TEXT : Luke 22 :35- 23:56
TITLE : The Glory of Christ before the cross and on the cross
DATE : Good Friday - 6th
April 2012
In our church we are very
familiar with the story of the
suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ , partially because
we speak about this so very often, and partially
because
we remember it in a practical way
in our communion services. And we also make a point of remembering what
Easter is really about , every year.
The danger
of re-telling this story again
and again is that we
become familiar with the sacred , and
we may be tempted to loose the glory
, the weight and the gravity of it all.
Glory , weight , gravity - I use those words very
deliberately and synonymously . The
word ‘glory ‘ in the Hebrew
language is the word ‘kabod’. This word has to do with weight or gravity. Seen against this background we note that
God’s glory is heavy! It pulls you down to the ground. You can’t
stand before His glory. If you should be confronted with the glory of God in
your present state ( having a non-
glorified body) you would not
stand – you would die instantly at the
sight of the full revelation of God’s glory !
So, when you look at the biblical
encounters of men with God , or of a divine manifestation ( e.g. an angel) from His
presence , you will note
that the glory of God is always very ‘heavy’ upon people . It literally pulls them
down. Moses at the burning bush ( Exodus
3) , Isaiah in the temple ( Isaiah 6),
Paul on the Damascus road ( Acts 9), Peter , James and John at the
Transfiguration of Christ (Matt 17:5,6), John of the Revelation ( Rev 1:17) , they all fell down before the glory of God or at the manifested glory
of the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. John says
of the revelation of the ascended
Lord Jesus : “I fell at His feet as though dead”
(Rev 1:17)
There
are very few displays of God’s glory now as seemed almost common in the OT
era. I am referring here to the angelic visits and
theophanies prior to our Lord’s
birth. Why is that? The plainest answer
I can give is this
: God has sent us His glorious Son, the
final revelation of God from His
heaven. Of this John testifies
: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us , and we have seen His glory , glory as of the only Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn
1:14). The writer to the Hebrews says :
“…in these last days He has spoken
to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also
created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint
of his nature, and He upholds the
universe by the word of His power.” (Hebr
1:2,3)
People in all
ages have been seekers after demonstrations of glory. They want power displays and miracles
in order to believe. Martin Luther once pointed out that we have
two kinds of people in this world:
theologians of glory or
theologians of the cross . A theologian of glory says “ show
me a miracle, and I will believe! A
theologian of the cross sees the glory
of God in the beaten , bruised and
crucified Jesus – and says : “ The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world ”,
and that is his sufficient evidence.
In response to a question by Philip : “Lord,
show us the Father , and that will be
enough“ , we have a theologian of glory .
Jesus responds (paraphrase) : “Look at
me Philip . Whoever has seen me has seen
the Father! “ (Jn 14:8ff)
The glory
of God is seen in the final
revelation of God to us : Jesus Christ! Of Him God says : “This
is my Son , with whom I am well pleased ; listen to Him!” (Matt
17:5) . If you want an experience of glory you must seek Christ. It is proven from Scripture however
that an ordinary look at Christ will not
present you with a picture of glory . You must look with the eyes of
faith to see Christ for who He really is .
And to see Him as He really is we can only do one thing : We must look
into the Scriptures – the only reliable revelation and testimony available to us today. And we must do so humbly and prayerfully and always in dependence upon the Holy Spirit.
He is not only the Inspirer of Scripture , He is also the One who opens our eyes to see the Jesus
of glory .
And now I want to do a very simple exercise
with you, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit who is the Revealer of Christ and
His Truth . We will read from Luke
22:35 until the end of Luke
23 and we shall deliberately look
out for
evidences of the
glory of Christ in the harshest
, most violent section of the Bible
- in the emotional agony of Christ in the garden and in the physical sufferings of Christ , the unfair trial
and the crucifixion . May God be pleased to add faith to our
understanding so that we would walk out of here this morning with a sense of having seen the
glory of Christ .
You will need
to have the Bible open to follow
the argument:
1. Jesus fulfils the Scripture : Lk 22: 35-38
“And He
was numbered with the transgressors”
– a fulfilment of Isaiah
53:12. The glory and weight
of Christ is seen that He identifies
Himself with the long expected Messiah – Isaiah’s suffering servant . Jesus
says “I am He!” – You
were wondering who Isaiah was
talking about? Look no further! Look at me! Immediately
you see a glimpse of glory. No one ever spoke like this!
2. Jesus prays : Lk 22 : 39- 46
Though Jesus dreaded what was before Him, He prayed: ”Father, if you are willing, remove this cup
from me. Nevertheless not my will , but yours be done.” The glory of Christ
is seen in His principled obedience to the Father. We also learn
here about the glorious, weighty
truth that prayer (which is the language of dependence upon God) has the
Father’s ear. In this case the prayer
was not to be delivered from the cross, but
to be faithful even unto death. It is with the help of His prayerful dependence upon the Father that
Jesus is helped to overcome the very real temptation to quit. [Note : the disciples
failed because they did not watch and pray in this hour of temptation]. Now
let me ask you: Aren’t you
glad that Jesus remained obedient to the will of the Father? What would have happened if Christ had given up?
No atonement of your sins! Can
you see the glory in Christ’s active obedience for you?
3. Jesus arrested : Lk 22:47-53
The glory of Christ is seen here in the fact that He did not run away like a fugitive. He faced His enemies manfully, because He was submitted to the plan and will of the Father.
Moreover, note the healing of the ear of the
servant of the High priest in the midst
of this chaos when one of Jesus’ disciples
thought that it was his duty to defend Christ , and in the attempt of
doing so he cut of the ear of the poor
man. The glory of Christ is seen
that even in desperate times , Jesus finds time to minister to the needs of others. Would
you? We tend to be so self- absorbed in
our little hours of crisis that we rarely find energy to minister
to others in their need because
we are so focussed on our own need.
4. Jesus and Peter : Lk
22:54-62
The glory of Christ is seen here in the fact
that Peter has foreknown Peter’s denial (cf 22:31ff) . The glory of Christ also lies
in the fact that He has already interceded , prayed
for Peter on this account , that His
faith may not fail (22:32). In fact ,
Jesus has already designed it that Peter should strengthen his brothers later, and that He would become “the Rock “ (Cephas
/ Petros) and “the first among equals” .
What a glorious Saviour ! He knows how to keep His own .
5. Jesus is mocked : Lk 22:63- 65
The glory of Christ is seen here in that
the eternal Son of God who could
have called legions of angels to
rescue Him from these evil men, passively submitted Himself into their
hands to do whatever needed to be done.
Little did they know that they were manhandling the Lord of glory. Paul
comments on the terrible ignorance of the worldly powers who thought that they had control of Christ , in 1 Corinthians 2:8 : “None of the rulers of this age understood this , for if they had, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory “.
6. Jesus before the council: Lk 22:66-71
The glory of Christ is seen here
in a very plain statement made in response to the taunting questions of His inquisitioners : “If you are the Christ , tell
us !”. Note Jesus’s answer (would
a mere man say this?) “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if
I ask you, you will not answer . But from now on, the Son of Man shall be
seated at the right hand of the power of
God.” This is no subtle hint . This is a plain affirmation
of who He is ! The Lord of glory !
7. Jesus before Pilate : Lk 23:1-5 & 18-25
The first and subsequent appearances of Christ before Pilate
reveal something of the
human conscience that testifies to the
glory of Christ. Pilate knew instinctively
that Christ was not guilty of
these charges. Three times he affirms: “I
find no guilt in Him“ (vv 4,14,22).
Even Pilate's wife testified to this for she had been shown in a
dream that Christ was a righteous man! (Matt
27:19)
8. Jesus before Herod : Lk 23:6-16
We read : “Herod,
when he saw Jesus was very glad, for he had long desired to see Him, and he was
hoping to see some sign done by Him”
. Herod had heard of Christ’s marvellous
and glorious ministry . But as you see,
he was a theologian of glory. He wanted to see miracles and not Christ for who
He really was. He wanted entertainment and not the truth! The glory of Christ is also seen in the fact
that at this time He said nothing. This was to fulfil the Scriptures of Isa 53:7 : “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before
its shearers is silent , so he opened not his mouth.”
9. Jesus crucified : Lk 23:26- 43
The glory of Christ is supremely seen in His crucifixion and death
:
(i)
To the lamenting women He
said “do not weep for me, weep for
yourselves and for your children“ , and He was referring to AD 70 when Jerusalem and her inhabitants would be destroyed. We see the glory of Christ here in His
foreknowledge of all things , but we
also see that even on His way to the
cross He is strong and prophetic , leaving
warnings of judgement to those who will hear !
(ii)
We
see the glory of Christ in the forgiveness
extended to those who would crucify Him
v.34 “ Father forgive them . They do not
know what they do .”
(iii)
We
see the glory of Christ as even on the cross
He speaks pardon and peace to one of the condemned criminals who trusted in Him even as He hung there in utter pain and
disfigurement : “Truly I say to you,
today you will be with me in paradise “. But the greater glory lies in the
fact that He can make such a statement . This is God the Son , speaking!
10. Jesus’ death : Lk 23:44-49
The glory of Christ is seen , finally, in His death
(i)
The sun’s light failed – a glorious supernatural
sign!
(ii)
The
temple curtain was torn - another glorious supernatural sign!
(iii)
Jesus
, though at this time rejected of the Father for the sin that He bore, nevertheless clings to His Father as He says :
“ Father into your hands I commit my
spirit .” A glorious tenacity – even though you must let me go , I will not
let you go!
(iv)
A
Roman centurion saw all this and puts it all into a grand perspective for us . He praised God and said “ Certainly , this man was innocent “ .
Matthew and Mark’s gospel record: “Truly this man was the Son of God “ (Matt
27:54; Mk 15:39) . He was merely
repeating what Jesus had been saying about Himself all the time . All this
was an affirmation of the glory
of Christ
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