This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Luke chapter 23, our third day of our fifth week
through the book of Luke. This is the day, this is the chapter, where we're
going to see Jesus give the greatest of gifts, and He's going to give it for
you. But it begins with a game of political ping-pong.

The leaders of that day start to play political ping-pong with Jesus. As you
read through the beginning parts of this chapter, first Pilate, the Roman
governor, sends Jesus to Herod, the one who was king, made king by the Romans,
by the way, over that whole area of Israel. The Bible says in chapter 23 verse
1, "Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate.

" So Pilate has Jesus, and then he sends him off to Herod. In verse 7, "When he
learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was
also in Jerusalem at the time. And then Herod, after he talks to him for a
while, sends him back to Pilate.

" In verse 11, "Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked Jesus, dressing
him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate
became friends. Before this they had been enemies.

" In this political game, then Pilate declares Jesus to be innocent. In verses
13 to 16, Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people,
and he said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people
to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for
your charges against him.

Neither is Herod, for he sent him back to us. As you can see, he has done
nothing to deserve death. Therefore I will punish him and then release him.

" But as you know, that was not the end of the story. Then the crowd gets
involved, and the crowd pressures Pilate to condemn Jesus. Verses 23 and 24,
"But with loud shouts, they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their
shouts prevailed.

So Pilate decided to grant their demand. " So to Pilate, sending Jesus to the
cross was simple political expediency, but to you and I, it's the greatest gift
that was ever given, ever could be given. Pilate and Herod and the people, they
all got caught up in the politics of it, but the truth of the matter is, Jesus
was going to die on the cross.

It was the sin of mankind that sent him to the cross, and it was the sinful
hearts of mankind in that day, whether it was Pilate or Herod or the crowd, that
in this moment condemned him to the cross. It's the very reason he went to the
cross, because we need his forgiveness for our sin. We need what only Jesus can
do for us to transform our sinful hearts.

And so, verse 33, "When they came to the place called the Skull, there they
crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his
left. Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are
doing. ' And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, 'He
saved others. Let him save himself if he's the Christ of God, the Chosen One.

' It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until
the ninth hour. For the sun stopped shining, and the curtain of the temple was
torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I
commit my spirit.

' When he'd said this, he breathed his last. There in short is the story of the
crucifixion. As Luke, as an historian, tells this story, he just walks through
it, just telling the details.

It's the bullet points, in many ways, of this most significant moment in human
history. It's amazing how every sentence that we just read could be studied for
weeks and months and years. The place that he died, the casting of the lots,
Jesus' prayer, 'Father, forgive them,' the sneering of the leaders, the darkness
that came over the land, the tearing of the curtain in the temple in two.

Other scriptures tell us it was from the top to the bottom. Remember that
curtain in the temple separated the most holy place from the other portion of
the temple. The most holy place was where the presence of God dwelt.

In tearing that curtain open, it was saying, 'This is no longer where the
presence of God is going to dwell. It's going to dwell in the hearts of men
because of what Jesus has just done on the cross. ' That we could spend months,
we could spend weeks studying.

'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. ' Jesus breathed his last breath on
this earth. As he breathes out his last, he is giving up his life.

His life was not taken from him. He gave his life for you. He gave his life for
me.

There's ultimate meaning in every sentence that we've just read. The question
is, what does it mean to you? The question is, how am I going to respond?

How are you going to respond? Not just in one day in my life, but in every day
of my life. As you read through these verses, you can see the responses
immediately that some had to his death.

You see the response of a Roman centurion. You see the response of the people
who were there. You see the response of his disciples.

You see the response of a man by the name of Joseph. First you see the response
of the Roman centurion. One of the guards, one of the men who were there to make
sure that the crucifixion happened as it was supposed to happen.

In verse 47, the centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said,
"Surely this was a righteous man. " The centurion who had seen dozens, if not
hundreds, if not thousands of men die, not only on the battlefield, but also by
crucifixion, it was his job. Watched the way that Jesus died.

He probably didn't get a chance to see the way that Jesus lived, the miracles
that he worked, the things that he taught, but he watched the way that Jesus
died. And as he saw how Jesus died, he saw something different. This was a
righteous man.

There's something different about this man. You also see in these verses the
response of the people who were gathered there. Verse 48, "When all the people
who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their
breasts and they went away.

" What a sad day they thought. All they saw in it was the sadness. All they saw
in it was the potential tragedy.

People went to a crucifixion in that day because it was what you did. It was
part of the strange entertainment of the day to watch other people die and to be
grateful that you weren't that person. So they went away with sadness, but they
had no hope.

And then there were the followers of Jesus in verse 49, "But all those who knew
him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance
watching these things. " His followers did not yet understand what was
happening, even though Jesus had told them again and again, but they watched all
that happened. They took it all in.

Now this was important because in the early days of the church, there were many
people who claimed that the followers of Jesus maybe went to the wrong tomb to
find Jesus, or that the followers of Jesus maybe didn't understand what had
really happened because they weren't there. And the historian says, "No, they
were there. They knew where to go.

They watched everything that had happened. " And then there was the response of
a man by the name of Joseph, verse 50 to 53. Now there was a man named Joseph, a
member of the council, a good and upright man who had not consented to their
decision in action.

He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he was waiting for the kingdom of
God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body, and then he took it, he took it
down, and he wrapped it in a linen cloth, and he placed it in a tomb cut in the
rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. Here is this man who was part of
the council of those who condemned Jesus to death, but he had not voted to
condemn Jesus.

In fact, he saw something different in Jesus because he was waiting for God's
kingdom. He had a heart not for the politics, he had a heart for God. And so
when Jesus dies, he goes, he asks permission to put Jesus in a tomb.

Why is that important? Because the scriptures tell us that Jesus is going to be
resurrected out of that tomb. Joseph of Arimathea becomes one of the most vital
characters in this story, in that he puts Jesus in that place out of which he's
going to be resurrected.

And he does it just out of the kindness of his heart, just out of wanting to do
the right thing. He's not yet a believer. Many Christian histories that tell us
that he becomes a believer later, but he's not yet a believer here.

He's just a man who wants to do the right thing, and out of that, he is led to
be a part of the story of the resurrection. The centurion responds one way, the
crowd another way, the followers of Jesus another, Joseph another. The real
question is, how are you going to respond?

How am I going to respond to the fact that someone loves me that much to give
his life for me on a cross, to suffer that ridicule on the cross, to not only
suffer the physical torture, but the spiritual torture of taking my sin, the
sins of all mankind upon himself and giving his life for those sins? How am I
going to respond? Let's pray together.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for suffering ridicule from me. Thank you for
suffering death on the cross from me.

Thank you for taking the sins of all mankind. Thank you for taking my sins upon
yourself. Thank you, Jesus.

In your name, I pray, amen. Now if you've never heard this story before, you
would think that this might be the end, the story of a life well lived in a
tragic but noble death. It is not the end of the story.

See you tomorrow as we begin to talk about the resurrection of Jesus.