Christ on trial. At the Reformation Society, we are busy with a new series dealing with answers for skeptics, answers for the different challenges that we get. In this age of ignorance and confusion and apostasy, many presumed put Christ on trial. Can you imagine the audacity of that? How are we as Christians to respond when people start ranting and raving about When I get to heaven, I'm gonna ask God, how could he allow this, that, and the other, and why did he? There's not a snowball's chance in hell that anybody's going to be back-chatting God on the Day of Judgment. When the Apostle John, who was the closest of all the apostles to Jesus on earth, when he met the risen Christ, he fell on his face like a dead man. I don't think any God-hating pagans are going to be back-chatting God and interrogating him on a day of judgment. But how can we give an effective answer to those who challenge the foundations of the faith? 1 Peter 3 verse 15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. The betrayal, arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus of Nazareth was unique. It was not his actions that were in question, but his identity. The charge laid against Christ by the Jewish Sanhedrin was blasphemy. The testimony on which he was convicted was concerned with his identity as the Messiah. The interrogation by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and the inscription and the proclamation placed on the cross at his execution dealt with the identity of Christ as Messiah, effectively the Son of God, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. That's what it was all about. Stephen Allen, an attorney, has written a book, The Illegal Trial of Christ, and there's been several books written by lawyers on the illegal trial of Christ. I've read this one and studied a few others too. In summary, the trial of Jesus of Nazareth was completely illegal. At every point it broke the laws of Israel as well as the laws of Rome. It was illegal to conduct a trial at night. It was also against the law to conduct a summary trial without any warning or opportunity for the accused to prepare a defense or to seek positive character witnesses. At any trial, the accused was to be granted an opportunity to prepare a defense, and heralds were to be sent out into the area requiring anyone who knew anything positive about the accused to come forward and to testify. There was no opportunity granted for appeal. There was no delay between arrest and trial, between trial and verdict. There was no delay between verdict and sentencing. There wasn't even a delay between the sentencing and the execution. Within less than 24 hours, Jesus was arrested, tried, condemned, sentenced to death, and executed. This blatantly violated all due process of law. It was obvious that there was a conspiracy against the accused. In the event of there being evidence of a conspiracy, judges were obligated to release the accused. In addition, the testimony of false witnesses brought forward by the accusers contradicted one another. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate acquitted Jesus three times. John 18, 38, I found no fault in him at all. John 19, verse six, I find no fault in him. In Luke, you have brought this man to me as one who misleads the people. Indeed, having examined him in your presence, I found no fault in this man concerning the things of which you accuse him. No, neither did King Herod. For I sent you back to him, and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him." Luke 23. But they were shouting, saying, crucify him, crucify him. Then he said to them the third time, why? What evil has he done? I found no reason for death in him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go. Wait a minute, he's done nothing wrong, and he's going to be flogged? Why would you flog an innocent man? And it wasn't just a whipping. It was far worse than a Roman flogging. Cat in our tails, bits of bone and metal tied into these. It was enough to rip the muscle off your back. But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. Now, in what court case is a judge to be persuaded by the loud insistences of the mob? He's meant to have calm, deliberation, normally in his chambers, away from any pressure. It should not be that any mob or anyone who screams the loudest and throws the biggest temper tantrum gets their way. The Lord Jesus Christ had also evidently been severely beaten by his captors. In the event of a prisoner having been mistreated in this way, the judge should have been obligated to release the accused. How could any judge allow someone to be executed whom he had three times declared innocent? And what a meaningless gesture for a governor and a magistrate to wash his hands claiming that he is innocent of this blood of this person who's clearly the victim of a conspiracy and who as a magistrate he should have protected from the mob. You would have thought. When Pontius Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, or a riot, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. You see to it. And all the people answered and said, His blood be on us and on our children. Can you imagine saying something like that? The trial of Jesus was a travesty of justice. It is a terrifying thing to be judged by the mob. Can you imagine being judged by your worst enemies? However, today, let us call forward some character witnesses to testify of Jesus, which should have been done at his trial. Now, of course, we could call forth millions of Christians throughout the ages who would eagerly testify to the incomparable goodness and greatness of our Lord and Savior. However, today, we will call forward only skeptics, and many of them enemies of Christ. Thomas Paine, who was an outspoken opponent of Christianity, still admitted in writing, Jesus Christ was and is a virtuous and amiable man. For the morality that he preached and practiced was of the most benevolent kind. And while similar systems of morality had been preached by Confucius, and some by Greek philosophers, he thinks, but a Quaker since and by good men of all ages, it has not been exceeded by any. The first century Jewish historian, Josephus Ben Mateus, the author of the Antiquities of the Jews, one of the most important history books you can get hold of of the first century, he wrote, now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, For he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as received the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who loved him at the first did not forsake him. For he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold. These and 10,000 wonderful things concerning him, and the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct to this day. This you can find in Antiquities of the Jews. We've got several copies in our library. William Leakey, one of the leading historians of the 19th century, the author of the History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe. Leakey spent his life advancing the cause of what he called rationalism, attacking Christianity and attacking the supernatural. He didn't believe in miracles at all. Yet he admitted it was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character, which through all the changes of 18th centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love, has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions, and is not only the highest pattern of virtue, but also the strongest incentive to its practice, and has exercised such deep an influence that it may truly be said that the simple record of three short years of actor life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the dispositions of philosophers and exhortations of moralists. Remember, these are hostile witnesses. These are people who are not on the side of Jesus, but they've got to acknowledge his historic impact. John Stuart Mill was perhaps the most influential and respected economist of the 18th century, that's the 1700s. He often spoke out against Christianity, yet he had to acknowledge Christ is still left a unique figure, not more unlike all of his precursors than all his followers. even those who had had the direct benefit of his personal teaching. It is of no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the gospel, is not historical, in that we know not how much of what is admirable has been added by the tradition of his followers. Who among his followers, or any among their proselytes, was capable of inventing the sayings attributed to Jesus, or of imagining the life and character revealed in the gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee. When this preeminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer and martyr to that mission which has ever existed on the earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching on this man as the ideal representative and guide of humanity. Nor even now would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract to the concrete than to endeavor to so live that Christ would approve our life. This is from a person who's effectively an agnostic, an unbeliever. Can't find a better example or model or guide or incentive to moral behavior than follow the example and teaching of Christ. Even as determined an enemy of Christianity as Charles Darwin, who popularized the theory of evolution, had to concede in an article written for a newspaper in London, they forget or will not remember, those who minimize the work of missionaries in pagan countries, they forget or will not remember that human sacrifices and the power of an idolatrous priesthood. a system of profligacy, unparalleled in another part of the world, infanticide, killing of infants, a consequence of that system, bloody wars, where conquerors spared neither women nor children, that all of these have been abolished in these savage lands, and that dishonesty and intemperance and licentiousness have been greatly reduced by Christianity. In a voyager, to forget these things is base and gratitude. For should he chance to be at a point of shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will most devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may have reached thus far. If it hadn't, this man would end up in a cooking pot. On another occasion, Darwin wrote, the lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand. The house has been built, the windows have been framed, the fields have been plowed, even the trees have been grafted by the New Zealander. The march of improvement, consequent on the introduction of Christianity throughout the seas, probably stands by itself in the records of history. Now, what he's referring to by the New Zealand, he's referring to the Maoris, who, by the way, were not the original inhabitants of New Zealand. The Maoris killed and ate the original inhabitants of New Zealand. but the Maoris were all cannibals and Christianity transformed them. This is Christmas Day, 1814, the first gospel preaching in Botany, not Botany Bay, this is across from that, this is New Zealand, where the gospel was preached and within the lifetime of this missionary, most of the Maoris had been baptized as Christians and abandoned cannibalism. Another hostile witness that could be brought to testify of the uniqueness of Christ was the man called Darwin's bulldog, Thomas Huxley, the man who popularized so much of Darwin's teachings. It was Huxley who first coined the term agnostic, which was what he claimed to be. Huxley did more than anybody else to popularize the theories of Darwin. Huxley was steadfastly opposed to almost every aspect of Christianity. The Contemporary Review stated, I've always been strongly in favor of secular education, in a sense of education without theology. But I must confess that I have been no less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was to be kept up in the presently utterly chaotic state of opinion on these matters without the use of the Bible. How can you get people to behave well without using the Bible? The pagan moralists lack life and color, take the Bible as the whole, make the severest deductions which criticisms can dictate, and it still remains a vast residue of moral beauty and grandeur. by the study of what other book could children be so much humanized and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession feels like themselves, but a momentary space and interval between two eternities and earns the blessings or curses of all time according to its efforts to do good and evil. Well, I mean, just think. You want your children to grow up to be good and moral. What are you gonna do? Sit down and read from Karl Marx? or Charles Darwin, Muhammad. I mean, what books are you gonna read to your children if you want them to grow up to have a good life? Can you think of any alternative to the Bible that's gonna actually make them better people, grow up to be the kind of people that they need to be? Honestly, there is no close second to the Bible. When a fellow agnostic philosopher criticized the Bible, Huxley rebuked the man for putting on display his conceited arrogance. Huxley had to even go further in admitting the Bible has been the Magna Carta, that's the great charter, of the poor and the oppressed down to modern times. No state has had a constitution in which the interests of the people are so largely taken into account, in which the duty so much more than the privileges of rulers are insisted upon, has that drawn up for Israel. We have the model, decentralized state, separation of powers, constitutional laws, all of these things, in the state of Israel as set up by God in the Old Testament. Nowhere is the fundamental truth that the welfare of the state in the long run depends on the uprightness of the citizens so strongly laid down as in the Bible. I do not believe that the human race is yet and possibly will never be in a position to dispense with the Bible. So here's a man who doesn't believe the Bible, but he says, but you can't dispense with it because how else are we gonna have a law-abiding and ordered society? Now these are some, perhaps a bit more honest enemies of Christianity than we have today. They could admit some things. Another vocal skeptic who can be called upon to test Lovecraft was George Romanus. He wrote many articles against Christianity in his own lifetime. Yet in his book, Thoughts on Religion, Romanus observed, not only is Christianity thus so immeasurably in advance of all other religions, it is no less so of every other system of thought that has ever been promulgated in regard to all that is moral and spiritual. Whether it be true or false, it is certain that neither philosophy, science, nor poetry has ever produced results in thought conduct, or beauty in any degree to be compared with it. And it's true. It is the greatest exhibition of the beautiful, the sublime, and all else that appeals to our spiritual nature, which has ever been known upon our earth. What has all the science, all the philosophy of the world done for the thought of mankind to be compared with this one doctrine? God is love. Remember this George Roman is writing here. This is an unbeliever. H.G. Wells, who wrote outlines of history, is best known for science fiction and his filmmaking. However, by profession, he was an historian. And despite being a very open critic of Christianity, H.G. Wells wrote, Jesus of Nazareth is easily the dominant figure of history. I'm speaking of him, of course, as a man. For I can see that historian must treat him as a man, just as the painter must paint him as a man. To assume that he never lived and that accounts of his life are inventions is far more difficult and raises more problems in the path of the historian than to accept the essential elements of the gospel stories as fact. Of course, you and I live in countries where to millions of men and women, Jesus is more than a man. But the historian must disregard that fact. He must adhere to the evidence which would pass unchallenged if his book were to be read in every nation under the sun. Now, It is interesting and significant, isn't it, that an historian setting forth in that spirit without any theological bias whatsoever should find that he simply cannot portray the progress of humanity honestly without giving the foremost place to the penniless teacher from Nazareth. This is grudging praise, but it's still praise. The final hostile witness which I'd like to quote to testify of Christ is the brilliant, volatile journalist and writer H.L. Menchkin. Now, Menchkin dipped his pen in acid whenever he came to write about Christianity. Menchkin was the journalist who transformed the evolutionist's legal defeat in the courtroom at the Scopes trial to a victory in a court of public opinion. He twisted everything. In his work, Treatise on the Gods, Menchkin declared, the historicity of Jesus is no longer questioned seriously by anyone, whether Christian or unbeliever. The main facts about him seem to be beyond dispute. It is not easy to account for a singular and stupendous success. How did it come about that one who in his life had only the bitter cup of contaminate to drink should have lifted himself in death to such vast esteem and circumstance, such incomparable and world-shaking power and renown? It seems to be certain that many persons saw him after supposed death on the cross, including not a few who are violently disinclined to believe in the resurrection, like Paul of Tarsus. Upon that theory, The most civilized sections of the human race have erected a structure and practices so vast in scope and so powerful in effect that the whole range of history shows nothing parallel. So, that's the end of those quotes. Here we have the testimonies of some famous skeptics, some of them Christ enemies. over almost 2,000 years, including rationalist philosophers, a Jewish historian, some famous evolutionists, secular humanist journalist, a world-renowned economist, religious skeptic, famous science fiction writer and Hollywood director. None of these men were Christians. They all rejected Christianity. Yet they all had to acknowledge that Jesus Christ was the greatest person to ever walk this earth. His impact on history and the Bible's contribution to life and civilization are incomparable. If you go to the U.S. Library of Congress, which I have done, where they have one of the only four copies of a Gutenberg Bible on display, which costs so many millions it makes your head spin, one of the most valuable books in the world, they have got in their index so many books it also boggles the brain. Without any doubt, the librarians there inform us, the person who's got more books written about him than any other is Jesus Christ. No close second. A distant second, long distant second, is Professor Martin Luther, who nailed 95 Theses, and everyone else sort of follows off that. Muhammad's way down. Nobody's had more books produced on him. Now, this is the most complete library in the world. More books have been written on Jesus Christ than any other person or subject. Interesting fact. As somebody said, the Grand Canyon didn't get created by an Indian dragging a stick. Big result, big cause. The verdict of these skeptics is unanimous. The one who was born in obscurity, who lived in poverty, who died in agony, became the most important and positive influence in the history of the world. No one has influenced the world for the good more than Jesus Christ, and you cannot overstate that fact. In fact, you can go further, as Dr. James Kendi and Jerry Newcomb have in their books. What if Jesus had never been born? Or as Professor Alvin Smith has in his How Christianity Transformed Civilization, they document every single thing that's good in our world and society as a direct result of Jesus Christ, his teachings, his example, and his followers. You cannot argue with everything. Hospitals, Literacy, universal education, abolition of slavery, checks and balances, rule of law, you name it. Whatever is good in our society comes from Jesus Christ. There wasn't even a concept of charity, kindness to strangers before the coming of Jesus Christ as teaching on the parable of the Good Samaritan. The chief priests in the Jewish Sanhedrin conspired against and condemned Christ. Isn't this amazing? The entire Sanhedrin, the entire temple structure, the entire priesthood, the Levites, they were all there for what purpose? To worship and serve Jehovah, Yahweh, and to prepare for the Messiah. And when he came, they gave him a kangaroo court and crucified him. Is that not extraordinary? The entire religious edifice built apparently in the name of God actually rejected him when he came. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate acquitted Christ three times declaring him not guilty and yet he ordered him to be whipped and crucified to appease the mob in the streets. And by the way, some of that mob in the streets Might have been amongst the crowds waving palm branches a few days earlier shouting Hosanna. So it went from hail him to nail him in under a week. Talk about a fickle mob. That's why it doesn't matter what the mob says. Flattery is as worthless as unjustified criticism. You shouldn't care what the mob says. Pilate then had the audacity to wash his hands in public declaring he's innocent of this just man's blood. Today, many presume to sit in judgment upon Christ and the arrogance of so many university professors who profess themselves to be wise and yet are fools. But the day will come when each one of them and each one of us will stand before the judgment throne of Christ and give an account of our lives to him. There's one appointment not one of us will be able to miss. There's one appointment not one of us will be able to relate for. It is appointed unto man once to die and after that, the judgment. Hebrews 9 verse 27. You have an appointment. You can tell people, do you know you've got an appointment that you'll not be able to be late for? And see if they can come up with a biblical answer. The question is not so much what do you think of Christ? What does he think of you? Who cares what you think of Christ? The important thing is what does he think of me? The question is not so much, what will you do with Christ? And many an evangelist has got this feeling, what will you do with Christ? I've heard that. The real question is, what will he do with you? On the day of judgment, will you hear, well done, good and faithful servant, enter the joy of your Lord? Or will you hear, depart from me, ye cursed, into the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels? I never knew you. Those are the two big responses a person can expect in Judgment Day. And there's going to be some surprises. Some people are going to be shocked to say, but Lord, Lord, I did miracles in your name. And the Lord will say, depart from me, cursed, into the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. I never knew you. It's not whether we say Lord, Lord, it's not what we sing as much as how we live our life and how we are in our relationship with the Lord. to a place of surrender, of recognizing that we held deserving sinners and we have completely and utterly repented of our sins and bowed before the Lord. Do we know what it is to be broken for our sins? For we must all appear for the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, whether good or bad. So this is the big question as we approach the Easter weekend. This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. Following Friday, week's time, will be Good Friday, and then Resurrection Sunday. Who killed Jesus? During each Easter season, as we're reminded again of the sufferings of Christ on the cross, we need to consider the question, who is responsible for the sufferings of the Christ? As we read the gospel narratives, or as we see crucifixion of our Savior depicted, whether by art or in the Passion of the Christ film, we have to ask the question, who killed Jesus? Do we blame the Roman soldiers? Certainly they crucified him, but they were just obeying orders, were they not? Surely though it was the Roman governor Pontius Pilate who was responsible. He alone had the power to enforce the death penalty, and it was he as a magistrate of the Roman Empire who declared, I cannot find any reason to condemn him. I find no reason to condemn this man. And yet, Pontius Pilate spineless politician that he was, bowed to pressure, condemned an innocent man for political expediency and popularity. And the only reason we know the name of Pontius Pilate to this day is because he was a spineless, cowardly, unprincipled politician who bowed to the pressure of the mob and failed to do his duty and failed to see that justice was done. What a disgrace for all of eternity. And Pontius Pilate may have got a shock when he's got to stand before Jesus on the day of judgment. He thought he was judging Christ. It was a meaningless gesture for him to publicly wash his hands and declare, I'm innocent of the blood of this just person, you see to it. How hypocritical. He was the Roman governor. As the highest magistrate in land here declared, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning the things of which you accuse him. No, neither did King Herod, for I sent you back to him. Indeed, nothing deserving of death has been done by him. Proverbs 17, 15 says, he who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike on abomination to the Lord. That's about as strong a word that you can get in the scripture, an abomination. It is something that so angers God, that so invites the wrath of God, that they're worthy of nothing other than the lake of fire and eternal destruction. That's an abomination. To justify the wicked or to condemn the innocent is an abomination in sight of God. Okay, the Roman soldiers we understand, the Roman governor we understand, but what about the mob of people in the streets? They were the ones who pressured Pontius Pilate to condemn the Lord to death and ignore his three times declaring him innocent. We have no king but Caesar. They cried, release Barabbas, they cried. Crucify Christ, crucify him. His blood be upon us and upon our children. What about the mob in the streets? However, it was the Jewish religious leaders who initiated the arrest and the trial of Christ. It was the religious leaders who incited the mob to scream for Barabbas, a terrorist, to be released and for Christ to be crucified. And there was one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in the rebellion. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. They were insistent, demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and that of the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested, not as justice demanded, not as the facts required, not as the law required, but as the mob demanded. and Pilate released to them the one they had requested who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison. This is democracy in action. People voting for Barabbas. But he delivered Jesus to their will. You shall not follow a crowd to the evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn many to pervert justice. This was the greatest perversion of justice in the history of the world. But of course it was Judas who betrayed Christ for mere silver, 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave. Judas was one of the Lord's trusted 12 disciples. He was the treasurer, but he became a traitor. It has been common for Hollywood productions, especially Jesus of Nazareth, to deal very sympathetically with Judas that you feel sorry for, victim of circumstances. But the Bible is clear, Judas was greedy. Treacherous, dishonest, and hypocritical. The Bible clearly states Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ. The apostle became an apostate. He kissed the door to heaven, but before the sun was up, he was in hell. Judas asked the chief priest, what are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you? This was no well-meaning, mistaken victim of circumcision. The man was a treacherous traitor. The Bible records the chief priest was delighted at Judas's treachery. Although Judas was treasurer of the twelve and he feigned concern for the poor, the Bible reveals that in fact Judas was a thief, stealing from the funds of the Lord himself. The scripture says when a woman came and anointed Jesus with The perfume, he said, why was this perfume not sold and the money given to the poor? And John's gospel adds, Judas was not concerned for the poor. Judas was in charge of money bags and Judas was a thief. That's pretty straightforward. Far from Judas being a well-meaning victim of circumstance, the Bible is quite clear. He was a malicious traitor. He didn't have to choose a kiss to identify Christ. He could have pointed out that's a man, but to have betrayed Jesus with a kiss, I mean, this just shows a high level of contempt to betray someone with a kiss. It just shows a maliciousness, a deceitfulness in Judas. John's gospel states it plainly, then Satan entered Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus. Yet, having said all that, was it not God's will that Christ suffer on the cross? In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. However, we also need to ask whether it was not the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is responsible for his own death. Our Lord declared, I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay my life down. No one takes it from me. I lay it down on myself. Jesus was not a martyr. Jesus was not a victim. He could have, with a word, destroyed Jerusalem and everyone. He could have called on 10,000 legions of angels. He could have laid waste the entire planet. Jesus was not a helpless victim. He didn't need Peter's sword. He had all the power in the universe that he could have brought to his defense. He willingly laid down his life. Not a victim, not a martyr, a willing sacrifice, an atonement, a propitiation for our sins. At Calvary's cross, mankind's sin resulted in the murder of the most innocent victim of all time, God's own son, Jesus Christ. He willingly submitted and became a victim of this heinous violation of justice so that we, the very people responsible for his suffering and death, might in turn find life and joy forever. It's not common that a person will give up his life for his friend, but who dies for his enemy? Yet while we were enemies of Christ, he died for us. So in the final analysis, was it not your sin and my sin that was responsible for the sufferings and the atoning death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It was for my sins that he suffered and died. When Rembrandt painted the scene of the raising of the cross, he put himself in the picture raising the cross, showing that he shared in the guilt for the death of Christ. Rembrandt, a Reformation era artist. Isaiah 53, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. By the way, as I read this from Isaiah 53, just think of this. This was written 600 years before. I had two Jewish men in Hilbra read this passage. I said, who's this passage talking about? They said, well, Jesus of Nazareth, obviously, but that's in your New Testament. He said, no, actually it's in your Old Testament. It's in the Jewish Hebrew Bible, it's a book of Isaiah. I said, what? Let's read again. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before a chair as a son, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who will declare his generation? For he is cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people, he was stricken, and he bore the sin of many, and he made intercession for the transgressors. Written 600 years BC, who could this possibly refer to? but Jesus Christ. Even a Jewish person that you read this to will acknowledge, well obviously that's Jesus, but they assume it's in the New Testament and yet it's in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is our Passover lamb. He is our sin offering. He is our atonement. When Christ, the perfect son of God, a lamb without spot or blemish, shed his precious blood on the cross, it was a substitutionary death. He died for us in our place, the innocent for the guilty, the just in the place of the unjust. When I was converted in 1977, this Easter, it will be next week, it'll be 44 years since I was converted, I wrote this hymn shortly after being converted, this poem. He became like us that we might become like him. He was rejected that he might be accepted. He was condemned that we might be forgiven. He was punished that we might be pardoned. He suffered that we might be strengthened. He was whipped that we might be healed. He was hated that we might be loved. He was crucified that we might be justified. He was tortured that we might be comforted. He died that we might live. He went to hell that we might go to heaven. He endured what we deserve that we might enjoy what only he deserves. 1 John 4 verse 10, in this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. God is a holy God and his righteous hands are seen as law. We are sinful and we need to repent of our wickedness and place our trust in Christ. Have you acknowledged your sinfulness and failings before Almighty God? Have you repented of your complicity in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you found life in Christ? Are you pointing people to the Savior every day? Have you thanked Him for dying on the cross for your sins? Jesus died for you. Are you living for Him? That's putting feet to our faith on a daily basis. Many people miss heaven by just 10 or 11 inches distance between our head and our heart. Some of us have the truth in our head, but not in our heart. And it mustn't stay in our heart, it's got to go into our hands. heart, hands, and feet. We need to go from head knowledge to heart, faith, and devotion to boots on the ground, feet on the street, putting our feet to our faith, faith in action. When we are converted, we need to shout it from the rooftops, let the whole world know who Jesus is and what he's done. It's so important to evangelize and witness to our friends and family and neighbors. And family, of course, the hardest mission field of all. When I got converted in 1977, I was the youngest in my family. I was the baby in the family. I was the last born. My older sister was 17 years older than me. My next sister was 10 years older than me. My brother was five years older than me. Nobody really cared what the baby in the family had to say. And when all got Bibles for Christmas, they rolled their eyes and they made exasperated noises and the whole family is very irritated by this persistent brother. My brother later testified that he had come back home from being drunk and cavorting on the town and he'd find tracks waiting on his pillow and things like this. You'd want to just rip my throat out, he was just so angry with his brother. And I'm sure I did a lot of irritating baby brother things, but Ultimately, my brother was converted, and my father was converted, my mother was converted. It took eight years. It was a long battle for my dad to come to the Lord. They were very hardened. And yet, I know that while your family is the hardest mission field, it's so important to be God's witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and to other parts of Earth. We're coming up to the Easter weekend. This is the most important part of the Christian calendar, and provides us with a super wonderful opportunity to remind people of the whole importance. Easter is not about bunnies and Easter eggs. There's a lot more to it than that, and we need to get people to think beyond, and this is a challenge. So the notes for today will be, we've got some tracks like in English and Afghans, Who Killed Jesus, and on Christ on Trial. This is a chapter in one of the Answering Skeptics book, which is also an audio MP3. We've got them on our web as well. We will be uploading, if Angela is able to, tomorrow even, the screen capture video of tonight and the audio and the PowerPoint on the video gallery and the audio gallery of FrontlineMissionSA.org. So, any questions, any comments, complaints or criticisms? Daniel. to whatever background that gave testimony about who Jesus was. And I'm just thinking of a testimony in scripture that we have as Christ begins his ministry. And just how refreshing it is to hear from the Father as the sky opens up and the dove descends on him and the testimony is given. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. That's a testimony worth listening to. And even at the cross, the Roman centurion who'd overseen it said certainly this was a son of God. And this is a righteous man. So you've got different testimonies in the gospels there that even the Roman centurion saw. Other comments? Yes. God's will was done. Jesus obeyed. and we are the beneficiaries. Yes, indeed. This year is a Reformation 500 year. 2021 is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's bold stand in 1521 at the Council of Rome's before the emperor. Here I stand, my conscience is kept, the word of God. So we're planning a Reformation 500 conference Here in this venue, on Saturday the 17th of April, we'll have a children's program as well dealing with conscience, captive to the Word of God. We've had some radio programs on this. We've got a newsletter available there, Conscience Captive to the Word of God, which is a Bible study on what the Bible teaches on conscience, both Old and New Testament. And in fact, just this week, we recorded, I think it's gonna be broadcast on Monday, is it? The Salt and Light on Conscience Captive to the Word of God, which Daniel and I did. So you'll get some materials on. We're going to be trying to call people back to this important principle. If you can think ahead, This is the last of the great Reformation 500 events, the 18th of April. 17th of April is when Luther was first called before the council, and on 18th of April he made his stand, and so we'll have a Reformation celebration service on a Sunday as well, but on a Saturday there'll be a program, both a conference here, which will be live-streamed, and we'll have also a children's program dealing with this great Reformation history event. Any other questions, comments? They do have the Old Testament, but not many of them are sitting reading it. Maybe Daniel can answer that better because you've actually been in Israel. Daniel? Yes, they do have the Old Testament. And sometimes I think maybe similar to how we might pick and choose parts of the Bible that we read, there's parts that they read more than others. So parts they have through each year, they read through the Torah, the first five books. as well as small readings from the Prophets and the Psalms that they include for their Sabbath readings. But not all of the scripture is in their lectionary, all of the Old Testament is in their yearly lectionary, so unless they're studying into it further, they may not get through that. Yes, I first thought that when I was doing specialty ministry in Hilbrow, every Jewish person studying the Old Testament, looking at the signs of the Messiah, if I can just show him from the Old Testament, yeah, he's gonna give his last thought. But of course, thank you, you've got Hebrew people who are very religious and conservative, and then you've got someone who's so secular, they couldn't care less what the Old Testament says, what they would call the Bible. So, Now, when you're dealing with Jewish people, you're dealing with a whole spectrum, and there are people who are total Zionists, and then there are many Orthodox Jews who are anti-Zionist, and believe that the state of Israel is an abomination, and no true Jew should support Israel, and so on, because they've gone back to the land in rebellion to God, they were led out as punishment, and if they haven't come back in repentance, and it's a secular state, and they legalize abortion, all these things, how can they call on the mercy of God. So you've got a wide spectrum. It's good to be able to show them how the Bible points to the Messiah and how Jesus fulfills all the Messianic prophecies, but only some Hebrews will be impressed and interested by that. And with a lot of them, you've got to deal with them just like you would with an atheist. But it's a minority who are really studying the Bible, would you say, from your experience. In the state of Israel, not everyone in Israel is even vaguely religious. Yeah, there's a lot of traditional, I mean, in as much as you have a lot of Easter and Christmas Christians, you have a lot of Passover and Hanukkah Jews. So, there's some that are very intent and I think in those people there's a lot of tradition that's observed. So, so and so, you know, this rabbi said that this rabbi said and this rabbi said, you know, like we might hear more toward the traditional side of said, well, that's what we base it off of, and how is their interpretation of the scriptures. So it depends, I mean, yeah, there's a lot of similarities to the Christian spectrum in that you get people that are all across, so just