In the name of Christ Jesus, dear fellow redeemed people of God,

In the pre-dawn hours of Good Friday, the Jewish leaders were busy. Their mock trials were neither legal nor fair, but finally they found a reason to call for Jesus’ death. When they asked him if he was, in fact, the Son of God, Jesus did not deny it. How could he? He was and is the very Son of God! But, these Jews did not believe he was the Son of God, so they accused him of blasphemy, of claiming to be God. Let us meditate on God’s Word. We will learn that:

Luke 22:63-65 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. {64} They blindfolded him and demanded, "Prophesy! Who hit you?" {65} And they said many other insulting things to him. Jesus was being tried by the Jewish Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the Jewish ruling Council comprised of 70 Jewish leaders plus the high priest, who served as the president. This group of 71 men was meeting to determine what would be done with Jesus. Their midnight sessions were completely illegal. While they were waiting for the earliest hint of dawn, the guards had their little fun with Jesus. They beat him up. They made fun of him. They said terrible things to our Savior and Lord. Do not pass this by lightly. Ponder this, and picture it in your mind. Meditate on our Savior’s suffering. He was there for you. He was there because we sinned against our Lord by failing to love him above all things, and failing to obey all of his commands. Sure, we weren’t there punching him, but every sin is a grievous offense against our Savior! He was in that position because of our sin, because he was lovingly saving us from condemnation.

Finally, the slightest glimmer of dawn appeared on the horizon. {66} At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. This whole thing was a pathetic kangaroo court. They had to wait until dawn for their meeting to be legal. At the earliest moment, they would jump at the chance to do away with Jesus.

{67} "If you are the Christ, " they said, "tell us." Jesus answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me, {68} and if I asked you, you would not answer. {69} But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God." {70} They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You are right in saying I am." {71} Then they said, "Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips." (1) Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And that was pretty much it. Jesus answered honestly, but they did not believe he was the Christ, the Son of God, so they sentenced him to death. Jesus points to their real problem: they did not believe him. On Judgment Day, they will see Jesus as the returning Judge, but this was not that day. They asked, “Are you the Son of God?” Jesus admitted that he was the Son of God. And that was it. They didn’t require any more talk. They said that Jesus deserved to die because he claimed to be the Son of God.

Let’s ponder this today. Is Jesus the Son of God or not? The Jewish leaders had the preconceived notion that Jesus was not and could not be the very Son of God. Of course, our preconceived notion is that Jesus was, is, and ever shall be the very Son of God. But let’s step back and take a look at the question logically.

There can be no doubt that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. I can produce Bible passage after Bible passage to prove that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, but that would be wasted effort. Not even the Jewish leaders deny it. The very basis for their conviction was that Jesus clearly claimed to be the Son of God. That is the very point that we agree on. {70} They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You are right in saying I am." Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. Only three possibilities remain. Either Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord God in the flesh. There really is no other option.

What I am about to say might sound harsh, but please bear with me. Sometimes unbelievers will actually say sappy things like, “Jesus was not God, but he was a fine moral teacher.” I’m going to be blunt: no one with any sense at all can say that. It makes no logical sense at all. You can’t have it both ways! Either Jesus is who he claimed to be, or he isn’t. But you can’t deny that he’s God’s Son and still claim that he was a fine, moral teacher.

If Jesus was really not the Son of God, then he was not a fine moral teacher, he was a liar. A fine, moral teacher would not lie to his students saying, “I’m the Son of God.” A fine moral teacher would not lie saying, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” (See also Jn 14:9 etc.). Without any doubt, Jesus claimed to be God’s only-begotten Son, true God in the flesh, the Second Person of the Triune God. If Jesus really wasn’t the Son of God, and knew it, then he was just a liar. And, if Jesus was lying about himself, then he was a hypocrite. And, if he was a liar and a hypocrite, then he was also a fool, because he was sentenced to death for saying these things about himself! But, spare us this moronic nonsense about him being some fine, moral teacher (and yet not the Son of God) then.

Of course, there is another possibility for the unbeliever short of calling Jesus a liar. If Jesus was saying these things sincerely – if he really meant what he said, and believed what he said about himself being God’s one and only Son – but if he was sincerely wrong, what would that make him but a raving lunatic?! If a guy goes around saying, “I’m God” and “I’m God’s only Son,” and it isn’t true, that is not a fine, moral teacher. That man is a nut on the level with a guy who goes around saying, “I am a poached egg!” or “I am a Nintendo Game-Cube” or “I am Elvis Presley”! That is not fine morality, that’s lunacy. That reminds me of a story I just heard this week. A pastor goes to visit a member in the insane asylum. His member is a man who thinks he’s Napoleon! The pastor says, “Who told you that you are Napoleon?” The member says, “God did!” And the man in the other room shouts, “No I didn’t!” Now, if a guy goes around claiming to be God and really isn’t, he doesn’t belong on a pedestal as a great teacher. He belongs in the insane asylum! If you came up to me and said, “Pastor, I really believe that I’m Elvis Presley,” I wouldn’t applaud you for being a fine, moral teacher. I’d seriously wonder about the state of your mind! But anyone who reads the Bible knows that Jesus was far from crazy. Look at his serene nature, his love, and clear-headed thinking. We see him move toward the cross, fully aware of what’s happening.

Jesus was not a liar, and he was certainly not a lunatic. Then, Jesus must be who he claims to be: the LORD! And that is what the Bible says about Jesus. He is the very Son of God, the Second Person of the Triune God! C. S. Lewis put it this way: You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” [McDowell, 103]

Jesus is the very Son of God who came to this earth to save us from sin. He said so. He said that God so loved the world, the whole wide world, so much that he gave his one and only Son to be our Savior. That one and only Son is Jesus! He came to live a perfect life and die on the cross to atone for all of our sins. He rose from death with our forgiveness. Whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Believe in Jesus – he is the Son of God, and your Savior from sin! He had to be true God and true man in one person to save us. If Jesus was just a man, he could not have been perfect, and he could not have paid the infinite ransom for our sins. Either we had to die eternally, or someone eternal had to die in our place. Jesus fits the bill perfectly.

As we see our Savior move closer and closer to Calvary’s cross, remember who he is and why he came. He is God’s eternal Son in the flesh who came to save us from sin. As we close our lesson for today, we see Jesus being led to Pontius Pilate. He was going there because of OUR sins, and because he is the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Follow along, and hear what happens next. Amen.