Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Hello, I'm Josh.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: And I'm Gabriel.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And today on reading the Gospel, we are studying the event, Jesus before the council. This is found in Matthew, chapter 27, verse 1, in Mark, chapter 15, verse 1, and in Luke, chapter 22, verses 66 through 71.
Today we're going to read in Luke beginning in chapter 22 and verse 66. Follow along with us.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: When they came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away to their council. And they said, if you are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, if I.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. So they all said, are you the Son of God then? And he said to them, you say that I am. Then they said, what further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.
So in the last event, where Peter denied Jesus, there was a trial at night. It was the whole council there. Who. Who was at that trial that was.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Not in the building of the council called Sanhedrin.
It was at the high priest's home, private residence.
It seems that he had a large home because he has a courtyard. Some people were there outside, but it seems that was rushed during the night. Maybe not the whole council was called. Maybe that's not an official decision because we see they are formally gathered together and they start the trial from scratch.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
I kind of wonder, and this is just my curiosity, there's no biblical reason for this, but I kind of wonder if, like, Ananias or Nicodemus made their way to the trial in the evening and said, hey, guys, this isn't right. We need to do it in the right way to try to get it in front of the council.
I don't know. I've got no evidence for that. But just a thought that maybe someone stood up and said, yeah, we might have convicted him here, but this doesn't count. We got to go to the real trial.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Or maybe someone had a little bit of remorse and maybe the Holy Spirit was working with one of them and say, that was not right. Let's do it right.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And so they come and they gather before the whole council and they ask, tell us if you're the Christ.
And what was Jesus answer to that question? Are you the Christ?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: Very interesting. It's not a yes or no answer.
And he said, if I tell you, you will not believe.
And if I ask you, you'll not answer. He doesn't say yes or no because technically Jesus Christ was still giving them an opportunity to reason, to maybe discover that their minds being set out to this outcome to kill him no matter what. And maybe something was not right about that. This is how I see otherwise. If Jesus Christ wanted to die in a couple of minutes, he would have said, yes, I am the Christ. So let's go to Calvary.
[00:04:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
So he claims his title, the Son of Man.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: But now, from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.
They ask him if he is the Christ or Messiah, the Anointed One, in Hebrew.
And he says, I am the Son of Man. And this expression, the Son of Man comes from the Book of Daniel, chapter seven, when the Son of Man is coming there at that scene, heavenly scene of judgment. And also it is found in the book of Psalm, chapter 8. The son of man is in connection to the story of creation.
At the same time, the Son of Man is being used interchangeably, but sometimes in contrast with the Son of God. Son of God is focusing on the divine nature of Jesus Christ, and Son of man is focusing primarily on the human nature. Someone who is like us, who can identify without problems, without weaknesses.
This is why when we read this story, we see ourselves in moments when we have been treated unfairly, when we have been accused falsely, or maybe some of us, we have been directly persecuted for our faith.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: And so they're asking if he's the Christ, the Messiah. He calls himself the Son of Man.
And so then they come back with this, are you the Son of God then?
And they're trying to figure this out. I want to go back to the Messiah real quick because this is something.
There were many people calling themselves Messiah, right?
Were the Sanhedrin rounding all them up.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: And crucifying them if they became a threat to their own leadership? Also if the Romans felt that they might start an uprising, a social unrest.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: I think yes, yes, and I'd agree with that. But for the most part, if they're just saying, I'm a Messiah, people are ignoring them. It's when they try to lead a revolt, try to threaten the institutions and everything that are in place.
It's interesting, this question, logic going through, and how they get to the. Are you the Son of God?
[00:06:39] Speaker B: They play with three different concepts.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Which in people's minds might refer to the same person, but technically in their theology, they are still separate. Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of man, and the Son of God.
I would really like to emphasize this idea that Jesus says, from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: What is that moment now? Now on was that very moment when Jesus was in front of the council? Was he at the same time seated in heaven on the right side of the Father?
[00:07:20] Speaker A: So when he goes to the cross and he becomes our Savior, he goes to the grave. When he rises from the grave, he goes back to heaven.
So when he goes back to heaven, there's this coronation to heaven. Daniel chapter seven talks about this coronation up in heaven where Jesus is seated on the throne. And. And I like that description, the right hand of God, but it's the hand of the power of God.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Jesus Christ would be seated later, after resurrection, most likely in the day of Pentecost, according to Peter's sermon, who hints to the coronation of Christ in heaven, who gave gifts as soon as he was enthroned, as kings in the antiquity would give gifts. This is how Jesus Christ gave the gift of the Holy Spirit. So it is weeks later when this reality happens. But Jesus Christ saw it by faith, and he anchored the hope and that future reality which brought him to the present. He's from now on, I'm wondering if this expression contains the seed or the secret of overcoming sin.
When Peter was tempted in the previous episode, he was just anchored in the present. In that space there, looking around, he saw just girl servants and bystanders. It was just a courtyard.
But Jesus Christ saw beyond the leaders, the mob that, you know, the police of the Sanhedrin who arrested him. He saw God and his power. And he was so close to God.
I think that when temptation comes, when the evil one hits us, that should be a moment when you detach from the present and we are above the reality and we see ourselves on the right side of Jesus Christ on that throne, the way he promises to us in Revelation, chapter 3, verse 21.
If we see in heaven, if we see ourselves on the right side of the Father and of Jesus Christ, if we see the outcome of overcoming, we are more likely to grab the power of the Holy Spirit that comes from above and to use it to overcome that very moment, that temptation.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: Yes. And that's the wonderful news. That's the power that God has given us. And God's power. There's nothing in the universe that's stronger. Satan could use himself, all his power, all his evil angels, everything. And God can overcome that with the least amount of stress. And so Jesus sitting at the right hand of God as our mediator, being there and bringing out prayers, our requests, and sharing with the Father. I was there. I walked among them. I know what it's like. I've been human.
I find that beautiful. And it gives us hope that when we go through these hard times, we are able to call on the name of Jesus, the Son of God, and.
And call for help.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Yes. And by faith or in that sanctified imagination, to see ourselves beyond the temptation. And the outcome is overcoming that is being rewarded by Jesus Christ, inviting us to sit next to him.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to transition because the other end of this story is the religious leaders have their theology so warped that here they are killing the very God that they worship.
What lesson can we learn today from this, from these religious leaders? How do we not become like them?
[00:11:46] Speaker B: So we go to church, we sing songs, we might attend a small group, we read the Bible, we listen to a podcast like ours. We have a devotional life. And the purpose of all of this is to create in our minds an image of God and the enemy. Satan, who used to be an angel of light in heaven, rebelled against God and became Satan or the enemy. He portrays a different image of God. And there is a cosmic conflict, a great controversy into these two images of God.
So what is very important is how we read the scripture, what we listen from a sermon or from a podcast or how do we read our devotional.
We should allow the Holy Spirit to build that right picture of God. Because these guys, they developed a bent piece picture of God. It was bent by their socio political expectations. Liberations from the Romans. And they prayed for and they found a couple of Bible verses and they are hoping for talking about a different kind of Messiah. And when the genuine true Messiah came, it was very much different than their image of Messiah. And this is why they missed him even more than that. They confuse him with an enemy and they wanted to annihilate him.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I think oftentimes we make God into an idealistic view of what the perfect human being would be.
And there is a great danger in that because God is not a human being.
I think for me, realizing that I'm always a student, that I'm always going to have more to learn and that I could be wrong on something drives me back to be very careful when it comes to judgment of others.
I don't know how God has led them to where they are in their life. I don't know the journey they're on. And I honestly can't sit here and say my journey is a better journey than theirs. And so knowing that I'm constantly a student, constantly challenging myself by studying the word of God has helped keep me away from this. But I think we need to be very vigilant because I think it is easy to find yourself in a place where you stand on tradition and possibly in that moment tear down God.
Let's pray.
Father God, may we constantly learn of you.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Each and every day as we open your word and we read and we share with others and we pray may you reveal yourself to us.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: And Father when we find ourselves in in places where being where we are being accused by Satan, by others where we are in trials that we don't feel we can get out of may we remember that Christ is sitting at the right hand of power, your power and may we call in the name of Jesus so that Satan's temptations have no power to overcome.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: May we always stand for you in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Sa.
