The Gospel of Luke 23:1-17 To Pontius Pilate He goes
Luke 23:1-17 · Vern Peterman · Oct 2, 2016
Gospel of Luke, No. 89
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926540194749

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be venturing through Luke 23, 1 through 17, as Courtney read for us here. And just to kind of bring ourselves up to speed, Jesus trials by the leaders of the Jews at this point in time have just been completed. They had the trial before Annas, which may have been some others there, and then the trial before Caiaphas and then gathering the whole Sanhedrin together. They concluded, we have what we need. He claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed to be deity. So we have what we need.

That's not what they're going to bring up when it comes to Pilate, however. We saw that Peter had denied Christ three times and then left to weep. He may have resumed going along with the rest of it, but he left at least for a time to weep. John, however, had been present the whole time, even before Peter was there, and continued there at the trials. He was apparently there as well as this was brought before Pilate.

The Anison and Caiaphas were on a fishing expedition, so to speak, to try to find something to charge Jesus with. That's what that, you know, middle of the night trial was all about. Can we find something and, matter of fact, several things and see what sticks, right? But Jesus gave them what they wanted. He claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed deity. And that was all they needed. And he gave them exactly what they were looking for. One of the things to ponder is Jesus had been telling the disciples for quite some time in advance what would take place.

In some cases he was very specific. to what the events were here's Luke 9 22 the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes scribes and be killed and raised up on the third day so the elders chief priests and scribes rejecting him that's already accomplished here Jesus said this by the way about a year ahead of these events that we're reading about now Here's Luke 23.1, then the whole body of them got up and brought him before Pilate.

One of the things I'm going to be showing here from a movie made of the Gospel of Luke. I think sometimes they kind of underdo some of the things and so They show a small group. In fact, in order to have the Sanhedrin meet, there would be a minimum of just a quorum of 23, but well over 70 would commonly be the number there. And then plus they would have other Temple guard and and different ones that would come along and in this case What we'll see later on is Luke actually refers to crowds plural.

So actually a large number of people my guess is in order to get all the Screaming and crying and all that Done that they brought everybody from all the Sanhedrin households there and so any rate he goes to Pilate and They're gathered there early Friday morning for this tribunal.

Pontius Pilate is staying there in Jerusalem, and so they're going over to his place to present him to Pontius Pilate. Pilate ordinarily lived in Caesarea, so he was actually on a special trip. He would come over from Caesarea, which was a Roman military installation over on the coast. They would head south and then inland to Jerusalem. And then he would stay there, particularly during feast times, because that's when all the Jews were gathered, and there was quite a number of people. He would bring a large contingent of additional Roman soldiers with him, ordinarily stationed at Caesarea on the coast, in order to have security troops there, because there were a lot of Jews that came into the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

Here is the map, as you have on page one of your handout. And we've been looking at here is the location of the upper room where the Last Supper was held. That's over at the southwest portion of the city of Jerusalem. And then from there, they went to Gethsemane, which is at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

And that's where Jesus was arrested. Although a few different places lay claim to it, the palatial mansion where it's located here is likely the place where the trial was held for Annas. And actually quite likely it remained there for Caiaphas and for the Sanhedrin gathering. There is a 21 foot by 33 foot room which is probably at least where the Sanhedrin gathering took place.

And so we looked at that last week. This week we're looking at what is Herod's palace. That's been excavated over the years and, matter of fact, was just opened up in March of last year for the public to see in the area that we'll be looking at here. Here is a model of Herod's palace.

It was actually King Herod the Not-So-Great, as we refer to him. He was the one who initially constructed it. The northern part, that's the farther away part, was made into and remained a palace. And the southern part was actually, from the time of Herod the Not-So-Great, converted into a military barracks for upper officers and that sort of thing. So that's the way it was in use during Christ's time of ministry. Here is the Tower of David complex.

As you would expect, the archaeology of Jerusalem is very complicated, and this is no exception. And this is a particularly complicated area. This that I showed you here is all underneath what you see here, so they had to dig down. That's why the excavation took a while, and they have to keep things structurally sound while they're taking out material. and making certain things available, and why it took a while to open it to the public. Here is the actual remains, and you can see there's a roof. They had some structural members in there to make things hold up while they took the material out of there.

This is the remains of Herod's palace, and as you see, the superstructure is gone, so this is just all foundational material that's there. So this palace, which had been built for Herod the Not-So-Great, was turned into a government complex. Pilate would use the northern part of it as his visitor's palace, but otherwise be gone much of the year over in Caesarea. This is the likely place where Pontius Pilate stayed as his temporary quarters there and then having military people right nearby.

Here's Luke 23 2 and they began to accuse him and this is the Jewish leaders saying okay, so now here's here's Luke He acts actually lay out in the gospel of Luke here are the charges against Jesus The other Gospels are not quite so clear on it. So Luke is kind of unique in this number one we found this man misleading our nation and to forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar and three saying that he himself is Christ a king All right So first of all, while we saw that the Jews were interested in, okay, are you the Messiah? Do you claim to be deity?

Here, everything has been shifted to politicized charges. Because in truth, the Romans are not going to care one bit about whether he claimed to be the Messiah and whether he claimed to be deity. So the Jews are taking and shifting all the charges to some political charge, true or not. As the leaders of the Jews saw it, for their sake, it was actually for blasphemy that they were saying that Jesus deserved death. So that was fine for the Jews, but in order to get the Romans to buy into this, all the charges had to be politicized as a threat against Rome. So they had to twist everything because of, in fact, no threat at all against Rome.

So first of all, let's look at this one, misleading our nation. This was not true, of course, because it was actually the Sanhedrin who were misleading the nation, right? And not Christ. So that's bogus. Next one, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar. This was an outright bold lie. It had only been days before that Jesus said, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, right? And then the thing to God, the things that are God's. So this was an outright lie.

The next one, saying that he himself is Christ, a king. Well, he did in fact claim to be Christ, and he told them that just shortly before this accusation. But Christ was not the sort of thing, the sort of king, that the Romans had to worry about at all. Pilate really had no concern. In fact, Pilate would actually discover that for himself.

So they would make all these charges and see what sticks, right? See what sticks. So the leaders of the Jews, following the plan of Caiaphas set out roughly a week earlier, had been on this fishing expedition trying to come up with something to charge Jesus with and Jesus actually gave it to them I am the Messiah I am Deity but now they're going to have to twist these because while it's good enough for them it's not going to work with the Romans they're going to throw several different things and see what sticks right so here's Luke 23.3 so Pilate asked him so asked him directly saying are you the king of the Jews and he answered him and said it is as you say." So he's asking, well are you? Right? So the direct question.

You see, the reality is there had been no opportunity to be the king of the Jews in general since Herod the Not-So-Great had died. That was back in March of 4 BC. All of Herod's sons and other subsequent governors and prefects and whatnot had divided up the land, and so there were smaller districts now, and no King of the Jews title was actually fitting.

So Jesus' response is reported here briefly in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus basically saying, yes. Gospel of John, however, actually gives us a bit more, and so we'll turn to that. John 18, 33 through 38 fills in between the statements that we have here.

Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, that's this complex that we just saw, palace and military barracks, and summoned Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me? And Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done? And Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.

Therefore Pilate said to him, So you are a king. And Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king, but for this I have been born, and to this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate's famous words, Pilate said to him, What is truth? So then Pilate turns around after that conversation that John fills in and says, So the chief priests and the crowds, I find no guilt in this man.

That's Luke 23.4. So Pilate actually understood here. After this conversation, he says, yes, he claims to be a king, but it's not of this realm and he's not fighting anything. There's nothing to worry about here. So he gets the idea. So Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world.

That was what we saw there in the Gospel of John. So as we'll see, the leaders of the Jews are going to still press on. Why? They're desperate. They've got to get a decision here. Since finding no guilt in him was not the answer the leaders of the Jews were looking for. See, this is like Jedi mind tricks. That's not the answer we're looking for, right? Pilate was foiling the plans of the leaders of the Jews.

So here's Luke 23.5, but they kept on insisting, saying, He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, which, of course, they're going to mention that, because that's where Pilate's the prefect, right? Starting from Galilee, even as far as this place. Eighty percent of his time was spent in Galilee, right? And the minority here, but they've got to start with Judea, because that's the place where he's got governance here.

So the leaders of the Jews pulled the lever. He stirs up the people even harder. Well, you've got to push that one. They were trying to say that Jesus was getting people to stand against the Romans. That's the impression that they were trying to pass off. Jesus actually did stir up the people, but it wasn't against the Romans.

It was against the leaders of the Jews, and that was the problem. And the leaders of the Jews were having to twist this and make it seem as if it were a Roman problem, when it wasn't a Roman problem. Not at all. Jesus had spoken out boldly even that very week against the practices of the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Some people, frightening thought, were actually following Jesus. And that was bothering them.

But he wasn't a threat against the Romans. You see the leaders that week had tried to come up with questions to the point that They gave up. We cannot come up with a question that Jesus cannot answer, right? And he's asking questions we can't answer, right? And so this isn't working.

So the reasons these things bothered the Jews so very much, and the reason they had to get the Romans to crucify Jesus was because they were afraid of the people. That's why they brought out at least 600 to arrest Jesus. 600! Wow! Here's Luke 23, 6 and 7. When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time. Right nearby, as we'll see.

So Pontius Pilate was actually Italian, just so you know. and not native to the land of the Jews. So he was an import. He had come in here and so, you know, Galilean, whoo, I mean, he wasn't even, he didn't even go there. So that was quite a stretch for him. So discernment about local accents and native customs and all that was not his specialty. He had heard enough to wonder if Jesus was a Galilean, just a little bit of accent, right?

If so, that might offer a few advantages to Pilate, and also the fact that the Jewish leaders said, well, he did do this stuff in Galilee as well. So here is the opportunity. Herod Antipas was right here in Jerusalem, and he's the governor over, actually a more complicated title, a tetrarch, over Galilee. Now, we've got to recognize this Herod Antipas.

Now, this Herod thing can get real confusing, because there's Herod the Great, who had ten wives, some say maybe nine, but okay, nine or ten. He had sons and, you know, he didn't let them all live. He took out one of his wives and three of his sons, one of them just five days before he died. But the ones that survived, it's interesting, they show up in the New Testament.

And so we have a handout available in the cabinet to the right as you exit this room, if you'd like to track that. And the passages in Luke where the Herod family is included is in bold red. So anyway, you can feel free to take advantage of that. to identify all these people. Here it just says Herod, it doesn't use the differentiation Herod Antipas, and so we'll make that differentiation from time to time. So here's Herod Antipas on his father's death, was made ruler of Galilee and Perea.

Let's make that a little bit larger so you can see it. They're shown in violet. Galilee is not all around the Sea of Galilee, but on the west side. And Nazareth is included in that. And then Perea is on the east side, farther south. So it's interesting.

He was made ruler over two separate areas. They weren't connected together. And so he had to hop between those and then also come to Jerusalem from time to time. So these are the two areas where he was in charge. And then he would come to Jerusalem during the feast times. So he's moving around. He's got a capital, actually, in Perea and in Galilee. And the capital in Galilee is Tiberias.

So Herod Antipas, on his father's death, was made ruler in those two areas. He was also the one responsible for beheading John the Baptist. So anyway, even though it was reluctant, he was actually capable of being a very cruel man. And so why would Pilate want to send Jesus to Herod Antipas?

Well, there's a few different reasons. This sounds like a great opportunity to take the pressure off of himself. Go see somebody else. You guys are screaming and mad and you're making false accusations and I can't accuse him of what you're accusing him of and so you know he's a Galilean go see her you know Antipas and that'll be fine with me I can just get the pressure off me for a while you guys seem really insistent on something that I can't find is true so also not be as being as familiar with all the nuances that the Jews have and accents and customs and all that He'd be looking for some confirmation from Herod Antipas, you know, are you arriving at the same conclusion I am, right? So that would be another reason.

So what you see here is Herod's palace and then going from there to the Hasmonean palace right nearby, okay? just a short distance away. That's where they would send Jesus, and the soldiers were with them, and the crowd, and the Jewish leaders. Everybody now would move over to the Hasmonean Palace and leave Pilate alone for a while, right? This is great. Ah, boy, those guys are a pain, right? Okay, so here's a model of the Hasmonean Palace. It's not too far away from the Western Wall. And basically that you can see it now. It's all been largely ruined in the time in between then and now. Here's Luke 23 8.

Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus for he had wanted to see him for a long time because he'd been hearing about him and was hoping to see some sign performed by him. OK. So what's very interesting is we get some kind of personal insights into Herod Antipas. And it turns out that Jesus had a connection to one of Herod Antipas' stewards. And so that's how this little kind of wanting to see him for a long time and all that would come through. So, although he'd wanted to see him for a long time, his motivations for wanting to see Jesus were a bit complicated.

Here's Luke 9, 7-9. This was sometime earlier. Now Herod the Tetrarch, this is Herod Antipas, heard of all that was happening and he was greatly perplexed because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead and by some that Elijah had appeared. And by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again.

Herod said, I myself had John beheaded, but who is this man about whom I hear such things? And he kept trying to see him. And Jesus kept trying to get out of the way of Herod seeing him. Right? All right. So one of the things to recognize is that Herod Antipas was the son of his father. Herod Antipas was the father of Herod the not so great. He was a terrible, horrible, awful, cruel, nasty, rotten man. And did I say he was a bad dude? Right? Okay. Jesus called this Herod Antipas a fox. Right? A fox.

Every evidence we have says that Jesus actually tried to stay completely away from Herod Antipas up until this moment. He is never reported to have gone to Tiberias. He is never reported to have tried to see him or gone anywhere near Tiberias, which would be the place where he would be located. If Jesus went over to Bethsaida on the east side of the Jordan River, he would be out of Herod Antipas' territory, and at times he went there, possibly to get away from Herod Antipas. And he wants to stay away from this guy.

Herod Antipas, however, had been hearing about all the wondrous things that Jesus had been doing and was getting more and more curious. Oh, I'd really like to see this guy do a magic trick for me. Because that's what he really wanted. I want a magic show. This guy was really into entertainment. He loved to be entertained. He would turn things into entertainment.

Jesus had no intention of ever putting on a magic show for Herod Antipas and that was not the purpose of his miracles Here's Luke 23 9 and 10 and he questioned him at some length, but he answered him nothing not a thing and the chief priests and the scribes were standing there accusing him vehemently of Now, if you think about it, here's Herod Antipas, and he's going to ask Jesus questions, but actually because he's a complicated fellow with complicated motives, he is going to ask questions with several different motives behind those questions.

One intention was to find out if Jesus was in fact guilty or innocent, and that's probably what Pilate would have said, hey, I'm sending this guy over to you, I'd like you to inquire about that. Is this guy guilty of what they're charging him with? Another intention that he had may have been to find out who Jesus actually was.

What we saw in Luke 9, 7 and 9 as we read it is that he wasn't quite sure. Is this John the Baptist resurrected? Is it Elijah? Who is this guy? Certainly he hoped to provoke, tease, force Jesus to do a magic show for him. So he wanted that too. So anyway, this is a complicated guy with multiple strange motivations.

What's interesting here is Jesus didn't answer him at all. It made me think immediately of Isaiah 53, verse 7 particularly. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth. Verse 8, by oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people? to whom the stroke was due. This is Isaiah writing about Christ dying for our sins, and it actually includes his burial and his resurrection seven centuries before Christ was even born. But this part, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter. like the sheep that is silent before his shears, so he did not open his mouth.

And with that, it's time for a farm story. All right, so here's Philo, inland from the Northern California coast, right? And so I have these friends and sort of neighbors, as much as you can have neighbors in a place where everybody's spread out, near this little town of Floodgate, which is near Philo, and it's even smaller than Philo. which you otherwise probably never heard of. But on the Lytles ranch there, they had a barn and Mr. Lytle had cattle and sheep and chinchillas. Right?

And so I'd go over and help him mostly with the sheep because the cattle, they were too big and the chinchillas were too small. So anyway, so we'd do various things with the sheep and we'd get them into the barn and whether it was, you know, we're shearing them, we're docking the tails and marking the ears and putting medicine on them or whatever. What's amazing is that they would get there and they would all be in a panic and they'd all be like, And the whole place would be really loud with these sheep making horrific noise. And then we'd take one, and whether we're getting ready to shear it, or dock a tail, mark the ears, put medicine, whatever we're going to do, the one that you take is completely silent and doesn't move.

Really amazing. It's just like Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53. And then you let it go, and it's BAAA BAAA BAAA, right? All that stuff. Okay. But while you're cheering it, while you're doing the various maintenance things on it, that's when they are actually silent, just like Isaiah wrote.

Now, the other thing is, this is craziness, but standard courtroom behavior. wouldn't even be remotely tolerated now but standard courtroom behavior the ill treatment of someone who had been arrested of course would not be allowed now but anything was game even though Herod Antipas is going to conclude that this guy's not guilty of anything deserving death he's still going to have fun with him at least what he considers fun abusing Jesus verbally physically mocking him even the chief priest continuing to call out charges. You know, here he is trying to talk to the guy and they're, he does this, he does that. And one of the things that a lot of the pictures show is the chief priest there, you know, coming into the room or standing next to them, probably not.

They're trying to keep themselves pure because especially the Sadducees among them need to maintain purity in order to have their separate Passover. from the Pharisees Passover the next day we're gonna find out more about that in a bit so Jesus received ill treatment from the Jews from Herod Antipas and ultimately from Pilate so here's Luke 23 11 and 12 and Herod with his soldiers after treating him with contempt and mocking him dressed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day. For before, they had been enemies with one another, and I'll tell you why in a minute.

Okay. Now, first of all, Herod Antipas found out that Jesus was not very entertaining. He was hoping for a magic show and better, but that's not what he got. Jesus didn't put on the magic show, and he didn't even answer any of the questions. Right? Not at all.

Just not answer a thing. so they put a nice actually the it says gorgeous what really means is a bright robe so it was something that got your attention nice and clean I suppose after treating him quite disrespectfully and then mocking him laughing at him we'll soon find out what Herod conveyed to Pilate so here Hezmonian palace back to Herod's. Okay, so back and forth.

All right, so back to Herod's palace here to talk with Pilate. So Herod and Pilate were first alienated from one another. Herod Antipas was jealous of Pilate, wanting also to rule Judea for himself. That was one point that made them at odds to begin with. But Herod along with three brothers had filed a formal complaint with Tiberius Caesar over Pilate's decoration of the palace where they grew up. And so this thing went to Tiberius Caesar, Tiberius Caesar sent back an order and told Pilate he had to change the decorations. So that got them at odds with one another.

So Pilate, by sending Jesus over to Herod Antipas, he may even have known Herod Antipas really wanted to see this Jesus guy. He made amends for the rest of the time that he was the prefect, which is about not quite four years. And that was the end of Pilate's time. So for almost four years, they were friends from that day forward.

Here's Luke 23, 13 and 14, Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers of the people, said to them, you brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion. Liars! And behold, I have examined him before you. I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges you make against him. So he's saying in formal terms, you guys lied to me. It's not true. You're making false charges. This was actually one of Pilate's better moments.

He was a prefect in Judea from 26 A.D. to late 36 or early 37 A.D. During that time, he'd done things, many things, to greatly offend the Jews. And some of those involved violence and even slaughter of people. So, you know, he wasn't on great terms with the Jews to begin with. But in this instance, he actually came to a true and just conclusion.

If only he had stopped there, right? Jesus is innocent of the charges brought against him by the Jews. Pilate does not find the Jews' charges to be true. That's what he's essentially said. You've charged him with this. It is not true. I find him not guilty.

So Luke 23, 15 through 17, No, nor has Herod, this is Herod Antipas, whom he sent back to us, and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him. Therefore I will punish him and release him. and then verse 17 in brackets, now is was obliged to release them at the feast of one prisoner. Let me make a comment about verse 17 before we proceed. Based on examination of the documents over the centuries, it appears that verse 17 was a later edition and not what Dr. Luke himself wrote, and so you'll find that brackets and several of the translations. I think the New International Version actually drops it out. That having been said, there's actually nothing either historically or doctrinally wrong with that line. So it is superfluous or superficial, but it's not in some radical way incorrect. Alright, so now, he did nothing deserving death.

Herod didn't get the entertainment value out of Jesus who was hoping, but still, Herod could not find any evidence that Jesus had committed a crime deserving a death sentence. So he sent that back. He probably didn't tell him about all the mocking and everything, but nonetheless.

So Pilate was going to let Jesus off with a mild punishment. What that would likely mean is a light beating. They had two levels of beatings. This was a proposal to have him get a light beating, one that wouldn't, you know, tear up his flesh too badly. A heavy beating would have been one like Jesus did in fact get before he went to be crucified.

So this was to serve as a warning not to get the Jews upset again. That's basically what it is. In other words, Jesus is not looked upon as somebody who needs capital punishment, but why do you get these guys all upset at you? Don't do that again. That would be the idea of this warning. But you and I know that's not how this ends. Pilate doesn't say, okay, just whip them a few times and let them go. He doesn't do that, does he? That's not how this ends. They do whip him.

Pilate, as we'll see next time, will get a note from his wife not to have anything to do with the righteous man Jesus, while the Jews will shift into full riot mode. So this is going to be dramatic at different levels, right? So here's Pilate's wife giving him a note, and it seems right about at this point is where that note is given to Pilate. Don't have anything to do with this guy, right? So now Pilate's really getting in the squeeze. And then the Jews, on the other hand, are going into full riot mode.

Why? They found out that nothing that they've had in the way of charges is sticking. And they're not happy with that. And there's a little quirk of Roman law that a riot, a quirk of Roman law that a riot will allow Pilate to sentence Jesus to crucifixion even though he's not guilty. avoiding a riot. So, the real problem here, always a benefit for us, but the real problem here is that neither the leaders of the Jews, nor Pilate, nor Herod Antipas knew who Jesus actually was. That's the real problem, isn't it? That's why this whole thing's going on.

They didn't know who Jesus actually was. They didn't know that He would die for their sins, all of them, later on that day. They didn't know that He loved them that much. What's amazing to me, as I ponder this, I ponder Jesus dying for Judah's sins. I ponder Jesus washing Judah's feet, and the rest of the disciples can't tell that Jesus is loving them, loving him, any different.

They don't know who the betrayer is. And here, here are all these people mistreating him, treating him horribly, falsely accusing him, the Jews pressing to try to get capital punishment out of this. Which is all a sin, and he's going to die for all of it. In just a few hours.

If you think about it, at this point in time, not even the disciples really understand fully who Jesus is. They would come to learn, however, who Jesus is. Discovering, actually, over decades of time, who Jesus is, more and more. They will learn that this most horrible, horrible day of their lives It's the very best day that ever was. It's a very, very good Friday.

They just don't know it yet. They just don't know it yet. Here for us, however, is Peter. Yes, Peter did eventually get it. He did understand. This is a few decades later. 2nd Peter 3 17 and 18 you therefore beloved knowing this beforehand be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of Unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness But grow by the lesson imperative But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and Peter had done that hadn't he? He went from I don't even know him. I to writing people grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

These are great things to see and to remember in the midst of a really bad day. Ever have a really bad day? You might have one coming up. But like Peter, He finally, oh, that's what God's doing. And we may be in that place too. We may be late recognizing, oh, that's what God was doing back here. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. This is just a tremendous truth for us to soak in. And what is being a horrible day for the disciples, what is appearing to be an awful day, is in fact the best day we could ever possibly imagine. It's a very, very good Friday that these events are taking place. Thank you for your amazing grace through it all. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.