World does not like what Christ said. His claims and His judgment are dismissed, mocked even. Many would like to get rid of Him. Hardness and bitterness is a message from God, calling us to come. (Mark15:13-20; John 5:22-25)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12481
11:00 AM on 3/26/2023

P. Schaller –

Okay. Would you stand please for a moment, and turn to your neighbor and say good to have you here this
morning. He is risen. Okay. Turn in your Bibles, please. This will be a short, good message.
John 5, by God’s grace a good message. Christ’s claims were actually in a world maybe we
could say astronomical. Christ’s claims. Who he said he was and what he did. So, that’s our first
part of our message. I’ll write it down for you.

#1. Christ’s claims. What does that mean? What he claimed he could do. Who he was. His
claims. This is John 5:19 and because of our time we will not be too particular detailed but it
speaks for itself.

What does that mean when he says, “verily, verily I say unto you”? Truly, truly. Another word? I
guarantee you. There’s no contest. There’s no debate about it. It’s a sure thing. Absolutely,
absolutely I tell you. Now, this is something about Christ that other religious leaders did not say
these things. Like Buddha, I found the way that is good for me; maybe it works for you. These
ideas that human beings have.

When Christ is saying guaranteed, without equivocation there’s not a doubt about it. I’m telling
you this is from God. vs. 19. What things? vs. 20. These are the miracles that Christ was doing.
vs. 21. You mean the Father raised Lazarus from the dead and the Son also raises the dead?
vs. 22. Wait a minute. The Father is not judging but the Son is judging? What do you mean
judging?

Have you heard anything recently in our culture about social injustice? Huh? Social injustice.
This is what our country is all about, about making wrong things right in their own mind and
context. There’s another judgment. It’s not a judgment amongst people by people. There’s a
judgment by God. God will judge. God judges. Do you think anybody gets away with murder?
Yes, they do. But there’s a day when God will judge. Oh, wow. Let’s take a break there. Hold it.
God will judge.

Do you think that there’s been a man who has been beating his wife and that he gets away with
it? God will judge. Do you think there’s a child that has been sexually abused? God will judge.
Do you think there’s a world leader who is abusive, maybe violent, maybe producing a war?
Maybe a leader that could as we see in history that’s causes the death of a million people? God
will judge one day. The tyrants, the thieves, the liars, the adulterers. God will judge. You and me.
God will judge. Who will judge? Christ. What a claim.

Christ. You are the judge? I am. My word will judge in the last day, John. 12:47. Now, this is
serious, isn’t it? It’s going to get better. The message is good. Tell you about how much God
loves you. We’ll be getting there in a little bit, but I want to make this point. Follow it with me.
Chapter 5:23-25, wait a minute. The Son of God and his voice and the dead will hear it and they
will be raised and they that hear shall live? vs. 26-28. I do, Lord. I marvel at it. You mean the
Son of God can raise the dead? The Son of God can say I forgive you of your sin? Only God
can forgive sin. Yes, only God. Christ is God. He forgives sin. He raises the dead. He judges at
the last day. He is the dead.

Therefore, because of these claims, then when he was crucified they mocked him. I want to
make that point. Turn with me to Mark 15:16. These are military men, trained soldiers, and now
they can feel it in their group. They feel they have authority. I say they feel it because I’ve been
in a group like that where you can feel the weakness of the victim and the authority and the
strength of the group. You have an advantage. He is weak.

It’s like the shark circling a raft in the water. They can sense the distress. Like in a high school,
maybe a disabled or a child that has a disadvantage and the aggressive strong guys can feel
they have an advantage and they can eat him up. They can destroy him. Especially because in
this scenario here, in this setting, Christ is made incredible claims. Like big ones. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” speaking of his body. But the Jews thought he was speaking of the temple, the actually temple of Solomon or Herod. Herod’s temple. Some of the stones in the temple were the size of buses, 300 tons, and Christ you say you, this itinerant preacher, this Jew that is on the outside of society but you are inside but you are on the outside
and who are you? You are making these great claims and you are misled. You are deluded. You
are deceived. Destroy this temple and in three days you will raise it? I don’t think so.

Now, the band is around him. They’re going to take advantage. vs. 17. They’re really enjoying it
too. Really enjoying it. The guy that says these crazy things is going to be ridiculed and mocked.
We’re going to destroy him. We’re going to crucify him. It’s over. It’s done. We’ve got the
advantage. We’ve got power. We have power.

That’s like the world we live in. The world we live in actually has an anti-Christ spirit. They don’t
like the claims of Christ. You’re going to judge us? Oh, yeah. Oh, you can raise the dead? Never
seen it. You can’t do that. You’re nobody. You’re nothing. And connected with Christ are people
like us, believers in Christ. And we also have weakness. We have weakness in our life.

If you look at Christ in this setting, he rides into the city of Jerusalem a few days earlier on a
donkey. He borrowed the donkey. He didn’t own the donkey. He borrowed it. And the people that
are celebrating his entry into the city as the King of the Jews have no proper protocols for the
entry. They don’t have any money to invest. They tear branches off of trees and take their
clothes and throw them in the way. They’re crying out, “hosanna, hosanna, blessed is he that
comes in the name of the Lord.” That’s the extent of their celebration. And the soldiers and the
Jewish leaders are saying – the Jewish leaders are saying to Pilate, “crucify him.” And the
soldiers are also. They’re going to do it. And that’s how it goes. They don’t like Christ. He is
weak. His followers have no place. They mock him.

Let’s read it, vs. 18. I’ll kind of dramatize that a little bit. Hail, King of the Jews. Yeah, sure. King
of the Jews. The Jews haven’t had a king for about 500 years. They have not had a king. They
have a history of kings, but for 500 years they haven’t had any king and this guy says he’s the
king. It’s a joke. He’s nobody. This guy is nothing. His ways are weak. Jesus’ ways are weak. He
was crucified in weakness, 2 Corinthians 13:4. The weakness of God is stronger than men, 1 Corinthians 1:24.
he’s an example for us.

Cause in him, He is God. He has words. He has authority. God is with him. This is the plan of
God. He is showing us something about the kingdom of God. This kingdom is not like the
kingdoms of the world with strong military guys, a lot of money, lot of preparation, lot of big
conference centers, a lot of politics, a lot of shouting, a lot of yelling, a lot of manipulation, a lot
of pulling strings and doing things. This is different. This is quiet truth. Humble, love. This is God
in the flesh. And he shows us this.

Let’s go to this verse here, vs. 18. Yeah, guys. I know you’re joking about it. You’re laughing
about it. You’re like jeering, mocking. It’s a big joke but you’re right. He is the king of the Jews
and he is the King of all kings for he will overcome death. He will be raised from the dead. He
will be seated on a throne, and he will give power and authority to believers. They will have the
Holy Spirit. They will have the nature of Christ in them. They will not be like the world. They will
be different and they will agree with his claims.

When Christ says I will judge in the last day, the believer says, yes! Christ is coming back and he will judge in the last day. We are his voice. We are here on the earth in his place, but we are also weak. We don’t have the tools. We cannot
convince everybody but we are embracing him and we feel it in our hearts. We love him and
enjoy him because we have been his enemies like these people.

Remember one of the guys in this story, one of the men in the band cause there were four
soldiers that took him to crucify him. One of them was the leader. He was called a centurion. It’s
for that word one hundred. He’s a leader of a hundred men and he was at the crucifixion. He
had seen many people die. He was a soldier over a hundred soldiers and he had experience in soldiery. He had authority. He had experience. He knew what it was. He could crucify people
without a problem.

But when Christ was crucified, he stopped and he made this declaration. He said, “surely, this
was the Son of God” when he saw him die. So, but the time before that was it an hour earlier or
two hours earlier while he was on trial, they were mocking him. Let’s read it.
vs. 19-20. Again. Timothy Keller brings this out in one of his sermons. They mocked him
because they don’t like the claims that he made. The world is something like this. That the world
doesn’t like it when Christ comes into the world and confronts us with our sin. It hardens our
heart and we get angry. And we mock God. We mock the Bible.

We mock the message. We don’t like it. Cause it brings us to a point where maybe I have to admit something. Maybe I have to admit that I am wrong or maybe I have to admit that I don’t know as much as I think I know.
Maybe I just have to admit that maybe Christ is true and I am not. That he is the Christ and I am
wrong. I am guilty before God. If I can’t accept it, it’s very possible my heart gets hard. I get hard
against God. I get hard. I don’t want to hear about it.

I have somebody that I know and they don’t ever want to hear about death. They don’t want to
hear about an overdose. They don’t want to hear about a car accident. They don’t want to hear
about somebody in a hospital. They kind of insulate themselves from bad news. They don’t want
to hear about death. They don’t want to go to a cemetary. They don’t want to hear about how
somebody died or some tragic thing that happened. Hiding our head in the sand of life. That’s
not how you want to live. You want to hear it and be broken and tender and willing and
questioning and searching and finding.

It’s incredible how the world just wants to get rid of Jesus. Get rid of Jesus. It’s amazing. They
want to discredit him. They don’t want to admit it. They just want to get rid of Jesus and make a
joke of Jesus and mock him and make fun. And then I get a, I have a hard heart and I have
difficulties in life. And I can’t understand why life is so hard and why I’m having my difficulty and I
get harder and harder. I get hard against the people I love. My wife. My kids. We stop talking.
I’m angry on the inside. Maybe that anger on the inside is a message to me from God and say
humble yourself. Come to me. I will heal you. I will break your heart. Open you up. I will soften
you. Come to me.

So, let’s read vs. 20. And there he is. If he was the Son of God, this is huge. If he was not the
Son of God, it doesn’t mean anything. If he was not the Son of God, this doesn’t mean anything.
If he was not raised from the dead, it doesn’t mean anything. We are yet in our sin. What I am
preaching is misleading people. If he’s not raised from the dead – there’s a list of things. I think
there’s five of them. Our relatives are dead and in the grave and we will never see them again. If
he was, they are not in heaven. We say they go to heaven, but they are not in heaven if Christ is
not raised from the dead. Our relatives are not in heaven. Our preaching is misleading. Our faith
is in vain and we are all in our sin. Amazing.

Why not jump in and mock him with the rest of the world and say the whole thing is a joke. Go
ahead. People do it. But there’s a reason why you don’t, because it is incredibly convincing,
incredibly true, incredibly real.

You know, I was in Israel a couple years ago and I’ve been there maybe seven or eight times. I
don’t know. I haven’t counted them, but many times I have been in Israel. A good number of
times. I go around the country with a group of people, and we see things that are in the history
of the Jewish people. Jewish people. How do you explain it? How do you explain that?
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob’s twelve sons. Joseph becoming Pharaoh. Moses bringing them
out of Egypt. How do you explain that?

That little piece of a land called Israel. How do you explain it? How do you explain after four
thousand years from Abraham to the present, how do you explain the phenomena of the Jewish
people. How can you explain that? The prophets, the priesthood, the tabernacle, the offerings, the law. How do you explain it. The Christ, John the Baptist, the Christ, the miracles. How can
you explain the Koreans, the Russians, the Chinese that are born again Christians that have
seen the miracles. The hand of God, the Spirit of God in you. The Spirit of God that cries out,
“Abba, Father.” How do you explain it? Christ is raised.

Here’s a good one. In the beginning of Christianity, the Roman Empire had about 75 million
people in it. Israel had about 3 million people. The Jews were thought to be atheists because
the Jews didn’t have any gods. The Greeks had gods. The Romans had gods, but the Jews had
no gods cause they believed in one God that you can’t see him. One God. Monotheistic religion
of Judaism. And Christianity and Islam. They are the three monotheistic religions in the world.
Where did it come from? The Jews.

In the beginning at the time of Christ, right after it was the Jews that believed that Christ was the
Messiah. The tomb is empty like here we see theatrically over here. The tomb is empty. Go see
it. Is the tomb empty? Best way to disprove it is to find the body of Jesus. Put it to rest. He
wasn’t raised from the dead. Can’t find his body. Where’s his body? And a band of incredibly
empowered people at Pentecost preached that he was raised from the dead and they saw him.
They were with him for 40 days. He was coming and going, appearing and disappearing in a
physical body that he could eat food. You could touch him and see him.

And then he ascended up into heaven, and the Holy Spirit came down and now how did it grow?
The Romans said it’s a Jewish religion. It’s a sect of Judaism. They are Jews. They started to be
called Christians. Who are the Christians? They are Jews. But then the Gentiles believed. The
Roman Empire within a hundred years thousands and thousands of people in the Roman
Empire, the pagan temples were empty. The pagan temples were empty. Why are they empty?
Because they are no good. Those gods don’t do anything. They are gods that are jealous and
gods that fight with each other and are after women and gods that are angry and gods that have
love but it’s like a cheap love. It’s like they are gods like human beings are gods. It’s not very
high. But Christianity is so high. It is so humble.

That’s another thing about the Greek gods and the Roman gods which are basically the same
was that they are not humble. The pagan gods are not humble gods. They are violent. They can
be dangerous. They can judge you. They can kill your children. They might want a child sacrifice
and so on. It’s like paganism, paganism is not a good thing. It is Christ that changed the heart.
Christ that came into the heart. It’s Christ that melted the heart.

I love my enemy. I love my wife. How about this one? They started to have one woman in their
life. The Christians would get married and have one woman in their life. That’s not in paganism.
There’s an historical record a woman had 24 husbands. Married twenty four times. Adultery.
Homosexuality. All of this kind of sexual promiscuity and way of life. It was very common, very
popular in the pagan world. How could it change? How could it change? Christ changed it.
The Roman Empire within a couple hundred years it became the official religion of the empire
was Christianity. How can that happen? Wouldn’t you rather have a lot of women in your life if
you are a man? You have a lot of women in your life. Do whatever you want to. Go wherever
you want to. Why would you say one woman? Cause God.

Cause when you live with God, that’s how your heart changes. You start to love people in a real way. Not a cheap way. You start to love like Christ loves. We start to serve. We become humble like Christ was humble.
These big powerful guys, they make a joke of Jesus. They strip him. They beat him. They nail
him to the cross. They bow down and worship him. It’s a big joke. But be careful because he’s
real. And for us, you want that reality in your life. You do. I want Jesus in my heart. I want to
learn from Jesus. I want Jesus in my life.

Have you noticed something about the western world? How the western world reverts back to
paganism. How the western world is all about self-love, about being arrogant, proud, heady,
high-minded. Ever learning but not coming to the knowledge of the truth. I think that needs to be broken down. Ever learning. Always learning. We got our iPhone. Smart phone. Learning. We
have so much knowledge. Learning, learning, learning but not coming to the knowledge of the
truth. What’s the difference? You can learn a lot about chemistry and biology and never find
God.

When I was in college, I remember we were in Chemistry class and you know, a yellow liquid
turned purple. I was just thinking this is amazing. God made this. Why doesn’t the teacher say
God did this? I wondered it in my heart. I wasn’t even a believer. But I say, why can’t you say
God made a whale. God made the stars and the moon. Why can’t you say that? Because we
want to stay away from God. We want to stay away from that thing.

Wait a minute. Maybe that’s the problem with our world and our broken relationships. We don’t
have God. Our broken hearts. We don’t have God. Our arrogance. Our blindness. Why are
women beaten? Why are children abused? Why is everyone in our society crying out, social
injustice! Social injustice! Wait a minute. Do you have any love in your heart? Do you want
justice? But can you love your neighbor? Can you love someone different from you? Can you
love somebody from the other political party or do you want blood? You want to judge. You want
justice. Okay. Justice is coming. You better put your helmet on and get ready. Justice is coming.
You’re talking about social injustice. Wait until you really meet justice. Wait until you really meet
Christ. Wait until you find out how really wrong you are. Yeah.

There’s some story about – I don’t know where it came from. But it’s about Timothy Keller
mentions it. Quoting people and stuff. The idea of having an invisible tape recorder around your
neck. God gives everyone of us an invisible tape recorder around our neck. Every time we judge
somebody, it’s recorded in that recorder. Then, we die. We face God and it’s almost like God
doesn’t have to even judge us. Our own words will judge us on that day. When we judge
somebody with our hard heart, that same judgment is used against me. For I also have said the
same things. I also have judged people without mercy. What about I being judged without
mercy? Huh? Of course.

So, let’s see. I lost my iPad. I think I’ll cut my message a little shorter and just say what do you
think the soldiers were doing when they were handling Jesus? They were taking him down.
They were taking him down because they didn’t want, they resented the claims. They cannot,
we will prove that he is not God. We will nail him to the cross. We will prove that he’s empty. And
as they are kind of pounding on him to take him down, they don’t really know what they are
doing. And he becomes the Rock. You can beat on the Rock. Take the Rock and beat on the
Rock as much as you want and take him down. And on this Rock, I will build my church he said.
This Rock. What Rock? Him.

You know, the church, our name is Greater Grace World Outreach but we are not the Rock. The
Catholic church is the Catholic church. It is not the Rock. Christ is the Rock, 1 Corinthians 10. It says
so. Deuteronomy. Christ is the Rock. What does it mean? It means you take that Rock and you
say you are not the Rock, Jesus. You are not the Rock. You are nothing. You are nobody. We
can take you out. We’re going to nail you to the cross. They drag, they strip him naked and put
him up there. And that’s who you are. That’s who you are. What happens?

On this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. That’s where
we are in our hearts. We are believers who have decided to accept him and trust him. All around
the world, there are people that are in the church that are built on that Rock and hell and all the
power of hell cannot overcome that humility, that truth and that love. Do anything you want with
it. It won’t win.

Now, in our history, we are in an interesting place in our history because the western world is
turning away from Christ. They are turning away from Christ by all means. They are pushing.
They are doing everything they possibly can. But as they go in that direction, the light shines
brighter. The humility is more attractive. The unconditional love is sweet. I want to see it. He is humble washing the feet of his disciples. I want it. Show me it’s real. Show me. Is it real? Is
Christ alive? Show me. Do you believe in him?

We say come and be with us. Humble yourself. Believe in him. Find other believers. Not us.
Find other believers. Pray to God. God will show you. God can lead you. God can answer you.
God is real. He’s a living God. He’s bigger than the world and these soldiers that are doing this
to him are nothing to God. But it’s for our learning and for us to understand who he is. He
showed us who he is, so come to him today. Amen.

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