{"id":18615,"date":"2015-01-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/god-is-in-control\/"},"modified":"2024-12-26T04:37:44","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T10:37:44","slug":"god-is-in-control","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/god-is-in-control\/","title":{"rendered":"God is in Control"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[434],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18615","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-john","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"God is in Control","sermon_date":"20150111","sermon_month":"01","sermon_year":"2015","sermon_notes":20113,"sermon_slides":20114,"sermon_mp3":20115,"sermon_id":"111151111156","series_or_event":434,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"18:25-32","sermon_transcript":" \r\n

Andy Woods\r\nGod is in Control\r\n1-11-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John 18:25-32\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 107<\/p>\r\nGood morning everybody, if we could take our Bibles and open them to John 18, verse 25, we\u2019re going to try to take a look this morning at verses 25-32.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is God is in Control.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Sometimes life throws some curve balls at us, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And we need reminders that God is very much in control.\u00a0 They were talking about missionaries and mission trips and so forth a little bit earlier; I\u2019m going to be going on a mission trip this week.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to the Texas House of Representatives and they asked me to be the pastor of the day on Thursday, January 15.\u00a0 Rick Miller, who attends our church set that up so I\u2019m going to be opening the legislative session in prayer and so that will be a fun time.\u00a0 I will do my best to behave myself but opening legislative sessions with prayer is a long standing practice in America, it goes back to the beginning of our country.\r\n\r\nAnd one of the reasons I wanted to do it is because the devil obviously doesn\u2019t like it; I mean, if it wasn\u2019t significant why would the ACLU and some of these groups work overtime to kick it out.\u00a0 So obviously Satan doesn\u2019t like it so I\u2019m happy to be a spoke in the wheel, I guess you could say, or\u2026 what am I trying to say\u2026 stick in the wheel, spokes are already in the wheel aren\u2019t they.\u00a0 That analogy doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 So don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m going to have my prayer written out, I won\u2019t make any verbal faux pas<\/em> like that.\r\n\r\nBut let\u2019s take a look at John 18:25-32, God is in Control.\u00a0\u00a0 As you know we are continuing, ever so slowly, to move through John\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 John, of course, is highlighting this man, Jesus Christ, as evidenced by His signs so that people would read this Gospel and believe in Jesus, and consequently have life.\r\n\r\nWe are in that very final section of John\u2019s Gospel called the Passion narratives.\u00a0 And they\u2019re called the Passion narratives because they reveal the final week or so of Christ\u2019s life.\u00a0 They reveal His death, chapters 18-19; and then fortunately the gospels don\u2019t just say Jesus died, even more important perhaps than His death is His resurrection and the resurrection of Christ begins to get emphasis in chapters 20-21.\u00a0 But we are still in chapter 18 so we are studying the events that led up to the crucifixion of our Lord.\r\n\r\nWe have looked at His arrest, chapter 18, verses 1-11, and then following that we began to look at His trials; these would be His legal trials.\u00a0 And when we take all of the information in the Gospels and put them together we discover that there were basically six trials of Jesus; the first three were Jewish in nature and the final three were civil in nature.\u00a0 The first three took place before the Jewish religious leadership on religious charges.\u00a0 The final three trials take place before the Roman leadership and those are not so much religious in nature, the charge, but they deal with something that is political in nature.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll try to draw that distinction for you as we go through these.\u00a0 No Gospel writer gives you all six trials.\u00a0 John, who is very selective in his approach, is going to highlight trials 1, 2, 4 and 6.\u00a0 So the first two religious trials John is focused on, and then he begins to focus on the first civil trial and the last civil trial.\r\n\r\nWe have already looked at, if you will, Christ\u2019s religious trials.\u00a0 We\u2019ve looked at His trial, as John describes it, before Annas, and then His trial as John describes it before Caiaphas.\u00a0 Now if you weren\u2019t with us last week what we went through are fifteen legal rules that the Jews violated to rush Jesus Christ through the court system and get Him dead.\u00a0 These religious trials that Jesus went through were a sham of justice; they were a mockery.\u00a0 The Jews, to rush Him to an early grave, in their attempt to do so violated their own Old Testament numerous times.\u00a0 And beyond that they violated a document called the Mishnah, which was a set of legal rules that the Jews were supposed to follow.\u00a0 Most Christians have never heard of the Mishnah so we sort of explained what that was last time, and I explained to you the various parts of the Mishnah that the nation of Israel violated.\r\n\r\nSo the nation of Israel, in essence, has already made up its mind what it\u2019s going to do with Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I believe that the die is cast all the way back in John 11; the Jewish leaders don\u2019t like this man, Jesus.\u00a0 They see Him as a threat to their power and consequently they are going to do whatever they have to do to kill Him, even if it means making things up and making rules up along the way.\u00a0 And that, in essence, is what happened as the Gospel writers describe Christ\u2019s three religious trials.\u00a0 We went into some detail about that last time.\r\n\r\nNow as Christ is going through these religious trials one of the things that is happening is there is a contrast taking place in John\u2019s writings in between Christ, who is standing up firm under unjust treatment and then Peter, who is collapsing.\u00a0 He is collapsing morally, he is collapsing ethically, he is collapsing because he is trying to do the work of God through human power.\u00a0\u00a0 So in these religious trials the scene will shift into what Jesus was enduring, and then it will move very rapidly to outside the building where Annas and Caiaphas were housed, and it shows us what\u2019s going on in Peter.\r\n\r\nAnd John wants us to see this clear contrast.\u00a0 And one of the things that John is trying to communicate to us is the breaking process that the Apostle Peter went through.\u00a0 And I have been referring to this over and over again, as we have been looking at Christ\u2019s dealings with Peter, because I am convinced that it is the identical process God puts many of us through.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a process that we must go through in order to be used of God down the road.\u00a0 There is a tremendous human tendency, and I believe this is related to our sin nature, which we have inherited from Adam, there is a tremendous tendency in our nature towards pride; and that pride doesn\u2019t just stop just because you become a Christian, the Adamic nature is still there.\u00a0 Have you noticed that?\r\n\r\nAs we move into the Christian life and as we begin to experience the process of discipleship, until we really come under the disciplinary treatment of God we still carry with us a lot of this pride into Christianity.\u00a0 The mind, which has been programmed to think a certain way since conception, since birth, doesn\u2019t just stop thinking that way because you\u2019re a believer now.\u00a0 If my mind was immediately changed into a godly line of thinking why would Paul, in Romans 12:2 tell us very clearly to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed in the renewing of the mind.\u00a0 The command there is to be renewed in the mind, as you study that in Romans 12, particularly verse 1, you\u2019ll see the word \u201cbrethren\u201d in that verse, and in verse 2 it talks about it as well.\r\n\r\n[Romans 12:1-2, \u201cTherefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.\u00a0 [2] And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.\u201d]\r\n\r\nIn other words, Paul, in Romans 12, is talking to the believer.\u00a0 Now if our minds were immediately reprogrammed the moment we come to Christ, why would we be told to renew our minds constantly as Christians?\u00a0 So what happens is we become believers and then God begins to want to use us and so He has to reprogram the way we think; He has to, in a sense, neutralize the power of the sin nature that is within us, and He does this largely through a breaking process.\u00a0 This is a process that Peter is involved in.\r\n\r\nThe breaking process of God is such that He allows us to experience multiple failures as we attempt to do the work of God through human power.\u00a0 So we go into the Christian life and we have all of this pride and self-sufficiency and we want to get involved in ministry and we want God to use us and we sort of step out through human power, and the problem is as long as we are stepping out through human power God really cannot use us.\u00a0 We can only accomplish so much.\u00a0 Our fruit as God\u2019s people comes from not us going out and doing ministry through human power but rather it comes from us being flexible and pliable vessels in the hands of an all-powerful God.\u00a0 If we are the latter rather than the former we will accomplish great things for God.\u00a0 But as long as we are wrapped up in ourselves and in our self-sufficiency and we think in worldly terms our ministries will have very little eternal impact.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nPeter is a man of destiny; he is going to become a strategic character or figure in the book of Acts.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t a man that is more dominant to the life of the early church than this man, Peter.\u00a0 God wants to use Peter but He cannot use him as he currently is; He has to first break him down.\u00a0 And that\u2019s true with your life and it\u2019s true with my life; it\u2019s true with all of our lives.\u00a0 God wants to use us but until we go through this breaking process we can never become everything that we have been called to be in God.\r\n\r\nSo what we have happening here is what we would call a breaking process, but we must go through this breaking process.\u00a0 So notice, if you will, verse 25 as the Lord is setting up, I believe, an opportunity for Peter to fail and to become aware of his limitations.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 25, it says, \u201cNow Simon Peter was standing and warming himself.\u00a0 So they said to him, \u2018You are not also one of His disciples, are you?\u2019\u00a0 He denied it, and said, \u2018I am not.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 This would be Peter\u2019s second denial.\u00a0 You will recall that he denied the Lord earlier in the chapter, back in chapter 18.\u00a0 And what Peter is going through here is this breaking process.\r\n\r\nOne of the things that\u2019s very interesting about this verse is not so much the way John describes it but rather the way Mark describes it.\u00a0 Mark gives what we would call a parallel passage in Mark 14:69 and this is what it says: \u201cThe servant girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, \u2018This is one of them!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll notice who the accuser is, not exactly the most ferocious person you can imaging; this is a little girl.\u00a0 And Peter, under the pressure of this little girl collapses.\u00a0 And what is the Lord trying to teach Peter?\u00a0 He\u2019s trying to teach Peter through this the powerlessness of the flesh.\u00a0 You were so confident in the Upper Room that you would never deny Me.\u00a0 In fact, you might remember what Peter said back in John 13:37, \u201cPeter said to Him, \u2018Lord, why can I not follow You right now?\u00a0 I will lay down my life for You.\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nSo Peter is making a statement there under human power, I can do this, I can pull this off.\u00a0 And as long as we keep thinking along those lines of I and me and what I can do for the Lord, rather than relying upon His strength, we can do very little for God.\u00a0 So the Lord has to put us through a process by which we become aware of the limitations of the power of the flesh, or the power of human ability.\u00a0 And Peter collapses quite dramatically.\u00a0 He folds under the pressure of not just a woman, but of a little slave girl.\r\n\r\nAnd in fact, if you back up and go back to verse 17, [John 18:17] the first time Peter denied Christ, notice what it says in verse 17, \u201cThen the slave\u201d what? \u201cslave girl who kept the door said to Peter, \u2018You are not also one of this man\u2019s disciples, are you?\u00a0 He said, I am not.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So this is the second time this has happened.\u00a0 Peter is collapsing under the pressure of not just a woman but he is collapsing under the pressure of a little slave girl.\u00a0 And the Lord is strategically using these things to show Peter the limitations of his own human power.\r\n\r\nYou see, it\u2019s not until we actually fail we begin to understand the impotence and the powerlessness of the flesh.\u00a0 The flesh is such that it blinds us.\u00a0 We think that we can accomplish so much for the cause of Christ through human power.\u00a0 God has to allow us, where He says to us, \u201cgo for it!\u201d\u00a0 And then we collapse under the mildest of pressure and God then reminds us, this is what you can do through human power\u2026almost nothing!\r\n\r\nJeremiah 17:5, this is a verse that I quoted a little earlier in our series, John 17:5 says, \u201cCursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Let me ask you a question, as you sit there and listen to me this morning, as you think about the year 2015, what are you really trusting in?\u00a0 You think of all of the things that you need to accomplish this year, you think of all of the ministries you want to do, you think of all the people you want to reach, all of the people you want to touch, you think of all of the responsibilities in your business or your employment; you think of your family responsibilities and you look at all of those things and my question is as you look at all of those things what are you trusting?\u00a0 How are you going to get all that done?\r\n\r\nAnd I have discovered that when I feel that I am anxiety-ridden and worried about these things of the future that is a sure sign that I am trusting in myself, because you see, if I was really trusting in the Lord what\u2019s there to be worried or anxiety-ridden about?\u00a0 The Lord, after all, is all powerful.\u00a0 And so you level of worry, or your level of anxiety as you look at the future is a pretty good barometer to determine what it is you\u2019re actually trusting in.\u00a0 As you look at the future are you filled with anxiety?\u00a0 That to me is a very sure sign that you could very well be trusting in yourself to accomplish all of these things.\u00a0 But God does not call us to walk out the Christian faith through human power; He calls us to rest in Him.\u00a0 This is a lesson we all must learn and this is a lesson that Peter had to learn.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThe Lord, as we have said before, allowed Peter to go through four failures and we\u2019ve talked about those in prior sermons.\u00a0 And even beyond that this is a principle that the Lord uses in any life that He wants to use for His purposes.\u00a0 Joseph had his breaking process, as did Moses, as did Paul, even as did modern characters that we revere in history, people like Abraham Lincoln.\r\n\r\nAnd as we continue on as the Lord is dealing with Peter, notice what He says there in verse 26, \u201cOne of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of one whose ear Peter cut off, said, \u2018Did I not see you in the garden with Him?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Verse 27, \u201cPeter then denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now comes the third denial of Peter.\u00a0 You remember what precipitated all of these things?\u00a0 How do we know that Peter was trying to do the work of God through human power?\u00a0 The reason we know that is because he, when Christ was arrested, did not like the fact that Christ was arrested and he picked up a sword or a dagger and he began to swing away.\u00a0 So he began to accomplish what he thought was the work of God through human power.\u00a0 And in the process he cut off a man\u2019s ear; that man is mentioned there in John 18:10 as Malchus, and of course, one of Malchus\u2019 relatives would remember that Peter was the one who cut off the ear.\u00a0 I mean, if someone cut off the ear of your grandfather or your mother or sister you would remember them; right?\u00a0 So the relative of Malchus is remembering what Peter did, and so he raises this issue, I was an eyewitness, I saw you swinging away, I saw you with Christ.\u00a0 You\u2019re one of the disciples of Jesus, aren\u2019t you?\u00a0 And this leads to Peter\u2019s third denial.\r\n\r\nNow Mark\u2019s Gospel adds a very interesting detail in the third denial of Jesus.\u00a0 It says this in Mark 14:71, \u201cBut he\u201d that would be Peter, \u201cbegan to curse and swear, \u2018I do not know this man you are talking about!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So Mark tells us that Peter, in the third denial, simply didn\u2019t deny Christ, but he actually got angry over it to the point where he began to curse and swear.\u00a0 Now how do you know if you are under the breaking process of God?\u00a0 How do you really know if God is really doing the surgery, spiritual surgery, in us that He wants to do?\u00a0 You know that He begins to do His greatest work in us when we get angry.\u00a0 The reason we\u2019re getting angry is because God is removing from us, over and over again, all of the things we\u2019ve been trusting in: human strength, human power, human flesh, failure after failure.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a humiliating process to go through.\r\n\r\nAnd as you go through these repeated failures there\u2019s a tendency to become very emotional about it.\u00a0 There\u2019s a tendency to become very angry about it.\u00a0 And so if you find yourself today angry at God over whatever issue is taking place in your life, look at that as now God is really doing the spiritual surgery in your life that He wants to do.\u00a0 As the saying goes, no pain no gain.\u00a0 There has to be some sort of pain involved as our minds are being reprogrammed and God is taking away from us all of the things we\u2019ve been trusting in.\u00a0 And so we have a tendency to become very emotional.\r\n\r\nPeter, here at the end of his rope, is just very emotional.\u00a0 I think he\u2019s frustrated because what he thought would pull him to the finish line (himself) he is failing dramatically in that regard.\u00a0 We have a tendency to think that if we become angry then somehow God is not at work in our lives.\u00a0 But when you study this issue of anger in the Scripture what you\u2019ll discover is people get the angriest when they\u2019re about ready to receive one of the greatest transformations they could ever receive.\r\n\r\nRemember what David did?\u00a0 David, the King of the nation of Israel, how he committed adultery and then he committed murder, and then he lied to cover it up, and there was a season in David\u2019s life where he hid this sin from the Lord and just kind of went on with business as usual, and pretended that the things that he had done had never transpired.\u00a0 Do you remember when he was confronted by the prophet, Nathan?\u00a0 Do you remember when Nathan told a parable about a king or a shepherd abusing his authority?\u00a0 Do you remember David\u2019s reaction?\u00a0 In 2 Samuel 12:5 it says, \u201cThen David\u2019s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, \u2018As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 David, at the point of his breaking, which was imminent, was his angriest.\u00a0 He was angry at the story, he was angry at Nathan, and no doubt he was also angry at God.\r\n\r\nPaul went through the same thing.\u00a0 You know, Paul wasn\u2019t always Paul; at one time in his life he was Saul, and his conversion to Christ is recorded in Acts 9 and prior to his conversion to Christ Saul was the angriest.\u00a0 Acts 9:1 says, \u201cNow Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 So just before his breaking he was the angriest; he was the angriest at God, he was the angriest at Christ, he was the angriest at the church.\u00a0 That\u2019s how it worked in David\u2019s life, this anger rose up within him.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how it is working here with Peter\u2019s life.\u00a0 As these men are all on the verge of being broken by God, either through conversion or through discipleship, they become the angriest.\r\n\r\nSo perhaps you are angry at God, perhaps you are angry at your circumstances, perhaps you are visibly in emotional turmoil and frustrated.\u00a0 I would say you\u2019re probably a lot close to the end of the line, finish line, than you may realize, because we become angriest when the Lord begins to take away things that we have trusted in.\u00a0 That is part of the process; that is part of the breaking process of God.\r\n\r\nAnd finally, when we hit the end of verse 27 we see Peter, in his absolute brokenness.\u00a0 Notice what verse 27 says, \u201cPeter then denied it again,\u201d that would be his third denial, \u201cand immediately a rooster crowed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The three Synoptic Gospels, that we call Matthew, Mark and Luke, all tell us that Peter wept at this point.\u00a0 For example, in Mark 14:72 this is what it says: \u201cImmediately a rooster crowed a second time.\u00a0 And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, \u2018Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.\u2019\u00a0 And He began to weep.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 26:75 puts it this way, \u201cAnd Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, \u2018before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.\u2019\u00a0 And he went out and wept bitterly.\u201d\r\n\r\nMatthew tells us that Peter didn\u2019t just weep, he wept bitterly.\u00a0 And Luke, in Luke 22:62 says that same thing; it says, \u201cAnd he went out and wept bitterly.\u201d\u00a0 Now the question becomes why is he weeping?\u00a0 He is weeping because everything that he thought would get him to the finish line; everything that he has trusted in has failed.\u00a0 And there is, consequently an emotional response at loss.\u00a0 He moves from anger, because everything that he had trusted in is collapsing, and now he moves into weeping and there\u2019s a certain sorrow over the fact that everything that he had foolishly trusted in, the arm of the flesh, has in fact been taken away.\r\n\r\nAnd it is not until Peter gets to this point of weeping bitterly that he is exactly where he\u2019s supposed to be in God.\u00a0 The reason he is weeping bitterly is because he now realizes the futility of human power.\u00a0 It\u2019s not until he went through these failures that he understood the futility of human power.\u00a0 But now he has experienced the futility of human power and consequently he begins to weep bitterly.\u00a0 And once he reaches that point he is exactly where God wants him. God is now ready to use this man in a strategic way.\r\n\r\nNow why have I gone into this process?\u00a0 Because it is the identical process He is using in your life, the identical process He is using in my life.\u00a0 He\u2019s bringing us to this point of humility, He\u2019s bringing us to this point of dependence, He\u2019s bringing us to this point where we weep bitterly.\u00a0 Why are we weeping bitterly?\u00a0 Because everything we thought would work hasn\u2019t worked.\u00a0 And we say to the Lord, well, Lord, I\u2019ve got no one else but You.\u00a0 Have you been there in your life?\u00a0 Lord, I\u2019ve got no one else to trust in but You, as if that\u2019s some kind of disadvantage.\u00a0 Once you\u2019re in the hands of an all-powerful God, God says that\u2019s exactly the response I\u2019m looking for, and now I\u2019m ready to use your life in a dramatic way.\u00a0 But until I put you through these experiences, until I put you through these circumstances you\u2019re really not ready, you\u2019re really not prepared because of the blindness associated with the power of the flesh.\r\n\r\nSo are you at a point today where you are angry at God?\u00a0 Are you at a point where you are weeping bitterly before God?\u00a0 Are you at a point today where you are despairing?\u00a0 I would say you\u2019re exactly where God has you because He is doing His greatest spiritual surgery right now in your life.\r\n\r\nAnd as Christ predicted, what happened? \u201cAnd immediately a rooster crowed.\u201d\u00a0 What was, in fact, the original prediction?\u00a0 You remember back in John 13:38 Jesus said this: \u201cWill you lay down your life for Me?\u00a0 Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.\u201d\u00a0 Peter denied the Lord not once, he denied the Lord not twice, he denied the Lord not four times, not six times, not twelve times, but exactly three times, the way Christ said would happen, and following that third denial you have the rooster crowing.\u00a0 And what you discover is a short term prophecy of Jesus Christ that He had made in the Upper Room now is fulfilled.\r\n\r\nJohn 13:19 says this, Jesus made this statement in the Upper Room.\u00a0 \u201cFrom now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 All the way through John\u2019s Gospel Jesus is evidencing who He is through His various signs and miracles.\u00a0 We\u2019ve studied at least seven signs that Jesus has performed.\u00a0 There is another sign, though, that he gave to Peter and there\u2019s another sign that He gives to us, and that other sign is the fulfillment of short term prophecy.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nYou see Jesus, as God, knows the end from the beginning.\u00a0 And one of the ways He demonstrates or one of the ways He evidences that He is who He claimed to be is through His ability to predict the future.\u00a0\u00a0 And so to prove this to these twelve Jesus made several short term predictions in the Upper Room, predictions involving Judas, predictions involving Peter, and John is careful to document for us and describe for us how those short term predictions came to pass.\u00a0 And this is further evidence that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be.\r\n\r\nOne of the things to understand about the Bible is it is a book of predictions.\u00a0 There are many predictions made way, way back in Old Testament times that were fulfilled in the life of Christ.\u00a0 There were other predictions that Jesus Christ made during His earthly ministry that were fulfilled in the lives of the disciples a short time later.\u00a0 There are other prophecies that are yet to come, things to come.\u00a0 And as you study those predictions of the Bible it is very eerie how the world is being set up exactly as the pages of Scripture said it would be set up in the last days.\u00a0 Because when you study the Bible you are not studying man\u2019s book, you are studying God\u2019s book.\u00a0 You are studying a book that was breathed into existence by an omniscient God, and this subject of prophecy is therefore one of the greatest signs that we have that the Bible is, in fact, the Word of God.\u00a0 There are no such similar signs found in the book of Mormon, there are not no such similar signs found in the Quran.\u00a0 There are no such similar prophecies or predictions found in any other alleged holy book.\r\n\r\nThis is something that is unique to the Scripture itself.\u00a0 And the reason I bring this up is because many, many people will challenge you on why you believe the Bible is true.\u00a0 To their minds the Bible is just another book, another legend, another story.\u00a0 And this is one of the great proofs that you can use to show them that the Bible is not just one of many religious stories, the Bible is unique in itself, it is God\u2019s book and we know that it is God\u2019s book because of these predictions.\u00a0 Many of them have come to pass; many of them are yet to come.\u00a0 And Jesus Himself said, in John 13:19, \u201cFrom now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 He uses these short term predictions as the way to validate and verify His claim to be God.\r\n\r\nAnd so consequently at this point Peter is broken.\u00a0 And consequently at this point God is now ready to use Peter.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Remember the contrast that is taking place between Jesus and His trials and Peter outside the compound of Annas and Caiaphas.\u00a0 That contrast is there to show us what can be accomplished through divine power, Jesus Christ, and what little can be accomplished through human power, Peter.\r\n\r\nSo how did Peter change?\u00a0 The power of Jesus Christ that was resident in Christ\u2019s trials as He stood up under unfair treatment; that power came inside Peter.\u00a0 That power, that man Jesus Christ Himself who stood up under all of that unfair treatment, went inside of Peter himself on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 And this is why the Bible tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And this is why the early church was able to do everything that it was able to do in God because it was not relying upon human power the way Peter was outside the temple compound, but that early church was relying on Jesus Christ Himself, who as He stood up under unfair treatment took residence in the heart of Peter on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 And Peter learned to draw upon that strength and consequently he became the man of God and the man of destiny that he became.\u00a0 He became that because he was no longer the John 18 Peter but he became the Acts 2 Peter.\u00a0 And what was the difference?\u00a0 The power of Jesus Christ exhibited through His trials and standing up under unjust treatment actually went inside Peter on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 His body became the temple of the Holy Spirit and he became everything that he became in God as he depended on God.\r\n\r\nWe simply cannot accomplish great things for God through human strength.\u00a0 It is only as we learn to rely upon and depend upon the resources of the Holy Spirit that is within us can we become what we are supposed to become in God.\u00a0 Peter would not only become a strategic character in Acts 1-10 but as we study John\u2019s Gospel, later on in John 21, we\u2019re going to see that another prediction was given over Peter, his martyrdom.\u00a0 Peter would be given the privilege of dying a martyr\u2019s death.\r\n\r\nHow is it that we can have the strength, even to deny a martyr\u2019s death?\u00a0 You know, there are martyrdoms happening all over this world as I speak, Christian martyrdoms.\u00a0 How is it that people can become a martyr?\u00a0 How is it that they have the strength to stand up under unfair treatment, such as martyrdom?\u00a0 And the answer is they are not relying upon themselves.\u00a0 They are relying upon Jesus Christ, who Himself stood up under unfair treatment during His three religious trials.\u00a0 That same Jesus Christ comes into us at the point of faith and we learn to walk moment by moment dependent upon these resources of the Holy Spirit that is within us.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nI have no ability to die a martyr\u2019s death.\u00a0 I have no ability to be burned at the stake and to die with praises to God on my lips as has been recorded through many martyrdoms throughout the last 2,000 years.\u00a0 If you\u2019re asking me to do that through human power I cannot do that.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re asking me to do that through Jesus Christ who is within me, then it becomes possible, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I cannot minister the way Peter ministered in Acts 2; I cannot do that through human power, but if you\u2019re asking me to do that through the power of Jesus Christ, who is living inside of me, then I have the ability to do that.\r\n\r\nAnd unless we go through this breaking process we will foolishly move into our Christian life where we will seek to do this and that and this and that for God and it will get absolutely nowhere.\u00a0 And God has to bring us to the point, through perpetual breaking, whereby we acknowledge that it is by His strength and His power.\u00a0 What did Paul say?\u00a0 \u201cI can do all things through,\u201d what? \u201cChrist who strengthens me.\u201d\u00a0 [Philippians 4:13]\u00a0 What does Zechariah 4:6 say?\u00a0 \u201cNot by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD.\u201d\u00a0 And this is what God is trying to teach us.\u00a0 This is what He is trying to communicate to us.\u00a0 And this is why we have so much evidence about this transitionary character and transitionary figure, the Apostle Peter.\r\n\r\nNow as we move into verse 28 the scenery shifts just a little bit.\u00a0 John, as we mentioned before, is highlighting trials 1 and 2, and 4 and 6, so now we\u2019re moving away from the religious trials of Jesus Christ and we\u2019re now moving into the civil trials of Jesus Christ, these are trials that Jesus experienced primarily before a man named Pilate.\u00a0 So the religious trials of Jesus Christ are now in our rear view mirror and now we are moving into the governmental trial, the trial before Rome.\u00a0 And John primarily is focused on the two trials that Jesus had before this man named Pilate.\r\n\r\nThis is a massive section of Scripture.\u00a0 John is one of those writers that records long conversations.\u00a0 You remember the very long conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus in John 3.\u00a0 You remember the very long conversation that Jesus had with the woman at the well in John 4.\u00a0 And John is using that same style of writing and essentially these final trials before Pilate he records in the form of a giant conversation, a fascinating conversation and a dialogue takes place between Jesus and this man, Pilate.\r\n\r\nI believe that John organizes this material around four questions, because when you study John 18:28 all the way through John 19:16, what you will discover here are four questions.\u00a0 These are all questions asked by Pilate.\u00a0 Notice, for example, verse 29, \u201cTherefore Pilate went out to them and said, \u2018What accusation do you bring against this man?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s question number 1, and that covers the material from verses 28-32.\r\n\r\nNow notice if you will John 18:33, here is the second question that Pilate asks:\u00a0 John 18:33, \u201cTherefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, \u2018Are You the king of the Jews?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s question number 2.\u00a0 And that will cover that block of material from verse 33 through about halfway through verse 38.\u00a0 And then Pilate asks another question, notice, if you will, John 18:39, here is the third question.\u00a0 \u201cBut you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you,\u201d now here Pilate is speaking to the Jews, \u201cdo you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s question number 3 and that is going to cover verses 38-40.\u00a0 And then finally there is one more question it\u2019s over in chapter 19:9, this is during the second trial of Jesus before Pilate, his final trial.\u00a0 And it says, Pilate says this, \u201c\u2018Where are You from?\u201d\u2019\u00a0 And this gives Christ an opportunity to answer and so chapter 19, verses 1-16 is covering that section of material.\r\n\r\nNow all of this, don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re not going to be covering today but I\u2019m trying to explain to you why I have decided to outline this material before Pilate the way I have.\u00a0 It\u2019s essentially related to four questions by Pilate giving Jesus primarily opportunity to reveal to this man, Pontius Pilate, more information about Himself.\r\n\r\nBut notice, if you will, verse 28, this is the first trial before Pilate and let\u2019s take a look as we have time today just at this first question: notice, if you will, John 18:28, notice what it says:\u00a0 \u2018Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that they are now leading Jesus away from Caiaphas; Caiaphas was the functioning high priest; he was the head of the Sanhedrin.\u00a0 Jesus has been found guilty before the Sanhedrin for the charge of blasphemy.\u00a0 So he is guilty in the eyes of the leadership of the nation of Israel and consequently they are now, with that guilty verdict rendered, leading Him away from Jewish authority to Roman authority.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll notice also in verse 28 that it says they went \u201cinto the Praetorium.\u201d\u00a0 What is the Praetorium?\u00a0 The Praetorium is the Roman military governor\u2019s headquarters.\u00a0 Pilate was a Roman governor over Judea.\u00a0 At this time in history, as we will explain, the Romans had come to power, they had occupied the land of Israel, and they put into place this man, Pontius Pilate.\u00a0 Pilate was the Roman governor over this land of Judea.\r\n\r\nNow Pilate\u2019s headquarters were normally up north in a place called Caesarea.\u00a0 However, when it was a Jewish feast day what Pilate typically did is he moved his headquarters temporarily to Jerusalem to prevent any riots that might be breaking out, because you have to understand that when there was a Jewish feast day Jews from all over the known world would come to Jerusalem; there was always the risk of riots and things of that nature because of these massive crowds.\u00a0 So during the Jewish feast days Pilate would move his headquarters from Caesarea down south into the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 And of course, as we know, this is a feast day.\u00a0 All of these events are happening on Passover.\u00a0 Pilate probably chose, as his headquarters, Herod\u2019s former palace on the western wall of the city.\u00a0 It was just a temporary headquarters that he would use during feast days and this is where the Jews brought Jesus Christ because that\u2019s where they knew Pilate was.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll also notice in verse 28 that it was early in the morning; most would say it was probably somewhere between 6:00-7:00 a.m.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that when the Jews brought Jesus Christ to Pilate they would not enter the building or the room where Pilate was.\u00a0 That\u2019s very fascinating; notice this if you will, verse 28, \u201cand they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.\u201d\u00a0 The Jews believed that interacting with the Gentiles, like Pilate, made them ceremonially unclean.\r\n\r\nIn fact, in the book of Acts, chapter 10:28 there is an example of this as Luke, the author of Acts, highlights some things Peter said; \u201cAnd he said to them, \u2018You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nYou see, when Peter was told that his job was to minister to Cornelius, a Gentile, Peter initially did not want to do that because he felt that his presence with this Gentile would make him ceremonially unclean.\u00a0 So the Jews believed that if they were too closely connected with this man, Pilate, they would be disqualified from participating in the Passover.\u00a0 A Gentile, like Pilate, would not keep everything in a kosher state.\u00a0 A Gentile, like Pilate, might even had yeast in his residence or in his home.\u00a0 When you study Exodus 12:19 and Exodus 13:7 there can be no leavened bread.\u00a0 Exodus 12:19 says, \u201cSeven days there shall be no leaven found in your house.\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Exodus 13:7 says, \u201cUnleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders.\r\n\r\nSo this was a requirement that the Jews were under to celebrate Passover.\u00a0 And they felt that their presence with this man, Pilate, would make them ceremonially unclean.\u00a0 Tasker, in his commentary, says this:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026they are anxious to avoid external defilement in order to observe a festival whose real<\/em> significance was that, as well as reminding God's people of the ancient deliverance from Egypt, it pointed forward to the true Passover Lamb, whose sacrifice would bring to an end all distinctions between what was ceremonially clean and unclean, and effect an inward cleansing; and it was the death of that true Passover Lamb that the Jews at this moment are anxious to bring about.\u201d\u00a0 How ironic.\r\n\r\nConstable, in his online notes says this: \u201cIronically the Jews were taking extreme precautions to avoid ritual defilement while at the same time preparing to murder the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhy does John give us this little tidbit about the Jews not wanting to go into the Praetorium?\u00a0 John is explaining to us the power that religion has to blind us to the big picture.\u00a0 See, religion will get you focused on do\u2019s and don\u2019ts.\u00a0 Religion will get you focused on rules.\u00a0 Religion will get you focused on external behavior.\u00a0 And those religious concepts can be so blinding over us that we miss the big picture in the process.\u00a0 There they are so uptight and worried about ceremonial defilement that they don\u2019t even realize that they are crucifying the One that the Passover Ceremony ultimately points to.\u00a0 They are crucifying the One who is actually going to, through His death, burial, resurrection, get rid of, in the age of the church, all of these rituals and rules.\r\n\r\nHow many people in this world, how many people in this city, are so focused on the minutia, they are so focused on the do\u2019s and don\u2019ts, they are so focused on the ritual, they are so focused on the routine of their religiosity that they are blind to the reality of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many people there are like that; I know from firsthand experience, because I was once one of them.\u00a0 I was an altar boy in the church that I grew up with; I had the whole service memorized by heart.\u00a0 I received a giant cross to wear around my neck because of my record in that church in terms of perfect attendance, service as an altar boy and things of that nature.\u00a0 And I could tell you everything you wanted to know about that service; I could tell you about the hymns that were going to be sung; I could tell you about the sections of doctrine that were going to be read.\u00a0 If there was ever a person focused on dos and don\u2019ts and ritual and routine, that was me.\u00a0 And may I just say to you that during that whole time period I was completely blind as to who Jesus Christ was.\u00a0 I did not understand that Jesus had come into the world to die for my sins and that I can have a personal relationship with Him by way of faith.\r\n\r\nAnd this, in essence, is what is happening to these in first century Israel: worried about the Passover, worried about unleavened or leavened bread; worried about ritual, ceremonial impurity, and they are ushering Jesus Christ to an early grave in fulfillment of all of that rich Passover imagery.\r\n\r\nJohn doesn\u2019t just point out this blindness here; he points it out in John 19:31.\u00a0 It says this, \u201cThen the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to get these bodies down; we\u2019ve got to get these people out of here.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because of our religion, because of Sabbath and things of that nature.\u00a0 So focused on Sabbath, so focused on the routine, so focused on the ritual that they don\u2019t even realize what has happened before their very eyes regarding the death of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The power of religiosity and rules to blindness, to truth, cannot be understated and it cannot be overestimated.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tremendous blindness that humanity is under as long as we remain religious.\r\n\r\nNotice, if you will, verse 29, it says, \u201cTherefore Pilate went out,\u201d see, Pilate has to go out to where the Jews are because the Jews aren\u2019t going to come into the Praetorium, \u201cTherefore Pilate went out to them and said, \u2018What accusation do you bring against this Man?\u201d\u00a0 Pilate goes out to them, Pilate addressed those assembled outside of his headquarters, and he says to them, do you want me to put this man to death?\u00a0 There needs to be a formal charge.\r\n\r\nNotice, if you will, verse 30, as the Jews begin to respond, \u201cThey answered and said to him, \u2018If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice how these Jews are hesitant to bring up this specific charge against Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The specific charge against Jesus Christ, based upon these faulty religious trials, is the charge of blasphemy.\u00a0 That issue will not get Christ crucified because that is a religious charge, not a political charge.\u00a0 We have now transferred things from the religious world to the political world.\r\n\r\nPilate wants to know what Roman law has this man violated; if you want me to crucify Him I need to know what the specific charge and infraction of Roman law this man has violated.\u00a0 And they just said well, He was a bad guy, He was bad, He was evil and take our word for it.\u00a0 And essentially what they want is a rubber stamp.\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded very much of Paul when he was in Corinth and this is what it says in Acts 18:14-15, it says: \u201cBut when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, \u2018If it were a matter of wrong or of a vicious crime, O Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you; [15] but if there are questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourselves; I am unwilling to be a judge of these matters.\u201d\r\n\r\nYou see, a Roman, in order to execute punishment was not interested in a religious controversy.\u00a0 The charges against Jesus were blasphemous in nature; they were religious in nature, and that may have been sufficient to get Christ executed in the land of Israel by the Jews but it was not sufficient to get Him executed before the Romans.\r\n\r\nIn fact, one of the things you discover through these trials and shenanigans that are going on is the Jews changed the charge.\u00a0 Now every attorney knows you can\u2019t change the charge or the indictment right in the middle of a trial, but that is, in essence, what they did because Luke 23:2 says, \u201cAnd they began to accuse Him, saying, \u2018We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, the King.\u201d\u00a0 Now they\u2019re trying to rephrase the issue as if Jesus is promoting insurrection.\r\n\r\nSo right in the middle of this legal process that is going on they change the charge, they change the indictment and what prosecutors typically do it they try to throw so much Jell-O at the wall hoping something will stick, let\u2019s throw this charge at Him, let\u2019s throw that charge at Him.\u00a0 And if we just keep throwing enough Playdoh or Jell-O against the wall something will stick and they actually come up with three things: number 1, He was misleading our nation; number 2, He was forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar; number 3, He Himself says He is Christ the King.\r\n\r\nNow were the prior trials that took place involved in those specific charges?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Were there any witnesses raised on those specific charges?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 But what their thinking is we have got Jesus guilty in the eyes of Israel, now we\u2019ve got to get Him guilty in the eyes of Rome so let\u2019s just change the charge, let\u2019s just change the indictment, and let\u2019s just come up with a smorgasbord of charges, hoping something will stick.\r\n\r\nAnd you\u2019ll notice what Pilate\u2019s reaction is, verse 31, when he sees all of this going on.\u00a0 \u201cSo Pilate said to them, \u2018Take Him yourselves and judge Him according to your law.\u201d\u00a0 If you can\u2019t come up with a formal charge, if you can\u2019t come up with something specific that this man has done wrong, then I\u2019m going to return, or remand the case to you and let the Jewish system handle it.\u00a0 That is a problem for the nation of Israel and the Jews that wanted Christ dead.\u00a0\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because of verse 21, the second part of the verse, \u201cThe Jews said to him, \u2018We are not permitted to put anyone to death\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 If they return the case to the Jews the Jews know they have a problem because they are not permitted, at this time in history, to put anyone to death.\u00a0 What had happened historically?\u00a0 What had happened historically is Rome had come to power over the land of Israel in about 63 B.C. and they had taken away from the Jews the power of capital punishment.\u00a0 They had taken away from the Jews the ability to execute criminals.\r\n\r\nYou say well, wait a minute; wait a minute!\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t Stephen killed?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t the Jews stone Stephen to death?\u00a0 Yes, they did stone him to death but you see, Stephen was tried for speaking against the temple.\u00a0 Josephus, in his Antiquities q<\/em>uotes General Titus, a Roman, as follows: \u201cAnd we do not permit you to put to death anyone who passed by it,\u201d the barrier \u201ceven were he a Roman.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn other words, the nation of Israel could not execute criminals unless the charge involved speaking against the temple.\u00a0 As long as the charge was speaking against the temple they could execute their own criminals but you see, Jesus has not been charged with that.\u00a0 They tried to, you remember, earlier on in the religious trials, falsely charge Him with that but the witnesses couldn\u2019t agree with each other.\u00a0 So now they come up with this other charge of blasphemy.\u00a0 Now blasphemy is a terrific or horrific charge in the nation of Israel but it does not involve speaking against the temple. And so consequently the Jews, even with this exception, are still lacking in the ability to put Jesus Christ to death.\r\n\r\nAnd what I want you to see in all of this is the sovereign hand of God.\u00a0 God is not going to allow the nation of Israel to put Jesus to death.\u00a0 He is specifically orchestrating things whereby only the Romans are going to be allowed to put Jesus to death.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the Romans have a way of putting people to death called crucifixion.\u00a0 You say well, where did this idea of crucifixion come from?\u00a0 Crucifixion did not come from originally the Romans? \u00a0Contrary to popular opinion the Romans did not invent crucifixion; it was the Assyrians that invented crucifixion there on that eastern circle you see Assyria and there east of the Tigris River is the key city of the Assyrian Empire in the days of Jonah called the city of Nineveh.\u00a0 These were the people that invented this barbaric practice of crucifixion.\u00a0 And of all of the barbaric and cruel people on the face of the earth, the Assyrians, I believe, were right at the top of the list.\r\n\r\nIf I came in here with some of my extra biblical citations and read to you exactly what the Assyrians did to people and how they punished people it would be enough to make you stomach turn.\u00a0 It was the Assyrians that God used to scatter the northern tribes in 722 B.C.\u00a0 This explains why Jonah, when God commanded him to go to Nineveh and preach the grace of God went in the exact opposite direction.\u00a0 That circle there on the far west, that\u2019s a place called Tarshish or modern day Spain; that\u2019s where Jonah went.\u00a0 Jonah did not want to see grace come to the Assyrians, the inventors of the crucifixion.\r\n\r\nJust to give you kind of a modern parallel we see in the news all of these people from ISIS chopping off the heads of Americans and things like that and we have a natural hatred for that and a natural revolution.\u00a0 And what if all of a sudden God gave you a vision and a dream right now and said I want you to go to where the people of ISIS are and I want you to preach My grace.\u00a0 We would say God, I thought you were an American, what do you mean preach grace to those people.\u00a0 Jonah hated these people.\u00a0\u00a0 And of course, we know the story of Jonah, how God had to deal with Jonah to get him into a frame of mind to do God\u2019s will.\r\n\r\nBut it\u2019s the Assyrians that developed this concept of the crucifixion.\u00a0 The Romans, when they came to power, simply said you know, this idea of a crucifixion, this sounds like a swell idea; I mean, this will deter crime, won\u2019t it?\u00a0 We\u2019ll have these criminals executed publicly and hang on crosses and that will deter crime.\u00a0 All Rome did was take an ancient Assyrian practice and popularize it.\r\n\r\nBut what I want you to see is this was the hand of God; it was necessary for Jesus to be executed by the Romans rather than the Jews.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because of a subject we mentioned a little earlier, the fulfillment of prophecy.\u00a0 How did the Jews execute people?\u00a0 Through stoning.\u00a0 Now when you go to the land of Israel, I\u2019ve been there twice, you see why they use stones and rocks because stones and rocks are everywhere.\u00a0 What a great way to kill people, just throw rocks at them until they\u2019re dead.\u00a0 In fact, Leviticus 24:16 says, \u201cMoreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him.\u201d\u00a0 Numbers 15:32-36 says, \u201cNow the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day.\u201d\u00a0 And later on it says, [36] \u201cSo all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him\u2026.\u201d\r\n\r\nJohn 8:59, you know Jesus was almost stoned to death.\u00a0 It says in John 8:59, \u201cTherefore they picked up stones\u201d after He claimed to be the great I am, \u201cthey picked up stones to throw at Him\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 If the nation of Israel had been given permission to execute Christ He would have died through stoning, not through crucifixion.\r\n\r\nYou say well, so what?\u00a0 Had that happened the specific prophetic blueprint would have never been fulfilled.\u00a0 One of the prophecies Jesus gave about His own death in John 12:32, He says, \u201cAnd I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.\u201d\u00a0 What lifts you from the earth?\u00a0 Not being stoned to death but being lifted from the earth through crucifixion.\u00a0 Jesus, in Matthew 20:17 says, \u201cand they will hand\u201d speaking of Himself, \u201cHim over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus Himself predicted that He would die, not through stoning but through crucifixion.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nNot only would Christ prophesies have failed if the Jews had killed Christ but prophecies written about Christ in the pages of Scripture, going back into the Old Testament would have never been fulfilled.\u00a0 Do you remember what David said in Psalm 22:16, about a thousand years before the time of Christ?\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.\u201d What instrument of death pierces one\u2019s hands and feet?\u00a0 Not being stoned to death but being crucified.\u00a0 You see David, a thousand years in advance is prophesying this specific way that the Messiah would die before the Assyrians had even invented the practice.\r\n\r\nThis shows you that God knows the end from the beginning and He is orchestrating human events so that the specifics of His Word can be fulfilled.\u00a0 Isaiah 53:5, of course Isaiah 53 is a well-known prophecy about Christ, written 700 years in advance, and it says, \u201cBut He was pierced through for our transgressions\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Zechariah 12:10 says, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have\u2026.\u201d What? \u201cpierced.\u201d\u00a0 Was Jesus pierced?\u00a0 Yes, His hands were pierced, His feet were pierced, His side was pierced, none of which would have happened had the Jews simply thrown rocks at Him until He was dead.\r\n\r\nWhat\u2019s the main point I\u2019m trying to communicate?\u00a0 God is in control; God is in control of events that seem like they are out of control.\u00a0 These things are happening as the Jews want to execute Christ but legally they cannot do it so they have to turn it over to the Romans.\u00a0 This whole dialogue is taking place between the Jewish leaders and Pilate.\u00a0 But what is behind it all?\u00a0 It is the hand of God; it is God that allowed the Assyrians to invent this practice of crucifixion.\u00a0 It is God that allowed the Romans to popularize it.\u00a0 It is God who allowed the Romans, in 63 B.C. to come into power over the land of Israel so that the Jews would not have the ability to execute their own criminals.\u00a0 It is the hand of God that is at work in all of these things so that the tiny specifics of His Word can be fulfilled.\r\n\r\nAnd if God can be in control of events like this, that seem totally out of control, how is it that we develop this mentality in our lives that when we have problems God is not in control.\u00a0 If God can control what government is in place and what method of execution is in place to fulfill specific prophecies that He made hundreds and thousands of years in advance, can He not govern and narrate your life?\u00a0 And we move so quickly into fear without trusting in God who is in control of all things.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we titled this message \u201cGod is in Control.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe\u2019s in control!\u00a0 But pastor, don\u2019t you know that the Iranians are about ready to get their hands on nuclear weapons?\u00a0 Aren\u2019t you worried about that?\u00a0 In a sense I am worried about it but I\u2019ll tell you one thing, God is in control of that.\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t have the perspective of the Word of God I would be terrified at things I see in the news.\u00a0 But pastor, haven\u2019t you been watching all of the things that have happened regarding Ferguson, and the racial tension that is escalating in our country?\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019ve watched it.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t you disturbed by it?\u00a0 Yeah, I am disturbed by it but ultimately I look at something like this as that too is under the sovereign thumb and hand of God.\r\n\r\nBut pastor, don\u2019t you realize when you read these prayer requests about the number of people that are in our congregation that are having difficulty, some have signs of cancer, aren\u2019t you worried about that?\u00a0 Yeah, I am concerned about that and I\u2019m worried about that but the fact of the matter is, even cancer is under the sovereign authority and the control of God.\r\n\r\nThere isn\u2019t anything that is happening in this world, there isn\u2019t anything that\u2019s happening in your life right now that is not under the sovereign thumb and control of God.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand all of the reasons why God does what He does; I wish I did.\u00a0 But at the end of the day I know that God has not somehow lost control of our lives; He has not lost control of this universe, He has not lost control of you and we need to simply trust Him moment by moment and walk by faith.\u00a0 God is in control!\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s possible you can be here today and life seems out of control to you because you really don\u2019t know Him personally.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why at all of our services we like to give out what we call the gospel.\u00a0 The gospel is so critical because the gospel shows you specifically how to enter into a relationship with the God who made you.\u00a0 How do you specifically enter into a relationship with the God who is in control of all things?\u00a0 And it\u2019s through something that the Scripture calls and that we call the gospel.\u00a0 The gospel means good news.\u00a0 And the reason it\u2019s good news is because Jesus did all of it.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be studying later on, not today but in subsequent sermons, John 19 where Jesus will say \u201cIt is finished.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, the sin debt of the world has been paid for, \u201cIt is finished,\u201d there\u2019s nothing else for us to do; that\u2019s why it\u2019s good news.\r\n\r\nAnd we simply respond to it as one responds the way they receive a free gift from God; we don\u2019t work for it, we don\u2019t earn it, we don\u2019t commit ourselves through New Year\u2019s resolutions to trying harder, I\u2019m not against New Year\u2019s resolutions but we don\u2019t enter into a relationship with God through New Year\u2019s resolutions.\u00a0 We enter into a relationship with the God that made us, who is in control over all things by responding by faith, receiving as a free gift, what has already been accomplished for us.\r\n\r\nThe Holy Spirit has come into the world to convict us of our need to receive the gospel and if you find yourself this morning under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, because you perhaps are a religious person but you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re a child of God or not, our exhortation to you is to respond to the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit and to simply receive what Jesus has done.\u00a0 Metaphorically open your hands to God and receive what He has already accomplished for you.\u00a0 You do that by way of faith alone.\u00a0 Faith is another way of saying trust, it\u2019s another way of saying reliance, it\u2019s another way of saying dependence upon, it\u2019s another way of saying confidence in.\r\n\r\nThe Spirit of God convicts us and we respond by faith to what Jesus has done; we rely upon Him and His Word and His truth for the safekeeping of our soul.\u00a0 Becoming a Christian is not twelve steps; becoming a Christian is one step.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that takes place in the privacy of one\u2019s own mind and heart as the Holy Spirit places you under conviction.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something you raise a hand to do, walk an aisle to do, join a church to do, give money to do; it\u2019s a moment of privacy between you and the Lord where you place the trust for your eternity and the safe keeping of your soul into the hands of Jesus Christ, who has accomplished everything for us.\r\n\r\nIf that\u2019s something you have done or are doing then on the authority of the Word of God you have just changed your eternal destiny.\u00a0 It\u2019s something you can do right now, even as I am speaking.\u00a0 But that\u2019s what brings you into a relationship with this God who is in control of all things.\u00a0 Shall we pray.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t