Let us turn again to God's Word,
turning to the New Testament in the Gospel according to Luke. Luke chapter 22 and reading verses
63, 64 and 65. Luke chapter 22 and verses 63,
64 and 65. The men that held Jesus mocked
him and smote him. And when they
had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him,
saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things
blasphemously spake they against him. Remember how we've considered
in the previous portion how Christ had given himself over to those
that came to arrest him in the garden of Gethsemane and how
as they took him away so last time we were considering how
Peter was the one who followed after the Lord and was there
to observe those things that were taking place when they took
him to the palace of the high priest and we considered that
sad account of Peter's denial of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well here in these verses that
we've just read we're told now something of how they were mocking
the Lord Jesus Christ, those who had taken him away, the men
that held Jesus, we read in verse 63, mocked him and smoking. And so this morning I want us
to consider these three verses and this account of the mocking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of course all part and
parcel of his sufferings and the deep humiliation that the
Lord Jesus Christ had to endure as he comes now to make that
great sacrifice make his soul an offering for sins. And the
first thing we observe here in verse 63 is the way in which
they buffeted him. We're told they mocked him and
smote him. They were repeatedly beating
him. This is before he comes to the
trial. This was through the night it
would seem because in verse 66 we're told as soon as he was
dying the elders of the people and the chief priest and the
scribes came together and led him on to their council. He was called upon then to appear
before that council of the Jews that of course was only a part
of his of his trial he was also to be tried before Pilate and
even before Herod as we see in the following chapter in the
opening verse there of chapter 23 the whole multitude of them
arose we're told and led him on to Pilate. Pilate was the
Roman governor, Pilate was the one who had that authority to
pass a sentence of execution upon a man. But Pilate wants
to be free of some responsibility it would appear. He has to acknowledge
that there was no fault in this man. Then at verse 4 in chapter
23, then said Pilate to the chief priest and to the people, I find
no fault in this man. And they were The more fierce,
saying, he stirreth up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry,
beginning from Galilee to this place. When Pilate heard of Galilee,
he asked whether the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he
knew that, he belonged unto Herod. Herod's jurisdiction, he sent
him to Herod. who himself also was at Jerusalem
at that time. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ,
as it were, being passed from pillar to post, appearing before
the Jewish council, being led away to the Roman governor Pontius
Pilate, and Pilate having him led away unto King Herod. And this is all part of the mocking
of him, this mockery of a trial that he has to endure. But even
before this trial, in the portion that we are considering this
morning, through that night, how they were buffeting the Lord
Jesus Christ. His trial was a mock trial, but
how also they thought to mock him beforehand. We're told that
they struck him. Here in verse 63, they smote
him. The word that's used has this
idea of beating, thrashing, flaying. It's interesting that the word
that we find in the other accounts in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 is
the word that translated buffeted. And that literally means to strike
with violence. The buffet is derived from the
noun for the close fist, for the knuckles. How they were beating
him with their fists. He was bruised in his body. What
awful pains he must have felt, physical pains, and yet we know
that those physical pines were as nothing compared with those
things that were transpiring in the very depth of his soul.
Remember his experience in the garden of Gethsemane as we saw
him wrestling there with his father concerning that that was
to be accomplished, what the will of God was for him. That
he must go that way of the cross and that there he must suffer
in his soul, not only suffering at the hands of men but suffering
that terrible penalty that was due to his people whom he was
to die for as a substitute. The hymn writer can rightly say
that the pangs of his body were great, but greater the pangs
of his mind. It was not so much what these
men, these wicked men were doing to him, but it was that anticipation
of what was to befall him when God would pour out his wrath
upon that holy soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we read how
they buffeted him, they smote him, they were striking him with
their fists, but then also we are told in the other accounts
how they also spat upon him, in Matthew chapter 26 verse 67
they spit in his face it says they
spit in his face now we are told that in eastern countries to
spit on the ground in someone's presence is a strong expression
of contempt but they don't just spit on the ground before him
they actually spat in his face. And in prophecy, in Isaiah 50,
he speaks of these things. Isaiah 50 and verse 6, I hid not my face from shame
and spitting it out. I hid not my face from shame
from spitting, this spitting is associated then with the idea
of shame and sin of course is a shameful thing but the Lord
Jesus Christ is here dying as a substitute though he is the
sinless man although he is that one who is holy and harmless
and undefiled and separate from sin and yet Here we see him all
together identified with the shameful thing that sin is. Calvin makes this observation
quite a striking remark really. He says the face of Christ is
marred with spittle and blows as he restores to us that image
which sin corrupted, indeed destroyed. when we think of that image of
God in which man was first created. And now that image has been so
despoiled because of man's transgression. We have that record there in
the book of Genesis in chapter 3 of how our first parents transgressed,
how they disobeyed. The fall of Adam and Eve, how
sin has entered. Now that divine image which is
the glory of man has been so disfigured and here is the Lord
Jesus Christ and he must endure this in order that there might
be the restoring of that image of God in men. Men are to be renewed are they
not? Renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him, we read in Colossians chapter 3. But how it cost the Lord Jesus
Christ to bring that restoration. He must bear then something of
the awful shame that sin is. He must be treated with complete
and utter contempt. His face must be so marred in
order that the divine image might be renewed in those that he has
come to redeem by the shedding of his precious blood. The Lord
Jesus Christ then must of necessity endure these things. None of
these things happen to him merely by chance. This is all part and
parcel of that that was in the divine decree. This is Christ
outworking those things that he had undertaken in terms of
that eternal covenant of grace. The men that held Jesus mocked
him and smote him. Oh friends, might you please
the Lord to open our eyes to see something of the horror of
what sin is in the disfiguring of the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ, as they treat him with such utter contempt. But then,
furthermore, besides this boffeting at their hands, we are told in
the next verse, how they mocked him by blindfolding him. When
they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked
him, saying, Who is it that smote them? Some ways here one sees
a similarity with the way in which the Philistines doubt with
Samson that deliverer that God raised up in the days of the
judges. He was a judge in Israel and
he was a deliverer therefore in Israel. And so we read that
chapter quite deliberately, because there are these parallels. Look at what we're told there
in Judges chapter 16, at verse 21, and the Philistines
took him, took Samson, and put out his eyes, and brought him
down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did
grind in the prison house. And then when they gather together
for this great feast, this great sacrifice in the house of their
idol god Dagon, they make sports of Samson. In verse 23, the lords
of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice
unto Dagon, their god, and to rejoice. For they said, Our God
hath delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands. When the people
saw him they praised their God and they said, our God hath delivered
into our hands our enemy and the destroyer of our country
which slew many of us. And then they called for Samson
that he may make sport. And he made them sport. And we
are told how they set him there between the two pillars. But then what does Samson do?
What's the outcome of all this? Ultimately it's the destruction
of the Philistines. They're making sport of him,
they're mocking him, they're scoffing, or they make ridicule
of that great Samson, the champion of the Israelites. But here we
see how at the end it only brings destruction upon Verse 28, Samson
called unto the Lord and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray
Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God,
that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two
eyes. And Samson took hold of the two
middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which he
was borne up, of the one with his right hand and of the other
with his left, And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines.
And he bowed himself with all his might. And the house fell
upon the lords and upon the people that were therein. So the dead
which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew
in his life. He died with the Philistines.
And what does the Lord Jesus do? What is the Lord Jesus about
to do? He's about to die with sinners. He's about to be crucified. between two malefactors and yet
in that very death just as Samson was victorious over his enemies,
destroying his enemies as he brings their temple down around
their ears so in his death the Lord Jesus Christ is that one
who has destroyed his enemies, he has destroyed sin he has destroyed
satan Colossians chapter 2 and verse
15, having sport principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it, that is in his cross. The similarity is there then
between what we see in the Old Testament even in Samson and
his great victory over the Philistines and what we are reading of here
in the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ. By these bitter
experiences, by all this scoffing he has triumphed gloriously.
Lord yet where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but
thank me to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Here are, I say, these parallels
then that we can draw. They put out the eyes of Samson,
and here we read how they blindfolded of the Lord Jesus Christ as they
made sport of Samson there in Judges, those Philistines. So
here, what are the Jews doing? They are making sport of the
Lord Jesus Christ and mocking Him. And they are mocking Him
in one of His holy offices. Or remember how He has come to
fulfil that threefold office in the Old Testament. The office
of Prophet, of priest and of king. God had made that provision
for his covenant people at Enoch. There was the priestly office. There were the priests of Aaron
and the Lord Jesus Christ of course is a fulfillment of that
priestly office. There is also the kingly office
God provided princes, there is the house of David, and there
he is, he is David's greater son, he is the fulfilment of
the priestly office, but there is also the office of the prophets. Now that God raised up those
men, seers or prophets, who were to speak to the people the word
of the Lord. And it is in this particular
aspect, it's this particular part of his threefold office
that is being ridiculed here in verse 64 when they had blindfolded
him they struck him on the face and asked him saying prophesy
who is it that smokes me they knew that the people recognized
him as a great prophet as the people had heard his ministry
they sat at his feet and heard his sermons and his teachings
and the people had acknowledged never man spoke like this man
how he had spoken with authority but here you see they are seeking
to undermine that authority it is prophetic office then that
he is particularly being attacked although he is about to engage
in that work that really centers in his priestly office that he
is about to make that one sacrifice for sin but of course there is
this overlap in his threefold office not so much three distinct
offices but a threefold office as prophet, priest and king had
not God long ago given that great promise through his servant Moses
and Moses in many ways is the great prophet in the Old Testament
because with all the Old Testament prophets their cry was ever to
the Lord and to the Testament if they speak not according to
this word it is because there is no light in them we read in
Isaiah they appeal to Moses but remember in Deuteronomy 18 the Lord speaks of a greater
prophet I will raise them up as prophets
from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words
in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak
in my name, I will require it of him. This is the one that
they are mocking. Here is the fulfilment of that promise back
in Deuteronomy chapter 18. The testimony of Jesus we read
in the last book of Scripture. In Revelation chapter 19 and
verse 10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Peter reminds us about the prophets
were those who desired really to see the day of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In the first chapter of the first
letter of Peter, verse 10, he speaks of that salvation. This
is the salvation which is in Christ, of which salvation the
prophets have inquired and searched diligently. You prophesied of
the grace that should come unto you, searching what? or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. For the Spirit of Christ, you
see, was in all the prophets. They all spake of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now we've already referred to
one specific prophecy in the Old Testament, those words that
we find in Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 6. We quote at the end of that verse,
I hid not my face from shame and smitting when they spat upon
it. It was a fulfilment you see. But look at what it says in the
whole of that verse, Isaiah 50 verse 6, I gave my back to the
smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid
not my face from shame and spitting. This scripture is literally being
fulfilled in what they are doing here. The reference to plucking off
the hair seems to be to this idea of them pulling away at
his beard They strike him on the face. All this very scripture
you see that they are fulfilling it. They wanted him to prophesy. They wanted him to say who it
was that was doing these things to him and yet many centuries
beforehand he had predicted these very things. He had already done this. He
is that great prophet you see. Though they scoffed him in his
prophetic office, when they had blindfolded him, they struck
him on the face, they pulled at his beard, and asked him, saying, Prophesy,
who is it that smote them? Now, he had foretold these things. These things are predicted there
in that verse in Isaiah chapter 15. And surely he who is able
to foretell these things could easily have declared who it was
that was striking him. He sees all things, he knows
all things. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifesting in his sight. for all things are naked
and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do we read there
in that portion in Hebrews chapter 4 now remember that passage of
scripture because it does primarily refer to the Lord Jesus Christ
as the word of God we sometimes refer to those words in Hebrews
4.12 in reference to the scriptures but in the context it is primarily
the word incarnate it's Christ who is being spoken of though
it is also a truth that applies to the word of scripture in Hebrews
4.12 the word of God we're told is quick and powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asundra
of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any
creature that is not manifest in his sight." The masculine
pronoun, his sight, surely is a reference to the word of God,
that is the word incarnate. All things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do seeing then that
we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God. It is Christ who is being spoken
of there in those verses in Hebrews chapter 4. He sees all things. All things are naked and open
to His view, that's what it says. He could so easily told who it was that was smiting
him but all of this you see friends is part and parcel of his humiliation
later they would cry out to him upon the cross that if he would
but come down they would believe but then he would not fulfil
all righteousness they are making sport of him ridiculing, mocking
him And so what does the Lord do in all of this? He doesn't
fall in with what they are wanting Him to do. He is silent. He is silent. Remember the words of Isaiah
53. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep is done before her shearers, so he openeth
not his mouth. He doesn't fall in with these
things. In Mark chapter 14 and verse 61 we're told he held his
peace and answered nothing. Even when he comes before the
Roman authority, before Pontius Pilate, he doesn't seek to defend
himself, does he? He will willingly go that way
of the cross. He will make that one's sacrifice
for sins forever, voluntarily. That's a voluntary sacrifice
that he makes. No man is able to take his life
from him, he says. I have authority to lay it down. and I have authority to take
it again, this commandment have I received of my father and it
is the will of the father that he will accomplish remember how
he had prayed there in the garden of Gethsemane if thou be willing
remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done. How he is submissive to the divine
will, how he will execute that work that the Father has given
him to do. And so he is silent, he is led
as a lamb to the slaughter. He goes willingly that way of
the cross. But here we see them, you see,
making sport of him, ridiculing and mocking him. When they had
blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him,
saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things
blasphemously spake they against him. And so in the third place
here we see how the Lord Jesus Christ was in fact blasphemed. They buffet him, they strike
him and punch him. They ridiculed him, putting a
blindfold upon him and mocking his prophetic office. And so
we are told here in this 65th verse it all amounts to this
blaspheming him. Now the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the one who is accused of blasphemy. Look at what we have
at the end of the chapter. Then said they all, this is before
the Jewish council, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said
unto them, Ye say that I am. And they said, What need we any
further witness? For we ourselves have heard of
his own mouth. And this is what they accuse
him of when they bring him before Pontius Pilate as we see in John
chapter 19 and verse 7. We have a law they said to Pontius
Pilate and by our law he ought to die because he made himself
the son of God. By our law he ought to die they
are saying because he was a blasphemer. Now there were many times when
they sought to destroy him, to kill him because they were offended. They said he was a blasphemer.
Remember back in John chapter 5 in the early days of his ministry. Because he had performed a miracle
upon the Sabbath day they were offended. But he wasn't just
the performance of the miracle. as we are told there in John
5.18 the Jews sought the war to kill him because he not only
had broken the Sabbath day but said that God was his father
making himself equal with God that's why they wanted to destroy
him by stole him because they reckoned he was a blasphemer
again we see it in the 10th chapter of of John's gospel they would
have stoned him but of course they could not because his time
had not yet come John 10.33 the Jews answered him saying for
a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy and because
of thou being a man make thyself God verse 36 Here is the Lord replying
to them, Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent
into the world, thou blasphemous, because I said I am the Son of
God? If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe
not me, believe the works that ye may know, and believe that
the Father is in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought a
gain to take him. but he escaped out of their hands
there were those occasions you see and it seems that there were
several occasions when they would have taken him and they would
have executed him because they accused him of blasphemy and
this is what they are doing now this is what they are about to
charge him with before the Roman governor But it's interesting
to see what he said here in verse 17. They asked him the question,
Art thou then the son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say
that I am. Ye say that I am. He is the great I am. He says in John chapter 8 before,
Abraham was I am. If you believe not that I am,
he says, you shall perish in your sins. Here in a sense on
which England they are acknowledging him, acknowledging him even as
they are accusing him of blasphemy. You say that I have. But this you see is the the reason
why they will have him executed. You have heard his blasphemy.
They say he is guilty of death. For he has to endure the contradiction
of sinners against himself. And it is contradiction this.
He is the eternal son of God. He is God manifest in the flesh. and as he reveals God, and remember
this is the purpose of his coming, no man has seen God at any time,
the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he
has declared Him. Here he is, the image of the
invisible God. And they contradict all of that.
As he reveals God to men, they only accuse him of blasphemy. and so in accusing him really
we see in the words of verse 65 that they are the blasphemers
they are blaspheming God many other things blasphemously spake
they against him how awful for these Jews they
are denying the only living and true God Or, without controversy,
Paul, who was once a proud Pharisee, is brought to acknowledge the
truth. Without controversy, he says.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. It is, friends, in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ that we are privileged to see God. And
this surely should be our great concern. that we might discern
that. That God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness might shine in our hearts, giving that
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This one who was so ridiculed
and scoffed and mocked by the Jews. The hymn writer says, long
time I after idols ran. that now my God's a martyred
man or the wonder of God's ways, the mystery of God's ways that
we should see God in all the awful humiliation that the Lord
Jesus Christ himself had to endure and he does this of course in
order to reconcile the sinner unto God here we see him spoiling
principalities and power even as these men so maltreated him
the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him or they buffeted
him and they punished him when they had blindfolded him they
struck him on the face they pulled at his beard they ridiculed his prophetic
office they asked him saying prophesy who is it that smotes
them And many other things, blasphemously, spoke they against him. And he
does this, he endures these things, why? Because of that great love
that he bears towards sinners. Having loved his own, those that
the father had given to him in the eternal covenant, having
loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto
the end, he's obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross he
will see this great work through and so accomplish the salvation
of sinners. Friends, here is all our hope
and all our salvation. May the Lord bless to us his
own word. Amen. Our closing hymn is number 153
and we are going to sing from the second half of the hymn and
the first six verses. The tune is Arizona 284. And
why is this a hymn? Tell me why. now thus would suffer, bleed
and die, what mighty motive could be moved in motive's place. For as all follow, the second
part of hymn 153 verses 1 to 6. And my dear Saviour, tell me
why Thou thus wouldst suffer, bleed, and die? What mighty motive could Thee
move? The motive's plaint was all to
know. For love of Him, of sinners'
days, Unhardened her the rebel praise, That mocked and trampled
on thy blood, And wontoned with the wounds of God. When rocks and mountains rent
with dread And gaping graves gave up their dead When the fair
sun withdrew his sight And hid his head to shun the sight Then stood the wretch of ruling
race And raised his head and showed his face Gazed unconcerned
when nature failed And scoffed and sneered and cursed and railed Harder than rocks and mountains
o'er, More dull than dirt and earth by far, Man viewed anew
thy blood's rich dream, Nor ever dreamed it flowed for him. Such was the race of sinful men
that gained that great salvation then. Such and such only still
we see. Such they were all and such are
we. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all. Amen.