Twelve percent.
Good evening, everyone.
Good evening to all you non-raptured folks
who are here with us tonight.
Glad to see you.
When my brother was talking about Phil Morgan
and his accident, it reminded me that I
had never met him, although he had been
several times in our son's place in Tampa,
so I knew sufficiently about him to think
that he and I should get along quite
well together.
And I heard he'd been swept off the
roof and fell and injured his arm and
so on.
So I wrote him a letter.
I'd never had any communication with him before,
and I told him what I thought the
least he could do if he's going to
fall, to fall out of a window and
make a scriptural and not off a roof.
So it wasn't too long after that that
I rolled off the back porch at our,
at our place and broke my shoulder.
So I had a letter from Phil.
And Phil says, well, I've heard about the
shoulder before.
In fact, it was a heave offering in
the Old Testament and Levitical, but I don't
know what happens when preachers our day start
throwing it down off the steps.
So that was my introduction to Phil Morgan,
and that was his introduction to me.
And ever since then, you may imagine we've
got along very well together.
I don't know about who's peas in a
pod, but at any rate, you're going to
enjoy him very much this week, I'm sure.
Will you turn with me, please, tonight?
I, I'm like the Apostle Paul, except in
a more aggravated situation, I think, because you
remember he said he was in a strait
betwixt two.
Well, I've been in a strait today betwixt
four times two, if more than that.
That's what I was going to do with
the last of our trilogy studies, as I
was this morning when I thought of the
Iams that we had never even considered yet.
There are still a number of them, you'll
understand.
The trilogies perhaps outnumber the Iams, but there
are still Iams, some Iams that stand alone,
just the statement I am, that our Lord
made, and we did not cover them.
And this evening, I just have one more
little study with you regarding another trilogy, but
I counted at least five or six more,
and some of them would interest you because,
for instance, there were the times that only
three times the Lord gave thanks.
There's only three times the Lord heard an
audible voice from heaven, three times that the
Lord said that the Lord wept, and situations
like that in the trilogy class that can
be very interesting for a study somewhere along
during the next millennium.
Now, after you recover from this visit, let's
turn to Acts chapter four, if you will,
please, and I have chosen this passage merely
as an introduction to what's on my mind
this evening regarding another of the trilogies in
the life of the Lord Jesus.
Acts chapter four, reading from verse 24.
When they heard that, they lifted up their
voice to God with one accord, and said,
Lord, thou art God which hast made heaven
and earth, and the sea, and all that
in them is, who by the mouth of
thy servant David hast said, Why did a
heathen rage, and the people imagined vain things?
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, or servant Jesus, whom
thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel
were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Now, that's all I wish to read, but
you may see the trilogy in this right
away.
I wish to mention to you a few
details tonight regarding the trilogy of the judges
whom our Lord stood before in the last
night and morning of his life, and I
want to notice some of these details with
you, looking particularly for the motivation behind the
action of the individuals.
There are three judges in whose presence our
Lord stood the last night and the last
morning of his life, and each of these
took a very decided stand against the Lord,
one ultimately, though he did not wish to
do so at the beginning, and the other
two were set against him right from the
start.
I want to realize with you, if I
may, that behind the actions of these three
judges there were motives that activated them to
perform the service that they did and to
do the things that they did and the
things that they said.
You will know right away of whom I
am speaking.
You will know that there were three judges
before whom our Lord stood when he was
here, and the first, of course, was Caiaphas,
and the second was Herod, and the third
was Pilate.
I just want to briefly go over some
of the details of these things with you
for my closing remarks.
Caiaphas was the high priest of Israel in
the days of the Master, in the days
of his flesh as Hebrews 5 speaks of
it, and in the days of his flesh
there were nominations made in these official positions
by the Roman governor.
Some of you will wonder, perhaps, when our
Lord was taken prisoner, of which we have
already been speaking, out of the Garden of
Gethsemane that last night, they took him first
to the house of Annas, and he was
father-in-law to Caiaphas, and Annas was
appointed evidently the high priest by Valerius in
the year of A.D. 26, but he
had given his position over, and by another
appointment, Caiaphas, his son-in-law, had taken
over the position of high priest.
Now, you'll understand immediately there's an aberration here.
There's something that does not line up with
the Levitical order.
You can see that man has put his
hand into this system already, and has changed
it.
Herod himself is just a satrap in the
whole development of the political history of the
days of our Lord, and Pilate, you will
know, of course, was a Roman governor.
So we come back to Caiaphas.
Caiaphas, the high priest of Israel, the one
upon whose shoulders will ever rest the unique
burden of having brought our Lord into trial
that night, and the consequences of it.
Caiaphas was the one who really jumps out
to us in chapter 11 of the Gospel
by John, when there was quite a stir
in Judea because of the resurrection of Lazarus.
You remember how they were dreadfully upset, the
Pharisees and the chief priests were dreadfully upset
because of what our Lord was doing, and
how they said that they didn't know how
they were going to solve this difficult problem.
People were all going after him.
Do you not realize they said one to
the other, the whole world has gone after
him, we must do something about this.
Caiaphas spoke up and he said, you know
nothing at all, nor have you even considered
that it is necessary that one man should
die for the nation, that the whole nation
perish not.
We have got to kill him.
This is a rather interesting comment or statement
that Caiaphas made, and in retrospect the Apostle
John gives us a sidelight to it which
you would never have noticed had you not
had that later on.
Caiaphas says, look, there's only one thing we
can do.
Now look for the motivation in everything that
Caiaphas did from this point onward.
There's only one thing we can do.
He said the whole world's gone after him,
and if we leave him like this then
the Romans are going to come, they'll think
it's an insurrection, they'll come and take away
our place and our nation.
So we must do something.
It is necessary that one man should die
for the nation.
That was a very direct political statement.
Caiaphas the high priest has something else behind
it when he says it, which we'll see
later, but at the time on the surface
of it the comment was made politically.
The Lord was having a very large following
at this time in his life ministry, and
the people were talking about him anywhere and
everywhere, and hundreds now had benefited from his
grace and his power, his healing, his forgiveness,
and now of course they've come to this
point where he has raised two before, and
now Lazarus is the third from amongst the
dead, and that's a very interesting trilogy.
We looked at one of them a little
bit, didn't we?
Not very far, not very deep, and the
other one we didn't look at was the
widow of Nain, and then finally the third
one was Lazarus, and it was only the
fact, the spreading of the news of the
resurrection of Lazarus that Caiaphas made that statement.
We have got no other remedy.
It is expedient for us, it is necessary
for us that one man should die, that
the whole nation perish not.
That was political, distinctly political.
When John looks back on it after 60
years of retrospect, he looks back on it
and he says, as he writes in chapter
11, Caiaphas didn't say this for himself, it
didn't actually originate with himself.
He is political, but there's something very personal
here, and in addition to it being personal,
there's something very spiritual here.
John said this, he said not from himself,
but being a high priest that year by
appointment, remember this is one of the mysteries
of God's ways for the nation of Israel.
I've already suggested some of that in connection
with the temple.
That year, being the high priest, he prophesied.
I don't think he realized that he was
prophesying.
In fact, I'm sure he didn't.
At any rate, there's another spring of emotion
behind all this, the reason by and for
which he prophesied.
But, says John, he prophesied not only that
Christ should die for that nation politically, but
also that he should die for the nation
spiritually.
And not only would he die for the
nation spiritually, but he was going to die
that he might gather together in one all
those children of God that would be scattered
abroad in the face of the earth.
So you have, again, one of the mysteries
of divine interposition into something that takes place
seemingly from a man's own impotence, his own
need, his own request, and he makes this
statement, you don't know anything, you don't understand,
you've got to, can't you see that politically
we must get rid of him?
The whole world's gone after him, we're going
to lose our nation, we're going to lose
our temple, we're going to lose everything.
So he said they would have to do
away with him.
So they all met, consequent upon that statement,
they all met in the high priest's house
one night, and they took counsel together, and
they reasoned between themselves.
How will we do it?
There's only one thing, there's only one issue,
he's got to go, and he's got to
go by death.
The multitudes are increasing constantly, and we're going
to lose everything.
But what we must be sure we don't
do is, we will not kill him on
the feast day.
The Passover is coming up, and when the
Passover comes up, then they said, the Sanhedrin
said, if they got together, we must not
do this on the Passover, lest there be
an uproar amongst the people.
Well, you know what they did, don't you?
They did it on the Passover.
Our Lord was crucified on the feast day.
Was there, or were their fears justified?
No.
Was there an uprising of the people?
No.
Was there a great disturbance of protest?
Did they march down the streets behind the
master as he's going out to Calvary?
No.
But that's what they said.
They said, we can't do it on the
feast day because there'll be an uproar amongst
the people.
There was no uproar, except the uproar of
those who were thirsting for his blood.
So they were wrong.
Nevertheless, they plotted and they planned that they
had to do away with him.
Now, behind all this, there's something else.
There's another spring of action.
There's another reason for Caiaphas coming into this
picture the way he does.
So when our Lord was apprehended, as we've
already considered, on the edge of the Garden
of Gethsemane, he's carried away to the house
of Annas.
That seems to be a courtesy visit, more
or less.
Nothing very much came out of that.
There might have been some words exchanged.
I suggest there was.
But at any rate, he goes from the
house of Annas to the house of Caiaphas,
the high priest.
And this is the man, you will remember,
upon whom the Lord laid the charge of
the severity of the treachery and the giving
of him over to the Romans.
When they're in the house of Caiaphas, what
happens?
They finally have him.
They have him because the I Am surrendered
himself to them, because he allowed himself to
be bound and carried away as a lamb
for the slaughter.
And they're gathering together, and the Lord is
set in the midst.
And they begin to speak.
They begin to talk.
And they bring out witnesses in order to
lay a charge, a death charge, against him.
And the witnesses don't agree.
Some say one thing and some say another.
And they go on like this for a
considerable length of time.
And finally there are two witnesses come along,
and they say, well now, we know really
what the charge is, because he said that
he would destroy this temple, and that everything
was centered in the temple.
You'll hear that again when they accuse Stephen
and finally murder him.
The charge was against the temple.
He has said he was going to destroy
this temple and rebuild it in three days.
Don't be surprised if the Jews do that
in the maybe not distant future.
I don't know if they're going to do
it in three days, but it won't surprise
me if they do.
And he said that he would destroy this
temple.
He did not.
And he said that he would raise the
temple again in three days.
He did not.
And yet they were false witnesses because they
misunderstood and misapplied and twisted what the Lord
had said in John chapter 2.
And he was referring, as we read, to
the temple of his body.
If they destroyed that, he would raise it
again in three days.
But they couldn't agree.
And finally the witnesses came, and the witnesses
wanged, and they laid these charges.
Nothing came out of it in the meantime.
The Lord is standing bound and sometimes beaten.
And finally the high priest says, answerest thou
nothing?
What are these things that they witness against
thee?
The Lord answered them nothing.
And totally frustrated because he was determined that
he was going to get him into the
hands of the governor and out to the
cross, the high priest rises up in indignation
and he says, I put you under oath
to the living God that you tell us
whether you are the Christ or not.
Mark says in his account, Jesus answered, I
am.
Another one of the I am's.
And the high priest then, his face turns
with glee, with satisfaction, and in a gesture
which he felt to be very impressive, he
tears his robe and says, you've all heard
him.
What do you say?
Well, what they heard the master say was,
thou sayest it, for I am the Son
of the Blessed.
I am the Christ.
And I say unto you that hereafter you
shall see the Son of Man sitting on
the right hand of power and coming in
the clouds of heaven.
And immediately they knew that he was referring
to Daniel chapter 7.
He was taking the place of being the
Messiah, the promised Messiah to Israel, and that
he as the Son of Man is going
to be seen in the glory, coming upon
the clouds of heaven, sitting on the right
hand of power.
Now, you remember Stephen saw him that way,
didn't he?
Stephen saw him standing at the right hand
of God.
And Stephen, as I suggested to you the
other night, or the other day, that Stephen
is the only one that actually spoke of
the Lord directly as the Son of Man,
for nobody else did.
But the Lord himself uses that, and he
quotes from Daniel chapter 7, and the high
priest knows this, and he is now in
a position to pass sentence.
What do you say, he says?
The all-answered is worthy of death.
Why?
Because he had claimed to be the I
Am, and at the same time he claimed
to have been the Son of Man who
was going to come in great power and
glory, as he himself had said, though they
hadn't heard it, in that Olivet discourse regarding
the coming days.
He was going to come in the glory
of his Father.
He was going to come in the glory
of his holy angels.
He was going to come in his own
glory, and he was going to rule from
the river to the ends of the earth.
So now what do they say?
He has said it.
He has said he is the Son of
Man, the Messiah.
He has claimed to be just exactly what
they wanted to hear him say he was,
because with this they would charge him the
violation of the law and blasphemy.
From that moment on, everything changes.
And they begin to smite him, to beat
him and strike him in the face, struck
him with rods and spat in his face,
and the high priest is standing there.
Now they're waiting, going on through the early
hours of morning, because the Sanhedrin was all
together at that time.
There was another hearing before Caiaphas late in
the night, but this hearing was before the
Sanhedrin in the morning.
Having said that, they took him bound and
they led him away to Pilate.
Now, as I've said to you before, and
you know, that when our Lord is standing
in the presence of Pilate, he charges the
high priest with the responsibility of having delivered
him into the hands of the Romans.
Remember, he wouldn't answer Pilate, and Pilate said,
Answers thou me nothing, knowest thou not that
I have power to crucify thee, and I
have power to release thee?
And the Lord said, Thou couldst have no
power at all against me, except to forgive
me from above.
Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee has
the greater sin.
And he's referring unquestionably to the high priest.
It was the high priest of Israel who
tore his garments and ceased to be the
high priest.
He was only there by appointment anyway, but
God had recognized some of these things that
were being done in that time, as I've
suggested to you before, in connection with the
offerings in the temple.
So he ceased to be the high priest
at any rate, but he is motivated by
one thing, and that Pilate knew.
Pilate knew that for envy they had delivered
him.
Now, the motivation behind what the high priest
did which brought about the delivery of our
Lord into the hands of the Romans for
crucifixion was personal envy.
Jealousy is as cruel as the grave, and
if it is true that many waters cannot
quench love, it is also true that jealousy
will drive through the waters of opposition.
This is the spring.
This is the motivation.
This is what's driven the high priest to
this, to deliver him who said he was
the Messiah into the hands of the Romans,
and it remains written for all time that
our Lord said he had the greater sin.
That was the greater sin of our Lord
being found in the hands of Pilate.
Now, Pilate has a little conversation with the
people, with the elders and the chief priests
and scribes, and he says, What charge do
you bring against this man?
And they said, if he were not a
malefactor, we wouldn't have brought him to you.
Why, he stirred up all the people from
Judea right through up to Galilee, and Pilate
latched on the word Galilean.
He said, Is he Galilean?
Yes, he's a Galilean.
And he doesn't belong to Jewry?
No, he's a Galilean, not a Jew.
So, Pilate immediately looked for a way out
of this because Pilate knew what was behind
this.
He knew there was no truth behind this.
Do you remember what he said to the
Lord?
What is truth?
Do you remember what the Lord answered him?
Another one of those marvellous I Am's.
Pilate knew that behind it all, there was
no truth.
There was just jealousy and envy, but he
wanted to get out of this because he
could see the storm was brewing around him,
and there was going to be no way
out of it.
So, he sends the Lord off to Herod.
Now, you've got to know who Herod was.
Herod was in Jerusalem at that time, not
because he belonged to Jerusalem particularly, because his
jurisdiction was from the north.
Herod's jurisdiction was up in Galilee, and so
Pilate said, Well, I'll send him off to
Herod, and let Herod do with him as
he pleases, for he is a Galilean.
And our Lord comes into the presence of
the King, the King Herod.
Herod was just a satrap, that's all he
was.
He was just a political appointee, but the
Lord is brought into the presence of King
Herod.
And Herod was thrilled to see him.
He had been anxious for a long time
to see him.
He had heard much about him, but he
had never come in contact with him, and
he'd longed to see him.
Now, there's some morbid curiosity in this.
There's some very personal reasons for Herod wanting
to see Jesus.
When the Lord is there, Herod begins to
ask him questions.
Along came the chief priest and the scribes,
and it says, they vehemently accused him in
the presence of Herod.
The Lord has said nothing, and Herod is
frustrated.
Herod wants to see him for various reasons,
but one of the reasons why Herod wants
to see him is, he wants to see
a miracle done, but we'll sweep that aside.
That's not nearly as important as it might
appear.
Another one of the reasons why Herod wanted
to see him was because Herod heard of
his fame, and he said, This is John
the Baptist, whom I beheaded.
Now, if you go back to Luke's gospel,
chapter 3, you'll remember that when John the
Baptist was preaching in the area, and he
had come for some way or another in
contact with Herod, and he had accused Herod,
and above all the things that Herod did,
and it says many ills, many evil things
Herod had done, and he also had taken
his brother Philip's wife, but of all the
things that he did, he added this above
all.
What was that?
He put John in prison.
He was an adulterer.
He was licentious.
He was bloodthirsty, but of all the things
that Herod did, the worst thing he ever
did was when he incarcerated John the Baptist,
and as you know, consequent upon the birthday
party and so on, John the Baptist was
beheaded.
That specter, as Shakespeare brings it up in
Macbeth, that specter is haunting Herod.
He knew he was a holy man, it
says.
He knew he was a just and righteous
man, and he listened to him frequently.
He wanted to hear him because there's something
in Herod that responds to John.
And yet, for all that, Herodias, his brother
Philip's wife with whom he was living at
the time, finally pushed Herod to the brink,
and you know the circumstances, and finally Herod
sent and had John beheaded in prison, and
that has haunted him ever since.
It's haunted him.
And in a desperation to find a way
of release from the accusation of murdering the
prophet, he hears that Jesus was moving around
the country as another prophet has arisen, and
he's healing the sick, and all the poor
people are coming to him, and he's feeding
the multitudes, and some he has risen from
the dead, and Herod is so desperately anxious
to see him.
He wants the possibility that he's dreamt about
to come to reality, that this is John
the Baptist, and if this really is John
the Baptist, then he will be freed from
the accusation of murder because he's risen again
from the dead after Herod murdered him, and
that's why Herod wants to see him.
So Herod asked him any questions.
You know what it says?
He answered him nothing.
Our Lord stood there with all the accusations
going on, knowing what's in Herod's evil mind,
knowing what the past was, knowing what Herod
is thinking.
Herod wants liberation from the specter of that
bloody head that was brought to him on
the platter.
Herod wants liberation from the figures of the
night that haunt him because he knew he
was a holy man, and he knew he
was a just man, and yet he's beheaded
him.
He's murdered him.
Herod wants liberty from this, and the Lord
knows that, and he responds with the sovereignty
of silence.
There's nothing to say, and that frustrated Herod
terribly.
It insulted him.
It shattered all his dreams.
It destroyed all his hopes that he was
going to get free from the specter of
John the Baptist's head, and then they began
to mock him, revile him, and set him
at naught, and raid him in a royal
robe, and so forth, and they ridiculed him,
and they reviled him, and they couldn't get
a word out of him who, in the
sovereignty of silence, stands and says nothing.
He sends him away to Pilate.
He's gone back to Pilate.
Now it's Pilate's turn.
What's Pilate going to do?
Pilate's in a tremendous dilemma.
Pilate doesn't know what to do.
Pilate tried to get out of it several
ways, as you know, but upon Pilate has
the responsibility now fallen, and it's inescapable, and
it's inevitable.
He has to make the decision.
The chief priests and Jews are demanding the
crucifixion of the prophet for Nazareth, and Pilate
says, why?
What evil has he done?
I sent him to Herod.
You can see nothing worthy of death has
been done to him.
He has been beaten.
He has been spit on, but that happened
in the high priest's palace too the night
before.
He says, what am I going to do
with it?
They said crucify.
Pilate says, why would I crucify?
Should I crucify your king?
They said, we have no king but Caesar,
and Pilate's sitting on the judgment seat and
doesn't know what to do.
Vain.
Three times over he says, I find no
fault in this man.
He is innocent.
Roman law demands that he be released.
My conscience demands that I release him, but
listen to the crowd, listen to the roar,
listen to the accusation.
They won't let me go, and so he
tries to get out of it with one
maneuver and another, and then finally he sits
on the judgment seat because he heard them
say this.
He made himself the son of God, and
Pilate's terrified now with Roman suspicion and the
accusation of his own conscience because he knows
that the man is innocent.
Then they come up with this, and they
said, if thou let this man go, thou
art not Caesar's friend, and Pilate heard that
saying.
He went in and sat on the judgment
seat, and then he gets a message from
his wife.
Have thou nothing to do with this just
man?
I've suffered many things to stay in the
dream because of him.
Don't touch it, Pilate, don't touch it.
And now here's another, another restraint has been
imposed upon him.
His wife is troubled about the matter that
he should have anything to do with him.
What's he going to do?
He tries to release him.
Peter said later on in Acts chapter 3,
he was determined to let him go.
Well, why didn't he let him go?
Why did Caiaphas take him to Pilate?
Because he was jealous.
Why did Herod want to see him and
send him back?
Because he had that morbid curiosity, and he
had that ambition that he would be freed
from the accusation of the beheading of John
the Baptist.
And he was frustrated and defeated.
And now it's Pilate's turn.
What's Pilate going to do?
Pilate said three times, I find no fault
in this man.
I will chastise him upon what justification?
I will scourge him, and then I will
release him.
And they said, he made himself a king,
and whosoever makes himself a king speaks against
Caesar.
And if thou let us this man go,
thou art not a friend of Caesar.
Pilate knew very well that the high priests
were capable of going to Rome to accuse
him of Caesar, of treachery and treason.
Pilate knew that.
They knew that.
And they knew how to use this weapon
against him, because Pilate was determined to let
him go.
And they knew that he was determined to
let him go.
Solved for what?
For political preservation.
Pilate made his decision, and he delivered him
to their will to be crucified.
Before they go out, or after they're gone,
I'm not sure when, Pilate writes a sentence,
the accusation, the crime of the criminal for
which cause he was to be crucified.
This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of
the Jews.
And our Lord goes out to Calvary under
the direction of these three judges, this trilogy
of judges who, for three various reasons, had
had their active part in the condemnation and
the crucifixion of our Lord.
And they stand today accused of the reasons
why they did what they did in the
presence of our Lord and condemned him to
death.
We know, of course, he was delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, don't
we?
But we also know that they by wicked
hands took him and slew him, as the
scripture says.
And so we have these two things put
together.
They're brought into harmony, one with the other.
What's that?
God's determined counsel and the manipulation and the
cruelty and the act of infamous men.
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God.
That's the divine choice, wasn't it?
Or as we read in Acts 4, what
God had purposed should be done.
But they took him by wicked hands and
they crucified and they murdered him.
And do these things work together?
They are complementary.
The divine decree, he that spared not his
own son but delivered him up for us
all, is met with the action of those
who perform the deed and for which they
stand accused and will be judged eternally.
Our Lord is taken out because of these
three men, these three judges, and he is
crucified.
And now you've got another trilogy, three crosses
standing side by side.
The enemies come, not at all satisfied with
the fact that he's been nailed to the
cross.
They see the sign over his head.
This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews.
And the chief priests hurry back to Pilate
and they say to Pilate, don't write, here's
the King of the Jews.
Pilate had it written in Hebrew, Greek and
Latin, another trilogy.
And in those three languages you have represented
everything that the world is in its relationship
and in its enmity against God and his
son.
Hebrew, the language of divine revelation.
Greek, the language of human wisdom.
Latin, the language of political power.
And in these three languages, the accusation is
written, this is Jesus of Nazareth, the King
of the Jews.
And they hurried to Pilate and they said,
don't write he's the King of the Jews.
Write that he said he was the King
of the Jews.
And Pilate said in the bitterness of his
soul, what I've written, I've written.
As far as I'm concerned, he is the
King of the Jews.
You made me do it.
I didn't want to do it.
You forced me into it.
You wouldn't let me out of it.
I wanted to let him go.
You wouldn't let me let him go.
What I've written, it stands.
This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of
the Jews.
Doesn't it somehow or another touch our hearts
to see exactly when our Lord stood in
the presence of these three judges, how it
all worked out into the divine counsels of
God and left these men with the accusation
upon their souls forever.
He was crucified because of envy, jealousy.
He was crucified because of someone trying to
get out from under the guilt of his
actions.
And he was crucified because the man who
could have released him didn't cause a political
favor.
There it stands.
And the day is yet to come when
they will look on him whom they pierced.
And I was reading that not too long
ago, and it suddenly occurred to me, who
pierced Jesus of Nazareth?
Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate.
Who was it designed crucifixion?
The Romans.
Who nailed him to the cross?
The Romans.
Whose spear was it opened to side?
It was the Romans' spear.
They shall look on him whom they pierced,
and all nations of the earth shall wail
because of him.
If you go back to Zechariah 12 and
10, that's charged to Israel.
If you come to Revelation chapter 1 and
then go to the cross and the gospels,
it's charged to Rome.
They, it suddenly appeared to me, they are
going to be those who at that time,
when our Lord displays himself, the marks of
Calvary still upon his body, when he comes
again, they are going to look on him
whom they pierced.
Who is they?
Who is in the land today?
The nation of Israel.
Who is coming into the land shortly?
The revived Roman Empire.
And when it comes back, and these two
are together again in the land, that's when
he's coming.
And we can see those days approaching, can't
we?
And we can see the time now is
not in the distant future, but shortly at
hand, when they're going to look at him
whom they pierced.
And the head of that revived Roman Empire,
that world government which will be then, he
will be sitting there in the city of
Jerusalem in the temple of God, saying that
he is God.
He's the one that's going to see the
one whom they, the Romans, pierced.
And the Jewish nation also are going to
have to face the one whom they've pierced.
And the Lord himself shall come again.
Brethren, this is our Savior.
This is our friend.
This is our Lord.
This is our sovereign I Am.
He's coming back again.
And when he comes, we will be with
great joy, thrilled into ecstasy, when we see
him whom they pierced.
Because by their piercing of him, we have
found salvation, haven't we?
We found fellowship and a relationship with God.
And we stand tonight in his presence, cleansed
by that wondrous fountain that flowed from Emmanuel's
side.
Yes, they were there, Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate.
We thank God that God himself was there.
He spared not his own son.
He delivered him up for us all.
By the eternal Spirit, he offered himself without
spot to God.
And the triune God that we've been speaking
of, the trilogy, the triune God, were there
at that great work of the cross by
which the world was reconciled unto himself.
And thank God he's coming again.
Shall we pray?
Our Father, we acknowledge that some of these
things are too great for us.
The mystery and the majesty of the cross,
and yet at times the magnificence of that
cross, it baffles us and it blinds us.
We rejoice tonight that we've found a place
in the Savior's side.
We thank thee that he was set forth
as the propitiation for our sins, not for
ours only, but also for the whole world.
We thank thee that our Lord shall again
stand on the Mount of Olives to the
east of Jerusalem, his feet shall stand where
he stood before.
They shall look on him whom they have
pierced.
We rejoice to know that the day of
his vindication is coming.
The day of his glory shall break upon
a startled world and upon all those who
have risen up again against the Lord and
against his anointed, saying, We will break their
bands from us.
We'll cast off their cords.
But he that sits in the heavens shall
laugh.
He will say, Yet have I set my
king upon my holy hill of Zion.
We bless thee that Jesus shall reign from
the mount to the ends of the earth,
and every eye shall see him, and we
shall delight and rejoice in his coming.
Let thy blessing be with thy people, we
pray, as we commend us tonight to thee
in his name.
Amen.