“YES, I AM”
LUKE 22:63-71
I. Introduction
It is arguably true that the greatest sermon ever preached in America was “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” Jonathan Edwards delivered it in Enfield, Connecticut, on July 8, 1741, thirty-five years before our founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence. It is an amazing sermon that powerfully pictures God’s wrath against sin and the judgment that must soon come upon this fallen world and lost sinners. Edwards’ text was taken from Deuteronomy 32. Turn there with me…
*Deuteronomy 32:35, 39
35 “Vengeance is Mine, and retribution, in due time their foot will slip; for the day of their calamity is near, and the impending things are hastening upon them.”
39 “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal; and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.” (keep a marker in Deut. – we’ll come back to it later)
Edwards built his sermon around the words in v. 35, “…in due time their foot will slip.” His point was that while evil so often seems to triumph over good, God will one day bring evil to an end. And when that day comes, unrepentant sinners will find themselves “…in the hands of an angry God.”
This morning, as we return to our verse-by-verse study of Luke’s gospel, we will see Jesus on the night before His crucifixion. Over the next few weeks, as we work our way through the events of the day Jesus died, we will be reminded of that stark contrast between right and wrong, good and evil, and between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of men.
On the day Jesus died it appeared that evil was winning because – to turn the title of Jona-than Edwards’ sermon upside down – the world saw “God in the hands of angry sinners.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
II. Review
In the weeks leading up to Christmas we had ample opportunities to examine both the Per-son and the nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have studied numerous passages that clear-ly declare His deity.
In John we were told that Jesus is God’s eternal Word in human flesh. In Colossians we saw that Jesus is the One through whom the whole creation came into existence, and that He is the very image of God the Father Himself. In Hebrews we heard God the Father address Jesus and call Him “God.” We’ve talked about how we should tell others who Jesus really is. We’ve looked at the ways people, both the godly and the godless, respond to Him.
We’ve considered His miracles, His sacrifice, His Kingship, and His Lordship. And on Christmas Eve we saw Jesus’ presence in every one of the sixty-six books of the Bible.
Finally, we were reminded again that Jesus is coming back in power and in glory. And when He does, it will not be as a sacrificial lamb coming to lay down His life. It will be as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, coming to take His rightful seat on the throne of David. On that day the whole world will know that He the King of Kings and Lord of lords.
Philippians 2:9-11
9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
For the three decades that Jesus walked this earth, He continually humbled Himself before God and men. But none of that approached the humiliation He allowed Himself to undergo on the last day of His life as Jesus, the Son of God, willingly went to the cross.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
III. Text
As we come to the final verses of Luke 22, Jesus has celebrated His last Passover meal with His disciples, and He has instituted the Lord’s Supper. Judas has gone away to betray Him and Jesus and the remaining eleven disciples have gone to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. It’s in the garden where Jesus suffering begins. It’s in the garden where He is tempted in a way that you and I can never understand.
When Satan tempts us, we have to struggle against our flesh, our natural attraction to sin. When we are tempted, we have to fight to cling to righteousness and embrace holiness. But Jesus had no natural attraction to sin. On the contrary, sin was repulsive to Him.
So did that mean it was easier for Jesus to reject sin? No, it did not! Since He was absolute-ly pure and holy, Satan tempted Him to cling to His purity and holiness. You ask, “Why would that be a temptation for Jesus?” It was a staggering temptation for Jesus because His fight was not against committing sin. It was against allowing Himself (humbling Himself) to not only bear your sin and mine, but to become sin itself.
That’s why I said that this is a temptation that none of us can understand. But it is the heart of the temptation that Jesus struggled with in Gethsemane. He knew He was going to be sep-
arated from His Father and suffer the full wrath of God for sin. And He alone knew what that would mean. It’s beyond our comprehension, but it wasn’t beyond His. We can’t know how strong the temptation was for Jesus to flee from what He knew was about to come upon Him when He would be crushed under the full force of God’s wrath and hatred for sin.
And that brings us to our text. Jesus’ time of prayer has ended, the soldiers have come for Him; He has been arrested; His disciples have fled; and He has been turned over to His ene-mies. He will be illegally tried, falsely convicted, and cruelly executed for things He never did and for sins He never committed. And the great irony is this: Jesus’ trials, conviction, and execution will be carried out by the very people He came to save from their sins.
*Luke 22:63-71 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
63 And the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him, and beating Him,
64 and they blindfolded Him, and were asking Him, saying, “Prophesy, who is the one who hit You?”
65 And they were saying many other things against Him, blaspheming.
66 And when it was day, the Council of Elders of the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led Him away to their council chamber, saying,
67 “If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe;
68 and if I ask a question, you will not answer.
69 “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
70 And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then? And He said to them, “Yes, I am.”
71 And they said, “What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”
Beginning with this passage at the end of Luke 22, and running all the way through Jesus’ crucifixion and burial at the end of Luke 23, we will be looking at a horrific series of events. But we will not avoid or skip over any of them. When we committed to this verse-by-verse exposition of God’s Word, we knew that we would spend time reflecting on the beauty of God’s grace as well as the ugliness of man’s sin.
What follows over the next weeks will be ugly, dark, and repulsive. But we dare not close our eyes to it. We must not miss the reason for it. Listen, we’ll never understand the magni-ficence our salvation if we fail to understand our depravity and the depth of our sin. And we’ll never understand the grace of God if we fail to see what it cost Jesus to save our souls.
In the end, man’s sin cannot eclipse God’s grace. And, in the end, man’s hatred can never overwhelm God’s love. With those two truths firmly in mind, let us go to the text.
*Luke 22:63-65
63 And the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him, and beating Him,
64 and they blindfolded Him, and were asking Him, saying, “Prophesy, who is the one who hit You?”
65 And they were saying many other things against Him, blaspheming.
John 18:13 tells us that when Jesus was arrested He was taken to the home of the Annas, the former high priest. Annas was the father-in-law of the current high priest, Caiaphas. It was earlier, when the religious leaders were beginning to plot against Jesus, that Caiaphas had spoken up and said to the others…
John 11:49b-51
49b “You know nothing at all,
50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”
51 Now this he did not say on his own initiative; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation.
Caiaphas was a priest, and a priest was required to speak God’s truth. So even from his sin-ful and corrupt heart he spoke God’s truth. How amazing is that! Evil does the will of God even when it doesn’t know it. What an awesome picture of the absolute sovereignty of God!
In both Matthew 26 and Mark 14 we are told of the Council meeting being convened during the middle of the night. It’s during this meeting where Jesus is first mocked and beaten by the men who are holding Him outside of the Council chamber. While He is being abused outside, the men on the inside are deciding Jesus’ fate. He will be convicted of blasphemy.
Next they will hold a mock trial in the Sanhedrin so as to rubber stamp their verdict. That early morning proceeding can best be characterized by the metaphor of “window dressing.” They’ve long ago made up their minds. Jesus will be found guilty. By having their early morning trial they’ll lay a veneer of legitimacy over their verdict. But the whole thing is a mockery of justice.
It is during the first meeting of the Council that Luke 22:63-65 takes place. Matthew and Mark tell us that those holding Jesus spit in His face, slapped him with open hands, and beat Him with closed fists. This was a cruel game called “hot hand.” The blindfolded prisoner would be punched in the face by all but one of the guards. Then the blindfold would be removed and the prisoner ordered to guess which one of them had not delivered a blow. This “game” would continue until the ones administering the blows would tire of it.
Can you imagine what His face would have looked like? It would have been hard to look upon Him. Isaiah 52:13 prophesies, “So His appearance was marred more than any man.” This one fact alone gives us some insight as to why Jesus, a strong and healthy young man in His early thirties, would soon be unable to carry His own cross.
Luke 22:65 says that those who were beating Jesus were also speaking vile things against Him, but neither Luke, Matthew, Mark, nor John give us any details. The blasphemies spoken against our Lord must have been so evil that the Holy Spirit has kept them from us.
*Luke 22:66-71
66 And when it was day, the Council of Elders of the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led Him away to their council chamber, saying,
67 “If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe;
68 and if I ask a question, you will not answer.
69 “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
70 And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then? And He said to them, “Yes, I am.”
71 And they said, “What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”
Before we look at what actually took place at Jesus’ mock trial in the Sanhedrin, I want us to see the depth of the hypocrisy to which these overtly religious men would sink to accom-plish their goals. Their religious laws and their legalism knew no limits, but they wouldn’t hesitate to break their own laws if they thought it was expedient.
Before we look at how they made a mockery of what they claimed to believe, we should consider the fact that the justice system God gave Israel was dedicated to pursuit of the truth.
*Deuteronomy 16:18-20a
18 “You shall appoint for yourselves judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
19 “You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.
20a “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue…”
The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was the equivalent of our U. S. Supreme Court. Since there was no higher court – no place else to appeal their ruling – the Sanhedrin had to “get it right.” The law required three things in all criminal cases.
• First, the trial must be public. But Jesus’ trial was held behind closed doors in the hours before dawn.
• Second, the accused must be represented by counsel for the defense. But Jesus’ had no defender.
• Third, there must be at least two or three reliable (honest) witnesses against the accused. But there were no reliable witnesses called against Jesus.
In bringing Jesus before them the Sanhedrin is ignoring all three of these basic tenets of their law. Thus this meeting of the Council is illegal in every possible way.
*Deuteronomy 19:16-19
16 “If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing,
17 then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.
18 “And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if the witness is a false wit-ness and he has accused his brother falsely,
19 then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.”
Do you understand what this saying? The law demanded the severest of penalties for per-jury. The punishment for perjuring yourself was that you would receive the penalty that the one being accused would have received if he were found guilty. These men are perverting their own law by falsely accusing Jesus – in an illegal trial – and are condemning themselves to the very punishment they are seeking for Him. They’re condemning themselves to death. This sheds light on how desperate they were to rid themselves of Jesus.
In Luke 22:67 they try to force Jesus to testify against Himself, but He will not do so.
Mark 14:55-59
55 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death; and they were not finding any.
56 For many were giving false testimony against Him, and yet their testimony was not consistent.
57 And some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying,
58 “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’”
59 And not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.
The beating, the mocking, and now, the attempt to “railroad” Jesus in an illegal and unjust trial should come as no surprise. It was just a little over a week earlier when Jesus had warned His disciples of what was coming.
Luke 18:31
31 And He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.”
What was being done to Jesus had been done to God’s OT prophets as well. Stephen said as much before he was murdered for speaking the truth about Jesus…and the truth about those who killed Jesus as well as the ones who are about to stone Stephen to death.
Acts 7:51-53
51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are al-ways resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
52 “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
52 (cont.) And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One (Jesus), whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;
53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
Back in Luke 22:67 the members of the Sanhedrin actually want Jesus to declare that He is the Messiah. If He will simply say that, they can turn Him over to the Roman authorities as an insurrectionist and let Rome do their dirty work. But He will not give them the satisfac-
tion of an answer to that question. So He says, “If I tell you, you will not believe Me.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “It really doesn’t matter what I say because you’ve already made up your minds.” So Jesus will not give them a direct answer to their question.
But look at what He does say in v. 69 – “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” Every Jew knew exactly what such a statement meant, and to whom it must refer. Daniel had prophesied that the Messiah would be called the Son of Man and had referred to His eternal power.
Daniel 7:13-14
13 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days (God the Father) and was presented before Him.
14 “And to Him (the Son of Man) was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His do-minion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”
Look again at Luke 22:69 where Jesus says even more than that about Himself. No one but God’s Christ, the Messiah, could ever sit at God’s right hand in glory – no one!
Psalm 110:1
1 The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
In the religious leaders’ rush to condemn Jesus, His statement in v. 69 seems to be what they want to hear. But just to be sure, in v. 70, they all ask Him… “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.” In the Greek Jesus’ words are literally, “You say that I am,” but the fact is that they can have no other meaning than, “You are right; I am.”
We know that is the case from the Council’s immediate response in v. 71. “…they said, “What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.” “It” being what they see as the ultimate blasphemy of claiming to be God.
Matthew 26:65-66
65 Then the high priest (Caiaphas) tore his robes, saying, “He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy;
66 what do you think?” They answered and said, “He is deserving of death!”
By the way, when Caiaphas tore his robes he broke yet another of God’s laws. In the OT the tearing of one’s cloths was a sign of deep sorrow and grief, but there was one person in Israel who was forbidden to tear his clothes.
Leviticus 21:10
10 “And the priest who is highest among his brothers (the high priest), on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor tear his clothes.”
If anyone in Israel was called to obey God it was the high priest. But at this point Caiaphas and the others who are clamoring for Jesus’ death could care less about God’s laws. They’re on a mission to destroy Jesus, and they’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish their goal.
As far as we know there are only two men sitting in this Council who have come to believe in Jesus. But like many of us today, the tide of opinion has turned against them, and they are fearful, afraid to defend the Lord and express their faith in a hostile crowd. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are Pharisees whose courage will come to the fore later this day. But for now, during this sham of a trial, neither of them can do anything to put a stop to it.
So to “misuse” Jonathan Edwards’ sermon title once more, we see God (Jesus) in the hands of angry sinners. He has allowed these overtly religious but completely godless men to bind Him, spit in His face, mock Him, and beat Him. With one word He could destroy them all, but He has chosen to endure all of this and everything that is yet to take place on this day.
Are you beginning to get a sense of God’s patience and mercy toward those who sin against Him? I really hope so. Think of His patience and mercy toward you before you received Him by faith. He truly is long-suffering, isn’t He? For me, it took twenty-nine years of living a religious but godless life before I was saved. For some of you it took even longer.
Do you understand that before you came to saving faith, God had every right to destroy you for your unbelief? But He did not do so. Why? With each and every sin committed you abused Him. (Ps. 51 – David’s sin against God) Your abuse of our Lord was not physical like what we’ve seen in today’s text. But your abuse of Jesus was no less painful to Him. Yet He endured it because of a love that I don’t think you and I are able to fully grasp while we still live here in this physical body. But I do think we will understand it when we see Him.
1 John 3:1-3
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is
pure.
For some who mistreat Jesus there is yet salvation to come; they will eventually come to repentance and saving faith. But for others, they are storing up for themselves the fierce wrath of God that will befall them on that day when Jesus returns to judge this world. This is the age of grace, the church age, if you will. It is a time when God allows sinners to judge Him. But, of course, this age will end. And the lost will find that they are, as Jonathan Edwards said over two hundred and seventy years ago, sinners in the hands of an angry God.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
III. Conclusion
The great irony of what we’ve seen today is this: By condemning Jesus, the Jewish religious leaders condemned themselves. They sat in judgment and condemned Him. But, in the end, He will sit in judgment and condemn them.
Two thousand years ago Jesus was asked the question, “Are You the Son of God?” His answer is the same today as it was then, and the same as it will always be. He said, “Yes, I am!” He could have simply answered with the single word – “Yes!” But He chose to add the words, “I am.” I cannot help but wonder if He was not driving home the truth that was first heard at the burning bush on Mount Sinai.
*Exodus 3:13-15
13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”
14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and he said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
15 And God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.”
Jesus is the Great I AM. That is eternal truth. Yet the Jewish religious leaders rejected that truth. They refused to believe it, but neither their unbelief nor the unbelief of anyone else can change the truth.
I remember the night as though it were yesterday. This coming January 9th it will be forty-two years since I asked the question. “Are you truly the Son of God?” Did I hear an answer with my ears? I did not. But He answered me just the same. He said, “Yes, I am!” And my life has never been the same.
Are you unsure this morning? Go to Jesus and ask Him. Sincerely and humbly ask Him from your heart. If you do that He will make it known to you that He – Jesus Christ – is exactly who He says He is. Ask Him to forgive your sin and put your faith and trust in Him and in Him alone. You will never be the same.
~ Pray ~