Let’s introduce our thoughts for this morning with a fictitious story. A wife and mother of five hasn’t been feeling well for several weeks – rundown, lethargic, constantly tired. She thinks that it is probably nothing, so she doesn’t tell her busy husband, but she does make an appointment to see her physician. After she explains her symptoms, he arranges for a blood test and a chest x-ray. A week later, he tells the lady that he has bad news – she is dying. He has taken her blood work and x-rays to two other doctors, and they are unanimous about the prognosis. She is encouraged to get further opinions, but the facts are impossible to deny – she is dying. Of course, the woman is devastated and shortly thereafter tells her husband, who is heart-broken. Together they tell their pastor, and he asks the church to pray for this woman and her family. Even though at that point, there are no obvious symptoms, except to the sufferer, every time the family looks at her, they remember that she is going to be leaving them soon. It is certainly not necessary for her to tell them over and over again, that she is dying – they all know. And the husband has even spoken to the doctor, who has said that there is no hope for her recovery.
Under the circumstances, you might pity that poor woman and the rest of her family. But would your opinion change if you learned that every morning, the woman tearfully told her husband once again that she was dying? What if the only thing that she could talk about was that she had only nine months to live? Her talk wasn’t about Heaven and seeing her Saviour, it was all about her death and leaving this world. What if, even though her symptoms were minor at this point, she lived like an invalid, making everyone wait upon her? What if she went about the house moaning and groaning for no real reason? What would you think of this woman, if she lived in tears for the rest of her days?
I know that it is not the same thing, but less than 30 verses before the words of this morning’s text we read: “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” This is not a quote, but rather an editorial statement made by Matthew – not the Lord Jesus. The words “from that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples” suggests that His death became a common subject of the Lord Jesus. How many times had it come up before our text in chapter 17? Was this just the first time, with others to follow later? Could the disciples have been grieved, just as you would be grieved at our fictitious woman, because this unpopular subject was brought up once again?
Even though this subject is repetitious, there are new things which we can learn in these two simple verses.
First, let’s consider our Lord’s declaration once again.
“Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again.”
I think that we need to remind ourselves that to be a saint of God today is very much different than it was in the days of Peter, James and John. Despite the fact that those men knew the Lord in a far more personal way than we do, that was not necessarily a greater blessing that what we possess. Remember that Jesus said to Thomas, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have NOT seen, and yet have believed.” The Lord seems to be saying that the greater blessing belongs to the Christian who can see the Lord by faith rather than by sight. To read a good book is usually far better than to watch the movie version of that book because it engages the heart and imagination differently.
And we have an advantage over the initial twelve disciples, because we have the complete New Testament which explains and enlarges what they had in the Old Testament. And we can study and learn from the experiences of those men. They were approaching the day of Christ’s crucifixion, but they couldn’t comprehend or appreciate that the way that we can. And while they were looking for the Millennial Kingdom, only to be disappointed, we are looking for, and expecting, the return of the Lord and the establishment of that Kingdom, knowing that it could be today. They were expecting to see more of the glory of Christ, but they will soon be sadly disappointed. No wonder they are grieved by all this talk about Jesus’ decease – His exodus.
Luke adds a confusing comment about this occasion – “They understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.” I cannot explain why, but at this point and up until Jesus’ resurrection, it was the will of God that those good Christians were actually kept in the dark about the purpose of the crucifixion. As I say, we have blessings that those men did not possess at the time.
But of course, Christ had full knowledge about what was going to take place. He knew that He was going to be “betrayed.” That word is most often translated “delivered,” but even then it carries with it the idea of “betrayal.” The Lord knew that His would not be a common arrest – He would be “betrayed.” The Jerusalem police will not be patrolling the city carrying pictures of Jesus’ face, with orders to arrest Christ on the spot. No, Judas Iscariot will make arrangements with the enemy, and reveal to them a quiet place where they could arrest Him without incident. Jesus was betrayed into the hands of wicked men. Christ also knew that He would “suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes.” In His omniscience, He knew about the beatings – the slaps, the punches, the crown of thorns, the mocking, and the whip upon His back. He knew exactly who would be involved – the priests and some of the Sanhedrin – then the Romans. He knew that He would be killed – murdered – and how He would be killed. It wouldn’t be by stoning as the ancient Jews had practiced their form of capital punishment. It wouldn’t be with a beheading, or by being beaten to death. He knew that His death would come by way of CRUCIFIXION. But I find it curious that in neither chapter 16 or chapter 17 the Holy Spirit didn’t use this word. The noun “crucifixion” is not to be found in our Bibles. And the verb “to crucify” isn’t to be found until the Jews bated the crowd into demanding, “Crucify him, crucify him.” But Jesus knew, and it had been cryptically prophesied in the Old Testament.
Christ knew what was going to come to Him in Jerusalem, and He consistently told and warned His disciples. He knew that he would be killed in Jerusalem, but He squarely faced it. This wasn’t a suicide, and it wasn’t a martyrdom for some worthy cause. As a lamb – the Lamb of God – Jesus voluntarily offered Himself to be God’s sacrifice for the sins of many. He walked into Jerusalem, amid great adulation, knowing that their cheers would, within hours, be turned into jeers.
Every Christian knows that it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” What exactly is “mercy?” It is not God’s generous thoughts of kindness toward sinners like us. It is not divine good intentions, best wishes and gracious benevolence. “Mercy,” like “love,” may be a noun, but behaves like a verb. In order for sinners to be saved – delivered from the penalty of their sins – the mercy of God had to be taken to the proscribed altar. There had to be a death – the death of a God-approved sacrifice. There had to be blood shed, and blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat. You and I have the New Testament in front of us, which declares such things over and over again. But those poor disciples were just then being led out of their Old Testament perspective into the reality of the New Covenant. How extremely painful were those words, “In a few months I am going to die” – “I will be killed.”
Did they ever get passed those words and into the next statement – “and the third day (I) shall be raised again”? Jesus who raised the dead – Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and probably others…. The Christ who raised others, would be lifted up from death Himself, and He knew it – He prophesied it. Jesus of Nazareth will be “declared (to be) the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” Without the completed plan of God – the death and resurrection of Christ – the good intentions of God would be nothing more than good intentions. The mercy of God required the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross. That the place where “His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.” “He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people….” “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” He was “delivered (to the elders, priests and eventually to the Romans, to be killed) for our offences, (but He) was raised again for our justification.”
Those disciples needed to hear these things – you need to hear these things. Those disciples need to believe these things, and you need to believe and receive them as well. “Without the shedding of (Jesus’ ) blood, there is no redemption” and deliverance from your sin. Christ made these statements again and again until the day of His death.
But the disciples were exceeding sorry.
Try to put yourself into the shoes of those men and ask yourself why it is that this makes you sorrowful and sad? There will be some sin among them when the times comes, but that isn’t a part of the equation right now. Why are they grieved by Jesus’ declaration? It might have been because of their love for their master. In the case of my introductory and fictitious friend, the husband might have begun grieving, knowing that his wife would probably soon be in pain, suffering through the development of her disease. This kind of grief is certainly understandable. But perhaps we should try to keep things in their context.
When a loved one undergoes a common surgery to correct a problem, we know that there will be pain, but it is temporary and it is for a good purpose. Under most circumstances, Christians could look at life’s greatest pain in the same sort of way. Last week, when I first opened my email after our trip, there was a note there from Brother Parrow stating that Pastor Ron Pollen had passed away. Brother Pollen pastored a tiny church in Amarillio, Texas. He and his church had supported and been a blessing to our missionary for a long time. But during the last few years this man had become weaker and weaker because of a bad heart. I hope that you don’t think evil of me, but when I heard the news, I replied that I was happy for Bro. Pollen. Quickly I said that I grieved for his family, but for this saint of God, who had suffered much for many years, I held no sorrow whatsoever. The process of death may, or may not be, horrible for the saint of God, but death itself is a graduation, a glorification, a promotion and the eternal end of pain.
If the disciples were sorrowful for the sake of Christ, when they heard these words, it was improper. Jesus was looking forward to that death and what it accomplished and what it preceded. None of us can imagine the Lord’s feeling of emptiness created by the incarnation. Perhaps those few minutes of glory in the transfiguration, intensified His divine “homesickness.” Don’t grieve for Christ as He returns to His former and rightful glory. But the truth is, I don’t think that it was for Christ that the disciples were sorry.
Knowing my own heart the way that I do, I am 95% sure that they were grieving for themselves. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I’d say that they would deeply feel the loss of their friend and Master. They had come to enjoy sitting in the services of the First Baptist Church of Christ. Some of them had come to taste of the glory of Heaven, and to fellowship with bygone saints. Their minds had expanded as quickly and as far as had their hearts. They had never met a sweeter, more gracious, more kind person than Jesus of Nazareth. And of course they knew Him to be far more than one of the residents of that city. They believed and had testified that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. If they somehow lost this man, they felt that their lives would have ended with His. And beyond this they were looking forward to prophesied kingdom of the Messiah. They were expecting a land of milk and honey, lions playing with lambs, and children playing with vipers as innocently as they do butterflies. They were expecting to sit upon thrones next to that of Christ. The very next verse in Luke’ account says, “They there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be the greatest” (in the Millennial kingdom). A part of their grief was about the potential loss of this glorious future. They had no idea that without the sacrifice of Christ, there would be no future at all.
When grief enters your life – and it will enter your life – analyze its source and where it is headed. I fear that much of our grief is not at all glorifying to the God, who sovereignly controls all things. I fear that most of it is selfish. Remember the words of Paul in this regard – “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye SORROW NOT, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
I will close with Luke’s account of this – “And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.” Adding Matthew to Luke, I must conclude that the disciples were sorrowful because of their ignorance of Jesus’ purpose. And they were ignorant because they were too fearful to ask the right questions.
There is power in the right kind of knowledge – especially the knowledge which comes from the Word of God. What have YOU learned about the death of Christ? Do you rejoice in it, or is it a thing of sorrow to you? Perhaps it doesn’t move you at all. Is your hope of eternity based upon what Christ Jesus accomplished on the cross, or are you looking to other things in order to buy friendship with God. The truth is – there is no other way to be delivered from the effects of your sins, but in the shed blood of Christ. He must go to Jerusalem and be crucified there. And you must repent before God and trust what Christ accomplished there on that cross. Without the shedding of Jesus’ blood there is no redemption from your sinful condition. Christ kept bringing up this subject before His disciples and before us, because we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from our sins.