Yeshua – Who is He?

0:01 We are continuing in our series in the book of Loot today. But before we do, I know many of you are are wondering about the story of, uh, our car accident a couple weeks ago. So I'm gonna share this story and hopefully it will tie in with the message today. Also, I took Ella, our oldest daughter out to California last week in June, the la excuse me, the last week of June. And we went out and visited my sister for a few days, spent a couple days in the, uh, in the Sierra, in Nevadas, uh, in Yosemite area

0:49 as my daughter was preparing to go off to camp. It was another perfect day to tell the story, talking about camps. And, and so my daughter, we were on our way up to the campground. Campground was at the top of a, of a mountain there in, uh, the Sierra Nevadas. And we are going, and we remember very specifically that the email with the delivery instructions for dropping off your child said, do not arrive early. Arrive at 4:00 PM but also don't be late. First of all, I just have to say instructions like that are very difficult.

1:38 You can't be early, But also don't be late. Arrive precisely at 4:00 PM Well, as Steven likes to remark, I arrive precisely when I intend to arrive, which is very rarely at the moment that I intend to arrive. Anyways, we're driving up this mountain. Uh, we're enjoying, I'm telling you, it was Beautiful. I know we're here in Texas and all of us are here in Texas, and we can go look out and we can see Hayes permitting a hundred miles without seeing a bend in the ground. But man, being in mountains is just something that's very different and

2:27 also amazing. So we're in these mountains and, and we're driving up this, this road up this, you know, listen, when you, how many of you have been in a mountain driving on a mountain road, like just one of those side roads? Great. You understand that the roads, there's switchbacks that they turn they off, they're very small, there's very little room for error. So we're driving up the, the side of the mountain, and I, as a good diligent parent as I am, had forgotten to have Ella video call Brittany during lunch because my phone doesn't work up there, because this was the last time that Brittany would be able to see Ella before camp. So I go, oh, I got, by the way, my phone did not work there.

3:13 So we're on the side of the mountain, like two thirds of the way up, and I got a signal and I was like, great video Call mom now. So she's not angry at me. So Ella's in the back seat, she's video talking to, to Brittany. And by the way, it is an, I don't know if you guys ever really think about the amazing time that we live in, but when I was in camp in Israel, I had to use a prepaid phone card and I had to type in like a hundred digits. And if I messed one up, good luck completing your phone call. And then you're like connected across the ocean and, and, and there's such like a distance and you can hear it. Now you're just like on a video call, you're like, oh, it's so good to see you.

4:00 My daughter's on the video call talking to my wife, and we're going around this bin, and we get to this point where the road turns and we're, we're driving and all of a sudden we're driving off the road. And, and you know, I, I hollered for a second, and, but it was at that point it was too late. And so I, I don't know, I don't know how many movies you guys watch, but I watch a lot of movies and I've seen things like this in movies before and

4:48 I thought, uhoh. So we go off the side of the road, we, there's about a three foot drop. We're going down the side of the mountain. Now, thankfully, I will tell you, there's so many miracles that I, I, I just can't even tell them all. But I will tell you, we were in a very large vehicle, uh, which can be a miracle, uh, even though they're gas hogs. Anyways, we're going down the side of the mountain, and I think to myself, I, like, I look in front of us and it's just a clear shot down the mountain, and I think to myself, oh,

5:35 and then all of a sudden there's a, a redwood tree right in front of us. And I, I, after having multiple conversations, I will tell you the very first thought that went through my head, I saw the redwood coming and, and the very first thought that went through my head was, this is the grace of God. It's going to hurt. But this is the grace of God because I, in, in my movie experience, I don't know, maybe I'm, maybe I'm over exaggerating, but in my movie experience, once you pass that first 30, 40, 50 feet and you continue to accelerate, nothing good happens after that.

6:24 And so we, we hit this, we hit this, uh, redwood, and those things are big, by the way. It was a big, big tree. And I see my airbag inflate. I see the center airbag inflate, and I see the driver's airbag inflate, and then I see my sister coming over the seat in between us. And like any good parent, what did I do? Put my arm out. I just want to say that is perhaps the most useless thing you can ever do in a car accident. But I did put my arm out.

7:12 I see my sister hit the airbags and, uh, and she ends up with her head and her shoulders in my lap, and we're stopped and everything kind of comes to a stop, uh, quiet for just a moment. And saber, I, I think it was Saber's first word, she's like, we gotta get outta the car. Also, we watch too many movies because the car blows up right after that. So I'm like, oh, yeah, we gotta get out of the car. So I reached down and I grabbed my sister and I throw her over my shoulder and uh, and she does this nice black flip and ends up in the back seat,

8:00 and she gets out, I get out and, and her husband gets out and, and, and, and then Ella, we, we all get out with, and, and we we're kind of shaken up for a little bit and, and, um, we're down a mountain and so miracle number, whatever, we're on the, there were two carloads of young adults driving immediately behind us, and they were the staff for the campground, not the staff for the, for the, the camp that my daughter was going to, but the staff that made the campground run, if that makes sense. And they, they have already called 9 1 1 by the time we get out and, and,

8:47 and get up there. And, and then they help us because we got a whole bunch of stuff in this vehicle. And can I just tell you how grateful I am that there were some 20 year old boys that I could hand 50 pound suitcases to, to go up the side of the mountain was very helpful. So we unloaded the vehicle, we, we go back and, uh, none of our phones work, by the way, at this moment. None of us have signal. And we're trying to call, we're trying to text, we're trying to do anything, nothing's happening. Finally, the park ranger show up. I feel it felt like in eternity,

9:33 I'm sure it was probably about six or seven to 10 minutes. Uh, the Park Rangers show up, they're talking to us, they assess that nobody is dying at this moment. And so we decide to go up to the campground. The campground is, is a half a mile away. Like I, we could have walked the rest of the way to the campground. I mean, it probably would've been traumatic, but we could have walked. So we load up into these young adults cars, and we, and we go up and, and we get settled. Well, the park Rangers, in the meantime, they've called for an ambulance to come and check us out. And they, they talk to us and they say, well, the ambulance,

10:20 we just got another car accident. We just got another call that somebody, I think it was, they were in a car accident and the person went into cardiac arrest and they said, do you mind if we reallocate the ambulance? And I said, oh, no, by all means, like, take care of the person dying. Like at least none of us are dying at this moment. And, uh, so we we're all sitting around now on the campground. Um, my phone still doesn't work, but I got wifi, so I'm like trying to call through another app and, uh, and I can't get my wife and I, and I, I'm pretty sure I'm starting, it's now, we're an hour and a half or so after the accident, and I'm pretty sure I'm starting to get text messages from people here who have

11:08 heard about it. And I think, I'm thinking to myself, Brittany can't get a call from them because the last thing that I remember was she was on a video call with Ella right before we went down the mountain. Like, in fact, I, to the point that I actually thought she saw us going down the mountain, and I thought she is probably terrified right now. I've been trying to get ahold of her for an hour and a half. So my dad is on the phone with my sister and I said, dad, I need you to call Brittany and just tell her that I'm okay and to answer the phone, because now I'm calling from a landline at the campground. He calls Brittany, and I'm just gonna rag on my dad for just a moment here. He calls Brittany, I'm sure my dad is watching Hi dad.

11:56 He calls Brittany and he says, Ari and Ella are in a, we're in a serious car accident, but they're okay. Brittany calls me up. She goes, you need to tell your dad how to deliver news better than that. She goes, I started freaking out until I heard that they're okay. Anyways, we all go down to, we ended up going to the er, which is an hour and a half drive away. We spent the, well, my sister and her husband spent the night in the er, Ellen and I got dismissed around 10 30. And we went to a hotel. The next day I wake up and I look at Ellen. I said, well, what do you want to do? Do you wanna go to camp or do you wanna go home with me?

12:47 I shake me, he goes, camp like, I wanted to go to camp last night, but you wouldn't let me stay. You had to bring me to the er. And I was like, I just wanted to make sure after a night's sleep, you know what you wanted it to do. So we drive back up the mountain. By the way, talk about getting on a horse when the horse bucks you off. That's an interesting one. We drive back up the mountain and we drop Ella off for camp, and then we head back to San Francisco, my sister and brother-in-law, and I, Uh, I can't tell you how many miracles. I can probably tell you I can count at least five, I think, uh, concerning the car accident, uh, my sister in

13:43 my sister ended up the beat up most out of all of us. Uh, and she's also watching, and so I'm sure I'm getting text messages or, oh, yeah, I am. Oh, no, not from her though. I'm sure I'm getting, I'll get a text message later. You messed up the story, but this is, this is what I have to say. Let me, let me just share one of them. I was, we were sitting around in the ER and I hear my sister, they've got a little curtain in between Ella and me and my sister and her husband. And, uh, and I hear my sister going, clearly I'm not an athletic person, but I did a back flip into the backseat. And, and I said, I said, Saab. I said, yeah,

14:28 I threw you into the backseat. And then I really started to think about the words that came out of my mouth, and I thought, I don't think I could throw Ella into the backseat if I wanted to from the position that I was in. So we started comparing notes and, and I said, I said, she said, well, you know, all of a sudden I'm in the air and I'm looking, and I'm, and I realize I see the redwood in front of, of me, and I'm go, and I know I'm going through the window and I'm gonna hit the redwood. And she said, and then I, I didn't, and I said, well, yeah, you hit the airbags, you hit my airbag, the center airbag in the, in the passenger air, uh, in the driver airbag. And she goes, I did. And then she looks at me and she goes, there was no center airbag. And I said, yeah, I saw her. I, I saw the airbag, I saw my airbag inflate.

15:15 I saw the center one inflate. Like I, I saw, like, I have a very distinct memory of all of this. And she goes, no, it didn't inflate, or there was no airbag. And I said, gimme your pictures. So my sister, if you know her, is very like, she goes back and records everything. So she went back, she had the presence of mind when we, when the car didn't blow up, uh, as I was getting luggage, she went and took pictures of everything. So I'm looking through her pictures and sure enough, there's my airbag, the driver airbag, and no airbag in the middle. And I said, well, I said, I'm telling you, I saw the white of the airbag extend across the entire front dashboard. I said, and I saw you hid it. I said, so I, if it wasn't an airbag, then it must've been something else. And, and,

16:05 and I can only imagine that it was that something else that also helped me lift my sister into the back seat. Uh huh my, anyways, so we, we get back and I, I decide I'm just gonna stay on in, uh, my sister lives in San Francisco. I decided to stay in San Francisco for several days, uh, as kind of as we were all recuperating. But really I wanted to make sure Ella was doing fine at camp and, uh, and didn't need me to come back out. So I stayed in San Francisco, uh, for about three and a half extra days. And during that timeframe, it was just me, my sister,

16:54 and her husband. And I will tell you, I can't remember the last time I had three days, really just me, like even of just me and my sister. Uh, I can't remember the last time. It's probably been 20 years. And he, at the end of the three days, her husband looks at me and goes, wow, I really feel part of the family Now. I I can understand the family dynamic a little bit better. And, uh, and anyways, I I will tell you, it was such a great, great opportunity for me to spend time with my sister. She bought me this great pair of socks, saber, I'm showing everybody the socks. Uh, afterward she told me, she goes, I'm buying you these socks. You have to mention 'em from the stage age. So anyways,

17:44 I tell you all of that, because the grace of God, I don't know, I I can say it's new every morning. It's everlasting. It's, it's, it's the grace of God. Amen. Amen. So let me get into this passage in Luke. I know I just took about 20 minutes of my message time, I'm sorry, of the, of the previous part of the service time. Anyways, we are finishing up the chapter 22 in the book of Luke.

18:32 As always, let me remind you of our context. Luke is writing to Theophilus, uh, to encourage his faith. How do I know that? Because he starts off the book of Luke in chapter one, verses three and four, therefore, your Excellency addressing Theophilus. Since I have carefully investigated all these things from the beginning, it seemed good to me that I too should write you an accurate and ordered narrative. So that, or for the purpose of so that you might know how well-founded or how for sure are the things about which you have been taught. In other words, you've been taught that Yeshua's the Messiah, you believed it. Now let me reinforce what you've already been taught. So he is writing to Theophilus and he writes this whole book. In fact, Luke is, is, uh,

19:20 what is known as the first half of the book and acts as the second half. And we're going to, when we finish Luke, we'll, we'll bridge pretty quickly into acts, and we're gonna have a lot of fun with acts. By the way, I've, I, I'm already beginning to look forward to it, but I don't want to wanna leave Luke behind because there's still a lot for us to learn to glean here. In the last couple chapters throughout the book of Luke, there he presents instances of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. He presents the, the blind coming to, to be able to see. He presents those who are broken with limbs, their, their limbs growing back or being healed. He presents those who are, um,

20:07 living a lifestyle of sin on the outskirts of society, repenting and coming back into the kingdom. In other words, he's presenting these ways in which the people are turn, are turning their lives and drawing their lives closer to being in alignment with the king himself. So while that is happening on earth, the in the heavenly, the kingdom is slowly coming closer, and at one point, the two shall meet, and the kingdom of God will be on earth as it already is in heaven. We talked about Yeshua coming up to Jerusalem, to, to celebrate Matza, also known as Passover. And now he's had the Seder,

20:55 he's been in the garden praying. He, uh, even just as a reminder of what we covered last week, he even told Peter, you're gonna deny me three times. And then after praying in the garden, and, and, and Peter's given this opportunity to acknowledge Yeshua, and he is, he fails at it. I just want to put this in, in context for us. We often don't think of Yeshua as a human being. And why do I know that? Because think about it this way. Yeshua has just been betrayed by one of his 12 closest friends. He knows it's going to lead to death. The one out of the remaining 11 who's always on board to do anything and first to do it and allowed us to do it, shrinks away

21:46 three times. And then Yeshua looks at him when the rooster crows and Peter is overcome with shame. But in that, he tells Peter, don't, you're gonna fail. Last week we learned, fall forward, you're going to fail. But when you do, be sure to come back and strengthen your brothers. Now we come here to Luke chapter 22, verses 63 through 71. Now, the men who were guarding Yeshua began mocking him and beating him. They blindfolded him and kept asking him, saying, prophesy,

22:34 who is the one who hit you and reviling him? They were saying many other things against him. As it became day, the elders of the people gathered together both ruling Kohanim and Torah scholars, and they led him away to their council saying, if you were the ashia, tell us. But Yeshua said to them, if I tell you, you will never believe, and if I ask you, you will never answer. But from now on, the son of man is seated at the right hand of the power of God. Then they all said to him, are you then Ben Elohim, the son of God? And to them, he said, you say that I am. Then they said, what further need do we have for testimony, for we have heard it for ourselves from his own mouth. Yeshua, I just want you to think about this.

23:21 The last thing he saw was Peter denying him, and then he was blindfolded and began to be beaten, saying, prophesy about which one of us it is that's beating you. Tell us my, if I can, if I can be a little bit off color here for just a moment, it, how many of you play blind man's bluff? This is like a, a blind man's bluff with like murderous rage. You know, they're, they're, they're, they're hitting him. They're beating him. Which one of us hit you? Tell me which one hit you. The last thing that he did was prophesy that Peter was going to deny him, and it happened. And they're saying prophesy.

24:07 They missed the prophecy because they can't even see it. And yet they're saying, prophesy. Tell me who hit you. And Yeshuas quiet. He's quiet while he's being mocked. It seems likely to me that the people beating him are the temple guard. It is important to note that Jewish law at this point does not permit the treatment that's described here in Luke 22 as especially because ju uh, Yeshua was yet to be judged as guilty

24:53 Treatment like this flogging was permitted, but it was only permitted for a condemned person. This is before anything has happened. It seems to me therefore that the people beating Yeshua are what we would call or, or are what we are not what we would call pist or those who try to strictly adhere to the law. In fact, actually it's, I I know I mentioned it a couple months ago, but it's important to note that Luke has dropped all reference at this point to Pharisees. Uh, I think it was starting in chapter 19. Now, the, the, the prosecutors of Yeshua have shifted

25:38 his tormentors, Yeshua's tormentors think it should be easy for him to know who's, who's hitting him and beating him. And if he was a prophet, he should be able to say who they are. That's not what a prophet does. By the way, a prophet doesn't utilize the gift for the purpose of satisfying one another's whims. But what is happening at this point is doubt is being cast upon the character of Yeshua and his claim to be Messiah. So let's, let's read on here in verse six,

26:25 starting in 66, as it became day, the elders of the people gathered together both ruling Kohanim and Torah scholars, and they led 'em away to their counsel saying, if you are the Messiah, tell us. But Yeshua said, if I tell you, you will never believe, and if I ask you, you will never answer. But from now on, the son of man is seated at the right hand of the power of God. Then they all said, well, let me, yeah. Then they all said, are you then Ben Elohim, the son of God? And to them, he said, you say that I am. Then they said, what further need do we have for testimony, for we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. Now, what is happening is there's doubt, there's more doubt con being cast concerning the identity of Yeshua.

27:14 And it becomes, what what has happened is there is a physical, a verbal and a spiritual element to this trial that Yeshua is going through. And really, this is only the beginning. It's at daybreak as, as 66 starts as it became day or, uh, in some of your translations, it may say at Daybreak or at dawn, it's the first thing. By the way, the rooster just crowed. And so now the day is breaking. It's very early in the day. They're in the house of the Cohan Gado. And then it says that the elders of the people gather together. This is known as the Sanhedrin. Uh, most of you know that term. Uh, it is a judicial body that was, uh,

28:01 that was there to govern the people. It's very interesting though, when you begin to consult sources, because the name is known and their function is known to a degree, but everything begins to get a little cloudier after that. Uh, it's thought to have consisted of 71 persons. Uh, there's actually a lot of debate as to who presided over the 70, the 71, what they were even able to adjudicate when they would meet. And even if the number was 71, even if the number 71 was truly required for a decision, there's multiple accounts of when the number was 23 or less, or there was a portion and they would make a decision.

28:49 So it's important to note, or it's important to understand that during this time, the, the Sanhedrin were, was made up consisted of both Pharisees and Sadducees. Uh, it's my, it's my thought based upon Luke here. Luke doesn't mention the Pharisees present at this point. He's, he's very careful to note the Kohanim and the Torah scholars or the scribes. And then it says that they gathered together and they went, what does it say? It says they went away to their counsel. They led Yeshua away to their counsel.

29:35 This council may actually be referring to a location in the, the, the temple structure where they would meet, uh, or in Jerusalem where they would meet. It could be that this is a location and not actually a term, uh, for all of the council, if that makes sense. Uh, in fact, there's quite a few scholars who, who say that that's what Luke is attempting to indicate is the location. In fact, it, it's also, it's also important for us to understand that Herod King Herod the great, well, I don't, I don't know if we should call him the great, but anyways, king Herod, you know him as Herod the Great,

30:21 he convened a council of Sanhedrin of his own years before, according to Josephus. And they, their purpose was to try and condemn Herod's sons for sedition, which they did. And the council consisted of Herod's own relatives and the provincial governors. You can find that in the, in the Jewish encyclopedia. In other words, the body existed, but the co the consistency of the body rotated. Does that make sense? So Herod utilized the body, or a body called that Josephus refers to as the Sanhedrin to condemn his own sons to death.

31:07 And Josephus says, the, the body consisted of Herod's relatives and the provincial governors, which to me actually takes it out of the priesthood and the Pharisees and the statue accuses. So it seems like there's some, the, this, the, the utilization of the term Sanhedrin is loose. The purpose of this gathering here in Luke 22 is to submit an accusation before Pilate so that Pilate can carry out the necessary judgment, which is at this point, it's predetermined to be death. They say, if you are the Messiah, tell us.

31:55 I don't know if you've ever had someone who heckles you, and they say, if you this, just tell me Yeshua's response is the best response. If I tell you, you wouldn't believe me, and if I asked you who you thought I was, you wouldn't even say, because the person's not there to understand. The person is there to heckle or to make a point their own point. Yeshua, I I I, I don't know about, about y'all, but when you, when I read the scripture, yes, especially as we've been reading through Acts, uh, through Luke so far, Yeshua is

32:41 so good at determining on the fly the character of those who are asking questions, and he's able to address the issue. And he rarely, rarely answers the question. He always has these words which speak to the heart of the matter. If I tell you, you won't believe, you'll never believe. Why won't they believe? Because they've just gone through this charade of making sure to arrest him in the middle of the night and bring him before a court at daybreak. You know, when the sun rises, I just wanna point out it's a holiday.

33:27 The sun is rising, which means it's dawn, which means it's very early. It seems to me unlikely that the full court could be at hand for a trial. I'm sure that they have some number. In fact, I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago that, uh, when, when talking about coming to the high priests home that already just coming to the high priests home, they had six that potentially would've been on the council at that time. They had Ananias Caiaphas, and then Caiaphas had five brother-in-laws who were the sons of Ananias, who ended up serving as high priests over the next 10 to 15

34:14 years, one of whom is named Theophilus. That's another discussion, but you can, you can probably rightly derive to whom I think this book is addressed. If you believe, if I tell you, you'll never believe they did this, what, what some people call a kangaroo court, they assembled all of this to, for the purpose of having a trial. But can I, can I just tell you the purpose of having a trial is to determine whether

34:59 someone is guilty or not. They've come in already determined that he's guilty. They're not looking for a trial. They're looking for an executioner who's willing to do it, who's willing to, to do that. They've predetermined his guilt and the necessary penalty. Do you understand what that means? They've gone through everything. They've, they've, they've had a trial without having a trial. They've examined their own witnesses. They've, they've gone through everything in their own minds. They've refuted everything. By the way, this happens all the time with people who don't believe the issue was the Messiah. I've gone through everything. I've examined everything I've predetermined

35:47 that I won't be open to the possibility that he is who he says he is, because if you say I'm open to the possibility, it changes the conversation. At this point, they're not open to the possibility that he is who he says he is. In fact, they're not open to the point that they have already tried him, convicted him, found him guilty, and sentence him to death. And he knows, if I tell you, you won't believe me, and if I ask you, you'll never answer. Why won't they answer him? Because he knows that. They won't admit,

36:36 they won't take a side on it. Why? Because they have failed to arrest him in front of the crowd during the day. And so if they choose to go against him, now that it's daybreak, the crowd will assemble against them and they'll lose their position. All of this points to the illegality of their actions concerning him and his trial. But actually, it could be that they did the legal things. I I don't know if you guys have ever realized this, but you can follow the law and be wrong.

37:25 You can do everything that the law requires, and it's still wrong. I'm not talking about the law in terms of the Torah. I'm talking about the, the judicial law. Even in our country today. You can follow the, the law to the letter, and you can still be wrong. It can be the wrong thing to do. Now, I'm not telling you to go out and break the law. I'm just telling you that there are certain cases and the, and the law isn't built to handle those, But there are certain cases where you can follow the law every step of the way, and you still have done wrong.

38:11 If I tell you, you will never believe, and if I ask you, you'll never answer. I imagine at this point he, there's a dramatic pause and there's quiet, and then he says, but from now on, the son of man is seated at the right hand of the power of God. Just in case you're unfamiliar. I want to point out what Yeshua is doing. He's connecting us to two other scriptures, one of which I read at the beginning of service Psalm 110. He's also connecting us to Daniel chapter seven, and I've mentioned this before in Daniel chapter seven. It says this, Daniel seven 13 and 14, I was watching in the night visions behold one like a son of

38:57 man, this is where the title son of man comes from. One like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was brought into his presence, dominion, glory and sovereignty were given to him that all people's nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will never pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed. That's what Daniel seven says in the context of the son of man,

39:42 the title Son of man, we often mistake to think it's referring to Yeshua's humanity. He was, he was like Adam, he was a son of man when actually Dr. Daniel Boran points out that it actually because of this, uh, reference in Daniel chapter seven, that during the time of Yeshua, it had come to describe a divine figure. In other words, the Messiah, whose kingdom would be eternal in order to have an eternal kingdom, you, you have to be eternal. Uh, I don't, I know some of us don't do so well with math, but if there's an eternal kingdom, it can't be David who sits on the throne because David's dead. Solomon is dead, their children are dead.

40:32 All of them have experienced death. But if it's an eternal kingdom, it's gotta be someone who's eternal to sit on the kingdom, on the, uh, as king forever. And he's also referencing Psalm one 10, which I read this morning, a psalm of David Otto Nai declares to my Lord, sit at my right hand. By the way, this is a Psalm of David just, just to note a psalm of David, the the Lord Otto Nai. So this is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob says, to my Lord, David is king of God's chosen people and their kingdom. And David says that the Lord said to my Lord, do you see the, the, the difficulty here? If David is king,

41:20 who's his Lord, but the Lord, the the Lord, I know when we change, when we use the word the Lord all the time, it, it, it, it, it becomes confusing. That's why I said, Otai the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob declares to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. I I, I read it this morning. Maybe I'll, let me just keep reading it here. Otai will extend your mighty rod from Zion rule in the midst of your enemies, your people will be a free will offering in the, in a day of your power and holy splendor from Don's womb, yours is the dew of your youth. Otai has sworn and will not change his mind.

42:09 You are a cohan or a priest forever according to the order of Melzack. You see, this is the same connection with Yeshua that we talk about. My Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of his wrath. He will judge among the nations heaping up corpses. He will crush heads over the entire land. He will drink from a stream along the way, so his head will be exalted. You know, I I mentioned two weeks ago that there is one who would bruise the heel of the Messiah, but he would crush the head. You see it again, echoed in this, in this context, we're looking at a ruler who is the Messiah. And in particular, it's very interesting.

42:56 I know I say this often, but when, when Yeshua, when you read in the New Testament and you read Yeshua or someone else quoting a scripture, it's always helpful to read either the words that preceded or the words that follow, because often there's a subtle undertone to what is being said. So listen to this. Yeshua says, uh, let's see, the son of man is seated at the right hand of the power of God. What's the next statement in Salton one 10? Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. I just can imagine Yeshua, not that the people across from him were his enemies,

43:43 but they had placed themselves in an enemy position against Yeshua. And now he's saying, do you understand what's going to happen? Then they said to him again, they understand what's going on. They said to him, are you then Ben Elohim or the the son of God? I wanna stop here and point out, this is the third time in just about as many verses that we have a, a, a title given to the Messiah. We have the Macia, we have the Son of Man, and now we have Ben Elohim or the Son of God again. Dr. Daniel Boran informs us that the son of God term is a term that's used to

44:32 refer to the Davidic King, the rightful error of the Son of David in terms of kingship, the anointed earthly king of Israel, David Solomon and so on. They were all anointed to become king. What does mean? It means anointed one. So on in a, in a small context, they were the messiah of their generation. And, and don't I, I don't mean to be taken out of context here. They weren't the Messiah, but they served the role of the, the anointed one in terms of the kingship or the governance of the people of God. And every king of Israel was anointed for this purpose,

45:17 for the rulership of the people of Israel. So my question is, is are you then been Elohim? Are they asking a question to Yeshua, being referred to as the King of Israel and not the way we always think about it? Are you the son of God? Because if they are saying, are you the king of Israel? Again, put yourself into the time of Yeshua and imagine the implications of that statement. Yeshua's response to them is this, and to them, he said, you say that I am. For, for us. It sounds so well, that's what you said, but I want you to understand that's that's not if, if if we were to use colloquial engli English,

46:06 the NIV actually gets the force of this indirect reply better. You are right in saying that I am. You understand the power of that statement. It's much more than well, you say I am, but you are right in saying that I am Ben Elohim, the king of Israel, the son of God. You see their reaction, their reaction is immediate. What further need do we have for testimony? He's condemned it. He's condemned himself from his own lips. We've heard it ourselves from his own mouth. It's enough. What's enough? The accusation to be brought before Pilate,

46:56 which we see in chapter 23. What is the accusation? What we see in chapter 23? Uh, Hold on, I I messed up my notes here in chapter 23, we see this, the accusation is we found this fellow to be subverting our nation. He's a rebel, more importantly, a rebel leader. He's forbidding payment of taxes to Caesar. So now he's threatening the position of Caesar and saying that he himself is Messiah, a king. You see, here's the, the real punch.

47:43 He is the king of Israel. That's the accusation. And in fact, the accusation that gets printed well or scribed and, and put above him is that this is the king of the Jews. You see that in the end of chapter 23, according to Luke. Now, I, the, I recognize the other gospels have other details that can be pertinent to this, but according to Luke reading it this way, the conviction that they were able to get had to do with politics. It had to do with who is going to going to be king? Who is in charge of the people. Now,

48:29 it's a political challenge to declare the Yeshua is the ruler of the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, when the nation of Israel was under the rulership of Rome, underneath Caesar, but also underneath the stewardship of, of Pilate. So you can see immediately everybody who's threatened here, Caesar, Pilate, Herod, all of tho all of whom are political opponents or could be skewed as political opponents. And where did they take him after the preliminary hearing, they take him to Pilate, who's the political representative of Har uh, of, of, um, Caesar. Thank you. And then after Pilate,

49:18 they take him straight to Herod. They're like, somebody give us a conviction. He's threatening. He's the king of Israel. This is Herod the great son Herod, by the way. And, and he would, he would at least probably not overtly challenge Rome, but he would have inherently within him, my dad was the king of Israel, the last king of Israel. Therefore, I am the king of Israel, even if he wasn't bold enough to proclaim that before Caesar. So you can see the stakes that are being aligned here. And pilot states in 23 that Yeshua's brought before him, pilot, pilot just summarizes it all and says,

50:04 you brought him before me on the charge of subverting the people. In other words, rebellion. And actually Pilate finds him innocent to begin with. But that's, that's for another message. I, this battle that we just looked at here at the end of chapter 23. Chapter 23 represents a battle of casting doubt concerning the identity of Yeshua. It's a physical, a verbal, and a spiritual trial for him and his followers if you really begin to think about it, because his followers model their lives after him. And yet, this is not the fullness of the suffering that Yeshua will experience. We'll get to that in another message,

50:51 but this is how I want to leave it for us. So what does this mean for us? Lemme take away a couple principles. Yeshua was abandoned and beaten. Do we feel abandoned by others? To whom do we look for comfort and companionship? How do we be? How do we act? How do we behave when we abandon others in their time of need? You see, so often we put ourselves in, in the, in the Role of the hero of the story or in this case, in, in Yeshua. The reality is we're more often like Peter or perhaps even

51:37 Judas, that's really who we're more often like very rarely are we like Yeshua and the one who's being obedient unto all things. So how do we beha, how do we act or behave when we abandon others in their time of need? Am I suffering from my faith in Yeshua or this is a challenging question? Or am I suffering because I made a dumb choice and am now experiencing the consequences of my choice? I think too often we equate suffering because of our faith in Yeshua with the fact that we made a stupid choice. And my kids are probably at home going, Ooh, he said, stupid and dumb from the stage. It's the reality.

52:27 We're people, we make dumb choices. And the other reality is not always, but often God lets us experience the consequences of those choices. Can we withstand verbal and spiritual trials to our faith? When the doubts creep in, I say, when, not if, because it's always a win. If you are, if you have faith in Yeshua's the Messiah, when the doubts creep in, where will we find our reassurance? It is only in the depth of our relationship with Yeshua and our confidence and the reality of who he is, that we can be confident

53:14 in our own choices and our own lives. It's only in him that we can become confident. It's not apart from him. So if our relationship with Yeshua is shallow, then our confidence in our choices and our everything that's happened in our lives should be shallow, in fact, should be weak and unsteady. We see in Psalm 34, verse seven and eight and 23, the poor man cried and the Lord heard and saved him out of all of his troubles, the angel of Adonai in camps around those who fear him and delivers them. The Lord redeems the soul of his servants. No one who takes refuge in him will be held guilty.

54:02 How do we take refuge in the Lord? We seek Yeshua first. This is how we find refuge in the Lord. Who is Yeshua? This passage declares Yeshua is the Messiah, the promise deliverer of Israel. He is the son of man, the one sitting at the right hand of the ancient of days. He is Ben Elohim, the son of God, the one and only king of Israel, whose kingdom shall have no end. Think about how this must have encouraged Theophilus faith to know that Yeshua is the promised Messiah, the divine ruler and the physical king of Israel. It's as if he's going down a mountainside

54:51 and the tree is there and he recognizes that the God's grace is sufficient for each of us. Everyone has their own stories. Some of us it takes too many stories. Some of us are a little bit more challenging and and God recognizes it. And so he puts like a battalion of angels and then they have to tag out because they're weary from how put to work they are. But I want you to know, I am confident

55:36 it didn't take a car accident for me to be confident, but I am confident, and I'm even more so now, I'm, I'm even further strengthened because I know God's grace and his mercies are sufficient. He is the provider for us. Yeshua is the Messiah. Yeshua is the divine ruler. Yeshua is the king of Israel, and he's just waiting for us to acknowledge that for us to acknowledge him and welcome him back. For all of Israel to say Barba emai blessed. It is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and Yeshua will be here and his kingdom will be here on

56:24 earth as it already is in heaven. Do you understand the reality? It's not that Yeshua is going to be the Messiah or he is going to be the divine ruler or he is going to be king of Israel. He is all of those things. It's whether or not we turn to him and acknowledge it, and the longer it takes for us to to turn is the longer it takes for him to return. So if you get discouraged, that Yeshua's not back yet, that's on us because he requires us to turn to him.

57:10 And if you get discouraged because of the politics that you see in America or in Israel today, that's not who he is. He doesn't even bat an eye to challenge those people. Why? Because he already is king. He already is the ruler sitting at the right hand of God. He already is the Messiah. He doesn't need any political party to acknowledge that he doesn't need anybody to, well, no, he needs all of us to acknowledge it, but their, their rulership in Israel and in America and in any other country where there's

57:57 pol politics, by the way, that's every country in the world. There will be a day when Yeshua sits upon the throne and every nation, every tongue, every tribe will come and confess that Yeshua is Lord. Amen. Let us hasten that day, Avin Shama, our Father in heaven. Lord, we thank you for this day that you have given us. Lord, I thank you for your grace and your mercies that are new each and every morning.

58:44 Lord, I thank you for how you continue to intervene in our daily lives to make yourself known. Lord, I pray that for those of us who struggle to know you, struggle to know that Yeshua is the Messiah. Lord, I pray that you would speak to those people today, Lord, if there is anyone here at sitting in that position, Lord, I ask that you would reveal Yeshua, that you would pause time at this moment and reveal Yeshua as their Messiah, Lord, so that we can draw closer to you,

59:29 closer to the day when Yeshu will sit upon his throne in Jerusalem. Lord, we bless you and praise you in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua. Amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace

1:00:33 in the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.