation began.  Thus, Jesus is before Pilate in time.

Jesus is also of a higher kingdom and authority than Pilate could ever be.  Thus, Jesus is before him in rank and station.  In fact, one day Pilate will be brought before Jesus and judged for his actions.  As the Scriptures tell us, God the Father has appointed Jesus as the judge of all who are alive and all who have died (Acts 10:42).  In 1 Peter 4:3-6, we are warned that the judgments of men only affect the flesh, but all men will stand before Jesus and give account for their life.  His judgment affects us eternally.

Jesus is brought before Pilate

We mentioned in previous sermons that there are actually 4 different events in the trial of Jesus.  He is first brought before Annas who is a previous High Priest while Caiaphas has the elders gathered.  Then, Jesus appears before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin.  The third meeting is only briefly mentioned and is what we have here in verse 1.  Up until now, everything has happened in the middle of the night.  The acts of the council must be done during the day in order to be official.  This third meeting seems to be a pro forma meeting in which the proceedings of the earlier interrogations and the gathering of witnesses is rubber stamped.

The real problem for the leaders is that Rome has stripped them of the power of capital punishment over their own people.  They want to execute Jesus, but they have to get Rome, Pilate, to do it for them.  Thus, shortly after dawn, they bring Jesus to the Praetorium, the headquarters of Pilate’s administration in Jerusalem.

Mark’s account is somewhat disordered in regard to a linear timeline, though it is not disordered in the sense of giving us an understanding of what happened in general.  These cultures were not as concerned with timelines as we are in the West today.  In the other Gospels, we are told that the priests bring Jesus to the Praetorium, but they cannot go in.  It would ceremonially defile them and disqualify them from participating in the Passover later.  Pilate comes outside and Jesus is formally charged by the elders.  Some questioning takes place outside, but then Pilate brings Jesus inside of the Praetorium to question him without the Jewish leaders.  Eventually they end up back outside for Pilate’s official decision.  Mark’s goal is not to establish an exact account of all that our inquisitive minds might want to know.  Rather, it is to establish the important facts of what happened. No charges are listed in Mark, but in Luke 23, we are told some of the charges made against him.

First, they say that the caught Jesus perverting, or twisting, the nation.  This is a general accusation and begs the question, “What was he twisting them towards?”  The second charge makes this specific.  They charge Jesus with forbidding people to pay taxes to Caesar.  This is a lie.  Just that week, Jesus had publicly declared that the Jews should give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.  Regardless, if it was true, Rome would have a vested interest in stamping out such influence.  The third charge is that Jesus says that he is the Messiah that Israel had been waiting for, which is to be the king of Israel.  Of course, these charges have nothing to do with why they want him dead.  Their real charge is that Jesus has blasphemed by claiming to be God.  However, such a religious charge would have no weight with Pilate, so it is left off.  Even with that, the real offense of Jesus is this: he testified that their deeds were evil, and they were too proud to repent.

Of course, we can infer the last charge from Mark’s description of Pilate’s question.  “Are you the king of the Jews?”  Kingship in Israel had been a messy topic ever since the exile.  They had been under the thumb of Persia, then Greece, and then Rome.  During this period, they were ruled by governors in general.  Even under the brief freedom of the Maccabees, they had been led by priests.  Herod the Great was appointed king of Judea by Caesar in 36 BC up to his death a couple of years after the death of Jesus.  However, Herod the Great was not of the lineage of David.  He had no right to the throne biblically.  After his death, the administration of Jerusalem quickly fell apart under Herod’s sons and Rome placed a governor over it.  If anyone was claiming to be the rightful king of Israel, and even the prophesied Messiah-figure, Rome would be keenly interested.

Before we get into the answer of Jesus, let’s look at his response overall.  In general, Jesus is not answering the charges against him.  Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”  Jesus had come to die, and he came to do it in a way that was not that of an arrogant, loud rebel.  How hard it would be to stand before godless men who are making baseless charges against you, and to simply trust God as your defense.

It is not that we should never defend ourselves in any way.  Jesus was fulfilling Scripture.  He needed to be silent before his accusers in general.  There is a time and a place for making a defense.  We see this in the New Testament with the Apostles, especially Paul.  However, we must never defend ourselves in such a way that we are desperate to get free.  Would I lie to get free?  Would I tell the truth about others to ingratiate myself to those who are charging me?  Would I use the time to vent and rage against injustice?  These are not the ways of Christ.

Yet, his is not an absolute silence.  Jesus does give an answer to Pilate, but it is a cryptic one.  Jesus literally says, “You are saying it.”  This is an acceptance that implies there is more to the story.  It is not a definite, “I am the king of Judea!”  In John 18, we are given more of the exchange between Pilate and Jesus.

“Are you the King of the Jews?” ³⁴ Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” ³⁵ Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” ³⁶ Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” ³⁷ Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” ³⁸ Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

Clearly, Jesus takes some time to interact with Pilate, most likely because Pilate is unwittingly caught up in something that is a great evil and he could not begin to understand it.

Pilate comes to the decision that Jesus is not guilty of anything other than annoying the religious leaders.  He does not what to become their lackey in this matter.  I want to note a couple of other details that Mark leaves out.  We are told that Pilate’s wife had been tormented with troubling dreams.  She actually sent word to Pilate while he was sitting in judgment, saying not to have anything to do with this Jesus affair.  Later, Pilate would publicly wash his hands in front of the people and declare, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” (Matthew 27:24 ESV). 

Mark does tell us that Pilate tried to release Jesus through a custom that had been established.  Every year at Passover, he would release a prisoner as a show of good faith to the Jews and in recognition of their holy day.  We don’t have much details on this custom, but in this case, Pilate puts the judgment in the hands of the people by giving them a choice between two prisoners.  Perhaps he feels that this is a way of blocking the religious leaders.  If Jesus is only guilty of ticking off the leaders then the people will probably spare him.  Thus, Pilate finds a prisoner who had been involved in a rebellion that ended in murder.  Of whom, we do not know.  This sets the crowd and the religious leaders up for a classic choice.

Barabbas or Jesus?  I can’t be coincidence that the name Barabbas is Aramaic for “son of the father.”  This choice becomes a metaphor for all that is happening spiritually.  Will we choose Jesus who is the Son of God the Father, or will we choose Barabbas who is spiritually a son of a different father, the devil?  It reminds me of the prophecy that Jesus gave the religious leaders in John 5:43. “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.”

In short, as a nation, Israel would reject Jesus as the Christ and later accept another who would not be the true Christ.  This other does not come in the name of God the Father.  He comes in his own name.  He is the anti-Messiah, the antichrist.  God works hard by His Spirit and through His prophets to get us to have a love of the truth, so that we will be prepared when we reach such moments of decision.  These moments are extremely critical choices that represented true spiritual state at the time.  In essence, we are choosing between good and evil, Jesus and Satan, God and the world.  O, how deceived people can become when they rebuff the attempts of God to give them a love of the truth.  On that day, the One who is the Truth stood before them.  Barabbas or Jesus?

If Pilate thought his actions would thwart the religious leaders, he was mistaken.  The crowd is stirred up by the chief priests to call for the release of Barabbas and the death of Jesus.  “Give us Barabbas,” they cried.  “What shall I do with Jesus?” Pilate retorted.  “Crucify Him,” they shouted over and over.  As the crowd is worked into a frenzy, Pilate realizes that it is better for this one man to die than to risk a bloody crushing of what would soon become an uprising.  Caesar would not be happy with such maladministration.  His abilities would be questioned and his position lost.

It is sad that those who are supposed to represent God can be some of the worst at stirring up others against His work.  How blind must those blind guides have been?  Do we not have blind guides in our own day?  How careful Christian leaders must be in the exercise of their authority, and how careful Christians must be in those they allow to be over them.  Guard your heart, friend, for out of it flows the course of your life.

At this point, Pilate yields, and, in true Roman form, we can say that the die is cast.  He orders Jesus to be crucified. 

We must understand that there is no going back.  There is only going forward.  This is our condemnation; the light came into the world and the world loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  Our generation is not any different than that generation.  We too are an evil generation that pompously puts the followers of Jesus on public trial all the time.  We too have religious leaders who pretend to stand for God, but lead in opposition to Jesus.  They would crucify him in a second, if he appeared now in the same way that he did then.  However, Jesus is not coming back in the same way he came the first time.

When Jesus comes back, he will come as the One who is worthy to judge the living and the dead.  He will do so not in some sort of cosmic revenge, but in a sad recognition that no matter how much you love some, they want their wickedness more than they want you.  In fact, they will hate you just for existing because your existence reminds them of their wicked heart.

The die is cast, but believers in Jesus those who love God and are loved by Him, will hold fast their faith in Him, regardless of what lies ahead.  We know just how the cube will land and just who will be left standing in the end!

Before Pilate audio

Under the Scope of Jesus

Mark 12:35-44.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 30, 2020.

Our passage today is broken up into three teachings that are connected.  Here, Jesus puts the scribes themselves under the microscope of judgment as they have done to him.  Jesus is not doing this out of spite.  Rather, it warns others not to follow the life of these men, and it gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to convict some of the scribes so that they can be saved.  Truth opens the door for salvation and freedom from our sins.  This is exactly what the scribe in Mark 12:34 needed to hear.

We will all one day come under the judgment of Jesus.  If we listen to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit then we will have nothing to fear about that day.  However, if we follow the desires of our flesh then we will not be prepared for that day.  God loves us too much to leave us without a warning, or to leave us without the help that we need in order to follow Jesus.

Until that Day comes, we must be careful how we live our lives, and what purpose we pursue.  Our own judgments can be fraught with error and self-deception.  Only coming into a relationship with the Truth himself can truly set us free from our self-wisdom and the so-called wisdom of this world.

Jesus on the teaching of the scribes

Verses 35-37 come on the heels of a particular scribe whom Jesus stated was not far from the Kingdom of God.  Though the following lessons can be helpful to the rest of us, it is more than likely that Jesus is throwing a lifeline to this scribe through this first lesson.  The scribe was close, but close is not good enough.  To close the remaining distance, he would need to recognize the errors of his group and fully embrace the wisdom of Jesus.  Otherwise, he would just be led astray.  You can’t hold onto Jesus and the wisdom of the group that were in when you came to him.  You will eventually hold onto one and despise the other.

The scribes were teachers of Israel and masters of the Law of Moses.  They taught the people that God had an anointed man that He would send, Messiah.  This Messiah would be the son of David.  Everything about this teaching is correct.  Psalm 2 is the classic passage that promises an Anointed One or Messiah sent by God to be King over Israel and all the earth.  This promise of a righteous king from God was supplemented by more prophecies through the years.  God promises David that one of his descendants would have an everlasting throne.  The phrase “son of David” can mean an immediate offspring, but it can also refer to later descendants by extension.

The Old Testament does reveal these teachings, but it is best summed up by the angel who spoke to Mary the Mother of Jesus in Luke 1:32-33.  “He [Jesus] will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.  And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Jesus then highlights the problem.  In Psalm 110:1, David is clearly talking about the promised Messianic Kingdom.  However, he refers to the Messiah as his lord, and he does so “by the Holy Spirit,” that is under the inspiration of God.  We are not told what the typical scribe taught about this verse and the identity of David’s lord.  Today, if you go to Jewish commentaries or online articles, you will find that they give several possible answers that can point to David talking about Abraham, or someone else.  Ultimately, they will deny that it can ever refer to Jesus.  However, these are not views that were established by the scribes in those days.  Those modern views were developed in response to Christian teachings.

Basically, Jesus is showing that these who claim to be masters of the Law had a problem in perfectly explaining it.  They were correct in some things that they taught because they were using the Scriptures.  However, they did not know everything, or not nearly as much as they thought they did.  They promoted the concept of an oral tradition handed down from Moses that explained the written tradition.  It is clear that some of these traditions were not actually from Moses.  If they had taught what they knew was true, but then humbly admitted areas of ignorance, then they would have been able to hear the Spirit of God speaking through Jesus.  Pride and arrogance, declaring that you have all truth, is not what any prophet of the Lord ever claimed.

So, how can the Messiah be David’s descendant and simultaneously be his lord?  To be his son, the Messiah would have to be a descendant of David, which Jesus was.  However, in those cultures, the elder is always higher than the younger.  This is not a mere mistake either because Jesus establishes that David was a prophet and was writing this psalm as a prophecy, which is what the scribes believed.

Though God is faithful to give us revelation, that is, things we cannot know without Him telling us, He doesn’t tell us everything.  Through Jesus, the world has received a greater revelation of the Truth of God.  However, even we must not be arrogant.  We must humbly teach what is clear and be honest about what is not.  The scribes pretended to be able to identify the Messiah, and yet could not explain this puzzler.  This should have been a red flag that there was something about Messiah unexplained.

The answer is in the reality of who Messiah is.  There was something hidden about the true identity of Messiah.  In his Gospel, the apostle John describes the reality that Jesus was a man born of the woman Mary.  Yet, he was more than a man.  He was the eternal Word of God by whom the whole creation was brought into existence.  John purposefully uses the language of Genesis 1 to reveal to us that when the Father spoke, it was Jesus who went forth to make His will happen.  Thus, the Messiah would be both human and divine, man and God.

As a human, he would qualify to pay the price for humanity’s rebellion, but as God He would have the power to pull it off.  In Jesus, God has stepped into our world and put His back under the crushing weight of sin that lies upon us.  He has lifted it up and offers us to be rescued out from underneath of it by his grace.

Jesus on the life of the scribes

So, the scribes lacked humility in their teachings.  Next, Jesus moves to their lives and how they lived.  He starts out by telling people to beware of them.  They are not innocent and will lead people into the ditch.  Those who are supposed to be their teachers were not worthy to be listened to.  Even today, we must beware of the many teachers in this society.  We can be led astray by people who look good, but are not.  Humility will do us in good stead.

Jesus points out several things about the scribes.  First, they desire to look good in front of others with their long robes and long prayers.  These were the daily trappings of their life in front of others.  The second thing is connected to the first.  They desire public honor from others, like honored seats at public events.  Now, the problem is not that people are honored, or that the scribes were honored.  The Bible tells us to honor those who lead well.  The problem is that such honor had become their desire.  Their desire should have been to know God and to help others to know Him.  They should have worked to receive the honor and praise from God and not from the people.  Many in this world operate to get the adulation of the crowds and their co-workers.  They hope by it to be elevated.  The Bible shows us another way.  “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”  1 Peter 5:6 (NKJV).  And, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”  James 4:10 (NKJV). 

Their desire for honor wasn’t their only lust.  We are told that they devoured widow’s houses.  The picture here is of their lust for the religious donations of wealthy widows by which they would benefit.  Instead of caring for the plight of the widow, they saw them as a means to an end.  It is fitting that the next section is about a widow, so I will save some comments about this situation until then.

Jesus also notes that their long prayers are only for show; they are a pretense.  Again, it was about getting people’s honor, not God’s.  The length of our prayer has nothing to do with its goodness.  It is the target of our prayer that matters more.  Am I truly speaking to God and desiring Him in it?  Or, am I putting on a show so that people will think more highly of me than they ought?  The scribes may have looked good on the outside to those who couldn’t see their hearts, but God had seen through them, and He brings them out into the open through Jesus.

Jesus ends by declaring that they will receive a greater condemnation.  The Bible doesn’t explain exactly what a greater condemnation would look like, but it will be greater nonetheless.  James says it this way in chapter 3 verse 1.  “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” 

We could say that this makes Jesus look judgmental, but he is speaking the truth.  The previous scribe who wasn’t far from the kingdom of God was also in jeopardy of being influenced by his peer group.  He would need to change; he would need to reject that mindset that he was mixed up in.  Only embracing the Truth could set him free.  The Bible warns us of our condemnation so that we can flee to Jesus and be saved from it.  That is why it says that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and believe in Jesus.  They would receive a greater condemnation, if they didn’t change their hearts and minds about Jesus.

So, their teachings and their lives were not the light that they pretended to be.

A poor widow is contrasted to them

Just as wealthy widows were the hunger and target of the scribes, Jesus uses a poor widow who could offer the scribes nothing.  In their eyes, she is practically worthless and can bring no honor to them or God.  This is a powerful contrast that Jesus reveals.

They were in the temple compound and people would be coming and going.  Some would be bringing sacrifices and others financial offerings to put in the offering box.  Many rich men had come and put in large bags of money, but then a poor widow comes to the box and puts in two small coins.  Several times up to now, we have mentioned that a denarius was one day’s wage for a common laborer.  Two mites would have been equivalent to 1% of a day’s wage.  Let’s say about $1.50.

Jesus asks who has given more.  When the honor of people is your desire, large amounts of money are more important.  Yet, God does not judge like humans judge.  We tend to honor those who give the most, and despise those who give the least or nothing at all.  However, God sees the heart.  This widow was giving all that she had.  Perhaps, she was desperate and was down to her last dollar.  She could buy her last meal with that dollar and then starve, or she could take it to the temple and offer it up as a prayer to God.  Please, God, see me; help me!  Oh, did God ever see her that day.  He just happened to be in the temple in human form that day.

We don’t know the rest of her story, but we do know that God saw her.  I think, somehow, she was taken care of from that day on.

 There are two sides to religious donations.  Those in charge of receiving are not always rotten.  It can be done righteously, and God expects it to be done so.  Also, those who give are not always pure as the driven snow.  It can be done wickedly.  The key to receiving is to recognize that it is a holy thing devoted to God.  He will hold any financial trustees accountable to the holy gifts of His people.  The key to giving is to give it to the Lord and not remain attached to the gift.  We can be overly controlling over how funds are spent.  Even in the area of charity to others, we must recognize that how they spend it is between them and God because you were giving it in the name of the Lord.  It is a holy gift.  If you receive such “holy” funds then you should fear God enough to put it to good use and not be spending it upon your lusts. 

Praise God that when we have a clean heart in this area, both as givers and receivers, then a true blessing can be upon the community in which we live.  This widow, who would be despised by the great teachers of the day, gave far more that day than they would ever know.  She would receive the pleasure and honor of God in far greater amounts than the trickle that the scribes would receive from others.  God is the husband of the widow and the Father of the orphans, and if we want to be like Him, we will be too!

Scope of Jesus audio