The Attempts on the Life of Jesus

Alright, good afternoon, everyone. Happy Sabbath to all of you. Good to see everyone here today. I think I'm going to go ahead and put this on just because I understand the sound is better when we do. Thanks very much, Alan and Mark, for the special music. It was beautiful. Acoustics always amaze me. You know, when you think of just that little wood-sounding board on a cello or on a violin and the amount of sound that they can put out, it's really amazing. And also a very beautiful piece of music.

Well, storytelling over the course of the years, going back really all the way through the history of it, and one of the arts that people have really worked on, and whether it's plays, whether it's sitting around a campfire telling a story, whether it's movies.

Different types of stories are very popular to be told and often retold. Nowadays, people are saying that a lot of the movies that we have that come out of Hollywood are actually remakes of old films, because people have kind of grown tired in the creative process and stopped coming up with new ideas. And to a certain extent, I think that's true. I'm not a huge movie buff myself, but I know there have been a large number of either remakes or sequels that come out in all the different stories. One of the most enduring types of stories that we hear a lot and see a lot in all these different forms of entertainment are mysteries. How many people like a good mystery? There's something about it that just gets people intrigued, isn't it? And when you think back, Edgar Allan Poe, going back through history, back to the 1800s, probably would have been among the first mystery writers. In his case, he was writing about some pretty dark topics. If any of you have read, for example, the Tell-Tale Heart. Does anyone remember that story about hearing the heart beating in the middle of the night after a person had committed a murder and all the ways that that person's conscience came back to them after that? Not long after that, probably 20 years or so after Edgar Allan Poe was the great series of Sherlock Holmes stories. I remember as a kid loving to read Sherlock Holmes in the way that he would deduce all the different things that came up. I think there have been probably four or five different iterations of television shows and movies and other things all around Sherlock Holmes. And people love the twists and turns in these plots. I remember as a kid seeing the old FBI television series. Some of you probably remember that. Adam 12, more recently Law and Order, CSI. Movies like The Fugitive, which itself got made originally back in the 1960s and then got remade in the 1980s. It was actually based on a true story of a case that was never, in a lot of people's opinions, definitively figured out in terms of who did it. But we love a mystery, and one of the things that these mystery stories teach us, whether it's a real-life case for these stories that we might like to hear or read or watch, is that there's usually more to the story than what we see on the surface. And usually there's an event that happens in these mysteries more often than not. It's somebody who comes to a tragic end. Other times there's mysteries where you're searching for something. But typically, that mystery has a long tail on it.

You have to search back through the course of time and all the twists and turns to understand what really happened. Certainly the most famous death that's ever occurred in the world is one that we'll be thinking about a lot more seriously over the course of the next few weeks. As we think about it, I was just looking at the calendar. It's just over six weeks, believe it or not, until the Passover. And we talk about the fact that the weather is unseasonably warm, which it is. But as we're starting to get towards March in the upcoming week, it's not too unusual that we'd start seeing buds on the trees and seeing some birds in the air, and seeing the Passover season starting to come upon us. What I'd like to do as we start to move in towards the Passover season is look at the story of the death of Jesus Christ. Oh. It's one special thing about electronics. You have to turn them on.

There we go. That should be better, I hope.

Alright. So, what I'd like to do today is spend some time around a longer story about the death of Jesus Christ. And let me start by asking a question, and just to see who would speculate different numbers. How many attempts were there on the life of Jesus Christ? How many would say one or two?

How many would say three or four? How many would say five or six?

Alright. So, we're kind of spread out over the distribution here. So good. The answer is actually six, from what I found. You could claim, perhaps, a few others, but the answer I found was six, and I'll go through those. And I'd like to spend some time going through each one of those, because actually when we look at the last attempt on his life, which is his actual crucifixion, we'll see how all of these other events come together, and how at the end of his life, Jesus was truly isolated, and on his own, when he died that death for us. Turn with me, if you will, as a starting point to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. This is a very well-known messianic prophecy that sits in the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah, talking about Jesus Christ. I'd like to focus on one portion of what this prophecy says about him. Isaiah 53, we'll start in verse 1, says, Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. So as we move through these different stories, these events in the life of Jesus Christ, as there were attempts on his life, I'd like to reflect on what's written here about him in this prophecy, especially in verse 3, the fact that he was despised and rejected by men, and he was a man of sorrows and someone acquainted with grief. Certainly we know that Jesus Christ had a sense of humor. He was a regular human being in many ways, but the point being made here in this prophecy, and as we'll see, is he did live a difficult life, as he was being sought after, as he was being oppressed, and as he was working through many difficult challenges and truly griefs and sorrows in his life. So let's start by looking at the first attempt on his life. So if you think about the life of Jesus Christ, I'll just ask you, how old do you think he was when the first attempt was made on his life?

Let's turn to Matthew 2. He's actually extremely young in his life. If we remember, after he was born, it was only two years old, within the first couple years of his life, that his family transported him to Egypt in order to avoid him being killed by Herod. So let's turn to Matthew 2, and we'll read starting in verse 1.

Matthew 2, verse 1. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him. Let's pause there for a minute, because there's a lot that goes into these verses that we should think about. Now we've probably heard the name Herod a few times. We've heard probably a few things said about him. But a couple of things I'd like to point out about Herod that I think are especially interesting in this context.

First of all, Herod, even though he was part of the Roman ruling governmental authority, was not a Roman. He was an Edomite. Edomites were people who had grown up in that area of the Middle East, and back in the second century BC, the Edomites had converted to Judaism. So Herod would have been somebody who grew up understanding the customs, the practices of the Jews, and probably like anybody else who grew up in that society, in that culture, he would have grown up learning the Old Testament scriptures.

And so he was actually somebody, even though he was part of the governing Roman ruling establishment, he was somebody who even in some ways was considered by his peers to be a practicing Jew. There's an interesting quote, and we'll talk in a moment about his ruthlessness, actually killed three of his sons. One of his contemporaries back in Rome said, I would rather be Herod's pig than be his son, implying the fact that Herod wouldn't kill a pig because he kept clean and unclean meats, or kosher as the Jews might have called it at that time, and would have treated his pig better than he would have treated one of his own sons.

Now, as somebody who grew up understanding the Jewish scriptures, Herod also would not have been ignorant of messianic prophecies. And so it's interesting here in these early passages in Matthew, where it talks in this passage about Jesus Christ being the king of the Jews, because the actual title that Herod carried, governmentally, was king of the Jews.

Because he was in that position, he was ruling over the area of Judea for the Roman Empire. So when you think of it from Herod's position, even before we get into his paranoia, his violence, his jealousy, and all the other problems that he had, he was somebody who would have been concerned if somebody else came along who was prophesied to become the king of the Jews. It would have been a threat to his own power, somebody who would be there to supplant him.

Another interesting thing about Herod was that he had extremely strong political connections. So he knew personally and was very close with some of the Roman rulers of that time. So we've heard the stories of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Mark Antony came with the Romans to the Middle East, met Cleopatra, made her his queen, and eventually had designs on the throne. Mark Antony was a very close friend with Herod.

Julius Caesar knew him well and showed him favor. And eventually Octavian, who became Caesar Augustus, was somebody who was also very close with Herod, and in fact returned to Herod a lot of the lands that had been seized from him, I believe, by Mark Antony. And then lastly Agrippa, who was one of the great generals, and closely allied with Augustus. All of these people were close personal friends of Herod. So this Herod, who was coming after Jesus Christ, was about as powerful as you were going to get within that theater, within that area of the Middle East.

He had complete and absolute and total control. He was known for his building projects. In fact, the temple that he built, he rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, because he wanted to make it the most splendid thing that there was, and built a lot of other really impressive edifices all around that part of the Middle East. But that was not all that there was to Herod. Reading briefly from Encyclopedia Britannica, it says, Unfortunately there was a dark and cruel streak in Herod's character that showed itself increasingly as he grew older.

His mental instability, moreover, was fed by the intrigue and deception that went on within his own family. Despite his affection for Mariame, who was his wife, he was prone to violent attacks of jealousy. His sister Salome made good use of his natural suspicions and poisoned his mind against his wife in order to wreck their union. In the end, Herod murdered Mariame, her two sons, her brother, her grandfather, and her mother, a woman of the vilest stamp who had often aided his sister Salome's schemes.

Besides Doris and Mariame, Herod had eight other wives and had children by six of them. He had fourteen children in total. So, when we find out then about Herod, we've got somebody who's a pretty complex and ruthless person. You can read some things, actually, in history books and other places that speculate even about his psychological condition. Because he would go through these bouts where he would have incredible bouts of violence, he would kill all kinds of people, and then he would take a pause and he would build these incredible buildings.

Almost as though he was trying to atone for or felt bad for what he had done. And then he'd fall back into these bouts of, whether it was depression or schizophrenia or whatever it was that plagued him, and again have these brutal bouts where he would kill people, sometimes as we read here, members of his own family. So, this is the person who was ruling in this area, who held the temporal title of King of the Jews, when Jesus Christ was born, the prophesied King of the Jews.

And so in verse 3, when Herod heard all these things, going back again to Matthew 2, when he had heard all these things about the birth of Jesus Christ and the prophecies about him, he was troubled. And that's probably an understatement, as well as the next sentence, that all of Jerusalem was troubled with him. When you've got a guy ruling who's like this and he's troubled, and you're a citizen in that area, you're going to feel troubled as well, because you don't know how he's going to lash out.

So he gathered all the chief priests and the scribes of the people together, and he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And so they told him, in verse 5, Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it's been written by the prophet, But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

And then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men determined for them what time the star appeared, And he set them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search carefully for the young child, And when you found him, bring back word to me, so I can come and worship him too. Of course, we know that's a ruse. He wants to know where he is, so that he can take care of business. And in verse 9, when they heard the king, they departed, and behold, the star which they had seen in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy, And when they had come into the house, they saw the young child, and fell down and worshipped him, And they opened their treasures, and they presented gifts to him, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And then they were divinely warned in verse 12, that they should not return to Herod, so that they wouldn't tip Herod off to where Jesus Christ was, so they departed for their own country.

And after that, in verse 13, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and stay there, until I bring you word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. And when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and they departed for Egypt, and were there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt, I called my son.

And then Herod, when he saw he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry. And he sent forth, and he put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem, and in all of its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time that was determined from the wise men. And then was fulfilled, what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Rama, Lamentation, weeping, and great morning, Rachel, weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.

It's an incredibly brutal thing, even for a person like Herod, to go, and wanting to make sure that there was not going to be anyone to supplant him as king of the Jews, and killing all the young boys, age two and under.

So this one was a real predetermined act, this attempt on the life of Jesus Christ. You can see how Herod thought through it very carefully. He knew the area of the country where Jesus Christ would have been born. He hoped, probably, that he would be there.

He thought carefully about the age of children that would be involved, and he dispatched his soldiers to take care of that and to kill all of those children. Now, there are different estimates out there of how many children were killed. I've seen some as high as 10,000 or 14,000, but the most credible estimates that I can see is it was probably 20 or less who were killed.

The population of these areas wasn't as large as we think of today, when we think of cities and towns. Most of the estimates that I've seen is this area, a larger area of Bethlehem, might have been populated by 300 to 400 people. The estimates I've seen have been that there were probably 20 or less, some sources, say, even as little as five or six children that would have been murdered in this act. Again, even one is a bad thing, and it's not to minimize at all what happened, but just as an idea to give a little bit of perspective.

There's no credible or surviving historical narrative that would tell us exactly how much it was. So a couple things that we see here, though, on this first attempt on the life of Jesus Christ. Number one, it was premeditated. It was very carefully thought out, and it came from the highest levels of authority.

So we look at the life that Jesus Christ led, and right from the very first years of his life, the one thing that he knew was that he would not be able to count on the physical authorities, the governmental authorities that were around him, to guard his life. In fact, in many cases, he could count on them trying to do the opposite and to kill him. Despite all of it, though, God protected him, and he saw him through this attempt.

But imagine if you knew, and it was in your consciousness from age two, that you fled, and that even the authorities would do nothing for you, and in fact, might kill you if they found you. It leads you to a different type of life, a different type of viewpoint on how you view everything that's going on in your life.

Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Think also about the disruption on his family.

This was not a time, like today, where some families will move around, sometimes thousands of miles, speaking from personal experience, and live in different places over the course of their lives. In society at that time, often people didn't stray very far, really, from the small town that they grew up in. A lot of these towns would kind of grow and just be extended families and clans.

And yet his family picked up, because of this threat on his life, and hoofed it all the way out, not even to another part of their cultural area, being Jewish, but all the way out to Egypt in order to find shelter. So that was the first attempt on Jesus' life. Think of what you might consider the second attempt. And this is, as a hint, right as he was getting ready to start his ministry. Second attempt on his life.

Turn to Luke 4 with me, please. And we might not always think about it this way as an attempt on his life, but this account is the temptation of Jesus Christ, where he goes out into the desert, and after he's fasted, he's being tempted by Satan. And as we'll read in this passage, Satan did try to kill him, and certainly would have liked to kill him if he could have. We'll start in Luke 4 and verse 1.

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordaners, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and he was tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing, and afterward, when they ended, he was hungry. Another one of the famous understatements of the Bible.

And in verse 9, Satan brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, He will give his angels charge over you to keep you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered and said to him, It's been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. So whether physically, or whether in a vision, Satan brought Jesus to this very highest point in Jerusalem, the pinnacle of the temple, where there would have been the largest drop-off on that side of the temple, and encouraged him to throw himself off from it. Wanting nothing better, I'm sure, than to see Jesus Christ die. Again, this was a premeditated, predetermined act, and it was one from somebody who held a great deal of authority.

We see Satan as somebody who's given a certain level of authority here on the earth by God. And we see accounts like in Job, where Satan even appears before God, and God gives him permission at times to do certain things on this earth. So Satan is a powerful being, one that we're told that we need not to fear, but we should understand and respect his power.

And Jesus Christ overcame that power by tying himself to the word of God, and through God's Spirit, remaining close to God and attached to him. And he resisted this temptation, he resisted this attempt by Satan to destroy him and destroy his mission on earth. So again, in this second attempt on his life, it's God or Jesus Christ against somebody who has a great deal of power on the earth. Not necessarily power over him, but a lot of power and sway.

And as we go through the different accounts of Jesus Christ's life, if you read through the Gospels, you can see how many times he encountered people who were troubled and possessed by demons, and different other demonic, satanic type of activity that happened that he encountered throughout his entire ministry.

And so, as he was going through his life, as he was starting this case into his ministry, he was conscious that he had to be wary not only of the physical powers, the government that was in place at the time, but that there was a devil walking around like a roaring lion, as we read in 1 Peter 5, that would certainly seek to devour and destroy him.

But, like we read in the first attempt on his life, God saw him through this attempt, and sustained him, and brought him through it. He protected him.

Let's stay in Luke, and in fact, we'll stay in Luke 4, and we'll go to the next incident of people trying to destroy or kill Jesus Christ.

Now, this one's a little different from the first two, because it comes directly from the people.

And it had to have been a hurtful one for Jesus Christ as well, because it came from people he knew.

So let's read in verses 16 through 30 the story of Jesus Christ as he's in his hometown of Nazareth teaching.

In verse 16 of Luke 4, we read, So he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

So we take this apart for a moment. Again, Nazareth, like we were talking about in the area of Bethlehem, it's not like coming to Cleveland, where he showed up, and it's a huge town, and there's a million people, and he sort of blends in, and can go where he wants to go.

Estimates, again, that I've read in different commentaries and things would say that Nazareth would be estimated to have a population of between 200 and 400 people at this point in time. So again, like other parts of Judea at that time outside of the larger cities, it probably would have been a combination of clans and extended families that might have numbered as few as three to five different families.

And probably all of the people would have identified their heritage back to a certain three or four grandfathers who would have gone back three, four, five generations back, and one way or another, as distant cousins, they all would have been related to those small set of families that would have settled there in Nazareth.

So we're not talking about a situation here where Jesus Christ came in, and there were a few people who might have heard of him.

I don't know, has anyone grown up in a town of three or four hundred people?

I haven't. But, you know, you hear stories about it, you read about it, you think about maybe a high school you went to, a middle school that you went to, where there were a few hundred people, or maybe an elementary school. The fact is, you knew everybody, right?

And especially when you're living in a town that's got successive generations of distant cousins and everything, everyone knows who they are.

They'll see them walking down the street, and they'll say, I see the way you walk, I know you're so-and-so's kid, right?

Or I see your hair, or the look on your face, or the way that you gesture, or whatever. I know that you're so-and-so's kid. Everybody's known. This wasn't a place where you could hide. And so when he was there, he was really among a familiar set of people.

And as human beings, one of the things we always do is we orient ourselves in the end towards home as a place of comfort, don't we?

Unless we grew up in a really bad home situation that caused us a lot of difficulty, there's an emotional attachment to home and where we came from.

Our surroundings, our house, maybe the block we lived on, the kids that we played with on the street, there's an emotional setting, and it feels safe, doesn't it?

Because for most of us, our childhood, that time growing up, it's time that's safe, it's carefree, we're enjoying ourselves, we're having fun, we're enjoying challenges as they're going on.

So think of Jesus Christ here coming back to Nazareth in that sort of a context. He was a human being like us, and I'm sure there was a certain level of nostalgia coming back to a place like that.

And he was speaking with a group of people that he'd known and had known him for his whole life.

So in verse 17, there in the synagogue, he's handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.

And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

So this passage that he reads, if you look in your Bible, it might be offset a little bit in the Bible, because it is a direct quote.

It's a direct quote from Isaiah 61, and it's a quote from another prophecy of the Messiah that was to come.

So if you think of what's happening here, Jesus Christ, the kid that most of them had seen grow up, he probably played with some of the people who were there in the audience, or played with their children, or nieces or nephews, stands up, pulls out the scroll of Isaiah, and basically says, Hey folks, I'm the Messiah.

Now what's going to happen at that point? Right? It's like, well hang on a second. Right? I saw you when you were three years old, and you were playing out in the dirt in the street. There's no way you're the Messiah.

And that's basically the type of reception he gets at this point.

In verse 20, he closes the book, he gives it back to the attendant, and he sits down.

And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. So you just imagine, he got up, he read this, basically telling them, Folks, I'm the Messiah. And then he goes and sits down. What do you do next when somebody says that?

And he began to say to them, Today this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing. So all bore witness to him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, Is this not Joseph's son?

You can read different interpretations of what that passage means.

Most that I read would say that they were impressed by the way that he spoke. He was very well spoken.

But the inflection of, Is this not Joseph's son? was probably not one of marvel, but rather one of, Hey, wait a second. Isn't this just Joseph's kid? And he's telling us he's the Messiah? Because when we read in the next passage, in the next verse, in verse 23, he said to them, Surely you're going to say this proverb to me, Physician, heal yourself.

Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do it also here in your country. And he said, Assuredly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when heaven was shut up three years and six months. And there was a great famine through all the land, but to none of them was Elijah's scent, except to Zarephath in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And many lepers were in Israel at the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian. So he's saying a lot here. When he was in Capernaum, which was nearby, it was probably a couple days if he had to walk it, when he was in Capernaum, he did a lot of miracles. And the people there were asking him to do miracles, in part to prove that he was Jesus Christ. They weren't asking him to do that here.

The context would be that they were incredulous. They're like, hang on a second, right? You're Joseph's kid, you claim you're the Messiah, we're not even going to ask you to try to prove this, because we know it can't possibly be the case. And what he's coming back to with them, and talking about these stories of Elijah and Elisha, is really hitting directly at him. Because he's saying, look, I'm just like these other guys. Elijah probably, as a prophet, had the greatest standing in Israel, as the one who restored true worship. And he said, look, I'm just like Elijah. When Elijah was sent, there were plenty of widows all over Israel, or Judah, where God could have performed a miracle.

But he didn't. What did he do? He sent Elijah down to the heathens in Sidon, to a place that didn't belong at all, didn't worship God, and he performed the miracle there, instead of performing it within Israel. And he says the same thing with Elisha. He says, there are plenty of lepers in Israel that Elisha could have healed, but God sent him a Syrian, somebody who wasn't a believer in their eyes, and the Syrian had enough faith, and God healed that Syrian of the leprosy through Elisha, rather than one of the Israelites.

And so, in a way, he's provoking them. Right? He's going at them for the fact that they wouldn't believe, and saying, look, you're just like everyone else who won't believe, but the facts that are right in front of you. And at this point, verse 28, all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. So it's clear they took this exactly the way that it was intended, as he was calling them on the carpet, for not believing the things that they saw, and that they heard.

And they rose up in verse 29, they thrust him out of the city, they led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down over the cliff. That's a pretty extreme reaction from a group of people who you grew up with. And passing through the midst of them, in verse 30, he went on his way.

This was the third attempt on Jesus Christ's life. This was different than the others, very different from the others, much more personal, I would think. I can't imagine that he was surprised by the reaction that he got.

He was probably expecting it. But imagine how it feels if you really can't go back to your hometown, and if you do, nobody respects you, nobody cares who you are, they'd rather not see you there, and you're not going to have any safety there. Piece by piece, as these incidents go on, things that any normal human being might rely on for safety, like the structure of their society, the human government, like the friends and family that they have around them, are being knocked out from under him, and he does not have them to rely on.

Now, underneath all of this, God still reacts, God delivers him, God takes him out of the situation so he won't be killed, and he goes on doing what he needs to do. But as somebody acquainted with sorrow and grief, piece by piece, all of these different parts of what we usually rely on within our human lives are being knocked out from under him and taken away from him. Let's go to the next passage and the fourth attempt on Jesus Christ's life, and we'll turn to John 8. Now, this is a follow-on part of his ministry now.

Jesus started his ministry up in Judea, or up in Galilee, in the area around where he'd been born, and then later spends a lot more time in Jerusalem preaching, and now he's in the temple as this account is taking place. Now, this one is interesting. In a similar way to the account in Nazareth, it's not friends and family, people he grew up with, but it's people who believe in him and who end up turning on him. So, the setting of this section is in the temple in Jerusalem.

We can see that if you want to look in verse 2 and in verse 20 of this passage of John 8. It tells you quite clearly that Jesus is in the temple at this time. And the earlier part of the chapter is a story of the woman who's taken in adultery that many of us know from other other sermons and other reading that we've done.

Let's start in verse 31 of John 8 and read about this fourth attempt on the life of Jesus Christ. Verse 31, then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on him, if you abide in my word, you're my disciples indeed.

So again, I want to underscore this. He wasn't talking in this context to some generic crowd, some group of people, strangers who were out there. He was talking here, it says, to the Jews who believed in him. So, there was a group of people who, at some level, believed and understood that he was the Christ, the Messiah, or at least that he was a teacher.

But the fact that it says here, believed in him, would tend to make you believe that they might even believe that he was the Messiah. And he says, if you abide in my word, you're my disciples indeed. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And then in verse 33, they answered him and they said, We're Abraham's descendants, and we've never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you'll be made free? So, they're asking Jesus Christ, why are you talking about being free? We're children of Abraham, we're not in bondage.

Why do you need to free us from? And Jesus said, most assuredly, in verse 34, Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. If you're sinning, you're in bondage. It doesn't matter if you're a son of Abraham. If you're sinning, you're in bondage or a slave to sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. And in this day, slavery would have actually been very common.

Not as we know it in our history in the United States, but slavery that existed through war. So it's not at all unusual. In the Roman wars that took place, as they took over different areas, they would take the people in those areas and they would enslave them. And they would work as indentured servants in the Roman households. Sometimes holding very responsible positions as well.

You might have seen movies, you might have read books, that shows Romans who are ruling or have prosperous businesses, who might have somebody who is a slave, someone who has been taken in battle from another nation, and working basically as their right-hand person, often in very responsible positions, running entire households. The way we see stories of Daniel or Joseph running a household.

But they weren't born Romans, they were taken in battle and captured, and they were enslaved as a result. And so they wouldn't come to inherit a business, for example. The son would inherit the business. The slave who was helping to run the business, would continue to help to run the business, and might have quite a decent life doing it. But the son would inherit the business, and in these terms, stay in the house. And so here he says in verse 35, as they would know from their cultural context, a slave does not abide in the house forever, but the son abides forever.

Therefore, if the son makes you free, you'll be free indeed. I know you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak what I've seen with my father, and you do what you have seen with your father. And they answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. And Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.

But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. So what he was implying here was, that they weren't actually following Abraham. In other passages and encounters like this, he talks to them about the fact that their father is Satan. And they're following not Abraham or God, but they're following Satan. And why is that? Because of the works that they do. The product of their life, the way that they live their life.

And so he's telling them very clearly, it's not your heritage that matters. You can be set free, but it's not the fact that you came from Abraham or you came from anything else. By coming to Jesus Christ, being set free through him, and doing the things that he did, letting his life live in you, that you will be free. And then they said to him, in verse 41, after he said, you do the deeds of your father, they said to him, we were not born of fornication. We have one father, God.

And there's no doubt what this meant either, because people would have known the stories of Jesus Christ's birth. The fact that Mary was pregnant before she was married to Joseph. And this would have been a direct slight on Jesus Christ, saying that he was an illegitimate child, and that he shouldn't be listened to because of that.

Again, denying his divinity, denying who and what he was being born of God through Mary. And Jesus said to them, in verse 42, If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God.

Nor have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you're not able to listen to my word. You are of your father the devil. And here, explaining that earlier passage, where he was talking about who their father is. And the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there's no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he's a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you don't believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore, you do not hear, because you are not of God. And the Jews answered and said to him, do we not say rightly that you're a Samaritan, and have a demon? So they're not stopping in terms of trying to denigrate him. The Samaritans at that point in time were considered a lower class of people. They were not considered to be of the class that the Jews were. And so again, they're trying to talk down to him, and even implying that he's demon possessed. And Jesus said in verse 49, I don't have a demon, but I honor my father, and you dishonor me.

And I do not seek my own glory. There's one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. And the Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon.

Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and you say, if anyone keeps my word, he'll never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who's dead? And the prophets are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? It's an interesting question from people who, at the beginning of this passage, were purported to believe in him. So apparently their belief in him was not as deep as maybe we would have hoped it would be. And in verse 54, Jesus says, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It's my father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God.

Yet you've not known him, but I know him. And if I say I don't know him, I would be a liar like you, but I know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Talking here about the prophecies that Abraham had received about his seed, Jesus Christ coming from the seed of Abraham.

And Jesus said to them in verse 58, Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. As we heard in the sermon last week, this is a direct reference to Jesus Christ saying, He was the God of the Old Testament, the I am, that was revealed to Moses in the burning bush. And it was at that point, in verse 59, that they took up stones to throw at him.

But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so he passed by. So this fourth attempt was, you can see these interactions getting more and more testy, more and more direct with the people, as Jesus Christ makes very clear who and what he is, and also who and what they are, in terms of how they're living their lives and what they're doing. Again, this was a crime of passion, as the people got so riled up in this interaction with Jesus Christ, so angry about the fact that he claimed to be God, claimed to have divinity and power over all of them, as the Son of God, that they, as a mob, ran at him and tried to kill him.

Again, though, God delivered him, and he saw him through it, because it was not part of his plan at that point in time, that Jesus Christ would be killed. But, another leg of support was knocked out from Jesus Christ, wasn't it? As he looked around, the people who claimed to believe in him, didn't really believe in him so much after all, or he couldn't know or trust that they would.

This set of them actually went out and tried to kill him. And when you think about the numbers of the whole thing, when Jesus Christ did some of his miracles, like feeding, like when the bread and the fish was multiplied, there were thousands of people following him. And by the time, shortly after his death, he could read in Acts 1, the account of how many people, remember how many people were gathered together in Acts 1, shortly after Jesus Christ's death and before the Pentecost? After thousands of people had been following him, there were 120 people gathered together there, waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, waiting for the Holy Spirit actually to come, after Jesus Christ had ascended.

So, down from thousands to 120 people at the end of the day. So, even the people who purported to believe in Jesus Christ, were not something that he could rely on. What about the populace as a whole? Surely there were people just generally in the population that would help him and would believe in him. Let's turn to John 10. This will be the fifth and the last unsuccessful attempt on Jesus Christ's life. And it comes more from the general populace at that point in time.

John 10, verses 22 through 39. Here again, Jesus Christ is in the temple. In this time, he's talking, according to the account, not talking necessarily to people who believe on him, but people who are generally there. So, John 10, verse 22. It was the time of the Feast of Dedication. He was walking in Solomon's porch. And then, in verse 24, the Jews surrounded him and said, How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. So, these were people who were speculating and wondering and heard it attributed to him, that he said that he was the Son of God, but wanted to hear it from his lips.

And he told them straight out, Look, I told you and you don't believe me. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. So, what he's referring to is all of the things that he had done as he was going through his ministry. And one interesting study you might do, if you're looking for something to study over the course of the next few weeks, I'd encourage you to go to the book of Matthew.

Matthew is a book that was written to the Jewish people. And what you'll see over and over in the book of Matthew is quotes from the Old Testament. Quotes from the Old Testament that foretell things that the Messiah would do. And when we read this statement here where Jesus Christ says, Look, I'm not going to tell you. If you have eyes, look at it. You know the Scriptures, you know the prophecies about the Messiah, and you know what I've done.

Now, set those things up next to each other and consider whether you think I'm the Messiah or not. I encourage you, read through Matthew, the book of Matthew, with that viewpoint on your mind, and look at all the places within that book that says, Is it not written, or as it was written, and refers to passages of the Old Testament, and then connects those to things that Jesus Christ did.

Whether where he was born, actions he took, the escape to Egypt, all of these things that are clearly laid out in the Bible for anyone who knew the Old Testament Scriptures as being associated with the Messiah.

So he goes on and says in verse 26, You don't believe because you're not my sheep. And as I said to you, my sheep will hear my voice, and I know them, and they'll follow me, and I'll give them eternal life.

And then in verse 29, he says, My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

And then in verse 31, the Jews took up stones again to stone him, and Jesus said, Many good works I've shown you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?

So this is a little more of a deliberate situation here. The last two situations we saw were more emotional, mob-driven sort of approaches, right? Here you can see you've got a bunch of guys, now they've got the stones in their hands, but Jesus Christ is still reasoning with them. He's talking with them, saying, Look, you've got stones in your hands, you're about to try to kill me with them. Why are you doing that?

He's talking with them. He's saying, Why in the world are you doing this? What did I do that was sinful that would cause me to deserve stoning?

And the Jews say, For good work we don't stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God.

And Jesus answered them and said, Is it not written in your law? I said, You're gods? He called them gods to whom the word of God came.

Do you say of Him who the Father sanctified, and sent into the world, you're blaspheming, because I said I am the Son of God?

If I don't do the works of my Father, don't believe me. But if I do them, even though you don't believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in Him.

Again, referring to the fact that all of the things that He was doing, the miracles, the other circumstances of His life, proved that He was the Messiah.

And therefore, they sought again in verse 39 to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.

So all of this culminates, then, we see all the different elements that are out there in the ecosystem that's impacting Jesus Christ.

None of them are there to support Him. And in fact, all of them are either actively or passively searching to destroy Him.

Let's look, then, at the last and the successful attempt to kill Jesus Christ.

I'm not going to read through the actual account of the crucifixion, but I did want to read a passage from an online commentary that I found that I use sometimes. It's called GotQuestions.org.

And I thought it did an interesting job of summing up the elements of the trial that led to Jesus Christ being crucified. Quoting here, it says, there were six parts to Jesus' trial. Three stages in a religious court and three stages before a Roman court.

Jesus was tried before Annas, the former high priest, Caiaphas, the current high priest, and the Sanhedrin.

He was charged in these ecclesiastical trials with blasphemy, claiming to be the Son of God, the Messiah. So he had two sort of court systems that were going on at that time. The Romans allowed all of the lands that they dominated to still have some level of localized rule and to pursue their religions, as long as they, in the end, were loyal to the empire. And so the Sanhedrin was allowed to be there. It had the ability to administer Jewish law. And so these bodies did that, and they then claimed that he was guilty of blasphemy, according to their laws.

So the trials before the Jewish authorities, the religious trials, showed the degree to which the Jewish leaders hated him because they carelessly disregarded many of their own laws.

This article then lists several illegalities involved in these trials from the perspective of Jewish law.

First, no trial was to be held during the feast time. Of course, we know this trial was held right coming into the Passover.

Two, each member of the court was to vote individually to convict or acquit, but Jesus was convicted by acclamation.

Thirdly, if the death penalty was given, a night must pass before the sentence was carried out. However, in this case, only a few hours passed before Jesus Christ was crucified.

Fourth, the Jews had no authority to execute anyone.

Fifth, no trial was to be held at night, but this trial was held before dawn.

Sixth, the accused was to be given counsel or representation, but Jesus had none.

I've seen other accounts that dispute this, whether you are required to have representation, by the way.

And then seventh, the accused was not to be asked self-incriminating questions, but Jesus was directly asked if he claimed to be the Christ.

The trials before the Roman authorities started with Pilate after Jesus was beaten, the charges brought against him were very different from the charges in his religious trials.

He was charged, in this case, with inciting people to riot, forbidding people to pay their taxes, and claiming to be king.

All the things that the empire would be concerned about. They didn't really care about this religious stuff.

You can claim blasphemy all you want, as far as the Romans cared, as long as you were peaceful and supported the empire.

But once you start speaking out against taxes, or claiming to be a king and threaten the empire, that's when the Romans were getting concerned.

Pilate, though, found no reason to kill Jesus, so he sent him to Herod.

Herod had Jesus ridiculed, but wanting to avoid the political liability, sent Jesus back to Pilate.

And then lastly, Pilate tried to appease the animosity of the Jews by having Jesus scourged, or whipped, and then offered the prisoner Barabbas to be crucified and Jesus released, but as we know, to no avail.

What I find interesting in this passage from this commentary is the last sentence.

The trials of Jesus represent the ultimate mockery of justice.

Jesus, the most innocent man in the history of the world, was found guilty of crimes and sentenced to death by crucifixion.

That's an absolutely true statement. If you want to look for any of the references to those things that I read quickly through, John 18 would be one chapter you could look at later, John 18.

Second one would be Matthew 26.

Matthew 26 in the third passage would be the 23rd chapter of Luke, Luke 23.

And those chapters basically will give more detail around some of the things that I wrote, or that I read.

So I mentioned earlier in the sermon that, like in many mysteries, there's a long trail here that leads to the death of Jesus Christ.

And just briefly, I want to show how each of the elements that we saw in the five unsuccessful attempts on Jesus Christ's life then came into play when he was ultimately crucified.

So if we think about it first, the secular authorities.

Herod first tried to kill Jesus Christ, and as we just read in these passages, and if you want to look back to those verses, Pilate and Herod, in the end, different Herod in this case, but they had, in the end, the ability to sentence him to crucifixion.

And Pilate, even though he didn't sort of actively do it, passively allowed it to happen by not standing in the way and allowing the Roman soldiers to do it.

So the secular authorities who, in the first case, through Herod, tried to kill Jesus Christ, 100% involved in his crucifixion in the end. Satan was involved in the second attempt on Jesus Christ's life and the temptation.

We won't turn there right now, but in Luke 22, if you want to look in verses 1 through 6, Luke 22 verses 1 through 6, very specifically talks about the fact that Satan entered Judas, Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, who then went and offered to betray Jesus Christ.

And so Satan, actively and completely involved still, ended up having a role in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Those close to him. What about those who were close to him? Although they didn't play an active role, you could say, of course, that Judas did by betraying him.

When we look at some of the accounts in the garden, for example in Matthew 26, first of all, the disciples just fell asleep.

The priest here knows he's about to be taken. He asks the disciples to stand watch with him, and he goes away three times to pray and comes back each time.

The disciples are asleep. And then when he's finally taken, they scatter.

And so even the people the very closest to him, for very understandable reasons, because they were powerless, scattered and left him.

But imagine how he felt and how alone he was at that point in time.

The general public, which was involved in the fifth attempt on his life, the whole rabble that was there in Luke 23 coming before Pilate.

When Pilate put Jesus Christ out there, and he said, here's Barabbas, why don't I just crucify Barabbas? We all know he's a criminal.

And we'll free Jesus Christ, since he's the king of the Jews, and certainly you'd want your king to be free.

And what did the mob say? They stood up and screamed, partly incited, partly out of their own. We'll kill him. We want him crucified. Free Barabbas, we don't care, he's a common criminal, but kill Jesus Christ.

So again, the general public, who were involved in the other attempts on his life, came into play.

And in the end, even God the Father abandoned Jesus Christ as he was about to be crucified.

Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 27.

Matthew 27.

We'll read just verses 45 and 46.

Matthew 27, verses 45 and 46.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.

And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani, and that's in Aramaic, saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And so we know that as Jesus Christ was there, being crucified, breathing his last breaths, filled symbolically with our sins that he was dying for, and God had to turn his face from him and allow him to die because that was his plan.

And so, in just about every way that you can think of, Jesus Christ died in the worst possible way that you could.

He died a violent, painful death. He died a death where all of the facets of his society, his ecosystem, anything that he would rely on as a human being walked away from him, and even God himself was not there to save him. He had the power to, God did, but it was not part of his plan to do that.

So, not a very cheery note to be on at this point in the sermon, is it?

But that's the great thing about God's plan, because if we read through the thing that's incredible in the Bible, if you read over and over in the Bible, there's a cycle.

We see it with ancient Israel as they would walk away from God, and they would come back and they would turn themselves to God, and God would come back and have mercy on them.

He would forgive them of their sins, and he would draw them back to him.

And he made that promise in the Old Covenant.

And likewise, through Jesus Christ, he gives us that opportunity.

Just like every day the sun comes up, we have the opportunity to come back before God, to claim the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, to be forgiven from our sins, and to have a new start.

That started with Jesus Christ being raised from the dead, as we know, after three days and three nights in the grave.

And so that was not the end.

And just like every one of these attempts on Jesus Christ's life, where God saved him from it and saw him through it, even the actual taking of his physical life did not succeed.

Because he rose as our Savior, and through the blood that he shed, we have forgiven us and we live a new life in him.

And that's a promise that we can focus on and learn from in our lives.

So a couple quick things to think about and reflect on.

I encourage you to give more thought to this in your studies and as we approach the Passover.

Because, again, this is not meant to be a depressing message.

Jesus Christ lived this life because it was part of his plan.

And the first point, and very important point, is that he lived his life and he suffered, because we are to know that no matter what we suffer through in this life, Jesus Christ understands.

And through the example of how we saw God deal with him, we can know that God will deliver us.

He suffered in a way that most of us can never dream of suffering, and I sincerely hope a way that none of us will suffer.

And God saw him through it.

And there are numerous passages that we're not going to take the time to read through right now, but I encourage you to look, for example, at Hebrews 4, verses 14 through 16, which talks about the fact that Jesus Christ was tempted in all points like we were, and he understands all of the things that we went through.

And in that way, we can come to him and know that he fully and completely understands us.

We can also turn to 1 Corinthians 1, verses 3 through 6, 1 Corinthians 1, verses 3 through 6, which is a beautiful set of verses that talks about God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as the God of all mercy and all comfort.

And in fact, when we read on Passover in John 14, I think it is, every year, right?

What is it that the Holy Spirit has talked about when it's sent to us?

It's talked about as a comforter.

God knows that we go through trials, we go through sufferings, we go through difficulty.

His Son, Jesus Christ, knows that in a way that nobody else who ever lived could know it, and he can understand our human feelings very directly because he's experienced them.

100% as a human, and he can comfort us and does comfort us as a result.

Lastly, through all of these enduring trials, we see Jesus Christ saved by God.

God comes through, he delivers him from all of these trials, and that's something that we can take great confidence in as well.

And what I find incredibly encouraging is the passage in Luke 23, verse 34. A very short passage, just one sentence long.

It's right before Jesus is about to die, abandoned by everyone, betrayed by pretty much everybody, and left out there all alone.

And what is it that he says in Luke 23, verse 24?

He says, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they do.

The capacity of God to forgive, even in a situation like this, where Jesus Christ is there and about to die because of all of these things, and what's on his mind is forgiveness.

And I just find that incredibly hopeful for all of us, because when you think about it, and we can all reflect on, and we will take time over the next weeks leading into the Passover, thinking about our own human lives, our weaknesses, the ways that we don't put God first in our lives, but we can take incredible solace in the fact that through all of these things that Jesus Christ lived through, all of the suffering that he had, all of the ways that he was abused and mistreated by everybody around him, his last words when he was living his human life was about forgiveness, and asking God to forgive all of the people who did those things.

And we know, of course, that through the death that he suffered, through his blood, that we have forgiveness as well, something that we can claim every day of our lives.

So in conclusion, as we begin to move towards the Passover, and we give thought to the sacrifice that Jesus Christ gave for us and the new life that we have in him, we can take incredible hope and comfort in the example that Jesus set for us, knowing that because God is truly for us, no one can be against us.