The issue before us today is
this. Did the Jews kill Christ, our
Lord and Savior? In other words, were they complicit
in the death of our Savior? Did they have a part, were they
accomplices in putting the Savior unto death? Did they participate
in any wrong against the Lord's anointed? We ask the question,
were they culpable in that? That is, are they deserving of
blame? Have they any fault? Have they
any guilt? Was there any guilt on their
part concerning the one nailed to the cross at Calvary outside
of Jerusalem? And then a follow-up question
would be, has there been any consequences for their part in
the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Have they endured? Have they suffered anything? Has there been any judgment that
has come upon them on account of their part in the death of
our Lord? I'm easing my way into it and
I'd like to say that the issue that we have raised is relevant
and it is pertinent even today, even in a church service, for
at least two reasons. Number one, the Jews of our day,
and this is quite strong movement, some organizations have taken
a very strong offense at being charged with the murder of the
Savior of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have taken a very strong
offense and become very defensive at being called Christ killers. They say that it is anti-Semitic. They say that it ought not be
done because it might incite violence against the Jew by some
that is zealous of Christianity. And out of that, Out of this
issue, believe me, have come what we now know as hate crime
laws. Much of that can be traced to
their doorstep. Now there is even hate speech
laws that are being put in place, and some of the Jews go so far
as to blame the Holy Cause on charging the Jews as having a
part in the death of Christ. Let me show you the folly of
such logic as that. Taken to its ultimate conclusion,
it would literally result in muzzling the Christian church
from preaching the truth about anybody. Could we not tell the
truth, for example, about drunkards for fear somebody might attack
one? Or could we not tell the truth
about prostitutes are, what the Bible has to say about homosexuality. Could we not preach against hypocrites
or liars or thieves? Some would like that, I grant
you, but we cannot allow that. Secondly, recently the Pope,
I think it was in March of this year, released the second of
a book called, I believe, Jesus of Nazareth or something like
that. And in that book, the Pope declared the Jews free of any
guilt in the death of Jesus Christ. In fact, more than one pope has
exonerated the Jews in the death of Christ. But the present pope,
Benedict XVI, said in the book printed in March, repeated the
same thing, and said that the Catholic Church should not seek
to convert the Jew, that they would not make that omission
to convert the Jew. Why? If Christianity is true
and the Catholic Church is the only church as they teach, why
not therefore try to make converts out of the Jew? Let me say something
else about that book of the Pope. This book's message, it brought
a response from Benjamin Netanyahu, who is reported to have said
this, quote, I commend you for forcefully rejecting in your
recent book a false charge that has been a foundation of the
hatred of the Jewish people for many centuries, that the Jewish
people were responsible for killing Jesus, unquote. A spokesman for
the ADL, Anti-Defamation League here in the United States, said,
quote, he is continuing in the story tradition of Pope Paul
II in rejecting the caliminale, the slander of those charges,
unquote. Now, in taking such a position,
the Pope, I believe, is guilty of rewriting biblical history,
neglecting it and rewriting it, of changing the scripture very
clearly, of denying the clear, open teaching of the scripture,
and that for some ulterior motive that is behind it. to appease
some who do find the truth of Scripture to be offensive, to
smooth over the unpleasant things that men don't like in the Scripture. Well, then we would ask the question,
what then is next? Will they exonerate Judas for
his betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ? After all, he was a Jew. So let's declare that in dealing
with this question, we will be guided solely and only by the
Scripture. And there is no lack of biblical
material on this subject to answer with. There are three aspects
of this truth that are set out in the Scripture for us this
evening. Number one, the Old Testament
Scripture. Yes, I said the Old Testament
Scripture predicted that the Christ would suffer death at
the hands of the Jew. One such prophecy is Isaiah chapter
53. Secondly, we must admit, and
we read frequently, that the Jews wanted to kill Christ and
they even made several attempts to take His life before He was
actually crucified at the cross before His time. And they could
not take Him because His time had not yet come. And thirdly,
and this is most of our study today, the Jews took the lead
in putting the Lord to death. And they succeeded in gaining
His death even though the Roman magistrates found no legal ground
that Jesus of Nazareth would die or should die. All of them
said, we find no fault, nothing worthy of death in Him. And even
in the face of these things, we are still bound to acknowledge
that the whole matter pertaining to the Lord's death, was guided
indeed by the sovereign providence of God, that it never once flew
out of the bounds of the sacred scripture, that every detail
was in exact harmony with divine scripture and prophecy, And that
is Luke 22, and 22 very clearly said, the Son of Man goeth as
it was determined. That was done unto him, Acts
4 and verse 28, what God's hand and counsel determined before
to be done. It is given, therefore, that
the Old Testament prophets predicted the suffering and the death of
Christ. It is also clearly in the New
Testament scripture that the Jews desired and they sought
to put the Lord to death many times on many occasions. And
they did that, or they began that, soon after the beginning
of his public ministry. The Jews, especially their leaders,
especially those top leaders, turned against him, even to the
point of wishing him dead and finding reasons why he ought
to die. Some said he violated the Sabbath. Some said he contradicted and
blasphemed Moses. Others said he made himself equal
with God and therefore is a blasphemer and ought to die. The Lord exposed
their hypocrisy again and again. Now, let's give a few scriptures
that prove the Jews had deadly intention toward Christ from
early on. John chapter 5 and verse 16 said,
Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him
because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. Also John
5, 18, you remember, That's after the healing of the impotent man
at the pool. Then there's John 7 and verse
1. Jesus stayed in Galilee and avoided
Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. Look at John 7,
11. The Jews sought him at the feast. 725, is not this he whom
they seek to kill? John 7 and 44, some of them would
have taken him. John 8 and verse 37, I know that
you are Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because my word
has no place in you. John 8 and verse 40, now you
seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth. John 8 and
verse 59, Then took they up stones to cast at him. John 10, 31,
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. John 10,
39, They sought again to take him. John 11 and verse 8, the
disciples said unto him to dissuade him from going back to Judea. Master, the Jews of late sought
to stone you there and go there again. John 11 and verse 53,
From that day forth they took up counsel together for to put
him to death. I would like for you to turn
to the 11th chapter of the Gospel of John, if that's how you follow
along. I want us to look at verse 47
through verse 54. First of all, let's set the context. That's John 11, beginning in
verse 47. It followed the raising of Lazarus
from the dead. Lazarus, whom the Lord had raised
up out of the grave. Now, this was one of the greatest
miracles that our Lord did during His life upon the earth. He had raised a man, not one
who had just died, but one who had been dead four days and already
buried in the grave and suspected of corruption. And he did it
openly and before the eyes of many witnesses. He did it with
no sleight of hand. whatsoever in plain sight of
a goodly number of witnesses. What's more, many of the Jews
that were present and had come to support Mary and Martha because
their brother was deceased, they believed on Jesus. John 7 and
verse 45. While some, in verse 46, told
the Pharisees about it, emphasizing the part about many believing
on Him. Many are beginning to believe
upon Him. Now, in verse 47, after that,
notice they convene a council and they say He is doing many
miracles. There's no way that we can deny
it. By the way, this is one of the
evidences of His Messiahship, that He came from God, that He
would do many wonderful works. Look at verse 48, they fear,
if we don't do something about it, if we do nothing about it,
if we let it alone, many more will believe, That will catch
the attention of the Romans who then will come and take away
our place and our nation. John Brown called this, quote,
a national breakup, unquote. That's what they feared. If Jesus
got any more popular and more hubbub was made about him and
around him, it would endanger their position. and their interests
they feared. And so a man by the name of Caiaphas
takes the floor in this council that we are looking at, and he
tells them in verse 49 and 50 of John 11. Have you read this
real close? Look at it with me today. He
says to them, you ignoramuses, you know nothing at all. He tells them, look, the solution
to this, to save our nation and this place is that this man die. The solution is clear and simple. This man must die. Better this
one man die than our whole nation be destroyed. This man, he said,
is the galvanizing force, and if we remove him, then the movement
will die out and come to nothing. He says this is the solution. He says this is the only solution
that is available unto us. Look also at John 18 and verse
14. It's an amazing thing that the
old Cardinal Caiaphas in advocating here political expediency at
the same time and by the same words gave forth a divine prophecy
with great significance. You find it in verse 50 and verse
51. He meant one thing, but his words,
as John tells us, are weighty and they have spiritual implication. That is that the death of Jesus
would be the means of gathering in the children of God that are
scattered abroad upon the earth. But that's a different subject
from ours today. Revisiting John 11 and verse
53. Now let's look at it. Look what
it said. From that day forth they took
counsel together far to put him to death. Now there's not a Gentile
in here. This is the Jewish Sanhedrin.
This is the counsel. This is the court. Now this is
a very important turning point in our study today. From that
very time when Caiaphas stood and said, the problem will be
solved if this man is put unto death. We're at the council of
the leaders. the high priest, the Sanhedrin,
the Pharisee, took up a determined resolution to contrive a way
to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. It shows us that the
leaders in religion are often the strongest, fiercest enemies
of Christ, of the gospel, of the Bible, inerrancy, and of
truth. Now the question was, How would
they secure the death of Jesus? They said, He's got to die to
save our nation. They took up a strong resolution
how to put Him to death. How would they secure now the
death of Jesus? How could they implement their
plan and desire? How could they do it? What's
the best way for them to manipulate the system and the people? Now they know that many of the
people are believing on Jesus and they know how the Romans
would react under this. Now how could they secure the
death of the troubler of Israel? But how would they do it? Not
on the feast day, that would be a holy day, Matthew 26 and
verse 5. And getting grounds to put him
to death, they expose their deviousness to the bare bones. Notice, first
of all, the Jews condemn him as a blasphemer in the council
and before the Jews. Matthew 26. 57-66. It's again in Mark 14, 60-64. It's in Luke 22 and 66-71. They condemn him, they charge
him with blasphemy before the counsel of the Jew, and that's
a very important statement. for this reason. They knew that
this carried weight with the Jews. They knew that blasphemers
were to be stoned to death under the old economy. And so, they heard him say, destroy
this temple in three days, I'll raise it again. What more proof
do you need? And they used blasphemy before
the council to get a conviction for the death of Christ. Secondly,
When they take him before the Roman magistrate, they change
the charge from blasphemy to insurrection. Luke 23 and 2,
before Pilate. then began to accuse him saying,
we found this fellow or man perverting the nation and forbidding to
give tribute to Caesar and giving off that he himself is a Christ
the King, unquote. See their hypocrisy? Blasphemy,
got a conviction before the Jew, it meant nothing to Pilate. Pilate
would not care about that at all. It carried no weight with
Pilate that they called him a blasphemer. He would say, take him and judge
him according unto your law. He will tell them to settle it
according to themselves. You see that again in John 18,
31. You see it over in Acts 18 and 15 when the magistrate said
to the Jews, listen, if this is a matter of your religion,
you take it and settle it among yourself. Pilate saw through
their scheme. He knew that they had delivered
Jesus to him out of envy. Matthew 27 and verse 18. Pilate interviewed Jesus and
was satisfied that the Lord Jesus posed no threat to the government
of Caesar at all, declared him innocent, Pilate did, willing
to set him free and even taunted the Jews by saying, Behold your
king, as he brought him out. They replied, We have no king
but Caesar. What hypocrisy, what hypocrisy. We have no king but Caesar. Our
loyalty is to King Caesar. Pilate said to them, listen,
I am innocent of the blood of this just man you see to it. What did they answer? Matthew
27, 25, let his blood be upon us and upon our children. Pilate made at least three attempts
to release Jesus, for He was willing to let him go. Acts 3.13. He was determined to let Jesus
go. Acts 3.13. A, He declared him
innocent. He said, I find no fault with
this man. They said we wouldn't have brought
him if he weren't a criminal. And then B, He proposed, okay,
if it will pacify you, I'll chastise him and I'll let him go. No,
they wouldn't do that either. And then, C, he gave them the
opportunity to choose between Jesus, an innocent man, and Barabbas,
a great criminal. and they chose Barabbas to go
free and Jesus to be crucified. Nothing would content them but
for Jesus to be put to death. They did not have the legal authority
to put anybody to death. John 18, verse 31. Pilate condemns
the innocent Lord then to die upon the cross. And he did but
lived again. The Lord died but he lived again. Now, let's go to the other side
of Pentecost and the sermon by Peter over in the book of Acts
and catch the element of the preaching of the apostle Peter. After Jesus is raised from the
dead and ascended to heaven and had poured out the gift of the
Holy Spirit on them at Pentecost, now we hear the apostle Peter
preaching here and there. A Jew himself Peter, a Jew, accusing
the Jew repeatedly of having killed Jesus. Now, the first
accusation we read on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, 22 and
23. In verse 22, the words are directed at the Jew. Ye men of
Israel, hear these words. dressing them as the nation in
recognition of their being the people of God. Peter would speak
unto them concerning the one they knew as Jesus of Nazareth,
and he amplifies it by saying, the one approved of God among
you by signs and miracles and wonders as you know. And in verse 23, Him you have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. That is you men of Israel. These wicked hands literally
are lawless hands, we might render that. They were the Romans, the
Gentiles who did the actual deed. We know that there was an unholy
conspiracy against the Lord Jesus. You read of it in Acts 4, verse
25 through 27, the kings of the earth, Pontius Pilate, the Jews,
the people, and such like. Now the apostle lays the guilt
of Christ's death upon the Jew, while at the same time acknowledging
that all who took part in the crucifixion of the Lord were
actually executing the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Verse 23, doing whatsoever God's
hand and counsel determined before to be done. Acts 4, 28. Jesus
went exactly as it had been determined. Luke 22, 22. That is, a Jew,
Judas betrayed him. Jewish leaders led the revolt
against him. And even though it fulfilled
the counsel and the decree of God, it in no way lessened their
guilt for this awful matter or the judgment that was to be visited
upon their nation. Still less could they plead. The Romans actually crucified
Him. We did not. This could not be
used to extenuate their guilt. Not at all. For as F.F. Bruce
wrote in his commentary on Acts, and I quote, the instigators
of the act were Jews. It was the leaders of the people
that engineered his death, unquote. Now this is several times affirmed
in the presence by the Jewish apostle Peter himself. First, on the day of Pentecost,
we saw it, Acts 2, 22, and 23. He holds them responsible for
the death of our blessed Lord. Now, let's jump to chapter 3
of Acts. Read verse 13 through 15. the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his son
Jesus, whom ye delivered up, denied him in the presence of
Pilate when he was determined to let him go, but ye denied
the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted
unto you, and kill the Prince of Life, whom God has raised
from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. Jump over to chapter
4, verse 10 and 11 of Acts now. Be it known unto you and to all
the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him, Does
this man stand before you whole today? This is the stone which
was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the
corner." Now go to Acts 5, 29 and 30. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Now the apostle tells
them in Acts 3 and 17, I know that you did it in ignorance,
even as did your leaders. Yet this did not excuse them.
They reap the awful consequences of their deed and they must repent
of that deed against Christ. So they are charged directly
with engineering and instigating and pushing and securing the
death of Christ our Lord. How can we rewrite history and
say, oh, they are free of any such charge? Now, let's close
out with some application and some conclusion. Number one,
even in their ignorance, in their blindness, in their rage and
in their violence, They exactly fulfilled the Scripture. They
did not frustrate the purpose of God with regard to the death
of Jesus Christ. He went exactly as the Scriptures
had determined. Number two, even though they
killed the Prince of Life, put him in a tomb, had a seal and
a watch put on it, yet God raised him up again. And God raised
him up again not just to resume life here upon the earth, but
exalted him to mediatorial sovereignty. made him Lord and Christ, Acts
2.36, to be a prince and a savior. And each time the apostle charges
them with the death of Christ, he claims that God has raised
him up again. He is alive. He is judge of all. He sits upon a mediatorial throne
of divine sovereignty. Then thirdly, I want you to notice,
they killed the Lord even though He was manifested among them,
approved of God. That's in Acts 2, 22 and 23 again. As you know, many miracles were
done among you. You can't deny them. They happened.
You saw them. You saw the result. They killed
him even though he had the manifesting marks of the Christ or the Messiah
in his works and in his life. Number four, they insisted he
die, though Pilate was determined to set him free, Acts 3.13. All the Roman magistrates found
him not worthy of death. Everyone that he went before.
Number five, in rejecting Christ, they rejected the only way of
salvation, Acts 4.12. Neither is there any other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. A Jew can only be saved by and
through the death of Jesus Christ, and many have been. Many of them
have been saved by Christ. There is no salvation in any
other, far Jew or Gentile or any other for that matter. Number six, something we have
to factor in, is that God blinded their eyes and hardened their
heart. Isaiah 6, 9 and 10. Matthew 13,
14 and 15. Romans 11 and verse 7. The elect have obtained it and
the rest were blinded. And finally, how brightly the
light of God's divine sovereignty shines in all of this matter,
all of their violence, yet God's providence kept it in the bounds
of His purpose according to the Scripture and according unto
the prophet. First, in the Jews rejecting
Christ, and then through their fall is salvation come to the
Gentiles. What an act of sovereignty! Romans
11, verse 11 through 15. Paul says, by their fall is salvation
then come unto the Gentile. Verse 12, their fall is the riches
of the world, the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles. That's Romans 11 and 12. Romans
11 and verse 28, he said, as concerns the gospel, they are
enemies for your sake. That is, their enmity resulted
in the gospel being sent out unto the Gentile. And this was
according to the eternal purpose of our God. How dare, therefore,
some rewrite history as many have done under the influence
of political correctness and for the sake of some kind of
religious unity. Yes, Paul says there are enemies
concerning the gospel for your sake, but as concerns the Father,
they are beloved for the elect's sake. And Paul said something
in Romans 11 and 23 God is able to graft them in again. Now, we have established, I believe,
that they bear a distinct guilt. They had a distinct hand in the
killing of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This was according
to their blindness, but it served the purpose of God as well. And
so we understand how God in his mighty providence brings things
to order. He makes the wrath of man depraising. The remainder of wrath shall
he restrain, the proverbial writer has said. So we have established,
I believe, that this is the truth and that it ought not be changed.