Worthy of Death

Very early on in my experience of ministry, I was leading services leading up to Good Friday, and this was a Good Friday service.

And as I was looking at the passages of scripture, I felt like we were looking at pilots dealing with the mob who yelled out, crucify him.

And I thought that it would be a good idea to sort of flip that, and to suggest that we would have an altar call type response at the end of the service where people could stand around communion and express their agreement in a way that you wouldn't normally expect.

That they would agree, he does need to die, he does need to be crucified.

And I said, if you agree that you need him to die for you, I want to encourage you to stand and say, crucify him.

And so, one by one, lots of people stood and they said, crucify him.

And crucify him, crucify him.

And a couple of kids stood up and said, crucify him.

And it was actually a very moving experience.

Later that week, a mature Christian came to me and said, you know, I support you and I think you've got a heart really for the Lord, but I think you were wrong in what you let us through last Sunday.

It's not our place to say, crucify him.

And it was hard to hear.

Some decades on, I probably would agree with him.

I don't think it is our place to stand up in a response time and to say, crucify him.

Well, as I read today's passage, I thought of another flip around.

But I think this is safer.

I'm confident this is less problematic.

In verse 64, we read that the Sanhedrin all condemned him as worthy of death.

Worthy of death.

And though this sounds horrible, I think it's very important tonight to point out why this is true.

But in a very different way than the teachers of the law and the high priest in the Sanhedrin thought.

Jesus is worthy of death.

And that's exactly why he is worthy of all praise and worship.

The Sanhedrin doesn't realize it, but Jesus is worthy of death precisely because they can't pin him with anything he's done wrong.

Because Jesus never did anything wrong.

He is absolutely perfect.

Literally, he never did anything wrong.

So, of course, they struggled to pin him with anything worthy of death.

But in fact, that's the very reason why he's worthy of death, because he's the sinless lamb of God.

I want to read a little bit again what Dave read to us in verse 53.

And it's intentional that we hear the Word of God twice, because we hear it in context as the person reads it, and then we study it.

So, let me read from verse 53.

They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law, came together.

Peter followed him in a distance.

Right into the courtyard of the high priest, there he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus, so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any.

Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.

Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him.

We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days we'll build another not made with hands.

Yet even then their testimony did not agree.

Jesus has already been tragically betrayed, and apart from Peter who follows at a distance, he has been abandoned by all of his disciples at this stage.

It's the middle of the night, probably about midnight or after, early Friday morning, and the Sanhedrin has been called together.

Now the Sanhedrin is the high priest and the chief priests, and it's normally a group of 71 judges, and they look after important matters.

The whole 71, like the tribunal, the group, the Sanhedrin, would get together for very big matters, like agreeing to go to war, say.

But typically the Sanhedrin was made up of 23 judges, and so it's probably more likely that this is the smaller version that have gathered together.

Yet, it's highly unusual for this to be happening in the middle of the night.

Curiously, Acts chapter 4, which is just weeks later when you think about it, so they met to try Jesus, and then maybe six, eight weeks later, they seize, in Acts 4, they seize Peter and John, and because it was evening, they want to bring Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, but because it was evening, they don't, they can't, because the Sanhedrin don't meet at night, but they do the next day.

So isn't that interesting?

That only a couple of months before, the Sanhedrin were more than happy to meet together in the early hours of the morning to very quickly put a trial together to convict Jesus of something worthy of death, which actually happens, early morning trial, 9 o'clock the next day, he's on the cross.

So this is a pretty horrible, quick execution that they are trying to pull off.

And yet, they're having a hard time of it.

So they've gathered together in the early hours of Friday morning and their witnesses won't agree.

Now this is a problem, you may not realise it, but Deuteronomy 17 says, On the testimony of two or three witnesses, a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

Right?

They're like, come on, give us two or three.

We can't do this on one.

It's an awful situation as you think about it.

Jesus was worthy of death, but for an entirely different reason.

He was worthy because he was sinless.

He was the worthy, perfect answer that God provided to pay for the sin of the world.

This is Passover.

We've talked about this in the last few weeks.

So the city of Jerusalem is swollen with pilgrims by a couple of hundred thousand to maybe three, three hundred and fifty thousand, and they're looking for lambs to be slaughtered.

Because they're remembering Passover, and if you, you know, don't remember, Exodus 12 says the community of Israel on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household, and to share it if someone doesn't have a lamb.

And verse 5, the animals you choose must be year old males without defect.

The lamb at Passover is to be unblemished, some translations call it.

In other words, perfect.

God had decided that the blood of the unblemished lamb would be required to atone for sin.

So Jesus was worthy.

Why?

Because he's that lamb.

Amen.

He is that lamb.

2 Corinthians 521 says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 1 says, you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Jesus is worthy of death because he is that lamb.

He is that lamb.

He is the heroic yet humble, sinless Saviour.

And this is why in Revelation when John has that vision that we looked at last year and he's taken to the throne room of heaven, there is a declaration that he is not only this lamb of God worthy of death, but he is worthy of all power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise.

How many is that?

Seven, the perfect number.

He's worthy of all praise because he is the one that stopped John from weeping.

Remember in John, I think, Revelation 5, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll that was needed to be opened up to finish off the whole world, and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it.

And so John weeps in his vision because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll.

And then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep.

See the line of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed.

He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

And I think what's wonderful about this, as we saw last year, is that Revelation is sort of moving in time.

It's not like a static vision.

So it's as though they, in Revelation, when John is taken into the heavenly court, it's like they are concurrently looking at what's going on here in these final chapters.

They're looking at Jesus getting ready to be crucified and then being crucified as the Lamb of God, the perfect sinless Lamb.

And their response is, there he is, the line of the tribe of Judah.

There's the king.

He's winning the battle of the universe right now, but no one knows he is.

He saw, verse 6, he saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures.

And they sang a new song, you are worthy to take the scroll because you were slain.

And with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and people and language and nation.

Jesus is worthy, he is worthy of death because it is his destiny as the Lamb of God, the Saviour of the world.

And all the people said, Amen.

He is worthy of death because he is the sinless Lamb of God and because he is the Son of God.

That's why he is worthy of death.

Verse 60, The high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, Are you not going to answer?

What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?

But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Again, the high priest asked him, Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?

I am, said Jesus.

As had been prophesied about him, he was silent because the prophets said, He will be like a lamb, silent before those who would slaughter him.

And then he speaks, he's silent, and then he speaks and he says two of the most explosive words that anyone could ever say, referring to themselves to the High Priest of Israel.

He says, I am.

They're asking the question, are you the Messiah?

Are you the Blessed One?

Are you the one that is like the prophet to come in the line of like Moses, a deliverer, a human deliverer?

Are you that one?

Do you think you're that special?

And he just puts it straight back at them and he says, I'm more than that, I am God.

I am the Son of God.

I am God the Son.

And if you don't know the backstory, you have to go back to Exodus 3 when Moses is confronted by God in the burning bush and he's asked to go and represent God, to ask Pharaoh to let Israel go from Egypt.

And he says, who will I say you are?

In chapter 3 of Exodus verse 14, God said to Moses, I am who I am.

This is what you ought to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you.

God's name is I am.

It's his most intimate, holy name.

So when Jesus responds to the high priest and says, I am, he's saying, I am God the Son.

There's nothing confusing about his self-understanding there.

It was the same thing he said in John 8 58.

Very truly, verse 58, I tell you, Jesus answered before Abraham was born, I am.

And this is the response when Jesus says those two words.

At this, they picked up stones to stone him.

You can't just go killing people in the law of Israel, but when someone blasphemes, you can.

And so that's what they wanted to do.

But Jesus hid himself slipping away from the temple grounds.

When he says, I am, there is no doubt he is claiming to be God.

So what happens here in the Sanhedrin when he does that?

Verse 63, the high priest tears his clothes.

Why do we need any more witnesses?

He asked, you have heard the blasphemy.

What do you think?

And they all condemned him as worthy of death.

Jesus thought he was the Son of God.

He thought he was God.

I was driving in a small car years ago into Nazareth, up the top of Israel, and we were right up the back of the town of Nazareth, which is in the high part of Israel, right up the north.

And I was struck by this big sign, a huge banner, like the width of the church, and you know, probably a metre and a half wide, and it says, God has no son.

And so that was a strong message from either Jews or Muslims, saying, God has no son.

Christian, go away.

This is an Islamic part of Israel.

And yeah, it's interesting, we can take it for granted, right?

If you're a Christian, yeah, Jesus is God.

I was talking last Sunday up there, the back of this church, talking to someone who's not a Christian.

And we were talking about faith, and this person said, yeah, look, all the prophets and the teachings, the spiritual teachings say that Jesus is a prophet, and there are many, many prophets who spoke truth.

And I said, oh, I think Jesus said he was God.

And this person there last week said, no, Jesus is not God.

Jesus is not God.

No, the Bible never says, he never thought he was God.

No, yes, he did.

I'm sorry, mate.

I want to be respectful, but that is utterly wrong.

You are wrong.

That's the truth.

If you think Jesus didn't think he was God, you haven't read the New Testament.

He actually...

It's not fair to make Jesus say things that he didn't think about himself.

Let him speak for himself.

He actually totally believed that he was God the Son.

And that's a very important part of the puzzle.

He's the sinless lamb of God, and he is God's solution.

Because how beautiful is this verse in the Old...

It's from the King James Version, 2 Corinthians 5.

God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.

Have you ever thought that?

Often we think Jesus is the Son of God out there, but God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

It was God's promise that the seed of the woman in Genesis 3.15 would crush the serpent's head, but it was God who did the first act.

He killed the animal, took the skin, clothed Adam and Eve, covered their shame and the guilt of their nakedness after they sinned.

God's heart is to save, and it was only God who could solve the problem of sin, and there he was, the Son of God, God the Son, on the cross, which we will talk about, Lord willing, in a couple of weeks, and he was worthy of that death.

He was worthy because he is the sinless Lamb of God, and he is the Son of God, and he is the Son of Man.

And you will see, Jesus says, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.

The high priest tore his clothes.

Why do we need any more witnesses?

He asked, you have heard the blasphemy, what do you think?

They all condemned him as worthy of death, and some began to spit at him, they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, prophesy, and the guards took him and beat him.

And there's a sort of a backstory to that too.

There's a weird, I think it's Isaiah, there's this weird passage that says, the Messiah will not need to see or hear.

And so there was this rabbinic teaching about the Messiah could tell who did anything to him by his smell.

And so they're sort of mocking him in some of the old rabbinic teachings.

Son of Man is Jesus' favorite title for himself.

He uses it 14 times in the Gospel of Mark.

It's an interesting title.

It sounds, when you hear it, like he's calling himself human, but it's absolutely equal parts that he's saying, I'm divine.

It's linking into Daniel 7, where Daniel talks about the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, and the figure of Son of Man with Daniel is much larger than human.

It's not necessarily divine, but it's much larger than human.

But when you look at all the times that Jesus uses the title Son of Man in Mark, there is definitely a sense of the title, though it points to his deity, it's also pointing to his humanity.

He has this authority, the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, yet he often talks about the Son of Man will suffer, the Son of Man will suffer and in this weakened frame will demonstrate his vulnerability as a human.

Mark is the Gospel that shows Jesus to be most vulnerable.

Do you know that?

Do you remember that?

Like if you read the Gospels, the accounts, Luke says that he sweats drops of blood and Ben touched on this this morning, like why was he so afraid?

But if you read Mark's Gospel, which we're going to, he doesn't protect Jesus' humanity, like he's scared.

Oh, you were dealing with it in the garden this morning, the garden of Gethsemane.

It's just so human.

He's like, I'm scared, Dad.

I'm scared of being separated from you and carrying your wrath and drinking the cup.

We don't know.

I think he's actually also scared of the horrible stuff coming, but he says, not my will but yours be done.

He is fully God.

And yet, with good theology, we want to believe he is fully human.

He's not half God, half human.

He's fully God, fully human, and completely sinless.

And that's why he could die.

It was man's problem, humanity's problem, and God's solution.

And the solution was a God-man who was sinless, who would die in our place.

And this is what he said would happen if we just go back to Mark 10, 33, and starting 32.

It says, they were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished while those who followed were afraid.

Again, he took the twelve aside and he told them what was going to happen to him.

And he says four things.

We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him.

Three days later, he will rise.

So, this is the prophecy that Jesus makes about himself.

And you can see this if the next slide comes up.

What does he say will happen?

The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.

Tick.

They will condemn him to death.

Tick.

They will hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.

That is what happens.

Three days later, he will rise.

He can prophesy, can't he?

Jesus says exactly what was going to happen.

Some of it has already happened by this passage.

But we know, we've got the whole Bible.

The rest happens also.

But read what we read today in chapter 14.

Jesus says also on top of those prophecies, He says, You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.

So He's saying, you guys don't know this, but I'm telling you what's going to happen in the days to come.

I am going to be handed over to the chief priests.

They will try me and they will have me killed and I'm going to rise again from the dead.

But I'm going to return.

I will come on the clouds of heaven.

I'm going to return and that day hasn't come yet.

But what do you reckon?

Is it likely it will?

Is it likely it will?

Everything else has happened exactly like He said it would.

And on that day, the Bible is clear that Jesus will wrap up life on this planet and all who have placed their faith in Christ will rise ultimately from the dead and even those that are alive will be raised up with Him and will be put on a new earth with a new body, not floating around as a spirit, but will be given transformed resurrected bodies and the earth itself will be resurrected.

Earth and heaven will join together in the new earth with a new humanity and Jesus will reign as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords forever and ever and ever.

And to be part of that, you have to have your sins paid for.

You have to have the Holy Spirit in you.

You have to believe that Jesus has died in your place so that the great exchange can happen, that you accept by faith that He has taken what you and I deserve, death on a cross, death for our sin, and we then get the exchange of His perfect relationship with God the Father.

He who was without sin became sin so that we could become the righteousness of God.

It will happen as surely as Jesus prophesied the first things.

He will return again.

The Sanhedrin scheme to murder Jesus, they looked for ways to prove that He was worthy of death, but He was worthy of death for completely different reasons.

And this is exactly how it works in Christianity, don't you reckon?

We often have talked about the upside down kingdom.

The first shall be last and the last shall be first.

So often in our lives, you think everything's going so badly.

Lord, can it get any worse?

And in that moment, in the humility that we're experiencing, we're learning the most we've ever learned.

Amen?

The flipped kingdom.

And I would put it to you that at this most sober of hours, when he is getting, he's abandoned by his best mates, he's even about to go to the garden and feel abandoned by his father in heaven.

He's being mocked, spat on, just treated, flogged, and then he's about to be crucified at nine o'clock.

In these hours, the darkest valley, yet this is his coronation as king.

Everything's being flipped.

While he's going through this, and the Sanhedrin are going, yes, we're getting what we wanted, and even the devil is thinking the same.

In heaven, in a vision, they're saying, but wait, wait, wait, there's one who is about to become worthy.

Remember when he beats the devil in Armageddon?

What is he dressed as?

The Lamb of God dripping with blood.

This is it.

This is his, like rising from the dead, he needed to do that, but he couldn't rise from the dead victorious until he won the battle at the cross.

This is where it all happens.

So Genesis 50 is true for Jesus and us.

If you know the story at all, Joseph has just been terribly treated all his life, and he gets to the end of his life, and he finally gets to reflect, and he's like, well, I've been betrayed that many times, but what the devil intended for harm, God intended for good.

My God has always been working in my life.

And this is exactly what's happening in Jesus, and I think we can be encouraged as well.

It's the way it works for us as Christians.

We don't do what Jesus had to do, but as Ben said this morning, there is a Gethsemane experience for us.

We're told that we need to carry our cross.

There is a death to self.

And let's see if I can remember that point that you made.

We can either succumb to the flesh or surrender to the Father.

In that moment of that dark valley, Jesus did not succumb to the flesh like all the disciples, but he surrendered to the Father.

He just surrendered and said, not my will but yours be done.

And that's what we take out of this.

He has died because he's the sinless Lamb of God, he's the Son of God, he's the Son of Man, he's fully God, fully human and the Lamb of God.

He has died for us that we might be set free from sin and we might have a confidence to live our lives for him.

I want to make that point really clear, that he's worthy of death, even though the devil thought that he was getting the upper hand.

It wasn't happening.

And the same is true for us.

Leanne was telling me this beautiful picture that someone from work told her at a devotion just this week, this lady is South African and she...

Is it her grandparents owned the sheep farm?

She's South African and telling the story at school about growing up as a kid going to the sheep farm with her grandparents.

And she said, it's in a valley in South Africa.

And there are a whole lot of interesting things.

They said sometimes the water would be in flood and she said, oh, they used to always have to corral the water, dam the water up because the sheep will never go to a running stream.

They always have to go to still waters.

And she's just explaining how the shepherd leads me beside still waters because the sheep won't drink otherwise.

But there was this really cool part of it that was about the valley of the shadow of death.

And she said, go into my grandparents' sheep farm, the lambs would be born, fresh lambs born, and there were these shadows that would regularly be cast over the lambs, the baby lambs, and they were vulture shadows.

In the valley of the sheep farm, it was always expected that the vultures would come because they were ready to swoop and steal the lambs.

And isn't that just an amazing picture?

I just imagine Jesus going through this Sanhedrin trial and the vultures, literally the demons of hell, flying over the top going, yeah, we're going to get him, we're going to get him, swoop down, kill the lamb of God.

But in heaven, they're like, go the lamb of God.

This is the point of victory.

Isn't it just an interesting contrast?

And it's not just interesting, it's wonderful because it's the Gospel that in the cross, Jesus is winning the battle.

But I think there is absolutely an application for us that when we are led through the valley of the shadow of death, we don't have to fear any evil because He has walked there before us.

And He has promised to be with us.

And it's in the valley, it's in the Sanhedrin trial, it's in Gethsemane that we have our greatest victory.

I think that's graduate Christianity and we need to do that in community to make it through because it's a tough road when we suffer for His name.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, worthy to be given the name above every other name.

Jesus is worthy of all of our praise because He is worthy of death.

Amen?

He's worthy of death and we need Him to die.

So it is not appropriate, most likely to say crucify Him.

But we can say thank you Lord Jesus for being worthy of death in our place.

Thank you Lord Jesus.

Thank you Lord Jesus.

As we come to Easter again in Sydney in the year 2024, we counted a privilege to move our way slowly through the text.

The chapters of Scripture which tell us again of the greatest moment in history when you, our King, our Lord, our Savior went to the cross in our place.

Lord, I pray you to help us savor the text, savor the story, savor the love you have displayed for us.

And Lord Jesus, I know you said that you're the one who seeks and saves the lost, and I don't know if everyone knows you in this room or online, but in your name, I invite you to put your trust in Jesus if you're listening.

For and on behalf of the Lord Jesus, as we're told to proclaim his Gospel, I invite you, thank him for being worthy of death in your place, and offer him your life in thanksgiving and praise.

Lord Jesus, we want to agree together as we come to sing and praise and worship.

We want to acknowledge you are the Lamb of God, and you were sinless, and you are sinless, you're perfect.

It's a man's problem, and you are fully human.

You showed us how it should have been done, and you are fully God, because only God could solve the problem.

And as God the Son, sinless Lamb of God, we worship you in Jesus.

Amen.

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