#104 Lu. 11:53-54 GIVING JESUS THE THIRD DEGREE

Introduction:

    Perhaps you have seen movies where the police have arrested a
suspect and they interrogate him with a whole series of questions
that are designed to confuse him and get him to say something he
would not ordinarily want to tell.  They are trying to trick him
and get a confession out of him.  At the least, they are trying to
get some information out of him that can be used against him in a
court of law.  This is what is called "giving him the third
degree."
    Perhaps you have also seen newscasts where a political figure
was being interviewed by one or more news casters and they hurl
trick questions at him trying to get him to confess to some deed
or to some point of view that he would not want to admit publicly.
At the very least, they are trying to get him to say something
that they can use against him  This also is "giving him the third
degree."
    In our text the scribes and Pharisees give Jesus the third
degree.  Jesus has pronounced a series of woes against them.
Among other things, He accused them of picketing the doorway of
heaven and keeping people from entering in. In our text today the
scribes and Pharisees turn on Him and hurl a barrage of hostile
questions.  They try desperately to entrap Him and to get Him to
say something they can use against Him.

I.  The motive behind their questions

    V. 53, "And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and
the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to
speak of many things."  Just for clarification, let me call your
attention to the term, scribes and Pharisees.  The term, scribe,
described their work, their trade.  All of these scribes were
Pharisees.  They were scribes by trade and Pharisees by religion.
But not all Pharisees were scribes.  Not all who belonged to the
Pharisee religion were scribes by trade.  Most of the Pharisees
were engaged in some other trade.  The whole group who was engaged
in this conflict with Jesus was made up of many Pharisees but only
some of them were scribes by trade.
    Luke said that the scribes and Pharisees began to urge Him
vehemently.  That is, they were filled with malice.  They were
very hostile toward Him.  There was tenseness in the air and there
was anger in the tone of their voices.  They were bitter in their
words toward Him.
    What were they urging Him to do?  Luke said that they were
urging Him and provoking Him to speak of many things.  Luke does
not say how they went about provoking Him to speak on the many
things, but Matthew does.  Matthew says that they hurled questions
at Him.  They hurled a barrage of trick questions at Him.  They
were trying to get Him to confess to some wrong doing or some
wrong teaching.  At the very least, they were hoping that He would
say something that they could twist and use against Him.
    V. 54, "Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something
out of his mouth, that they might accuse him."  Their chief
purpose was to get Jesus to say something that they might accuse
Him to the Roman authorities.  They wanted to accuse Him of
something that would bring the death penalty at the hands of the
Roman authorities.  But in the event that His answer could not be
used against Him to the Romans, then they hoped that they could
use it to accuse Him before the Jewish Sanhedrin Council.  At the
very least, they hoped that they could use His answers to turn the
masses of common people against Him.  If they could just turn the
masses against Him they would not bother to make legal charges
against Him.  They would just seize Him and put Him to death.  But
they were afraid to do so at this time, because Jesus was very
popular with the common people that they were afraid of what the
great masses of people would do if they harmed Jesus.

II.  Some of the questions which they asked Jesus

     According to Matthew one of the questions they directed
toward Jesus was: "Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?"  The
word, tribute, as used here means taxes.  If Jesus should say that
it is lawful to pay taxes to the Roman Caesar then they would use
that statement against Him to persuade the masses that He is
worthy of death.  You see at this time the nation of Israel was
under the dominion of the Romans and for that reason virtually all
Jews hated the Romans.  If Jesus should say anything that seemed
to favor the Romans then the scribes and Pharisees would use that
to turn the masses against Him.  On the other hand, if Jesus
should say that it is not lawful to pay taxes to Caesar then they
would go to the Roman authorities and accuse Him of treason
against Caesar.  That would most certainly bring the death
penalty.  They thought they had Jesus trapped either way He would
answer their question.
     But, of course, they just didn't know Jesus.  Jesus just
said, "Bring me a coin."  Then He asked, "Whose image is on the
coin?" They answered, "Caesar's."  Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that
are God's." He had them.  They could not use that against Him
either way.
    Matthew says that the Sadducees joined in and asked Him a
trick question about the resurrection.  Again, Jesus answered in
such a way that His answer could not be used against Him.
    According to Luke they directed many such questions to Him and
thus, we understand that  even Matthew must not have recorded them
all.  Matthew recorded only a few of their questions.
    Matthew does tell us that the final question which they asked
was:  "Which is the great commandment in the law?"  To this
question Jesus answered that the greatest commandment in the law
is:  "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all heart, with all
thy soul and with all thy mind."  Then He went on to tell them
that the second greatest commandment in the law is:  "Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself."  His answer was so good that even
the lawyer who asked the question commended Him on His answer.  So
again they could not use His answer against Him.  They asked Jesus
many trick questions, but there was not one answer that they could
use against Him.

III.  The motive of Jesus in outwitting them

    It was not that Jesus was not willing to let them put Him to
death.  He was willing to be put to death, but He would not be
tricked into dying some way other than which God the Father had
planned.  Neither would He allow them to put Him to death before
the time that God the Father had set.  When the time would come He
would yield into their hands, but He would not be tricked into
dying before the time and He would not be tricked into dying any
other way.  Jesus was not a helpless victim in their hands.  He
was the Master of the situation and He was very much in control.
    God the Father was well aware of the bitterness and hatred
which these men held toward Jesus.  God was not taken by surprise
by their desire to kill Him.  He knew it well in advance even
before Jesus was born and He was able to inspire the Old Testament
prophets to write about it hundreds of years in advance.
    Now God did not in any way cause their hatred and mistreatment
of Jesus.  Yet He would use it in His plan to bring Jesus to the
cross.  He would use the bitterness and hatred which they now
displayed to later result in the arrest, trial and crucifixion of
Jesus.  It was in the permissive will of God that when the time
would come, He would allow them to put His Son, Jesus, to death.
God would intervene only to the point that they would put Him to
in a way that would fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures.  So at
the proper time, even the Father would step back and not prevent
them from bringing about the death of His Son.

IV.  The time when Jesus would allow them to bring about His death

    It was the will of God--yea, it was the plan of God--that His
Son, His only begotten Son, should go to the cross and give His
life and have His blood shed.
    This was the chief purpose for Jesus to be born in human flesh
in the first place.  Jesus was not born just to set a good example
before men.  There is no question that He did set a good example,
because He lived without sin.  But Jesus did not come to the earth
just to set a good example.  No man would ever be able to follow
that example to perfection.  Therefore no man would ever be saved
by following His example.
    Jesus came to shed His blood on the cross that He might suffer
the penalty of the sins of men and so that those who would put
their faith in Him could go free from that penalty.  Every man,
woman, boy and girl in the world has sinned against God.  Every
man, woman, boy and girl in the world needed a Savior.  Therefore
when the right time came Jesus yielded Himself into their hands
and allowed them to persuade the Roman authorities to put Him to
death.  Jesus died on the cross that He might be that Savior for
all mankind.

V.  The sending of the gospel message to the world

     The apostles and other early Christians were saved from their
sin by repenting of their sin and placing their faith in Jesus
Christ as Savior.  They then set about to preach the gospel
message, the good news message, to the whole world.  God also used
them to record the New Testament Scriptures so that we would have
an accurate account of the gospel.
    Down through the years men have heard the gospel and some of
them have been saved from their sin.  Oh, the great majority down
through the years have been like the scribes and Pharisees.  The
great majority have rejected the good news of the gospel and have
rejected Jesus Christ as Savior.  But all who have ever placed
their faith in Jesus Christ have been saved.
    Eventually somebody preached the gospel message here in the
United States of America.  Bro. C. D. Barton preached the gospel
message down in the city of Pensacola, Florida.  About forty-eight
years ago I heard Bro. Barton preach about Jesus Christ and I
called on Jesus and asked Him to save my soul.  Jesus did save me
and now I most gladly preach the message to you.
    Not all of you who are saved were saved under my preaching,
but somebody preached the gospel to you and you, too, called on
Jesus Christ in prayer and you asked Jesus Christ to save your
soul.  Today the greater number of people in this congregation
have already been saved.  Even though the greater number of people
in the world are still lost, the greater number of people here
are saved.  Let me say that those who were saved under the
preaching of somebody else are just as saved as those who were
saved under my preaching.  It is not the preacher who saves;  it
is Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, who saves.
    But even though the great majority of you who are here are
saved, there is the strong possibility that there is one or more
persons here today still lost and on the road to hell.  If you
were to die today, you would go right straight to hell.
    That is why it is so very important that you not take the same
kind of bitter antagonistic attitude toward Jesus Christ as did
those scribes and Pharisees.  That is why that as the Holy Spirit
of God touches your heart in this service today and urges you to
get right with God, you ought to pay the more earnest heed to the
witness of the Holy Spirit.
    Once a man, woman, boy of girl goes to hell then it is forever
too late.  There is no turning back and getting saved after you
are already in the fires of hell.  The only chance that God gives
to you is while you are still living in this world.  If you want
to be saved before it is everlastingly too late then you had
better turn to Jesus Christ and call upon Him while there is time.
There are folks in hell who would give anything in the world to
trade places with you right now.  If they just had an opportunity
to sit where you sit they would waste no time in calling on Jesus
for salvation.  If one of them could just trade places with you
this morning, he wouldn't put off salvation until some other time.
He would be the first one down this aisle and he would trust in
Jesus Christ to save his soul.
    I might add, if you could just trade places with him for just
one minute, you wouldn't waste any more time either.  Once you got
back here you would immediately call on Jesus Christ and ask Him
to save your soul.  You wouldn't hesitate.  You wouldn't care what
anybody else in the world might think.  You wouldn't care if
somebody out yonder in the world laughed at you.  You would be
thrilled to be able to trust Jesus Christ and get saved.

Conclusion:

    I am going to call on our musicians to come forward and to
lead this congregation in the singing of a hymn.  I am also going
to call on you who are lost in your sin who want to be saved to
come and trust Jesus Christ as your Savior.
    If there is someone here this morning who has already been
saved who would like to be baptized and be a member here at
Pleasant Hill I am calling on you to come forward and let your
desire be known.
    There man be Christians here this morning who have long been
considering moving your membership to Pleasant Hill, I am going to
ask you to step right out and come this morning and get this
matter taken care of.