Welcome to our continuing Bible
study in Luke, and we're in chapter 18 beginning in verse 31 to date. And it's interesting that our
last lesson that we had had to do with the rich young
ruler, and the lesson was titled, What Shall I Do? What Shall I
Do? And we kind of went through all those scenarios that religion
brings to people, and what shall I do, as opposed to depending
solely on grace. And then the next thing we see
is Christ says, here's what I'm doing. It's not
what you should do, but here's what I should do. In verse 31,
it says, Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them,
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written
by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto
the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and
spitted on. And they shall scourge him, and
put him to death. And the third day he shall rise again. And
they understood none of these things. And this saying was hid
from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken."
Boy, it's just a... Wonderful how he takes it from
what shall I do to here's what I'm doing and what's going to
happen to me on your behalf. So important to keep that circumstance
in our minds as we look at it. But today we have the advantage. Those disciples were living day-to-day,
and even though they were with Christ and they saw what He did
on a day-to-day basis, and all the healings and all the gospel
that He delivered to them, He'd mentioned to them in Luke chapter
9 that he said, oh, you know, I'm going to Jerusalem to be
killed and rise again the third day. And so this isn't the first
time that he's mentioned that. In fact, in my topical headings
in my Bible here, it says, Jesus foretells his death for the third
time. So it's not a new thing that
he's bringing up, but he brings it up as suits his purpose. But you know, we have the advantage
because we can skip ahead to chapter 24. We can see what happened,
you know. And we can read all the New Testament
commentaries. from Paul and Peter and John,
and we can have the advantage of seeing everything that they
were just living on a day-to-day basis and couldn't see ahead. And yet, he says, unless it's
revealed to them, it remains hid. They understood none of
these things. even though they were there.
To them, it was hidden. And so again, Jesus, He lays
forth the sovereign purpose which He's been engaged in since before
the foundation of the world. His face was set like a flint
to go to Jerusalem and give His life a ransom for many, to lay
down His life for the sheep. And He said, behold we go to
jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning
the son of man shall be accomplished and boy the more you look the
more you see when a little bit of grace is opened up to you.
And Norm's been bringing all these lessons from Leviticus
and Numbers and everything that points to Christ in those Old
Testament Scriptures. And we find that's the very thing
that Jesus tells them all the time. Everything that He does
and says comes from what He directed to be in the Old Testament. And he says, they shall be accomplished.
And we'll look at that phrase here in a minute. Very interesting
phrase. There's just so much that was
interesting about this, other than all the things that he's
doing to save his people from their sins,
going to Jerusalem. But there's just a lot that's
there just layer after layer, just like we always find in the
in our previous lessons on grace, and how manifold it is, and how
expansive it is, and how little of it that we are permitted to
see. And you know, many Bible topical
headings, as I mentioned, said Jesus foretells His death a third
time, and then you go to some commentaries on that block of
Scripture, and it says Jesus is predicting what's going to
happen, like He's got a crystal ball and He can kind of just
see what it is. And even though the actual word
predict is is a proper word that kind of describes accurately means to pre means before and
dict mean talks about talking so to to say before what happens
but in the modern translations they use that word like the international
standard version uses that word and it gives the same sense of
assuredness but in In today's language, things just change
so much in today's language that it doesn't really have that same
forceful context that we find used in the Bible. And in today's
language, in understanding predictions, they're less reliable. And I
read in this one dictionary online that said a prediction
is what someone thinks will happen. A prediction is a forecast. Pre means before, and diction
has to do with talking. So a prediction is a statement
about the future. And in current times, it's a
guess. It's a guess that's based maybe
on facts or evidence, but not always. Like every day there's
pundits on the news predicting who's going to win this election
or who's going to win that election. based on polls that are maybe
sketchy. Or some of them may be reliable,
some of them may be not. In previous elections, they found
out that their polls weren't worth anything. They were all
wrong. But they predicted based on those,
and they convinced people that we're right because we're predicting
based on this evidence that turns out not to be right. But with
the Lord, when He foretells something, foretells His disciples, it's
assurance. It's a guaranteed thing. And
we're going to examine this shall be accomplished phrase here.
You know the term shall declares the absolute reliability, the
absolute assurance, a fact guaranteed, an indisputable truth when it
comes from the Lord. You know, shall be accomplished
is actually it's one word in the Greek. It's the word teleo.
And it's translated various ways and has these various meanings
that are all very pertinent to what the Lord is telling the
disciples and what he's telling the church and what he's done
for the church and what he wrote that he would do for the church.
It's a very interesting word. And it indicates this word teleo
indicates to end, to accomplish. to complete, to conclude, to
make an end, to finish. Sometimes it's used to describe
discharging a debt, to pay, all things which Jesus actually did
accomplish for his people. And we'll look at some scriptures
where that term teleo is used to describe the words that we
just looked at here in this definition. And Jesus used it in several
scriptures declaring His fulfillment in the covenant of grace. In
John 19-30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He
said, it's finished. It's accomplished. He said it shall be accomplished,
and it was accomplished. It was a completed act. The debt was paid. He bowed His head and gave up
the ghost. In Matthew 17, 24, it's used to indicate a payment
where some folks came up to the disciples and they were concerned
that Jesus wasn't paying His share to the government. And
they said, doesn't your Master pay tribute? Pay. And that's that same word teleo.
And Luke 2.39 describes Mary and Joseph having performed all
things according to the law of the Lord concerning Jesus." And
then they returned to Nazareth. So it was a thing performed. It was a completed act. They
had performed all the things according to the law. They took
him to the temple and they They dedicated Him and had the prayer
and did the two doves and all the things that were required
in the Law of Moses concerning a baby being circumcised and
all those things. So the term is very strong. It's very absolute in declaring
the certainty of the success of Christ in redeeming the church.
It's not just a crystal ball prediction that's up to the whimsy
of men. And by fulfilling all the law
of the Lord, paying the required price for the sins of His people,
satisfying God the Father by finishing the work that He was
given to do in the covenant of grace, isn't that what it says
in John 17? For I have glorified Thee on earth, I have finished
the work which Thou gavest Me to do. That's that same word
teleo. I have teleo the work. It's accomplished. The debt is
paid. It's finished. It's completed. Concerning verses 32 and 33 that
he describes, he says, we're going up to Jerusalem and all
things that are written in the prophets concerning me shall
be accomplished. And then he lists a few of those
things there in verse 32, 4. And that takes us right back
to that sentence about all things that are written by the prophets
as a result, because it was written by the Spirit of God, penned
by the hands of the prophets, because that's what God determined
would be done. He shall be delivered to the
Gentiles. He shall be mocked and spitefully
entreated and spitted on, and they shall scourge Him and put
Him to death, and the third day He shall rise again." What a
list. And to say it calmly, that could
only be divine. It just escapes our ability to
conceptualize His demeanor and that from the Lord God Almighty
saying, this is what I'm going to put up with and take. And for the joy that was set
before Him, He would endure all these things. We're going to
read that scripture from Hebrews chapter 12, I think. just amazing terms there in that
Scripture. I'd like to look at some specifics
there. He shall be delivered to the
Gentiles, shall be mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, they shall
scourge Him, put Him to death, the third day shall rise again.
And I wanted to look at some specifics about how contrary
to human ways and standards, Jesus ultimately works all these
things for good to them who love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose. Every one of those things that
he lists there, he turns from the evil that was conceived upon
him and turns them into grace for his people. And isn't that
what we found in Genesis chapter 50 when Joseph's brothers finally
worked up enough courage to go down and he revealed himself
to them. Isn't that interesting that he
had to reveal himself to them the same as Christ had to reveal
all these things to the disciples. He said, you meant it for evil. All those things you did to me,
you meant it for evil. You did not have one good intention
in what you did. You thought you'd kill me. You
stole my stuff. and then you threw me in a pit,
and then you sold me. You thought all that stuff were
evil, but God meant it for good to save much people alive. What
a picture, what a picture of the gospel in that Genesis 50
verse 20. And in enmity, he was turned
over to the Gentiles, and that word's delivered, it comes up. The son of man shall be delivered
unto the Gentiles, And that was the Romans and mocked for being
called king. Delivered in the Greek gives
us the sense of being given over through the act of betrayal.
That's what that word means. And it's described in the Old
Testament. Psalm 41, verse 9 says, Yea,
my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my
bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. And truly, in Luke
22, he says, Truly the Son of Man goeth as it was written of
Him, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. It's all
written, it was all determined, but it's not free. And sovereignly
that we know that all of this was according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. to accomplish His eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ, which ultimately is the
redemption of the church, bringing all the church home to Him spotless
and without wrinkle and without sin and changed from the condition that
we were in under sin in the fall. An interesting lesson that we'll
probably do sometime when Norm's gone is what it would be like
than, different than we are now. And not encumbered by all the
things that sin, you know, sin impacts every single atom of
every single thing in the world and everything is impacted by
the fall. And when we're free of that, it's hard to imagine
all the, how things will be, but we'll save that for another
time. But Him being delivered, it says in Acts 2.23, Him being turned over by betrayal, by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain." Acts 2.23. What a powerful
message there that Peter and the disciples brought there. And the believers were like, yeah. It was us. In Isaiah 53-7 it
said, He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened
not His mouth. He is brought or delivered as
a lamb to the slaughter. You know that lamb just goes
along. It doesn't know what's going to happen to it. It's just innocent. And so it's
kind of a picture of that betrayal that the person leaves it up
and hands it over and then it's slaughtered. He is brought as
a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before a shearer's
a dumb sow, opening not his mouth, and substituted in the place
of guilty sinners whom he came to save, and mocked as a king."
You know, in John 18, after he's been arrested, and we were talking
this morning about the disciples not really understanding all this
stuff?" And Peter said, not so, not so. And he smote off Malchus's
ear. And we're not going to let them
take you and do mean stuff to you. And he says, you know, it's
expedient for you that I go. It's absolutely necessary that
I go and fulfill all these things for you. And if I don't do that,
you just don't have any part of me. It's just as simple as
that. But he's taken before Pilate. And the Jews said, he's calling
himself a king. That's an insurrection against
Caesar, you know. And Pilate said therefore unto
him in John 18, 37, Art thou a king then? And Jesus answered,
Thou sayest that I am a king, And then he says, to this end
was I born. And for this cause came I into
the world. He didn't come into the world
just to be a king on a throne and give people orders and more
rules and stuff to do. He came to save his people from
their sins. That's what he came to do. For
this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto
the truth. the truth of the gospel. Everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice." And Pilate then said,
I find no fault in him. What is? He said, what is truth?
Truth is subjective. Just like we were talking about
that word predict, you know, it's kind of a subjective word
now. And in Pilate's time, truth is what we say it is. Truth is
subjective. And it just depends on what your
definition of truth is. So, we can say it means whatever
we want it to say. But the truth that comes from
Jesus, the truth that comes from God is the truth truth, the absolute
truth. Pilate said, I find no fault
in Him verifying that He was the perfect Lamb of God. Isn't
it interesting how the Lord even, he uses people that they're not
Christians. Pilate was not a Christian. He
was a pagan Roman authoritarian ruler just in charge of making
sure that the money rolled in from that section and there wasn't
any insurrection or any trouble. And that was it. He was not interested
in the Jews religion. He said, that's your business.
You take care of it. I find no fault in him. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ for of a truth against thy holy child, Jesus,
whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles
and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever
thy hand God's hand and thy counsel, God's counsel determined before
to be done. Not just would make it possible,
not just make it where, well, it could happen, but maybe not.
Not always. It shall happen. It shall be
accomplished, shall be finished. His counsel determined before
to be done for the redemption of the church. His purpose is
made known to us pretty plainly in Ephesians, that he might gather
together in one in Christ all things. Let's look at being spitted on,
as he said in verse 32. He's going to be spit on. You
know, that's the ultimate display of contempt by man. They spit
on you. That just shows you what they
think. They spit on you. It just shows ultimate contempt.
You know, in Isaiah chapter 50, verse 6, he says, I gave my back
to the smiters. That talks about that scourging
that he would endure. I gave my back to the smiters. My cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair, and we've talked about that before. I have a lot
of hair on my cheeks, and if somebody went and pulled some
of them out, we're gonna have a problem, because it hurts.
They are rooted in there pretty good. I gave my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. What a prophecy, what a, this
shall be accomplished. And he endured it with joy for
his church. Hebrews 12.2 says, looking unto
Jesus, the author, the writer, the beginner of our faith, the finisher of
our faith. He writes it, he's the creator
of it in the beginning, and he's the finisher of it. It shall be accomplished. He
is the beginning and the end of it. Who, for the joy that
was set before Him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hallelujah. And yet Jesus turns His spitting,
this ultimate display of contempt, into an ultimate display of healing. Isn't that interesting? He takes
the nastiest thing they could do to him and contempt. In John
9, 6, when he spoke and he spat on the ground and he made clay
of the spittle and he anointed the eyes of a blind man and healed him where he could
see. He took that He took what they
used against him in contempt and made a miracle out of it.
He says, here's what the spit of God can do. Your lowest thing
that you could think of to do to me, I'm going to take it and
use it to open the eyes of a man that was blind from birth and
give him sight. And he gave him more than just
physical sight. He gave him spiritual sight. And you can go back and read
about that in John 9 when you have time. But what a miracle. And he uses that. He'll be spit
upon. I just thought that was so cool. He just said, okay, I'll show
you what can happen with that. Verse 33 says, he would be scourged,
whipped unmercifully by men who could not and would not show
mercy. You know, they had that I think
we've mentioned that in some previous Bible lessons where
they had this whip made out of nine leather things, straps,
and sometimes they would put little bits of metal on the end
of them, sharp things, bone or whatever, so it would inflict
the maximum amount of damage And the Jewish rule, I think,
was 39 lashes, 40 lashes save one or something like that. And
not many people survived that. That scourging killed a lot of them just right
off. They just killed them, end of story. He took that in our
place. with his stripes were healed. Every one of those tentacles
of that whip made a mark on him. And with his stripes were healed.
He took that nastiness that they inflicted on him without mercy
and without any thought and satisfied the righteousness and justice
of God in our place, took the punishment that we earned. What a picture. of the absolute
righteousness and justice of God who cannot and will not allow
sin against Him to be unpunished. Somebody is going to pay. And
Christ said, I'll pay. And isn't that what that word
meant? He shall be accomplished. He'll satisfy that debt. He'll
discharge that debt that we owe. Surely, Isaiah 53 verse 4 says,
Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Now
there's a good scripture that we were talking this morning
about. So many in religion are coming up with this, Jesus became
a sinner. But it says He didn't become
grief. He didn't become sorrow. He carried
them. He bore them. He took our sorrows
and our griefs. He bore them, our sins. And yet,
we did a stream of stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. God determined that He should
endure that scourging. Someone must pay. Jesus would
turn the scourging to provide mercy to His elect by substituting
Himself in our place. He was wounded. for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed." All those things which were foretold and which
displayed the wrath of God, the wrath toward God that we have,
enmity against him which abused the very Son of God were ultimately
used by him to save much people alive. Isn't that an interesting
concept for us to dwell on as the church? All those things
that, all the enmity that was poured out on him, all the wrath
that was poured out on him by men, he turned every single one
of those into something for His church. All things work together
for good. Even the lashing, even the scourging,
even the pulling His beard out, the spitting. All those things
work for good to them that love God, to who are called according
to His purpose. And Colossians 2.13 says, being dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, that just means
we're still in our natural condition, we're still dependent on the
flesh for our righteousness, our salvation, our every need. You that were in that condition,
hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all
trespasses, because He endured all these things in our place. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances which was against us, which was contrary to us.
You know, we talked about when He hanged on that cross and they
put the accusation above Him and it said, King of the Jews,
and the Jews tried to get Him to say, why don't you write,
He said He was the King of the Jews? Why don't you just change
that a little bit? Let's rewrite that a little.
Let's rephrase that so it meets our political aims and religious
ideology. Change that. He says, I've written
what I've written. But the thief next to him, they
put a subscription on him that said, thief and robber. And the other one, murderer.
They put their name up there and they put their crime So it
was a warning to people. You do these things, this is
your end. And every one of us has the handwriting
of ordinances against us from birth. And he blotted out that. Blotted out means it's just like
I have the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sometimes
and I have a mark or something and I just go boop boop boop
and it's gone. It's not just covered up, just not like whiteout
where you just paint over it. It blots it out and it's just
gone like it never was. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, having spoiled
principalities and powers, all those ones that that connived
against Him, all those ones that imagined wickedness to Him and
committed it. He spoiled that stuff and used
it to save much people alive. He made a show of them openly
triumphing over them in it. And in spite of all this terminology
that Jesus used and all these things that He said, we're going
up to Jerusalem, not just for the Passover, but I am the Passover. We're going up there and I'm
going to be betrayed, turned over to those Romans, and they're
going to treat me shamefully and spitefully and do all these
horrendous things to me. In spite of that, yet the disciples,
they didn't understand it. It says they were without understanding. And you know, I'm sure they knew
they were going to Jerusalem because it was Passover, and
everybody went to Jerusalem for Passover. Millions of Jews went
to Jerusalem for Passover because it was kind of in the law that
you had to go three times a year to Jerusalem for these feasts,
and that was one of them. So they knew that they could kind of see, but through
the glass darkly, They were with Jesus every day and saw who He
was and what He was, but yet they didn't fully understand
the significance of Him taking all this abuse. And they didn't
get it. And it says, they understood
it not, and it was hid from them. The divine plan was not yet revealed
to them completely as yet. And you know, the Lord has complete
knowledge and understanding of our human capacity, which is
infinitesimal. We just don't have much. And
what we do have is only because He's revealed it to, He's given
it to us. They understood none of these
things. And this saying was hid from them. Later their friend,
their Lord, their Savior would confide in them truths, and he'd
been kind of doing it all along, little by little, line upon line,
like the Old Testament says, line upon line. He revealed to them little by
little, but they didn't quite, they heard it and it was in their
conscious, but they didn't quite get it. And he says, after I'm
gone, the Holy Spirit's going to come. And he's going to lead
you into all truth, and he's going to reveal these things.
And when he does, you're going to remember that I told you these
things. You're going to have perfect
recollection of everything that I told you. That's going to be
necessary because you're going to have to go and tell this good
news to the folks out there, to the church. And so he would
confide in them truths that he promised the Spirit of God would
make clear to them in time when their hearts were prepared. He
said in John 16, 12, he said, I have many things to say unto
you, but you cannot bear them now. You're not to the point
where you can absorb them and bear them now. It's just too
much for you. And, you know, sometimes we think
about, you know, David said, sometimes I sit up late at night
and I think about all the wonderful things. And he says, it's just
too much for me. I cannot contain. So it's just
like overwhelming. It's just so expansive, so broad,
so much. You just kind of like, I remember
this far side cartoon where the little boy's in the classroom
and he raises his hand and teacher says, what's the problem, Bobby?
He says, my brain is full. He says, you can't bear them
now. it's going to take some time for you to mature spiritually
enough. And then when that happens, you're
going to get more and you're going to get more and going to
get more as it's revealed to you. And the true Passover lamb
was with them, yet they were a long ways from being able to
bear it. And in fact, right up to the
time of the crucifixion, they were in denial and would be until
the Spirit of God made everything clear. not only were they in
denial that bad things were going to happen, they're going to even
say, we don't even know Him. So said they all. Not just Peter. So said they all. How frail we are. And yet, that
didn't diminish His love for them one iota. He still was their friend, their Savior,
their Lord, their love. And He doesn't hold that against
us. Norman mentioned again this morning,
O ye little faiths. The little faith you have is
only because I gave it to you. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not even of yourself. It's a gift of God. Whatever we have comes from Him. And however much we have comes
from Him. And He's always telling us it's
not a quantitative issue. Or we'd just all be doomed, you
know. You know, in John 16, 14, He
says, These things have I told you, that when the time shall
come you may remember that I told you of them. And these things
I said not to you at the beginning, because I was with you, And in verse 20, he says, later
on, he says, you're going to weep, but when the Spirit comes
to you and reveals to you the truth of everything, your tears
are going to be turned into joy. What a wonderful thing. He knew how they were going to
react. He knew because He created them. He created all things. He knew
exactly, He knows our frame. He knows where our bedust. And
He knew that when they crucified Him, they would weep bitter tears. But then, the purpose of it all
would be revealed to them and their tears would be turned into
joy. He says, I'm going to give you
the oil of joy for mourning. We had that lesson from Luke
chapter 4. So, nothing new. Paul said the same thing in 1
Corinthians 3. He's talking to those Corinthians.
He says, you know, I fed you with milk, not with meat. I have a lot of things I'd like
to tell you. He knew a lot because a lot had been revealed to him
by the Lord. And He's no different than us. You know, we run into people
and we have so much that we'd like to tell them, but they're
not able yet. They're just not. And until they're
born again, they can't see the Kingdom of God. They can't see
it. So you're telling them stuff
that means nothing, just words. And they probably have not nice
things to say to you in return because they can't see it. But
Paul said, you know what? I fed you with milk and not with
meat. All we can do is share the gospel,
the basic gospel. Let the Spirit take that and
do with it as He will. And when they want meat, they'll
come to you. We had this lady come a couple weeks ago and said,
I needed some meat. I'm just not getting fed where
I was going. I need some meat. He said, I fed you with milk
and not with meat, for hitherto you weren't able to bear it,
and neither yet now are you able. She said, you guys have some,
you need to digest the gospel and get that straight in your
minds. And then we can move on to that
later on. So often we find that, you know,
the Galatians. I marvel that you're so soon
removed from Him to another gospel that's not another gospel. Mike
brought that out in last week's Bible class. So, you know, Lord,
make us able to see your grace. That's the only way that we will.
So, that's the end of our lesson for today from Luke chapter 18,
verse 31, and be free.