Those of you who've listened to me on Sunday morning during Sunday school, you know that I always push the time right to the very end. And I'm usually going a mile a minute to get that far. So today is no different. And we're going to get started just so that we can have a fighting chance at getting to the end. This will be the final installment of our series on gospel harmony, whether I like it or not. So I'll keep an eye on the clock, and we'll get you all the way to the end here. Just since it's been a while since we addressed this issue, our objectives are there. You can read them. We want to be sure to appreciate the individual uniqueness of each gospel author, as well as the value of having four of them as the Lord has intended it for us. So what we're going to do to achieve those objectives is we're going to put the data that we have from each of the accounts into chronological order and we're going to make sure that we don't skip over any of those references to the Old Testament to see how the gospel authors are pointing us to the salvation story as a whole. So I listened to where we left off last time to kind of pinpoint where we were, but we got into a little bit more of a theological discussion at the end. This is about where we left off with Lazarus and Jesus going to raise him or resurrect him from the dead. So Jesus was over here. in a Pariah teaching because he knew that the Jewish leaders were trying to trap him, accuse him, and arrest him. And then when he heard of Lazarus, the story that Lazarus had died, he mentioned that he was going to make his way over here to Bethany. And what Thomas said confirms the idea that it was dangerous for Jesus to be in Judea because Herod Antipas was ruling at that time. And so you see there, Thomas said, let us go also that we may die with him, which is confirmation that Thomas knew how dangerous it was. After Jesus raised Lazarus, he continued to hide, but this time he chose to hide up here in Ephraim. That's where we left off last time. So, between then and the last week of Jesus' earthly ministry, the Passion Week, here's a few of the things that happened. The first thing we'll note is that according to Luke, Jesus took a circuitous route from Ephraim, which is right about there, to Jerusalem, which is right down here. He went, as Luke said, to Jerusalem through Samaria and Galilee. This is presumably to join the big crowd who's coming down the Jordan River Valley to Jerusalem for the Passover in springtime. That's not confirmed anywhere, but that's a fairly logical guess at it. But you'll see here what Jesus is teaching on in the meantime, and it's very difficult to summarize large portions of scripture like this. If I were to take a hack at it, I would summarize it that all of those are ultimately pointing to condemnation of the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and how they were stewarding the kingdom that the Lord had given them. Whether it's the kingdom in the sense of God had given them the law, God had given them prophets in the past and they had set up their own system to take what they could get out of it at the exclusion of bringing the good news of the Old Testament kingdom, if you will, to not only the Jews but to people around them. And now here Jesus was offering to inaugurate the kingdom with him as the king, and not only had they not switched and turned their old ways and realized the error of what they were doing, they dug in, and like the unjust steward, were trying to squeeze out the last little bit that they could get out of their authority and keep as many people out so that they could stay in power and continue to use what God had given them for their own gain. So that's a synopsis. Again, there's a lot more going on there than just that, but that's what Jesus is focused on. So he arrives here at Bethany again, where Lazarus was from, on Saturday of the week before the crucifixion. This is John 11, 55. Now, Bethany, you see there is about, actually north is like the upper right of your screen there, Bethany is about three or four miles east of Jerusalem. Most scholars believe that this happened on the Saturday prior to the crucifixion, but the timeline between Saturday and Thursday, there's a lot of disagreement on. So I'm going to just go over a couple of those issues real quickly so that you will have some tools to evaluate this question further in the future. This is Mr. Robertson, or Dr. Robertson. He taught at Southern Seminary in the 19th century, and he's the guy who wrote one of the standard works on harmonizing the Gospels. He would put the triumphal entry on Sunday. Jesus arrives at Bethany Saturday evening, presumably before the Sabbath started, and then dined there, and then entered Jerusalem on Sunday. puts a lot of things on Tuesday and Wednesday is pretty much silent in this view. This guy, his name is Dr. Hainer. He taught at Dallas Theological Seminary in the 80s. He wrote a lot about gospel harmony and Christological chronology. Wow, that was a mouthful. Christological chronology. Anyway, so he puts the triumphal entry on Monday. He still says Jesus shows up at Bethany on Saturday afternoon. This is also, he would say, where Mary anointed Jesus with the perfume. He would put a lot of things on Wednesday. Now, again, this is arguable. I'm not gonna die on this hill. In fact, you could probably convince me to switch my view by the end of the day. We're gonna proceed as if the triumphal entry happens on Monday. But again, here are a couple of the issues. First of all, six days versus two days. In John 11.55, it says it was six days to the Passover, and then John immediately goes into the episode where Mary anoints Jesus' feet with the perfume. Now, Matthew and Mark put that episode of Mary and the perfume later on, and when they do it, they add this portion about Judas, and they say, now two days before the Passover, Judas went to meet with the Jewish leaders to conspire. The way it's written, you have to be careful about where that two days or what that two days is in reference to. And since many people take it in reference to the story about the anointing, they would move that episode further down the week, and that creates issues which ultimately conclude in the triumphal entry being on Sunday. Since I think that that two days reference is Judas, not Mary, I'm still stuck on this Monday triumphal entry. So that's just one of the issues you got to work out as you think through this. The next issue is that Jewish day keeping is difficult. The first month of the calendar year is Nisan. Those, I think, I'm pretty confident are the dates in 33 A.D. of the Passion Week up there at the top. The Jewish dates, however, are a little bit more difficult to pin down. Now, you'll remember some of these dates are really important, like the 10th day of the month, the 14th day of the month, of the first month, because of what God said when He instituted the Passover in Exodus 12. You see there, this shall be the first month. The 10th day is when you take the lamb. The 14th day is when you kill the lamb, and then you eat that lamb that night. This is the Lord's Passover. So here we are, the first month. You see there, the 10th day, the 11th, the 12th, all the way through the 14th. Now, we go 12 AM to 12 AM for our days, but the Jews do not do this. they shift it and they go sundown to sundown. Even more confusing, this is what the Jews in the south were doing in the first century. The Galilean Jews were actually counting their days sunup to sunup, 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. So you can see how we're already, we're ripe for conflict and disagreement on about how all this works out. Now, one of the reasons we know that this difference in schedule is the case is John 18, 28. So Jesus and the disciples had already had their Passover meal, the Lord's Supper, or the Last Supper rather, and they had already been in the garden, Jesus had already been arrested, and he showed up here in the house of Caiaphas for one of his trials in the early morning, it says. Now, the Jewish leaders did not enter the governor's headquarters because they didn't want to be defiled for the Passover. So Jesus and his disciples had already celebrated the Passover meal, which they were supposed to do on the evening between Nisan 14 and Nisan 15 after the lamb was slaughtered. And the Judean Jews, the leaders here, had not had their Passover meal yet, so they were operating on a slightly different schedule. This is how we know that the event of the trial happens somewhere along that red line and based on the schedules it's a little bit wonky. So all that to say there's a lot going on when you decide whether you think the triumphal entry is on Sunday or Monday. Everybody kind of gets back on the same sheet of music on Thursday, which is helpful. But the reason I'm going to proceed, or two reasons at least, why I'm going to proceed with the Monday Triumphal Entry for the rest of this morning are down there below. It appears to me to be closer to the 10th day, Nisan 10 of the month, which would be Jesus presenting himself as the Lamb to be slaughtered four days later. And the second reason is that the Sunday Triumphal Entry uh... results in a very silent wednesday it does not seem to me reasonable that jesus just didn't do a lot on the wednesday before uh... his last or the wednesday of his last week of the early earthly ministry so for those two reasons will proceed assuming that the triumphal hand entry happened on monday and again like i said those arguments are not as firm as you would like them to be probably another not as firm as i would like them to be So obviously we can be open to change if we hear better evidence. So the Passover before the Passover. John 11, 55, Jesus arrives at Bethany six days before that Passover. And then on Sunday, the crowd who had already been moving south down the Jordan Valley to enter Jerusalem for the Passover, not only did they hear that he was in Bethany, but they also heard that Lazarus was with him. And who doesn't want to see a guy who's been brought back from the dead? So there is a big crowd in Bethany which is not a very big place. So that all happened on Sunday and then on Monday here we see the triumphal entry. So Mark says, and he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple and when he looked around at everything it was already late so he went out to Bethany with the twelve. So he did the triumphal entry, he enters, I would say he presents himself to be the Passover lamb. he presents himself as king you remember that the crowds knew he was presenting himself as king or at least they were treating him as such because they were making way for him they were putting palm branches down on the road and they were shouting Hosanna which means save us please it's a what do you call that when it's just the word that sounds like a word in another language. The Hebrew is ha-sha-na, so they were saying Hosanna. Zechariah 9, 9, 8, and 8, 23 is where Matthew makes the reference to riding on the donkey, even the foal of a donkey. So, Zechariah is huge in this week as far as references back to the day of the Lord and the coming king of the reigning Davidic kingdom that will last forever. So there we have Monday. And each of these nights presumably he goes back to Bethany to go to sleep there. Tuesday morning he shows up again. Now this is a computer image but it's probably the best one of this presentation. We are looking down from the top, maybe even a little bit elevated from the Mount of Olives. We're looking west. So this is the northeast corner of the temple. This would be like one of the paths that he could, that he and his disciples could take from the Mount of Olives down to the temple, as well as from Bethany, which is like on the other side of the ridge that's kind of right here. So this is a pretty interesting picture, at least I think so. And it kind of gives you perspective of how much space there was at the temple. So the cursed fig tree, sorry let me go back one. The cursed fig tree was probably like, I don't know, that one right there probably. I'm just guessing. Somewhere along this way as they descended down that hill towards the temple. Jesus curses the fig tree. Now there's a lot of confusion on this as well because Matthew and Mark use the word immediately. They say that the fig tree after Jesus cursed it was immediately withered. The the reconciliation is fairly clear, but it's still debatable So the way that I would explain this is that yes, the fig tree was cursed immediately and it withered immediately But even though it's the next sentence It says when the disciples saw it and according to Luke the disciples saw it the next day So Jesus curses the fig tree on Tuesday and then the disciples see it again on Wednesday and they realize what had happened even though it had been withered for a while. Now, that's tough, but the main point of this is that Jesus saw a tree with a flower on it. He knew that with that flower meant there should have been fruit, and he goes and he curses the fig tree as a sign that even though the Jewish leaders, the Jewish people, had some sign of a kingdom, there was no fruit of the kingdom." And here again he was ushering in the kingdom, offering the kingdom to them, and the Jewish people who had all the fruits of God's work so far had been unjustly stewarding it and did not actually have the fruit even though they had the flower of the kingdom. So that's Tuesday and Wednesday. Now again, in this view that Monday is the triumphal entry, the Wednesday is fairly full. But what he does, Jesus, in Wednesday is hang out in the temple and argue with the Jewish leaders. First they challenge his authority. You'll remember this is where he says, They want to ask him a question, and he says, I'll tell you what, I'll answer your question if you tell me if John the Baptist's baptism was from heaven or from man. And they couldn't figure out how to answer that, so they didn't answer him. And he said, well, I'm not going to answer you either. So they are still now, even more than ever before, they are trying to trap him. and find a way that he can legitimately arrest him and put him before the authorities to get him out of the way. He continues with their question about paying taxes again another attempt at tricking him into saying something that he ought not to say but being wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove he works right around that and he teaches them something about who you owe to whom in this life. So you see up there Luke says the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour for they perceived that they had told this parable against them even though they feared the people and he certainly was teaching against them how they did not have the right perspective on what they ought to be doing with the things that the Lord had given them. This is an interesting picture because I think it's looking northeast here. So this would be the southwest corner of the temple. Yeah, because there's the Holy of Holies and facing east. So this is the Mount of Olives here. So this is another interesting photo. He continues to teach them. Now the Sadducees ask him about the resurrection. This is where they say, you know, if a man Now I'm going to mess this up. Is the man? Yes. No, the man dies and the wife remarries. His brother remarries her. Love right marriage. And they do this cycle after cycle. Whose wife will she be when they get to heaven? And Jesus says, you don't know anything about marriage and you don't know anything about the resurrection. Well, the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection, so that makes a lot of sense. But now the Pharisees are like, yeah, look at that, Jesus is whooping up on the Sadducees, so that's pretty cool. So the Pharisaic lawyer steps in and he says, Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? Hoping again to trap him into saying something like, this is the greatest commandment, therefore you can ignore one of these other commandments, and ha ha, we have him. He said to ignore the commandments, which is funny because they were ignoring many of them and you'll see that here in a moment but he says of course the greatest commandment is to love the Lord and the second is like it to love your neighbor and this is a new commandment but this is not new news because way back in Leviticus the Lord said you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself I am the Lord Jesus continues to include everybody, Pharisees and Sadducees alike, in his condemnation when he asks them a question. He says, who is the Messiah? Whose son is the Lord? And, of course, they say the Messiah is the son of David. And he asks them to figure out how it is that David can be the father of the Lord and yet the subject of the Lord. Of course, they don't figure that out. it's interesting note here that not only david uh... alludes to inspiration of his words by the holy spirit there in second samuel the spirit of the lord speaks by me these are david's part of david's last words but jesus even puts that into his question he says and david speaking by the spirit says the lord said to my lord And this is how he phrases the question. So not only does he affirm inspiration of the Old Testament, inspiration of David's words, but he puts the Pharisees into quite a pickle, and they don't know how to get out of it, of course. At this point, Jesus goes on to even more explicit condemnation, the seven woes, or the beware of the scribes speech. He alludes to Micah 6, 8. What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? As you remember, Jesus said something like you tithe your mint and your dill, but you deny or forget the weight of your things. 1 Samuel 15, Samuel said, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of ram. So of course, Jesus' condemnation here is that they've taken the sacrificial system, not only have they misunderstood it, but they have abused it and abused it for their own gain. Wow. Take the Lord's gift and abuse it for your own gain. Maybe that's a time just to pause for a second and ponder that one for our own selves. And then he gives an object lesson. The widow's offering is certainly about the giving spirit of the widow. But in this context, under this condemnation, the Lord is saying, look, this system that God meant for His people, for their blessing, for His goodness to go out from Israel to the rest of the world. The Pharisees and the Sadducees have closed it in, and they have not even taken care of this widow, which they should have, to the extent that she thinks she needs to give the money she ought to be spending on food to the temple. Now, If the Pharisees and the Sadducees were in that situation, we know what they would have chosen. But here, look, Jesus says, look at this widow. You should have taken care of her so that she doesn't have to choose between food and giving to the Lord. But here she is in this situation, and whereas you would have chosen yourself, she is clearly choosing the other. And there is the object lesson that ends the woes onto the Pharisees and the Sadducees. So we're still on Wednesday. Get some of that other stuff out of the way there. He takes his disciples up to the Mount of Olives. I'll be honest, I've forgotten if it's explicit whether or not just the disciples follow him up there or if he's got a larger crowd. My sense is that it's just the disciples, but I'm not certain about that. But here Jesus continues to teach about the kingdom. In this case, the things that are going to now be future. This is one of the places where the disciples actually appear to understand that Zechariah's day of the Lord isn't going to all happen in one day. That there are future things will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. Then will in heaven appear the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes on earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming down on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." So now everybody, well the people who are listening anyway, are starting to get the idea that There's something different that they expect, which that isn't new, but now they're starting to understand that Jesus is going away and he will return at some point. Again, this isn't the first time, but he reiterates his crucifixion. He's very explicit. And again, this is one of the first times that the disciples appear to understand what's going on. And then we also have Judas here taking time out at some point in that afternoon to go meet with the Jewish leaders to conspire to arrest Jesus. Thursday, mostly recorded is the stuff about Passover meal preparation. Now Matthew 26 says this is the first day of unleavened bread. If you went back to Exodus 12, you would see that the 14th day of the month is also the first. It's not only the day that you sacrifice the Passover lamb, But it's also the first day of seven during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So the Feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were coincident in that manner. Mark chapter 14, And the chief priests and scribes were seeking how to arrest him by stealth and kill him. For they said, Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people. Now, all along, the scribes and the priests and the Pharisees, the Sadducees, those wanting to trap Jesus, were trying to get Him away from a crowd. And in this portion, for all the writers who are recording the events, and as you'll see here, we get more and more where all four writers are addressing the event. Remember like in our first few episodes, it'd go like Matthew a little bit, then John a little bit, then Luke a little bit. Now all of the writers are recording these events. And when they talk about what Jesus is doing to avoid arrest they say things like he stayed in the big crowd because the Jewish leaders did not want to cause a stir with the people. They wanted this problem to go away and go away quietly so everybody could forget it. Not make it go away and then start a big old problem that they have to deal with when the original problem is done. So We are not going to do the Last Supper justice, because we do not have time. A lot's going on here. Jesus washes feet. Now, this is a good place to stop, though. Let me just read John 13, verse 3. Again, it's dangerous to try to summarize so much material, especially this last week of Jesus' earthly ministry. But in a practical sense, I think this is one of the good ways to summarize and to ponder for our own hearts what we can take away from this data. John 13, verse 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself." So this is an excellent verse that shows the antithesis of what the Lord had expected the Jewish nation to be, what the Lord had expected the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests to be. Trusting the Lord to take care of justice and vengeance and security so that we, God's people, could serve God's kingdom and the rest of the world. And here Jesus is giving the picture of, I know that the Lord has these things, these weighty things that are going to happen to me in two days under control. And so I will trust that and serve. That's a pretty good takeaway, if you ask me, from Jesus' example there. Obviously the meal begins at some point in there early on in the meal. Jesus accuses Judas of what he's going to do, and then he institutes the Lord's Supper. And I thought about putting some detail in here, but fortunately we do the Lord's Supper well around here, and I think we all actually have a pretty good understanding about what's what is going on there based on those gospel accounts. Now Jesus foretells the denial not only of Peter but of all, and he refers to Zechariah 13 where it says the shepherd's sheep will be scattered. And then you know what? I've forgotten why I put Mark 14.25 down there, so let me take a look at Mark 14.25. Mark 14, 25, Jesus says, Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. So again, my point was that I forgot was he's still talking about the kingdom. And he's still talking about not only the aspects of the kingdom that have already been inaugurated, but the things that will be pushed off to the future as well. And then John 14 is where he begins the Upper Room Discourse. And I thought it would be valuable. It looks like we've got some time here. So if you want to follow along, I'm going to turn to Isaiah 5. And a lot of the, at least chapter 15 of the Upper Room Discourse is, I am the vine, or I am the true vine. And it's a lot of allusion to Isaiah 5 when Isaiah records the parable of the vineyard. I'll just read the first seven verses. I think that'll be sufficient. Let me sing now for my well-beloved a song for my beloved concerning his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed its stones, and planted it with the choices divine. And he built a tower in the middle of it. and also hewed out a wine vat in it. Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it only produced worthless ones. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes, did it produce worthless ones? So now let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it will be consumed. I will break down its wall, and it will become trampled ground. It will lay waste. It will not be pruned or hoed, but briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain, no rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his delightful plant. Thus he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed. For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress." So there's a lot of allusion there in Jesus' words in John chapter 14, John chapter 15, you'll remember. At the end of John, I'm going to mess this up. At the end of John 14, I think, is when Jesus says, rise up and go, or rise up, let's go, something to that effect. And so now they're on the move. They're walking towards the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane. And so chapter 15, 16, and 17, arguably, there is some debate whether the high priestly prayer of 17 is in the garden or before they arrive. I think it's actually before they arrive. But John chapter 15, 16, and 17 are walking discourses. Maybe you haven't imagined it that way. I don't know if it helps get the feel of what Jesus is doing, but they're on the move towards the Mount of Olives at that point. uh... yes the road to get so many praying there gets them in the and now are you recall matthew mark luke and john all record the disciples waiting and being unable to stay awake and pray with the lord in the garden matthew twenty six mark of forty seven and you see down there are all four gospel accounts also record jesus arrest and you remember some of the details there but here it is in the middle of the night which is the first of many injustices that's going to occur in the next eight to ten hours. Even according to Jewish, how do you say it, jurisprudence, even according to Jewish jurisprudence, the number of missteps here and how the leaders handle the accused, handle the arrest, handle the trial, handle the questioning is astounding. And this is one of them. It's not that you can't arrest somebody at night, but here the Jewish leaders had been waiting for a time where Jesus was away from the crowd, and so Judas gave this piece of data to them that he would be alone or alone with just a few of his disciples in the garden where he normally went to pray late at night. So, they arrest him, and at first they take him to Annas. And you'll remember, Annas is the father-in-law of the current high priest, which is Caiaphas. Now, this is a suspected palace of the high priest. You see the question mark there. We don't really know where Annas lived, but maybe he just lived in another part of that same palace. What they're doing here is they're buying time to gather the Jewish leaders so that they can have a legitimate trial. But here again, this isn't really a trial, it's more of a questioning, but part of Jewish law, as you'll remember, two or three witnesses, right? They can't find witnesses, that's probably part of what they're doing while they're getting the initial arrest and the questioning out of the way in front of Annas. The second trial, again, maybe not exactly a trial because of how many missteps, but ultimately they make a judgment. And one of the things that's interesting here, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Now, even in our own system, I'm going to fail on which amendment this is, but you have the right to remain silent, right? You don't have to speak to accuse yourself. And here, after Jesus, as you will remember, had been silent, tell us you're the king. You have said so. stuff like that where he had not answered directly and just let it play out now Caiaphas adjures him to say something and as soon as he says something of course it's the truth but that gives Caiaphas the thing that he needed because they counted it blasphemy punishable by death And so now Jesus had been, there is a charge now to take to Pilate, to take to Herod, to say, look, this guy is telling us that he's the Son of God, which means Messiah, which means King, which means King other than Caesar, which is why all those other people care. And now they have reason to take him before the higher authorities. So this is early Friday morning. And probably one of the parts of Scripture that I identify with most, like when you fail, this is an easy story to go to and commiserate with Peter who has denied his Lord. And, I mean, it's just unfathomable, except for that I know that I would be suspect to do the exact same thing, which makes it profound. So, Jesus had told Peter, Peter said, no, I will go with you to war, or arrest, or even death. And, of course, you know, at the time, we presumed that he absolutely meant that and Jesus said no actually you'll deny me three times before the rooster crows and here he is waiting outside the proceedings at the high priests or sorry this would be at um Herod's temple now now again these are all of these things are question marks as far as like where these locations are but this one here was where uh the high priest house was and now this is where Pilate and presumably Herod the great live, that's their palace, and then the Herod Antipas, the guy who's actually ruling his palace, is somewhere over here. So he's in the praetorium, or where the guard is, and where presumably Pilate is, and Peter's standing outside warming himself by the fire, which is where he gets the questions, and he denies his relationship to the Lord. That's again, early Friday morning. That's why they're all standing out there by the fire trying to stay warm. Now here we are at the third trial, which is where he's formally condemned. But again, this is a misuse of justice all in and throughout. And Luke says, When day came, the assemblies of elders and people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led them away to their counsel. And they said, if you're the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, if I tell you, you won't believe. And if I ask you, you won't answer. But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of power of God. So they all said, are you the Son of God then? And he said to them, you say that I am. Then they said, what further testimony do we need? We've now heard it ourselves from his own lips. So whereas Caiaphas unjustly pulled it out of him before, now he said something that they're calling blasphemy in front of a number of witnesses. So now here's the official condemnation and they're ready to hand him to Pilate. In the meantime, Again, we're not going to be able to do this justice. Judas starts to scent his ultimate remorse. And this is just a picture of where traditionally we think that the Akaldama, or the field of blood, is located in reference to the temple in the rest of the city there. Again, still pretty early Friday morning before about sun up. Okay, so here we are at the fourth trial now before Pilate. This is the first time and you'll remember that Pilate says, are you a king? Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. which should make us think of Daniel chapter 2, and in those days the kings of God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. This is exactly what, remember, Zacharias and Mary and Elizabeth were celebrating upon Christ's birth, the forever kingdom that was promised to David, or David's son, yet David's Lord. Pilate cannot figure out what to do with them because there's no just reason to accuse him or to confirm this accusation. So Pilate sends Jesus to Herod Antipas. These two men are not friends. In fact, the text will say, after this they became friends. But there's nothing better than a common enemy to make two wicked men friends, right? Pilate doesn't know what to do with Jesus because there's nothing solid for which to charge him. He takes him to Herod, and Herod pretty much concludes the same thing. And so he sends them back to Pilate. Now, at least they're friends now. I guess that's good in some sense or another. But here we go, Luke 23, Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people. And he said to them, you brought me this man as one who is misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him, and I will therefore punish him," I don't know why, but I guess that's the Roman thing to do, and release him. So here we are, fairly early morning still, probably about 7 a.m. or so. And so, You know the story that happens between what I just read in this slide. Not only have the Jewish leaders misjudged in the technical sense of the word, unjustly condemned the Lord, the God-man, but the former high priest, and the current high priest, and the current Roman governor, and now the people. All of these people have played their part in the most profound execution of misjustice or lack of justice in the history of mankind. Pilate decides, instead of the thief, to punish Jesus to death. They go about the normal crucifixion process, which includes mockery, not only by the Roman guards, but by the Jewish people as well, as they travel from the courtyard that was depicted in the previous slide, which we think is right about there, to Golgotha. or Calvary, which is right about there. Again, this picture is facing northwest from the Mount of Olives. Still before lunchtime on Friday. The first three hours on the cross, Luke 23, the soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, saying, if you're the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him This is the king of the Jews, one of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And then He said to me, truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." Now, I'm sure the sentiment is shared to some extent or the other in this room, but this is one of the most profound verses in Scripture if you ask me. The thief on the cross knows enough to say Jesus' kingdom is still at hand, even though he's dying there on the cross next to him. And Jesus gives him this assurance. How many times do you ever walk through life wishing you had or could sense more assurance? I have that experience. I presume you do too. There is nothing, there is nothing that this man has done. or needs to continue to do to receive the assurance of the Lord. The Lord is paying the penalty. The Lord is making justice to where, if you are in Him, it would be unjust to do otherwise than to treat you as such. Here we are at noon, noon to three. is the second three hours here, so nine to noon was the first three hours on the cross, and noon to three, our time, are the three hours of darkness. This is when the Lord appeals to Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and says, or Psalm 22 rather, and says, why have you forsaken me? Luke records it was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, so noon to three, while the sunlight son's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said that, he breathed his last." Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, they returned home mourning, beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women that had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance. Now there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision or action, and he was looking for the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate, asked for the body. He took down the body, wrapped it in a linen shroud, and laid it in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had yet been laid. This was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. This is, so here, Sabbath starts here, 6 p.m. on the evening prior to Saturday. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb. The next day, that is, the day of preparation, or after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate, and they come up with a plan to guard the tomb in order to make it so that we could prove if Jesus' followers stole his body out of there. After the Sabbath, the dawn of the first day of the week, this is Sunday, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb to take care of the body. This would be 6 a.m. on Sunday after the Sabbath was over. An angel of the Lord appears. Matthew is the only one who records it here in 28.2 verse 4. And his description is strikingly similar to the angel of the Lord that Daniel describes, that Daniel saw in Daniel chapter 7. Of course. Praise God, the tomb was empty. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe. And they were alarmed. And he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' And they went out, and they fled from the tomb. For trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." So here we are relatively early morning on Sunday. So now Jesus appears the first time. Let's just read that real quickly. John 20, verse 11. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping, and so, as she wept, She stooped and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been laying. And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, If you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.' Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned to him and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her. At this point, Matthew records the Jewish leaders paying off the guards to make something up about how the tomb was emptied, which they were glad to do to save their own hides. And then Jesus appears to the two on the road to Emmaus. Now, this is another one of my favorite portions of scripture. But Jesus, and here's why, at least in part, we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and beside all this, it's now the third day since these things has happened. And of course, you'll remember their joy when they over time realize what's going on and Jesus teaches them from Moses and all the prophets how all those things concerned himself. Jesus appears to the disciples who are hiding in a room somewhere, presumably the same upper room that they had the Last Supper, but that's not necessarily confirmed. And then here we start to see the 40 days of Christ's glorified but earthly ministry before his ascension forty days later. Spend some time in Galilee. Catches 153 fish. Next week Billy will tell us exactly why that means 153 because you'll need to know. Do you know why it's 153? Okay, good. I don't think anybody really does, but there are a lot of theories. Anyway, Jesus caught precisely 153 fish. He appears to 500 plus, which Paul tells to the Corinthians. I guess we'll get to that here in a couple weeks or so. and creates even more witnesses to the resurrection of Christ. He gives a great commission in Matthew and Mark. Then he appears to his brother James, according to Paul, to the Corinthians. And he tells everybody to stay in Jerusalem, after they've been in Galilee, to stay in Jerusalem. And then he ascends from the Mount of Olives there in Acts 1, verse 9. So that happens, the timing between the resurrection and that 40 days is pretty vague, but we do know that he was here for 40 days. I shouldn't have hit that last one. So, we just got a moment here, and I will give you a moment for questions, but again it is difficult to summarize and to make practical such a large body of data. I will highlight that the Lord has had a plan for His kingdom, for His people, for His creation all the way from the beginning. And based on what we just went through and what we've gone through the last five installments of this series is that nothing escaped his notice as far as the detail with which he executed it, as far as the foretelling of it. Jesus did none of it by compulsion. He was on a schedule. He was on a plan all the way through. And God's sovereignty and God's power and God's omniscience are required to execute a plan like that. And those things, I mean, they're weighty theological statements. It's difficult to say them plainly, but these plain things, these truths about God and who He is and what He can do is the sort of thing that gives us assurance. that God has paid the penalty for our sin, that God will transform us to the image of Christ. Those sorts of things are inevitable, even though many times in my life, and presumably yours, they don't feel like it. And of course, of course, the living Christ, the living God, that He is not still in that tomb, and that no one has been able to prove any otherwise, that our God, our Christ, our Lord is a living Lord. These are not stories. Sometimes we call them stories because they happen to reside in a book, but these are not stories. This is truth. This is the most coherent explanation of reality. in and throughout all of what the Scriptures say, and in and throughout all that the Lord has taught us. So certainly those things are comforting to you. I know that they're comforting to me. And I hope this five-part series, which as you can see now is just scratching the surface on a lot of levels, has shown you At least we met our objectives, right? To put these things in chronological order so that we can see what each author is doing, maybe. What he's doing is different than what one of the others is doing. But also to appreciate the plan that the Lord had to give us for. to the earthly ministry of Christ and to appreciate them as a group as well as appreciate them. And also one of our objectives to make sure that we see when those men were connecting us back to the Old Testament and why they were doing it in such a way. So with that we have just a few minutes. Are there any questions or comments? Yeah, that's tough. I think the consensus is typically Mark. I want to say Matthew, but I don't really have a whole lot of good reason to say one over the other. It seems to me Matthew would have been closer, and it just would have taken less time. Obviously they use a lot of the same material. Somebody's borrowing, and I mean borrowing usually gets thrown around as a term that's negative in some content. But if you know the story, you would borrow it, especially if you're trying to publish something and send it with missionaries and such. I'm not real sure all of the nuances there, but I think my gut wants to say Matthew. I think the scholarship says Mark typically, and yeah. Another hill I'm not ready to die on quite yet. Anybody else? All right, for the sake of time, I'll just dismiss you now so we don't make Ryan late. Thank you. Okay.