Church Order: Worship, Sacraments, and the Lord's Supper

Mad at Christ

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Church Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2012-06-19

Synopsis: Pastor John Weaver examines Luke 6:6-11, where the Pharisees are filled with madness after Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. He identifies three reasons for their anger: they could not contain Christ within their traditions, they could not confound Him in debate, and they could not control His sovereign actions. Weaver applies these truths to modern hostility toward Christ and His people, emphasizing God's uncontrollable sovereignty and calling believers to submission rather than anger.

[John Weaver] Luke chapter 6, and we're going to read verses 6 through 11. The title of the message today is Mad at Christ. Mad at Christ. Look in Luke chapter 6, beginning there with verse 6. And it came to pass also in another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. And there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he rose and stood forth.

[John Weaver] Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, stretched forth thine hand, and he did so. And his hand was restored, whole as the other. And they were filled with madness and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus."

[John Weaver] Just stop and think of the title of this message, Mad at Christ. What an absolutely blasphemous and horrible attitude and act. you'd have to ask yourself how could anyone be angry and upset with the sinless Son of God who is love, mercy, and grace personified. And yet, truthfully, there are multitudes that are mad at Christ. And many who harbor such rage and ill will are atheists and infidels of all persuasions.

[John Weaver] All of those who fight against Him or are enraged with Him and seek to overthrow His kingship and His kingdom. I find it amusing that many who deny the existence of God fight the most vehemently against Him. And you need to stop and think, if they really believe that He didn't exist, why in the world waste your time fighting against Him? The truth of the matter is this, that all of their vitriolic messages, all of their anger, all of their fighting, just simply reveals that deep down they really, genuinely believe that He is and that He exists. Because if they did not believe that, they would not be fighting. But sadly, there are many professing Christians who are also mad at Christ.

[John Weaver] It seems that when His will and His plans crosses their wills and their plans, then they're angry. I've known Christians, I've known many people who have lost a loved one who would get angry with Christ. And I remember one man particularly who was married probably over 50 years. His wife died in her 80s. And he told me, he said, it's not fair that God took her. I thought, what do you mean it's not fair? I mean, God gave her to you for over 50 years You're not even thankful for 50 years? People are just angry with Christ. In our context, it is the religious leaders who are angry with Christ. If you will read through the New Testament, you will always find that our Lord's mortal enemies were the religious leaders. Of course, you remember the Sadducees were the ones who controlled the temple. The Pharisees were the ones who controlled the people, and they were the ones that gave Christ the most problem. Of course, the Herodians joined in there with them as well.

[John Weaver] But I want you to look at verse 11 of Luke chapter 6. The Scripture says,"...and they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus." Now the word madness here is a very unique word. It literally refers to madness, to folly, a lack of sense, rage, and insanity. The madness or rage that is revealed here is closely connected with insanity. The Greek word anoius literally means a lack of sense. The word nous means literally mind.

[John Weaver] You put an a or an alpha in front of it. And it means that someone is basically out of his mind, or doesn't have a mind, or is not capable of thinking. And so the word here denotes this senseless rage and confusion to which our Lord put His enemies by both His words and His deeds.

[John Weaver] Now look at verse 11 again. And they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus. Their insanity, their madness, their rage led them to want to do something to Jesus. And I'm sure that something was not very nice. For over and over in the Scriptures, they tried to kill Him. You remember the Scripture said that our Lord's enemies watched Him. Go back, if you would, to verse 7. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him, whether He would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against Him.

[John Weaver] Now the word watched here has the connotation of watching insidiously and maliciously. That is they watched him with an evil intent in order that they might destroy him. Let me show you. Hold Luke 6, but go in your Bibles to the book of Mark chapter 3 and verse 2. Let me just show you several passages right quickly. Mark chapter 3 and verse 2. In fact, we can read verse 1 as well.

[John Weaver] And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. Same thing. Look in Luke chapter 14 and verse 1. Luke 14 and verse 1. Here it is again. Luke 14 and verse 1. And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. Isn't that amazing? Then if you'll look in Luke 20 and verse 20. Luke 20 and verse 20.

[John Weaver] And the Scripture tells us this. Luke 20 and verse 20. And they watched him, and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him into the power and authority of the government. They watched him. And thus they basely watched him as a lion does its prey, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce and to destroy. They watched him that they might accuse him, condemn him, and destroy him.

[John Weaver] They did not watch to learn. They did not watch to edify themselves. They did not watch to honor and glorify God for all the works that were performed. No, they watched him that they might destroy him. So you've got to ask yourself this question. Why were our Lord's enemies so insanely angry and upset with Him? I want you to stop and think about this. If we can find out the answer as to what upset our Lord's enemies so much, we can also find out why our Lord's enemies are still so angry against His people.

[John Weaver] You remember what our Lord said in John chapter 15 and verse 18? Let me read this to you. John 15 verse 18, our Lord said, If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Then He said this, Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord.

[John Weaver] If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they will keep your saying also. But notice what our Lord said, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. So our Lord is saying, look now, there's going to be a connection here between the hatred of the world toward me and the hatred of the world toward His people. So if the world then is angry with Christ, they're certainly going to be angry with us as well. So we as Christians are hated, Basically because Christ is hated. And because we believe what Christ believed.

[John Weaver] There should be an absolute total difference between the saved and the unsaved. We are not like the unsaved. And therefore, that difference causes a great deal of anger. So why then were our Lord's enemies so viciously and maliciously mad and angry toward Him. I'm going to show you three things today. The first one is this. Here's the first reason for their anger. They could not contain Him. They could not contain Him.

[John Weaver] Now our text in Luke chapter 6 makes this truth very clear. I want you to note it was the Sabbath day. It was a Sabbath day. And notice, if you would please, they could not keep Christ within the confines and the traditions of their belief system. They had a different belief system concerning the Sabbath day. Their view of the Sabbath day was entirely different from our Lord's view of the Sabbath day. Their view consisted of legalism and traditionalism, thus we get the word Pharisaism. Now, let's look in Luke chapter 6, beginning there with verse 1. Here it is. And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first, so it's the Sabbath day now, that he went through the cornfields, and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certainly the Pharisees said unto them, Why do you that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?

[John Weaver] And Jesus answering them said, Have you not read so much as this what David did when himself was hungered, and they which were with him? How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone. And he said unto them that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Now watch this. It was a Sabbath day, and if you'll look at verse 6, and it came to pass on another Sabbath. So all of these things are happening on the Sabbath day.

[John Weaver] Now, in the first five verses, our Lord and His disciples go through a cornfield. And they get the grain in their hands and they rub it, getting all the chaff off, and they're eating it. And the question that the Pharisees ask is this. Why is it that you're doing that which is not lawful to be done on the Sabbath days? So the question is, unlawful according to whom? It was unlawful according to their tradition and their interpretation. It was not unlawful according to the law of God.

[John Weaver] If you would hold Luke 6, but look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23, and notice if you would verse 25. Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25. Look what God says. The law of God perfectly allowed that which Christ and His disciples did. In Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25, the Word of God says, When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand, but thou shalt not move a sickle into thy neighbor's standing corn. So all He is saying is this, if you're walking through your neighbor's cornfield and you want to take a bite, take a bite.

[John Weaver] You know, get a handful of it. But you can't harvest His grain for Him. You can't steal it. It's lawful to get something to eat, but it's not lawful to steal. And so our Lord did not even quote Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25. What our Lord did was remind them what happened in 1 Samuel 21. When David and a few of his men had escaped from Saul, they came to Ahimelech the priest. And David asked him, is there anything to eat? Well, he said, here's the bread, the show bread that just came out from the presence of God. They'd put fresh show bread in. And the priest alone were allowed to eat that show bread. And David said, give it to me. And the priest said, well, if the men have at least kept themselves from women, he said, that's the truth. And he gave David and the men the bread, and they ate it. Now look what our Lord said. Look at it in verse 3. And Jesus answered them, said, Have you not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was a hungred, and they which were with him?

[John Weaver] How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone. Watch. And then he said, That the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. In other words, are greater than David is here. It's what our Lord is teaching them. He is not subject to the interpretations or the traditions of man. He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

[John Weaver] He's the one that created everything. He's the one that ordained the law. The thing that upset the Pharisees so often was that they could not contain Christ. They could not stop Him from violating their interpretations of the Sabbath. They could not stop Him from abrogating and nullifying their traditions. Our Lord consistently did that which is right and biblical and that which was according to God's law. So frequently, therefore, He crossed man's law and man's interpretation of it to the chagrin and the dismay of the Pharisees. Now let me just show you how this upset them. I want to show you four quick passages.

[John Weaver] Look in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. Of course, whole Luke 6. But look in Matthew chapter 12 and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Just showing you they could not contain Christ. Matthew chapter 12. And let's begin reading there with verse 10. In fact, we could probably begin reading with verse 8, just to show you again it was a Sabbath day. Matthew 12 verse 8, For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

[John Weaver] And when He was departed, thence He went into their synagogue. And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days, that they might accuse Him? And He said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? If it fall into the pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much then is man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." They did not want Christ to even heal on the Sabbath days, and our Lord is saying, you're a hypocrite. I mean, if your sheep falls into a pit, you're going to lift him out, even if it's on the Sabbath day. And He's teaching it is lawful to do good, It is lawful to save life.

[John Weaver] Look in your Bibles, if you would please, to the book of Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3. And notice beginning there with verse 1. I like this passage. Mark 3 verse 1. And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he said unto the man who had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he said unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill? Watch.

[John Weaver] But they held their peace. Now these are people who are supposed to know the law of God. And when he looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. Why?

[John Weaver] Because He disagreed with their interpretation on the Sabbath. Look in your Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 13. Luke 13. You want to see some real, genuine hypocrisy? Here it is. Luke 13, beginning there, verse 11. Luke 13, verse 11. And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself, so she was bent over and could not straighten out. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity.

[John Weaver] And he laid his hands on her, And immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Now watch this. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. And he said to the people, there are six days in which men ought to work, and them therefore come and be healed, but not on the Sabbath day. And the Lord answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, Doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen years, be loose from the bond on this Sabbath day?

[John Weaver] And when he said these things, all of his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced in all the glorious things that were done by him." Can you imagine somebody saying that the woman should not have been healed on the Sabbath day? The Lord said, you're a hypocrite. You'll take your ox and water him on the Sabbath day. One other passage, look in John chapter 7. John chapter 7. John 7, beginning there with verse 22. John 7, look in verse 22. Our Lord said this.

[John Weaver] Moses therefore gave you circumcision, not because it was Moses, but of the fathers. And you on the Sabbath day circumcised a man. If a man on the Sabbath day received circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man every whit hole on the Sabbath day?" Wow! Isn't that amazing? So our Lord was not contained by the Pharisees.

[John Weaver] They could not fit Him or make Him fit in into their belief system and their traditionalism. Do you realize, had our Lord bent and bowed to the Pharisees, had He fit into their belief system, that He would have been their star, He would have been their friend, He would have been their representative, He would have been well known and praised by them. But the very fact that He went contrary to what they believed and contrary to their interpretations and their traditions. Therefore, they went to destroy Him.

[John Weaver] Unhappily, I know preachers and many Christians who if you do not agree with them, you're out of here. you're out of here. Because unhappily there are plenty of people who think, like the Pharisees, that they have all truth. And that everyone must bow to exactly what they believe and what they teach. Many just cannot abide disagreement with their views. Which is very obviously a characteristic of the Pharisees. So the very first reason they were angry with Christ is they could not contain Him. They could not make Him their little pupil and their little star.

[John Weaver] The second thing is this. They could not confound Him. If they could not contain our Lord, that is to bring Him into the confines of their teaching and their traditions, Then the next thing is they were going to confound Him and expose Him as a charlatan and as a fraud. Their plan was to trap Him and to expose Him. The only problem with their plan was this. It was impossible to confound the Son of God and He always confounded them.

[John Weaver] Let me give you some illustrations of this. I want you to look at Luke chapter 20. In fact, we're going to stay in Luke 20 a good bit. Luke 20. And let's look at the first 8 verses. Luke 20. Notice if you would, the first 8 verses. Luke 20, beginning there with verse 1. One of these days, I'm going to preach on this phrase. And it came to pass that on one of those days, everybody has one of those days, you know. So it came to pass on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders and spake unto him saying, Tell us by what authority doest thou these things or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing and answer me.

[John Weaver] The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned within themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will say, why then believe you not him? But if we say of men, all the people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered that they could not tell whence he was. And Jesus said to them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

[John Weaver] Well, you know, they tried to trap Him and He, in turn, trapped them. Let me show you another one. Look in Luke 20 and skip down to verse 20. Luke 20 and verse 20. And they watched Him and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of His words, that so they might deliver Him into the power and authority of the governor, but they wanted to destroy Him.

[John Weaver] And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly. Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no? But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. He said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God's the thing which be God's.

[John Weaver] And they could not take hold of his words before the people, note that phrase before the people, and they marveled at his answer and held their peace. Now the Pharisees believed that they alone were the authoritative interpreters of the law. By appealing to our Lord's authority to interpret the law, the questioners tried to accomplish two goals. First of all, they wanted to force Jesus Christ to answer the question. If He refused to answer the question, then He lost credibility as a rabbi or as a teacher before the very people who had just been proclaimed proclaiming him a king. Secondly, they're forcing Christ to answer the question based upon the law of God. In other words, they're testing his scriptural knowledge. Owen Ball, who was an author, said this, the gospel writers thus describe a scene in which Jesus questioners have boxed him in. He is tempted to assume the authority of a rabbi while at the same time he is constrained to answer according to the dictates of the Torah.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to listen to this. If Jesus says it is lawful to pay tribute, he would have been seen then as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers and would alienate the people. Remember this phrase, before the people. The people were there. So if our Lord says yes, then he's viewed then as a collaborator with the hated Roman Empire. If he says, no, do not pay tribute to Caesar, then he becomes a political criminal because he incurs in the wrath of Rome.

[John Weaver] In either answer, someone would have killed him. If he had answered, yes, pay the taxes, then some of the people would have probably risen up against him. If he said no, then of course the Romans are going to put him to death because he's teaching what they would call sedition and treason against the Roman Empire. So what did Christ do? Christ just simply asked for a coin. Now he could have made his point without the coin, but he asked for a coin.

[John Weaver] He said in verse 24, show me a penny. Now, the word penny is actually for the word denarius. Why did he ask his interrogators for a coin? Because the denarius was truly the emperor's property. It bore his seal, the imperial seal, and it differed from the Roman coins that the Senate had issued. they issued a copper coin. So the coin then that he asked for was what you and I would call the imperial coin. The imperial coin had the image of Tiberius on it. In fact, Tiberius had even made it against the law to carry his coin into a bathroom or a brothel. So this coin then was a tangible representation of the Emperor's power, wealth, deification, and subjugation.

[John Weaver] Let me give you a quote right here that will show you how our Lord really confounded his adversaries. The denarii that Tiberius had minted were actually made in modern day lions or gall. And Spencer Kennard in his book, which is now out of print, Rendered to God, says this, that the denarius circulation in Judea was likely scarce. Now listen, the only people to transact routinely with the denarius in Judea would have been soldiers, Roman officials, and Jewish leaders in collaboration with Rome.

[John Weaver] Thus, it was noteworthy that Jesus himself does not possess such a coin. The questioner's quickness to produce the coin at Jesus' request implies that they routinely used it, taking advantage of the Roman financial largess. Wherefore, Jesus did not. Moreover, this episode takes place in the temple And by producing the coin, the questioners reveal their religious hypocrisy because they are bringing a profane item into the temple. Our Lord asks, whose image and whose superscription is on it? Whose image? Whose superscription?

[John Weaver] These two questions relate to the very first two commandments. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, and thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. On Tiberius' coin were these words. Tiberius, Caesar, Divi, August, Fili, Augustus. Translated it means, Tiberius Caesar, worshipful son of the god Augustus. On the other side of the coin was the Roman goddess of peace, Pax. And around her were the words Pontifus Maximus, which means High Priest. So Tiberius Caesar was not only claiming to be the son of God, he was also claiming to be the High Priest. You've got to remember there was a Roman cult of emperor worship. And all who used this coin agreed that Tiberius, or the Caesar then, was God. And when our Lord said whose image and whose superscription is on it as they produced the coin, they were evidencing that they were the hypocrites. They had the coin.

[John Weaver] And they brought that profane item into the temple. They were the ones that were violating the law of God. And that's why the scripture says in verse 26, And they could not take hold of His words before the people, and they marveled at His answers, and they held their peace. Why? Because He had confounded them and proved that they were the hypocrites and they were the violators of God's law. Look in your Bibles, Luke 20, beginning verse 27.

[John Weaver] Just to show you how the Lord confounds them now. Luke 20, verse 27. Then came to him a certain of the Sadducees, which denied that there is a resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die having a wife and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seeded to his brethren, to his brother. There were therefore seven brethren. The first took a wife and died without children. The second took her to wife and he died childless. The third took her in the like manner, the seven also, and they left no children and died. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore the resurrection whose wife of them is she, for seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, the children of this world marry and are given in marriage but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain the world that the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor given in marriage neither can they die anymore for they are equal to the angels and they are

[John Weaver] the children of God being the children of the resurrection now that the dead are raised even Moses himself showed at the bush when he called the Lord God of Abraham and Isaac God of Isaac and God of Jacob for he is not the God of the dead but for the living for all live unto Him."

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to watch this. Here come the Sadducees, who do not even believe in a resurrection. They say there is no resurrection. But they go to the Levite marriage law, and they said now, the law says, if a man marry a wife and has no children, his brother is to marry her. Well, that was back when the land was divided. And it was divided where families kept the land in their families. And so they have this impossible solution, they think, to this problem of the resurrection. They don't even believe in the resurrection, and they're trying to prove there can't be a resurrection, because here seven men had one woman to wife. Now whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection? Well, to their consternation and to their embarrassment, our Lord says it very bluntly in Matthew 22 and verse 29.

[John Weaver] Listen to what He said. Jesus answered them and said, You do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. You do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. What? In other words, the Sadducees, the ones who were in control of the temple, the ones who were the priestly order, heard, because number one, they did not know the Scriptures, where the Scriptures do indeed teach a bodily resurrection. And number two, they did not know the power of God, that God is able to raise up the dead. And they did not know that in marriage, there is no... in heaven, there is no marriage nor giving in marriage. Marriage is an earthly phenomenon, not an heavenly phenomenon.

[John Weaver] So our Lord once again confounds even the leaders. In Matthew 22 and verse 46, I like this. After all of these things, the Scripture says this. And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions. Why? He confounded them. They could not trap Him. They could not contain Him. They could not confound Him. I want you to listen to this. Here's the third one. They could not control Him. I suppose that this one truth calls them the most consternation and anger. They could not control Christ. They could not stop Him. They could not thwart Him. They could not hinder Him. They could not control Him.

[John Weaver] And thus their wits end. You know what the Pharisees exclaimed in John 12 and verse 19? Listen to this. Here's what they said. Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold the whole world is going after Him. That's why they said in John 12, if we don't do something, we're going to lose our place. We're going to lose our name. We're going to lose everything because He is taking over.

[John Weaver] They could not stop Jesus Christ from healing on the Sabbath. They could not stop Jesus Christ from feeding the multitudes. They could not stop Jesus Christ from healing the sick. They could not stop Christ from raising the dead. They could not stop Christ from proclaiming the truth. They could not stop Christ from going contrary to their traditions and their interpretations. They had no control over Him. He is the uncontrollable God. God does only as He pleases and always as He pleases. Are you listening? God is not anyone's little servant boy.

[John Weaver] He does not come at our beck and call. He does not obey our commands. He did not obey the desires or the whims or the wishes or the wills of the Pharisees. Rather, He demanded that they repent and throw down their weapons of warfare and cease their rebellion to Him and bow to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to John 5. I want to show you what I believe is one of the greatest passages on the sovereignty and the uncontrollability of Jesus Christ. We're going to read about 18 verses, so I want you to watch. John chapter 5, beginning there at verse 1. After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. Now watch.

[John Weaver] In these, that is in these five porches, lay a great multitude of impotent folk of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

[John Weaver] And Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case. And he said to him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked.

[John Weaver] And on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. Lord have mercy. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk?

[John Weaver] And he that was healed wist not that it was Jesus, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterwards, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, Watch, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."

[John Weaver] Now, let me ask you a few questions. How many people were sick, blind, halt, and withered, laying in these five porches? The scripture says, a great multitude. How many did our Lord heal? One. Did that man know who Christ was? No. Did he ask for healing? No. Christ went to him and singled him out. Christ asked him, will thou be made whole? The man still did not even know who Christ was.

[John Weaver] And he gave the explanation while he was trying to get to the pool, someone stepped in ahead of him. Then our Lord just simply said, rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

[John Weaver] Now let me ask you, how many of these people needed healing? All of them. Could Christ have healed every one of them? Yes, but He did not. Why? Why would Christ go through a whole multitude of sick, halt, blind and lame people, pick one out and heal him and leave the rest? Why would He do that? Here's the answer. Look in John 5, beginning with verse 21. You remember our Lord gave this answer to the Jews, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

[John Weaver] And the Bible said they sought to kill Him even more, not only because He had violated their interpretation of the Sabbath, but because He had made Himself equal with God. Now look in John 5 and verse 21. Here's what our Lord says, For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, watch, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. Let me ask you, what is the one attribute that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is God?

[John Weaver] And the answer is, He's sovereign. He's uncontrollable. He's answerable to no one. He does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. He's God. Now watch this. Verse 21 again. For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son. Here it is. that all men should honor the Son even as equal to the honor they give to the Father. He that honored not the Son honored not the Father with sin.

[John Weaver] Why did Jesus do that? To prove one thing. He's God. He's sovereign. He's Lord. He quickens whom He will. He does as He pleases. Always as He pleases. Only as He pleases. He is the uncontrollable God. When men discover, they cannot control God. and they cannot make Him do as they please, they get very upset. They get very angry. God is not answerable or accountable to any man or to any group of men or to anybody or anything because He's God. Any and everything is answerable and accountable to Him. He's not accountable to us.

[John Weaver] In fact, Scripture says He gives no account of any matters to us. He doesn't have to. Why did God take my spouse? Because God is God. Why did God take my child? Because God is God. Why did God save you? Because God is God. Why does God bless you? Because God is God. Why does God withhold His blessing? Because God is God. We have to learn one thing. And this is what the Pharisees refused to learn. They hated it. They did not want to learn it. But here it is. God is in control. Not us. Not man. His kingdom shall stand. Not man's kingdom. And the sooner you and I learn the fact that God is in control, the better off we're going to be.

[John Weaver] Why did they hate Him so? They couldn't contain Him. They couldn't confound Him. And they could not control Him.

[John Weaver] Now let me make some applications. The first one is this. Men are often filled with madness at Christ because He does not work the way they desire. or when they desire. He does not answer their cries or their prayers as they desire. Their anger is based upon the fact that God is beyond their control. If God only submitted to them and did what they wanted and what they pleased, they would not be angry with Him. See what I'm saying? Well, they would love that kind of God But you know David said in Psalm 115 verse 3, but our God is in the heavens, he's done whatsoever he's pleased.

[John Weaver] Have you ever stopped to think how foolish it is to be angry with the only one who could possibly ever help you? You talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face? Why in the world would you get angry with God when He's the only one that can possibly ever, ever help us? The second application is this. Many that are themselves guilty of the greatest crimes are quick to censure others for the most innocent and inoffensive actions.

[John Weaver] Look at Christ and His disciples. They just walked through the wheat field, got a little grain, got the husk off and ate it. And the Pharisees, why is it that you and your disciples do that which is unlawful to do on the Sabbath? That is according to their interpretation. When it was their practice to feed themselves deliciously, especially on the Sabbath days, all you have to do is read Isaiah 58, where God condemns their doing their own pleasure on His days. They were hypocrites. Our Lord rightly asks in Matthew 20 and verse 15, Is it not lawful for me to do with what I will with mine own?

[John Weaver] Is thine eye evil because I am good? To show you this, you remember last week, I brought the message. So you got what you want, is that all that matters? And you remember I told you how Judas came back and threw the 30 pieces of silver down on the floor? And you know what the Pharisees, the Sadducees said? They said this, it is not lawful to put this into the treasury for its blood money. But now it was lawful to take it out of the treasury to condemn an innocent man. But now that he's condemned, it's not law for us to put it back in the treasury. What?

[John Weaver] The truth of the matter is this, folks. It's God's law that counts. Man always perverts, misinterprets, and misapplies any and everything from the Word of God. We need to know the Scripture. We need to know the Word of God. So we will not be swayed by the interpretations and the traditions of man.

[John Weaver] Thirdly, men are often enraged because others do well in a way in which they do not approve. Did you know God is going to do what He wants to do whether you approve of it or not? Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, God is going to do what He wants to do and what He wills to do, what He's pleased to do. And the truth of the matter is this, I personally I'd rather be in submission to Him and what He wills and what He wants and what He desires and be blessed by Him than to get angry with Him because I can't control Him. And I can't make Him do what I want Him to do. So many people want to change God. You're going to find it's going to be impossible. to change the unchangeable God. And you're going to find it's going to be impossible to control the uncontrollable God. For He's sovereign. Do you realize the reason the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians hated Christ and were so angry at Him was because they could not contain Him, they could not confound Him, and they could not control Him.

[John Weaver] That's exactly the same reasons why the world is so upset with Him today. That's why politicians hate Him. That's why governments despise Him. Because He demands that they repent and submit to Him. For He's King of kings and Lord of lords and God of gods. And as Psalm 2 says, Kiss the Son, lest He be angry with thee, and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. And that's addressed to the kings of the earth. He is the uncontrollable God. Let's pray.

[John Weaver] Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for being the sovereign God of heaven and earth. We know that Thou art on the throne of this universe, ruling according to Your own will. And we acknowledge, Heavenly Father, that whatever Thou doest is right and holy, for Thou art God. Give us grace that we may be in submission to Thee, and that we may bow before Thee, and that we may trust Thee and love Thee, and bring our lives in conformity to Your Word. Help us, we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask it. Amen.

Mad at Christ

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	JF4BCyNsujM
Subject	Church Government
Course	Church Order: Worship, Sacraments, and the Lord's Supper
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-06-19
Dictation Name
Book	Book 039: Church Order and Worship - Volume 1 — Chapter 9
Source Timed Segments	73

Formatted Transcript

Opening

Luke chapter 6, and we're going to read verses 6 through 11. The title of the message today is "Mad at Christ." Mad at Christ. Look in Luke chapter 6, beginning there with verse 6.

Scripture Reading — Luke 6:6-11

"And it came to pass also in another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. And there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he

rose and stood forth."

"Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand, and he did so. And his hand was restored, whole as the other. And they were filled with madness and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus."

Introduction: The Blasphemy of Being Mad at Christ

Weaver introduces the shocking reality that many people, including professing Christians, are angry with Christ, and notes that the religious leaders were His mortal enemies.

Just stop and think of the title of this message, "Mad at Christ." What an absolutely blasphemous and horrible attitude and act. You'd have to ask yourself, how could anyone be angry and upset with the sinless Son of God who is love, mercy, and grace personified? And yet, truthfully, there are multitudes that are mad at Christ. And many who harbor such rage and ill will are atheists and infidels of all persuasions. All of those who fight against Him or are enraged with Him and seek to overthrow His kingship and His kingdom. I find it amusing that many who deny the existence of God fight the most vehemently against Him. And you need to stop and think, if they really believe that He didn't exist, why in the world waste your time fighting against Him? The truth of the matter is this, that all of their vitriolic messages, all of their anger, all of their fighting, just simply reveals that deep down they really, genuinely believe that He is and that He exists. Because if they did not believe that, they would not be fighting. But sadly, there are many professing Christians who are also mad at Christ.

It seems that when His will and His plans cross their wills and their plans, then they're angry. I've known Christians, I've known many people who have lost a loved one who would get angry with Christ. And I remember one man particularly who was married probably over 50 years. His wife died in her 80s. And he told me, he said, "It's not fair that God took her." I thought, what do you mean it's not fair? I mean, God gave her to you for over 50 years. You're not even thankful for 50 years? People are just angry with Christ. In our context, it is the religious leaders who are angry with Christ. If you will read through the New Testament, you will always find that our Lord's mortal enemies were the religious leaders. Of course, you remember the Sadducees were the ones who controlled the temple. The Pharisees were the ones who controlled the people, and they were the ones that gave Christ the most problem. Of course, the Herodians joined in there with them as well.

The Meaning of 'Madness' in Luke 6:11

The Greek word for madness denotes senseless rage, folly, and insanity, showing the irrational anger of Christ's enemies.

But I want you to look at verse 11 of Luke chapter 6. The Scripture says, "...and they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus." Now the word "madness" here is a very unique word. It literally refers to madness, to folly, a lack of sense, rage, and insanity. The madness or rage that is revealed here is closely connected with insanity. The Greek word anoius literally means a lack of sense. The word nous means literally mind. You put an "a" or an alpha in front of it, and it means that someone is basically out of his mind, or doesn't have a mind, or is not capable of thinking. And so the word here denotes this senseless rage and confusion to which our Lord put His enemies by both His words and His deeds.

Now look at verse 11 again. "And they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus." Their insanity, their madness, their rage led them to want to do something to Jesus. And I'm sure that something was not very nice. For over and over in the Scriptures, they tried to kill Him. You remember the Scripture said that our Lord's enemies watched Him. Go back, if you would, to verse 7. "And the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him, whether He would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against Him."

They Watched Him to Destroy Him

The Pharisees watched Jesus insidiously, seeking an accusation to condemn and destroy Him, not to learn or honor God.

Now the word "watched" here has the connotation of watching insidiously and maliciously. That is, they watched him with an evil intent in order that they might destroy him. Let me show you. Hold Luke 6, but go in your Bibles to the book of Mark chapter 3 and verse 2. Let me just show you several passages right quickly. Mark chapter 3 and verse 2. In fact, we can read verse 1 as well.

"And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him." Same thing. Look in Luke chapter 14 and verse 1. Luke 14 and verse 1. Here it is again. "And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him." Isn't that amazing? Then if you'll look in Luke 20 and verse 20. Luke 20 and verse 20.

And the Scripture tells us this. Luke 20 and verse 20. "And they watched him, and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him into the power and authority of the government." They watched him. And thus they basely watched him as a lion does its prey, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce and to destroy. They watched him that they might accuse him, condemn him, and destroy him. They did not watch to learn. They did not watch to edify themselves. They did not watch to honor and glorify God for all the works that were performed. No, they watched him that they might destroy him. So you've got to ask yourself this question. Why were our Lord's enemies so insanely angry and upset with Him? I want you to stop and think about this. If we can find out the answer as to what upset our Lord's enemies so much, we can also find out why our Lord's enemies are still so angry against His people.

Reason 1: They Could Not Contain Him

The Pharisees could not keep Christ within their legalistic Sabbath traditions; He consistently acted according to God's law, not their interpretations.

Now our text in Luke chapter 6 makes this truth very clear. I want you to note it was the Sabbath day. It was a Sabbath day. And notice, if you would please, they could not keep Christ within the confines and the traditions of their belief system. They had a different belief system concerning the Sabbath day. Their view of the Sabbath day was entirely different from our Lord's view of the Sabbath day. Their view consisted of legalism and traditionalism, thus we get the word Pharisaism. Now, let's look in Luke chapter 6, beginning there with verse 1. Here it is. "And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first," so it's the Sabbath day now, "that he went through the cornfields, and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certainly the Pharisees said unto them, Why do you that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?"

"And Jesus answering them said, Have you not read so much as this what David did when himself was hungered, and they which were with him? How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone. And he said unto them that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Now watch this. It was a Sabbath day, and if you'll look at verse 6, "and it came to pass on another Sabbath." So all of these things are happening on the Sabbath day.

Now, in the first five verses, our Lord and His disciples go through a cornfield. And they get the grain in their hands and they rub it, getting all the chaff off, and they're eating it. And the question that the Pharisees ask is this.

Scripture Reading — Luke 6:1-5

"Why is it that you're doing that which is not lawful to be done on the Sabbath days?"

So the question is, unlawful according to whom? It was unlawful according to their tradition and their interpretation. It was not unlawful according to the law of God. If you would hold Luke 6, but look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23, and notice if you would verse 25. Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25. Look what God says. The law of God perfectly allowed that which Christ and His disciples did. In Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25, the Word of God says, "When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand, but thou shalt not move a sickle into thy neighbor's standing corn." So all He is saying is this, if you're walking through your neighbor's cornfield and you want to take a bite, take a bite.

You know, get a handful of it. But you can't harvest His grain for Him. You can't steal it. It's lawful to get something to eat, but it's not lawful to steal. And so our Lord did not even quote Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25. What our Lord did was remind them what happened in 1 Samuel 21. When David and a few of his men had escaped from Saul, they came to Ahimelech the priest. And David asked him, "Is there anything to eat?" Well, he said, "Here's the bread, the showbread that just came out from the presence of God." They'd put fresh showbread in. And the priest alone were allowed to eat that showbread. And David said, "Give it to me." And the priest said, "Well, if the men have at least kept themselves from women," he said, "that's the truth." And he gave David and the men the bread, and they ate it. Now look what our Lord said. Look at it in verse 3. "And Jesus answered them, said, Have you not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was a hungred, and they which were with him?"

"How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone." Watch. And then he said, "That the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." In other words, a greater than David is here. It's what our Lord is teaching them. He is not subject to the interpretations or the traditions of man. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He's the one that created everything. He's the one that ordained the law. The thing that upset the Pharisees so often was that they could not contain Christ. They could not stop Him from violating their interpretations of the Sabbath. They could not stop Him from abrogating and nullifying their traditions. Our Lord consistently did that which is right and biblical and that which was according to God's law. So frequently, therefore, He crossed man's law and man's interpretation of it to the chagrin and the dismay of the Pharisees. Now let me just show you how this upset them. I want to show you four quick passages.

Look in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. Of course, hold Luke 6. But look in Matthew chapter 12 and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Just showing you they could not contain Christ. Matthew chapter 12. And let's begin reading there with verse 10. In fact, we could probably begin reading with verse 8, just to show you again it was a Sabbath day. Matthew 12 verse 8,

Scripture Reading — Matthew 12:8-12

"For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

"And when He was departed, thence He went into their synagogue. And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days, that they might accuse Him? And He said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? If it fall into the pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much then is man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." They did not want Christ to even heal on the Sabbath days, and our Lord is saying, you're a hypocrite. I mean, if your sheep falls into a pit, you're going to lift him out, even if it's on the Sabbath day. And He's teaching it is lawful to do good, it is lawful to save life.

Look in your Bibles, if you would please, to the book of Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3. And notice beginning there with verse 1. I like this passage. Mark 3 verse 1. "And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he said unto the man who had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he said unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill?" Watch.

"But they held their peace." Now these are people who are supposed to know the law of God. "And when he looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him." Why? Because He disagreed with their interpretation on the Sabbath. Look in your Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 13. Luke 13. You want to see some real, genuine hypocrisy? Here it is. Luke 13, beginning there, verse 11. Luke 13, verse 11. "And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself," so she was bent over and could not straighten out. "And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity."

"And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God." Now watch this. "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. And he said to the people, There are six days in which men ought to work, and in them therefore come and be healed, but not on the Sabbath day. And the Lord answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen years, be loose from the bond on this Sabbath day?" "And when he said these things, all of his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced in all the glorious things that were done by him." Can you imagine somebody saying that the woman should not have been healed on the Sabbath day? The Lord said, "You're a hypocrite. You'll take your ox and water him on the Sabbath day." One other passage, look in John chapter 7. John chapter 7. John 7, beginning there with verse 22. John 7, look in verse 22. Our Lord said this.

"Moses therefore gave you circumcision, not because it was Moses, but of the fathers. And you on the Sabbath day circumcised a man. If a man on the Sabbath day received circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?" Wow! Isn't that amazing? So our Lord was not contained by the Pharisees. They could not fit Him or make Him fit into their belief system and their traditionalism. Do you realize, had our Lord bent and bowed to the Pharisees, had He fit into their belief system, that He would have been their star, He would have been their friend, He would have been their representative, He would have been well known and praised by them. But the very fact that He went contrary to what they believed and contrary to their interpretations and their traditions, therefore, they went to destroy Him.

Unhappily, I know preachers and many Christians who if you do not agree with them, you're out of here. You're out of here. Because unhappily there are plenty of people who think, like the Pharisees, that they have all truth. And that everyone must bow to exactly what they believe and what they teach. Many just cannot abide disagreement with their views. Which is very obviously a characteristic of the Pharisees. So the very first reason they were angry with Christ is they could not contain Him. They could not make Him their little pupil and their little star.

Reason 2: They Could Not Confound Him

Attempts to trap Jesus in His words failed; He confounded His adversaries, exposing their hypocrisy and ignorance of Scripture.

Let me give you some illustrations of this. I want you to look at Luke chapter 20. In fact, we're going to stay in Luke 20 a good bit. Luke 20. And let's look at the first 8 verses. Luke 20. Notice if you would, the first 8 verses. Luke 20, beginning there with verse 1. One of these days, I'm going to preach on this phrase.

Scripture Reading — Luke 20:1-8

"And it came to pass that on one of those days,"

everybody has one of those days, you know.

Scripture Reading — Luke 20:1-8

"So it came to pass on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders and spake unto him saying, Tell us by what authority doest thou these things or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing and answer me." "The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned within themselves, saying, If we shall say from heaven, he will say, Why then believe you not him? But if we say of men, all the people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered that they could not tell whence he was. And Jesus said to them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."

Well, you know, they tried to trap Him and He, in turn, trapped them. Let me show you another one. Look in Luke 20 and skip down to verse 20. Luke 20 and verse 20. "And they watched Him and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of His words, that so they might deliver Him into the power and authority of the governor," but they wanted to destroy Him.

"And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly. Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no? But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. He said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's."

"And they could not take hold of his words before the people," note that phrase "before the people," "and they marveled at his answer and held their peace." Now the Pharisees believed that they alone were the authoritative interpreters of the law. By appealing to our Lord's authority to interpret the law, the questioners tried to accomplish two goals. First of all, they wanted to force Jesus Christ to answer the question. If He refused to answer the question, then He lost credibility as a rabbi or as a teacher before the very people who had just been proclaiming him a king. Secondly, they're forcing Christ to answer the question based upon the law of God. In other words, they're testing his scriptural knowledge. Owen Ball, who was an author, said this, "The gospel writers thus describe a scene in which Jesus' questioners have boxed him in. He is tempted to assume the authority of a rabbi while at the same time he is constrained to answer according to the dictates of the Torah."

Now I want you to listen to this. If Jesus says it is lawful to pay tribute, he would have been seen then as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers and would alienate the people. Remember this phrase, "before the people." The people were there. So if our Lord says yes, then he's viewed then as a collaborator with the hated Roman Empire. If he says, no, do not pay tribute to Caesar, then he becomes a political criminal because he incurs the wrath of Rome. In either answer, someone would have killed him. If he had answered, yes, pay the taxes, then some of the people would have probably risen up against him. If he said no, then of course the Romans are going to put him to death because he's teaching what they would call sedition and treason against the Roman Empire. So what did Christ do? Christ just simply asked for a coin. Now he could have made his point without the coin, but he asked for a coin.

He said in verse 24, "Show me a penny." Now, the word "penny" is actually for the word denarius. Why did he ask his interrogators for a coin? Because the denarius was truly the emperor's property. It bore his seal, the imperial seal, and it differed from the Roman coins that the Senate had issued. They issued a copper coin. So the coin then that he asked for was what you and I would call the imperial coin. The imperial coin had the image of Tiberius on it. In fact, Tiberius had even made it against the law to carry his coin into a bathroom or a brothel. So this coin then was a tangible representation of the Emperor's power, wealth, deification, and subjugation.

Let me give you a quote right here that will show you how our Lord really confounded his adversaries. The denarii that Tiberius had minted were actually made in modern day Lyons or Gaul. And Spencer Kennard in his book, which is now out of print, "Rendered to God," says this, that the denarius circulation in Judea was likely scarce. Now listen, the only people to transact routinely with the denarius in Judea would have been soldiers, Roman officials, and Jewish leaders in collaboration with Rome.

Thus, it was noteworthy that Jesus himself does not possess such a coin. The questioners' quickness to produce the coin at Jesus' request implies that they routinely used it, taking advantage of the Roman financial largess. Wherefore, Jesus did not. Moreover, this episode takes place in the temple. And by producing the coin, the questioners reveal their religious hypocrisy because they are bringing a profane item into the temple. Our Lord asks, "Whose image and whose superscription is on it?" Whose image? Whose superscription?

These two questions relate to the very first two commandments. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." On Tiberius' coin were these words: "Tiberius, Caesar, Divi, August, Fili, Augustus." Translated it means, "Tiberius Caesar, worshipful son of the god Augustus." On the other side of the coin was the Roman goddess of peace, Pax. And around her were the words "Pontifus Maximus," which means High Priest. So Tiberius Caesar was not only claiming to be the son of God, he was also claiming to be the High Priest. You've got to remember there was a Roman cult of emperor worship. And all who used this coin agreed that Tiberius, or the Caesar then, was God. And when our Lord said, "Whose image and whose superscription is on it?" as they produced the coin, they were evidencing that they were the hypocrites. They had the coin.

And they brought that profane item into the temple. They were the ones that were violating the law of God. And that's why the scripture says in verse 26, "And they could not take hold of His words before the people, and they marveled at His answers, and they held their peace." Why? Because He had confounded them and proved that they were the hypocrites and they were the violators of God's law. Look in your Bibles, Luke 20, beginning verse 27. Just to show you how the Lord confounds them now. Luke 20, verse 27.

Scripture Reading — Luke 20:27-38

"Then came to him a certain of the Sadducees, which denied that there is a resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die having a wife and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. There were therefore seven brethren. The first took a wife and died without children. The second took her to wife and he died childless. The third took her in the like manner, the seven also, and they left no children and died. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she, for seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, and they are

the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses himself showed at the bush when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him." Now, I want you to watch this. Here come the Sadducees, who do not even believe in a resurrection. They say there is no resurrection. But they go to the Levite marriage law, and they said now, the law says, if a man marry a wife and has no children, his brother is to marry her. Well, that was back when the land was divided. And it was divided where families kept the land in their families. And so they have this impossible solution, they think, to this problem of the resurrection. They don't even believe in the resurrection, and they're trying to prove there can't be a resurrection, because here seven men had one woman to wife. Now whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection? Well, to their consternation and to their embarrassment, our Lord says it very bluntly in Matthew 22 and verse 29.

Listen to what He said. "Jesus answered them and said, You do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. You do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." What? In other words, the Sadducees, the ones who were in control of the temple, the ones who were the priestly order, erred, because number one, they did not know the Scriptures, where the Scriptures do indeed teach a bodily resurrection. And number two, they did not know the power of God, that God is able to raise up the dead. And they did not know that in marriage, there is no... in heaven, there is no marriage nor giving in marriage. Marriage is an earthly phenomenon, not an heavenly phenomenon.

So our Lord once again confounds even the leaders. In Matthew 22 and verse 46, I like this. After all of these things, the Scripture says this.

Scripture Reading — Matthew 22:46

"And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions."

Why? He confounded them. They could not trap Him. They could not contain Him. They could not confound Him. I want you to listen to this. Here's the third one. They could not control Him. I suppose that this one truth calls them the most consternation and anger. They could not control Christ. They could not stop Him. They could not thwart Him. They could not hinder Him. They could not control Him.

Reason 3: They Could Not Control Him

Jesus demonstrated His sovereignty by healing only one man at Bethesda, proving He does as He pleases; the Pharisees could not stop or control Him.

And thus their wits end. You know what the Pharisees exclaimed in John 12 and verse 19? Listen to this. Here's what they said.

Scripture Reading — John 12:19

"Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold the whole world is going after Him."

That's why they said in John 12, "If we don't do something, we're going to lose our place. We're going to lose our name. We're going to lose everything because He is taking over."

They could not stop Jesus Christ from healing on the Sabbath. They could not stop Jesus Christ from feeding the multitudes. They could not stop Jesus Christ from healing the sick. They could not stop Christ from raising the dead. They could not stop Christ from proclaiming the truth. They could not stop Christ from going contrary to their traditions and their interpretations. They had no control over Him. He is the uncontrollable God. God does only as He pleases and always as He pleases. Are you listening? God is not anyone's little servant boy.

He does not come at our beck and call. He does not obey our commands. He did not obey the desires or the whims or the wishes or the wills of the Pharisees. Rather, He demanded that they repent and throw down their weapons of warfare and cease their rebellion to Him and bow to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to John 5. I want to show you what I believe is one of the greatest passages on the sovereignty and the uncontrollability of Jesus Christ. We're going to read about 18 verses, so I want you to watch. John chapter 5, beginning there at verse 1. "After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches." Now watch.

"In these," that is in these five porches, "lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years." "And Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case. And he said to him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked."

"And on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." Lord have mercy. "He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk?" "And he that was healed wist not that it was Jesus, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterwards, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, Watch, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."

Now, let me ask you a few questions. How many people were sick, blind, halt, and withered, laying in these five porches? The scripture says, "a great multitude." How many did our Lord heal? One. Did that man know who Christ was? No. Did he ask for healing? No. Christ went to him and singled him out. Christ asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" The man still did not even know who Christ was.

And he gave the explanation while he was trying to get to the pool, someone stepped in ahead of him. Then our Lord just simply said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." Now let me ask you, how many of these people needed healing? All of them. Could Christ have healed every one of them? Yes, but He did not. Why? Why would Christ go through a whole multitude of sick, halt, blind and lame people, pick one out and heal him and leave the rest? Why would He do that? Here's the answer. Look in John 5, beginning with verse 21. You remember our Lord gave this answer to the Jews, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."

And the Bible said they sought to kill Him even more, not only because He had violated their interpretation of the Sabbath, but because He had made Himself equal with God. Now look in John 5 and verse 21. Here's what our Lord says,

Scripture Reading — John 5:21

"For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,"

watch,

Scripture Reading — John 5:21

"even so the Son quickeneth whom He will."

Let me ask you, what is the one attribute that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is God? And the answer is, He's sovereign. He's uncontrollable. He's answerable to no one. He does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. He's God. Now watch this. Verse 21 again.

Scripture Reading — John 5:21

"For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son. Here it is. That all men should honor the Son even as equal to the honor they give to the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which sent him."

Why did Jesus do that? To prove one thing. He's God. He's sovereign. He's Lord. He quickeneth whom He will. He does as He pleases. Always as He pleases. Only as He pleases. He is the uncontrollable God. When men discover they cannot control God, and they cannot make Him do as they please, they get very upset. They get very angry. God is not answerable or accountable to any man or to any group of men or to anybody or anything because He's God. Any and everything is answerable and accountable to Him. He's not accountable to us.

Applications: Anger at God's Uncontrollable Sovereignty

Weaver applies the lessons: anger at Christ stems from His refusal to submit to our desires; we must submit to His sovereign will.

Now let me make some applications. The first one is this. Men are often filled with madness at Christ because He does not work the way they desire, or when they desire. He does not answer their cries or their prayers as they desire. Their anger is based upon the fact that God is beyond their control. If God only submitted to them and did what they wanted and what they pleased, they would not be angry with Him. See what I'm saying? Well, they would love that kind of God. But you know David said in Psalm 115 verse 3, "But our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 58

Have you ever stopped to think how foolish it is to be angry with the only one who could possibly ever help you? You talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face? Why in the world would you get angry with God when He's the only one that can possibly ever, ever help us? The second application is this. Many that are themselves guilty of the greatest crimes are quick to censure others for the most innocent and inoffensive actions. Look at Christ and His disciples. They just walked through the wheat field, got a little grain, got the husk off and ate it. And the Pharisees, "Why is it that you and your disciples do that which is unlawful to do on the Sabbath?" That is according to their interpretation. When it was their practice to feed themselves deliciously, especially on the Sabbath days, all you have to do is read Isaiah 58, where God condemns their doing their own pleasure on His days. They were hypocrites. Our Lord rightly asks in Matthew 20 and verse 15, "Is it not lawful for me to do with what I will with mine own?"

"Is thine eye evil because I am good?" To show you this, you remember last week, I brought the message. "So you got what you want, is that all that matters?" And you remember I told you how Judas came back and threw the 30 pieces of silver down on the floor? And you know what the Pharisees, the Sadducees said? They said this, "It is not lawful to put this into the treasury for its blood money." But now it was lawful to take it out of the treasury to condemn an innocent man. But now that he's condemned, it's not lawful for us to put it back in the treasury. What?

The truth of the matter is this, folks. It's God's law that counts. Man always perverts, misinterprets, and misapplies any and everything from the Word of God. We need to know the Scripture. We need to know the Word of God. So we will not be swayed by the interpretations and the traditions of man. Thirdly, men are often enraged because others do well in a way in which they do not approve. Did you know God is going to do what He wants to do whether you approve of it or not? Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, God is going to do what He wants to do and what He wills to do, what He's pleased to do. And the truth of the matter is this, I personally I'd rather be in submission to Him and what He wills and what He wants and what He desires and be blessed by Him than to get angry with Him because I can't control Him. And I can't make Him do what I want Him to do. So many people want to change God. You're going to find it's going to be impossible to change the unchangeable God. And you're going to find it's going to be impossible to control the uncontrollable God. For He's sovereign. Do you realize the reason the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians hated Christ and were so angry at Him was because they could not contain Him, they could not confound Him, and they could not control Him.

That's exactly the same reasons why the world is so upset with Him today. That's why politicians hate Him. That's why governments despise Him. Because He demands that they repent and submit to Him. For He's King of kings and Lord of lords and God of gods. And as Psalm 2 says, "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry with thee, and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little." And that's addressed to the kings of the earth. He is the uncontrollable God. Let's pray.

Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for being the sovereign God of heaven and earth. We know that Thou art on the throne of this universe, ruling according to Your own will. And we acknowledge, Heavenly Father, that whatever Thou doest is right and holy, for Thou art God. Give us grace that we may be in submission to Thee, and that we may bow before Thee, and that we may trust Thee and love Thee, and bring our lives in conformity to Your Word. Help us, we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask it. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Irrational Anger Against Christ

Summary: Many people, including atheists and professing Christians, harbor senseless rage against Jesus, often because He does not conform to their expectations.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'there are multitudes that are mad at Christ... many professing Christians who are also mad at Christ' (126.2-181.2s).

Christ's Conflict with Religious Legalism

Summary: The Pharisees' anger stemmed from Jesus' refusal to abide by their man-made Sabbath traditions, highlighting the clash between God's law and human interpretations.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'They could not keep Christ within the confines and the traditions of their belief system' (617.7-685.4s).

The Sovereignty and Uncontrollability of God

Summary: Jesus' healing of only one man at Bethesda demonstrates that God acts according to His own will, not human demands, provoking anger in those who seek to control Him.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'He quickeneth whom He will... He is the uncontrollable God' (2717.1-2764.3s).

Hypocrisy of Christ's Accusers

Summary: The religious leaders condemned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath while they themselves violated God's law, revealing their hypocrisy.

Evidence: Weaver notes, 'they were the hypocrites and they were the violators of God's law' (1977.4-2016.8s).

The World's Hatred of Christ and His Followers

Summary: The anger directed at Jesus extends to His disciples because they share His beliefs and are not of the world.

Evidence: Weaver quotes John 15:18, 'If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you' (508.8-536.3s).

Key Arguments

Anger at Christ reveals a belief in His existence

Summary: Atheists who vehemently fight against God demonstrate that deep down they truly believe He exists, otherwise they would not waste their time opposing Him.

Evidence: Weaver argues, 'if they really believe that He didn't exist, why in the world waste your time fighting against Him?' (126.2-180.2s).

The Pharisees could not contain Christ within their traditions

Summary: Jesus consistently violated Pharisaic Sabbath interpretations by doing good and following God's law, which enraged the religious leaders.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'They could not stop Him from violating their interpretations of the Sabbath' (904.3-957.3s).

Jesus confounded His adversaries by exposing their hypocrisy

Summary: When asked about paying taxes, Jesus used a denarius to reveal the questioners' own complicity with Rome and their violation of the first two commandments.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'they were evidencing that they were the hypocrites. They had the coin' (1887.1-1976.8s).

God's sovereignty is the ultimate reason for human anger

Summary: People become angry with God because He does not submit to their control or answer prayers as they desire; He acts according to His own will.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Their anger is based upon the fact that God is beyond their control' (2922.0-2970.8s).

Submission to God's will is the only proper response

Summary: Rather than being angry at God's uncontrollable sovereignty, believers should submit to Him, trust Him, and conform their lives to His Word.

Evidence: Weaver prays, 'Give us grace that we may be in submission to Thee... bring our lives in conformity to Your Word' (3303.4-3341.4s).

Scripture References

Luke 6:6-11

Context: The primary text: Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees are filled with madness.

Luke 6:1-5

Context: Jesus' disciples pluck grain on the Sabbath, and He defends them by citing David eating the showbread, declaring Himself Lord of the Sabbath.

Deuteronomy 23:25

Context: God's law allowed plucking grain by hand from a neighbor's field, showing the disciples' action was lawful.

1 Samuel 21

Context: David ate the showbread when he was hungry, which Jesus uses to justify His disciples' actions on the Sabbath.

Matthew 12:8-12

Context: Jesus teaches it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, using the example of rescuing a sheep from a pit.

Mark 3:1-6

Context: Jesus heals a withered hand on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees plot with the Herodians to destroy Him.

Luke 13:11-17

Context: Jesus heals a woman bent over for 18 years on the Sabbath, rebuking the synagogue ruler's hypocrisy.

John 7:22-23

Context: Jesus argues that if circumcision is performed on the Sabbath, healing a whole man should not cause anger.

Luke 20:1-8

Context: The chief priests question Jesus' authority; He confounds them by asking about John's baptism.

Luke 20:20-26

Context: Spies try to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Caesar; He confounds them with the coin.

Luke 20:27-38

Context: Sadducees question Jesus about the resurrection; He corrects their error and proves the resurrection from Moses.

Matthew 22:29

Context: Jesus tells the Sadducees they err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

Matthew 22:46

Context: After Jesus' answers, no one dared ask Him any more questions.

John 12:19

Context: The Pharisees exclaim that the whole world is going after Jesus, showing their loss of control.

John 5:1-18

Context: Jesus heals one man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, leading to persecution because He made Himself equal with God.

John 5:21

Context: Jesus declares that the Son quickens whom He will, demonstrating His sovereign will.

John 15:18-20

Context: Jesus warns that the world will hate His disciples because it hated Him first.

Psalm 115:3

Context: Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

Psalm 2:12

Context: Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way.

Isaiah 58

Context: God condemns Israel for doing their own pleasure on His holy day.

Historical References

Pharisees and Sadducees

Context: The religious leaders who opposed Jesus; Sadducees controlled the temple, Pharisees controlled the people, and they were Christ's mortal enemies.

Herodians

Context: A political group that joined with the Pharisees to plot against Jesus after He healed on the Sabbath.

Roman denarius coin

Context: The coin Jesus requested bore the image and inscription of Tiberius Caesar, claiming divinity and high priesthood, exposing the hypocrisy of His questioners.

Tiberius Caesar

Context: The Roman emperor whose image and title ('son of the god Augustus') were on the denarius, representing emperor worship.

Bethesda pool

Context: A pool in Jerusalem with five porches where a multitude of sick waited for healing; Jesus healed one man there.

Levite marriage law

Context: The Sadducees referenced the law of levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) to challenge the resurrection.

Important Quotes

And they were filled with madness and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.

Significance: This is the key verse showing the irrational rage of the Pharisees after Jesus' healing, which forms the basis of the sermon.

If they really believe that He didn't exist, why in the world waste your time fighting against Him?

Significance: Weaver argues that vehement opposition to God actually reveals an underlying belief in His existence.

They could not keep Christ within the confines and the traditions of their belief system.

Significance: Summarizes the first reason for the Pharisees' anger: Jesus would not be bound by their man-made rules.

He is not subject to the interpretations or the traditions of man. He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Significance: Highlights Christ's authority over Sabbath regulations, which infuriated the legalistic leaders.

He quickeneth whom He will.

Significance: A concise declaration of Christ's sovereign freedom to act according to His own will, which is the ultimate reason for human anger.

God is not anyone's little servant boy.

Significance: A blunt statement emphasizing that God does not obey human commands or desires.

Their anger is based upon the fact that God is beyond their control.

Significance: Weaver's application pinpointing the root of human anger toward God: His uncontrollable sovereignty.

Discussion Questions

Why do you think people who deny God's existence often fight so vehemently against Him?

Context: Weaver notes that atheists' anger reveals a deep-seated belief in God.

In what ways might professing Christians today become 'mad at Christ' when His will crosses theirs?

Context: Weaver gives examples of believers angry over loss or unanswered prayers.

How can we distinguish between God's law and man-made traditions in our own religious practices?

Context: The Pharisees' legalism about the Sabbath is contrasted with God's actual commands.

What does Jesus' use of the denarius teach us about engaging with worldly systems while maintaining loyalty to God?

Context: Weaver explains how Jesus exposed hypocrisy by asking for the coin.

Why did Jesus heal only one man at Bethesda, and what does this reveal about God's sovereignty?

Context: Weaver emphasizes that God acts according to His will, not human expectations.

How should we respond when God does not answer our prayers as we desire?

Context: Weaver warns against anger and calls for submission to God's will.

What are some modern examples of people trying to 'contain' or 'control' Christ?

Context: Weaver applies the Pharisees' attitudes to contemporary hostility toward God.

Applications

Recognize the foolishness of being angry with God

Summary: It is irrational to be angry with the only One who can help us; such anger cuts us off from our only source of aid.

Evidence: Weaver asks, 'Have you ever stopped to think how foolish it is to be angry with the only one who could possibly ever help you?' (2978.8-3015.4s).

Submit to God's sovereign will rather than trying to control Him

Summary: Instead of being enraged when God does not act as we desire, we should submit to His will and trust His goodness.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'I'd rather be in submission to Him and what He wills... than to get angry with Him because I can't control Him' (3165.3-3257.7s).

Examine our own hearts for hypocrisy in judging others

Summary: Like the Pharisees, we may be quick to condemn others for minor infractions while ignoring our own greater sins.

Evidence: Weaver notes, 'Many that are themselves guilty of the greatest crimes are quick to censure others for the most innocent and inoffensive actions' (3016.8-3070.4s).

Know Scripture to avoid being swayed by human traditions

Summary: We must study God's Word so that we are not misled by man-made interpretations and traditions.

Evidence: Weaver urges, 'We need to know the Scripture. We need to know the Word of God. So we will not be swayed by the interpretations and the traditions of man' (3130.2-3162.6s).

Accept that God does not answer to us

Summary: God is not accountable to any person; He gives no account of His matters, and we must learn to trust His sovereign choices.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'He gives no account of any matters to us. He doesn't have to' (2842.7-2911.8s).

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:31:48Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T03:06:16Z

Clean Transcript

Mad at Christ

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Luke chapter 6, and we're going to read verses 6 through 11. The title of the message today is "Mad at Christ." Mad at Christ. Look in Luke chapter 6, beginning there with verse 6. "And it came to pass also in another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. And there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he rose and stood forth."
#1 | 0:15 to 1:00 | cleaned
"Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand, and he did so. And his hand was restored, whole as the other. And they were filled with madness and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus."
#2 | 1:01 to 1:27 | cleaned
Just stop and think of the title of this message, "Mad at Christ." What an absolutely blasphemous and horrible attitude and act. You'd have to ask yourself, how could anyone be angry and upset with the sinless Son of God who is love, mercy, and grace personified? And yet, truthfully, there are multitudes that are mad at Christ. And many who harbor such rage and ill will are atheists and infidels of all persuasions.
#3 | 1:29 to 2:05 | cleaned
All of those who fight against Him or are enraged with Him and seek to overthrow His kingship and His kingdom. I find it amusing that many who deny the existence of God fight the most vehemently against Him. And you need to stop and think, if they really believe that He didn't exist, why in the world waste your time fighting against Him? The truth of the matter is this, that all of their vitriolic messages, all of their anger, all of their fighting, just simply reveals that deep down they really, genuinely believe that He is and that He exists. Because if they did not believe that, they would not be fighting. But sadly, there are many professing Christians who are also mad at Christ.
#4 | 2:06 to 3:00 | cleaned
It seems that when His will and His plans cross their wills and their plans, then they're angry. I've known Christians, I've known many people who have lost a loved one who would get angry with Christ. And I remember one man particularly who was married probably over 50 years. His wife died in her 80s. And he told me, he said, "It's not fair that God took her." I thought, what do you mean it's not fair? I mean, God gave her to you for over 50 years. You're not even thankful for 50 years? People are just angry with Christ. In our context, it is the religious leaders who are angry with Christ. If you will read through the New Testament, you will always find that our Lord's mortal enemies were the religious leaders. Of course, you remember the Sadducees were the ones who controlled the temple. The Pharisees were the ones who controlled the people, and they were the ones that gave Christ the most problem. Of course, the Herodians joined in there with them as well.
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But I want you to look at verse 11 of Luke chapter 6. The Scripture says, "...and they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus." Now the word "madness" here is a very unique word. It literally refers to madness, to folly, a lack of sense, rage, and insanity. The madness or rage that is revealed here is closely connected with insanity. The Greek word anoius literally means a lack of sense. The word nous means literally mind.
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You put an "a" or an alpha in front of it, and it means that someone is basically out of his mind, or doesn't have a mind, or is not capable of thinking. And so the word here denotes this senseless rage and confusion to which our Lord put His enemies by both His words and His deeds.
#7 | 5:01 to 5:21 | cleaned
Now look at verse 11 again. "And they were filled with madness, and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus." Their insanity, their madness, their rage led them to want to do something to Jesus. And I'm sure that something was not very nice. For over and over in the Scriptures, they tried to kill Him. You remember the Scripture said that our Lord's enemies watched Him. Go back, if you would, to verse 7. "And the scribes and the Pharisees watched Him, whether He would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against Him."
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Now the word "watched" here has the connotation of watching insidiously and maliciously. That is, they watched him with an evil intent in order that they might destroy him. Let me show you. Hold Luke 6, but go in your Bibles to the book of Mark chapter 3 and verse 2. Let me just show you several passages right quickly. Mark chapter 3 and verse 2. In fact, we can read verse 1 as well.
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"And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there which had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him." Same thing. Look in Luke chapter 14 and verse 1. Luke 14 and verse 1. Here it is again. "And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him." Isn't that amazing? Then if you'll look in Luke 20 and verse 20. Luke 20 and verse 20.
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And the Scripture tells us this. Luke 20 and verse 20. "And they watched him, and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him into the power and authority of the government." They watched him. And thus they basely watched him as a lion does its prey, just waiting for the opportunity to pounce and to destroy. They watched him that they might accuse him, condemn him, and destroy him.
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They did not watch to learn. They did not watch to edify themselves. They did not watch to honor and glorify God for all the works that were performed. No, they watched him that they might destroy him. So you've got to ask yourself this question. Why were our Lord's enemies so insanely angry and upset with Him? I want you to stop and think about this. If we can find out the answer as to what upset our Lord's enemies so much, we can also find out why our Lord's enemies are still so angry against His people.
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You remember what our Lord said in John chapter 15 and verse 18? Let me read this to you. John 15 verse 18, our Lord said, "If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Then He said this, "Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord."
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"If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they will keep your saying also." But notice what our Lord said, "If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you." So our Lord is saying, look now, there's going to be a connection here between the hatred of the world toward me and the hatred of the world toward His people. So if the world then is angry with Christ, they're certainly going to be angry with us as well. So we as Christians are hated, basically because Christ is hated. And because we believe what Christ believed.
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There should be an absolute total difference between the saved and the unsaved. We are not like the unsaved. And therefore, that difference causes a great deal of anger. So why then were our Lord's enemies so viciously and maliciously mad and angry toward Him? I'm going to show you three things today. The first one is this. Here's the first reason for their anger. They could not contain Him. They could not contain Him.
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Now our text in Luke chapter 6 makes this truth very clear. I want you to note it was the Sabbath day. It was a Sabbath day. And notice, if you would please, they could not keep Christ within the confines and the traditions of their belief system. They had a different belief system concerning the Sabbath day. Their view of the Sabbath day was entirely different from our Lord's view of the Sabbath day. Their view consisted of legalism and traditionalism, thus we get the word Pharisaism. Now, let's look in Luke chapter 6, beginning there with verse 1. Here it is. "And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the first," so it's the Sabbath day now, "that he went through the cornfields, and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certainly the Pharisees said unto them, Why do you that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days?"
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"And Jesus answering them said, Have you not read so much as this what David did when himself was hungered, and they which were with him? How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone. And he said unto them that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Now watch this. It was a Sabbath day, and if you'll look at verse 6, "and it came to pass on another Sabbath." So all of these things are happening on the Sabbath day.
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Now, in the first five verses, our Lord and His disciples go through a cornfield. And they get the grain in their hands and they rub it, getting all the chaff off, and they're eating it. And the question that the Pharisees ask is this. "Why is it that you're doing that which is not lawful to be done on the Sabbath days?" So the question is, unlawful according to whom? It was unlawful according to their tradition and their interpretation. It was not unlawful according to the law of God.
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If you would hold Luke 6, but look in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23, and notice if you would verse 25. Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25. Look what God says. The law of God perfectly allowed that which Christ and His disciples did. In Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25, the Word of God says, "When thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand, but thou shalt not move a sickle into thy neighbor's standing corn." So all He is saying is this, if you're walking through your neighbor's cornfield and you want to take a bite, take a bite.
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You know, get a handful of it. But you can't harvest His grain for Him. You can't steal it. It's lawful to get something to eat, but it's not lawful to steal. And so our Lord did not even quote Deuteronomy 23 and verse 25. What our Lord did was remind them what happened in 1 Samuel 21. When David and a few of his men had escaped from Saul, they came to Ahimelech the priest. And David asked him, "Is there anything to eat?" Well, he said, "Here's the bread, the showbread that just came out from the presence of God." They'd put fresh showbread in. And the priest alone were allowed to eat that showbread. And David said, "Give it to me." And the priest said, "Well, if the men have at least kept themselves from women," he said, "that's the truth." And he gave David and the men the bread, and they ate it. Now look what our Lord said. Look at it in verse 3. "And Jesus answered them, said, Have you not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was a hungred, and they which were with him?"
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"How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the showbread, and gave also to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests alone." Watch. And then he said, "That the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." In other words, a greater than David is here. It's what our Lord is teaching them. He is not subject to the interpretations or the traditions of man. He is the Lord of the Sabbath.
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He's the one that created everything. He's the one that ordained the law. The thing that upset the Pharisees so often was that they could not contain Christ. They could not stop Him from violating their interpretations of the Sabbath. They could not stop Him from abrogating and nullifying their traditions. Our Lord consistently did that which is right and biblical and that which was according to God's law. So frequently, therefore, He crossed man's law and man's interpretation of it to the chagrin and the dismay of the Pharisees. Now let me just show you how this upset them. I want to show you four quick passages.
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Look in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. Of course, hold Luke 6. But look in Matthew chapter 12 and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Just showing you they could not contain Christ. Matthew chapter 12. And let's begin reading there with verse 10. In fact, we could probably begin reading with verse 8, just to show you again it was a Sabbath day. Matthew 12 verse 8, "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
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"And when He was departed, thence He went into their synagogue. And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days, that they might accuse Him? And He said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep? If it fall into the pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much then is man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." They did not want Christ to even heal on the Sabbath days, and our Lord is saying, you're a hypocrite. I mean, if your sheep falls into a pit, you're going to lift him out, even if it's on the Sabbath day. And He's teaching it is lawful to do good, it is lawful to save life.
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Look in your Bibles, if you would please, to the book of Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3. And notice beginning there with verse 1. I like this passage. Mark 3 verse 1. "And he entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had a withered hand. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him. And he said unto the man who had the withered hand, Stand forth. And he said unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil, to save life, or to kill?" Watch.
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"But they held their peace." Now these are people who are supposed to know the law of God. "And when he looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. And the Pharisees went forth and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him." Why?
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Because He disagreed with their interpretation on the Sabbath. Look in your Bibles, if you would, to Luke chapter 13. Luke 13. You want to see some real, genuine hypocrisy? Here it is. Luke 13, beginning there, verse 11. Luke 13, verse 11. "And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself," so she was bent over and could not straighten out. "And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity."
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"And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God." Now watch this. "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. And he said to the people, There are six days in which men ought to work, and in them therefore come and be healed, but not on the Sabbath day. And the Lord answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen years, be loose from the bond on this Sabbath day?"
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"And when he said these things, all of his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced in all the glorious things that were done by him." Can you imagine somebody saying that the woman should not have been healed on the Sabbath day? The Lord said, "You're a hypocrite. You'll take your ox and water him on the Sabbath day." One other passage, look in John chapter 7. John chapter 7. John 7, beginning there with verse 22. John 7, look in verse 22. Our Lord said this.
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"Moses therefore gave you circumcision, not because it was Moses, but of the fathers. And you on the Sabbath day circumcised a man. If a man on the Sabbath day received circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?" Wow! Isn't that amazing? So our Lord was not contained by the Pharisees.
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They could not fit Him or make Him fit into their belief system and their traditionalism. Do you realize, had our Lord bent and bowed to the Pharisees, had He fit into their belief system, that He would have been their star, He would have been their friend, He would have been their representative, He would have been well known and praised by them. But the very fact that He went contrary to what they believed and contrary to their interpretations and their traditions, therefore, they went to destroy Him.
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Unhappily, I know preachers and many Christians who if you do not agree with them, you're out of here. You're out of here. Because unhappily there are plenty of people who think, like the Pharisees, that they have all truth. And that everyone must bow to exactly what they believe and what they teach. Many just cannot abide disagreement with their views. Which is very obviously a characteristic of the Pharisees. So the very first reason they were angry with Christ is they could not contain Him. They could not make Him their little pupil and their little star.
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The second thing is this. They could not confound Him. If they could not contain our Lord, that is to bring Him into the confines of their teaching and their traditions, then the next thing is they were going to confound Him and expose Him as a charlatan and as a fraud. Their plan was to trap Him and to expose Him. The only problem with their plan was this. It was impossible to confound the Son of God and He always confounded them.
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Let me give you some illustrations of this. I want you to look at Luke chapter 20. In fact, we're going to stay in Luke 20 a good bit. Luke 20. And let's look at the first 8 verses. Luke 20. Notice if you would, the first 8 verses. Luke 20, beginning there with verse 1. One of these days, I'm going to preach on this phrase. "And it came to pass that on one of those days," everybody has one of those days, you know. "So it came to pass on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders and spake unto him saying, Tell us by what authority doest thou these things or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing and answer me."
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"The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned within themselves, saying, If we shall say from heaven, he will say, Why then believe you not him? But if we say of men, all the people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered that they could not tell whence he was. And Jesus said to them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."
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Well, you know, they tried to trap Him and He, in turn, trapped them. Let me show you another one. Look in Luke 20 and skip down to verse 20. Luke 20 and verse 20. "And they watched Him and sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of His words, that so they might deliver Him into the power and authority of the governor," but they wanted to destroy Him.
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"And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly. Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no? But he perceived their craftiness and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. He said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's."
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"And they could not take hold of his words before the people," note that phrase "before the people," "and they marveled at his answer and held their peace." Now the Pharisees believed that they alone were the authoritative interpreters of the law. By appealing to our Lord's authority to interpret the law, the questioners tried to accomplish two goals. First of all, they wanted to force Jesus Christ to answer the question. If He refused to answer the question, then He lost credibility as a rabbi or as a teacher before the very people who had just been proclaiming him a king. Secondly, they're forcing Christ to answer the question based upon the law of God. In other words, they're testing his scriptural knowledge. Owen Ball, who was an author, said this, "The gospel writers thus describe a scene in which Jesus' questioners have boxed him in. He is tempted to assume the authority of a rabbi while at the same time he is constrained to answer according to the dictates of the Torah."
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Now I want you to listen to this. If Jesus says it is lawful to pay tribute, he would have been seen then as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers and would alienate the people. Remember this phrase, "before the people." The people were there. So if our Lord says yes, then he's viewed then as a collaborator with the hated Roman Empire. If he says, no, do not pay tribute to Caesar, then he becomes a political criminal because he incurs the wrath of Rome.
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In either answer, someone would have killed him. If he had answered, yes, pay the taxes, then some of the people would have probably risen up against him. If he said no, then of course the Romans are going to put him to death because he's teaching what they would call sedition and treason against the Roman Empire. So what did Christ do? Christ just simply asked for a coin. Now he could have made his point without the coin, but he asked for a coin.
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He said in verse 24, "Show me a penny." Now, the word "penny" is actually for the word denarius. Why did he ask his interrogators for a coin? Because the denarius was truly the emperor's property. It bore his seal, the imperial seal, and it differed from the Roman coins that the Senate had issued. They issued a copper coin. So the coin then that he asked for was what you and I would call the imperial coin. The imperial coin had the image of Tiberius on it. In fact, Tiberius had even made it against the law to carry his coin into a bathroom or a brothel. So this coin then was a tangible representation of the Emperor's power, wealth, deification, and subjugation.
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Let me give you a quote right here that will show you how our Lord really confounded his adversaries. The denarii that Tiberius had minted were actually made in modern day Lyons or Gaul. And Spencer Kennard in his book, which is now out of print, "Rendered to God," says this, that the denarius circulation in Judea was likely scarce. Now listen, the only people to transact routinely with the denarius in Judea would have been soldiers, Roman officials, and Jewish leaders in collaboration with Rome.
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Thus, it was noteworthy that Jesus himself does not possess such a coin. The questioners' quickness to produce the coin at Jesus' request implies that they routinely used it, taking advantage of the Roman financial largess. Wherefore, Jesus did not. Moreover, this episode takes place in the temple. And by producing the coin, the questioners reveal their religious hypocrisy because they are bringing a profane item into the temple. Our Lord asks, "Whose image and whose superscription is on it?" Whose image? Whose superscription?
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These two questions relate to the very first two commandments. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." On Tiberius' coin were these words: "Tiberius, Caesar, Divi, August, Fili, Augustus." Translated it means, "Tiberius Caesar, worshipful son of the god Augustus." On the other side of the coin was the Roman goddess of peace, Pax. And around her were the words "Pontifus Maximus," which means High Priest. So Tiberius Caesar was not only claiming to be the son of God, he was also claiming to be the High Priest. You've got to remember there was a Roman cult of emperor worship. And all who used this coin agreed that Tiberius, or the Caesar then, was God. And when our Lord said, "Whose image and whose superscription is on it?" as they produced the coin, they were evidencing that they were the hypocrites. They had the coin.
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And they brought that profane item into the temple. They were the ones that were violating the law of God. And that's why the scripture says in verse 26, "And they could not take hold of His words before the people, and they marveled at His answers, and they held their peace." Why? Because He had confounded them and proved that they were the hypocrites and they were the violators of God's law. Look in your Bibles, Luke 20, beginning verse 27.
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Just to show you how the Lord confounds them now. Luke 20, verse 27. "Then came to him a certain of the Sadducees, which denied that there is a resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die having a wife and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. There were therefore seven brethren. The first took a wife and died without children. The second took her to wife and he died childless. The third took her in the like manner, the seven also, and they left no children and died. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she, for seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, and they are
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the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses himself showed at the bush when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him."
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Now, I want you to watch this. Here come the Sadducees, who do not even believe in a resurrection. They say there is no resurrection. But they go to the Levite marriage law, and they said now, the law says, if a man marry a wife and has no children, his brother is to marry her. Well, that was back when the land was divided. And it was divided where families kept the land in their families. And so they have this impossible solution, they think, to this problem of the resurrection. They don't even believe in the resurrection, and they're trying to prove there can't be a resurrection, because here seven men had one woman to wife. Now whose wife is she going to be in the resurrection? Well, to their consternation and to their embarrassment, our Lord says it very bluntly in Matthew 22 and verse 29.
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Listen to what He said. "Jesus answered them and said, You do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. You do err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." What? In other words, the Sadducees, the ones who were in control of the temple, the ones who were the priestly order, erred, because number one, they did not know the Scriptures, where the Scriptures do indeed teach a bodily resurrection. And number two, they did not know the power of God, that God is able to raise up the dead. And they did not know that in marriage, there is no... in heaven, there is no marriage nor giving in marriage. Marriage is an earthly phenomenon, not an heavenly phenomenon.
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So our Lord once again confounds even the leaders. In Matthew 22 and verse 46, I like this. After all of these things, the Scripture says this. "And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions." Why? He confounded them. They could not trap Him. They could not contain Him. They could not confound Him. I want you to listen to this. Here's the third one. They could not control Him. I suppose that this one truth calls them the most consternation and anger. They could not control Christ. They could not stop Him. They could not thwart Him. They could not hinder Him. They could not control Him.
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And thus their wits end. You know what the Pharisees exclaimed in John 12 and verse 19? Listen to this. Here's what they said. "Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold the whole world is going after Him." That's why they said in John 12, "If we don't do something, we're going to lose our place. We're going to lose our name. We're going to lose everything because He is taking over."
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They could not stop Jesus Christ from healing on the Sabbath. They could not stop Jesus Christ from feeding the multitudes. They could not stop Jesus Christ from healing the sick. They could not stop Christ from raising the dead. They could not stop Christ from proclaiming the truth. They could not stop Christ from going contrary to their traditions and their interpretations. They had no control over Him. He is the uncontrollable God. God does only as He pleases and always as He pleases. Are you listening? God is not anyone's little servant boy.
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He does not come at our beck and call. He does not obey our commands. He did not obey the desires or the whims or the wishes or the wills of the Pharisees. Rather, He demanded that they repent and throw down their weapons of warfare and cease their rebellion to Him and bow to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to John 5. I want to show you what I believe is one of the greatest passages on the sovereignty and the uncontrollability of Jesus Christ. We're going to read about 18 verses, so I want you to watch. John chapter 5, beginning there at verse 1. "After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches." Now watch.
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"In these," that is in these five porches, "lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years."
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"And Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case. And he said to him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked."
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"And on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." Lord have mercy. "He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk?"
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"And he that was healed wist not that it was Jesus, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterwards, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, Watch, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God."
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Now, let me ask you a few questions. How many people were sick, blind, halt, and withered, laying in these five porches? The scripture says, "a great multitude." How many did our Lord heal? One. Did that man know who Christ was? No. Did he ask for healing? No. Christ went to him and singled him out. Christ asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" The man still did not even know who Christ was.
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And he gave the explanation while he was trying to get to the pool, someone stepped in ahead of him. Then our Lord just simply said, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk."
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Now let me ask you, how many of these people needed healing? All of them. Could Christ have healed every one of them? Yes, but He did not. Why? Why would Christ go through a whole multitude of sick, halt, blind and lame people, pick one out and heal him and leave the rest? Why would He do that? Here's the answer. Look in John 5, beginning with verse 21. You remember our Lord gave this answer to the Jews, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
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And the Bible said they sought to kill Him even more, not only because He had violated their interpretation of the Sabbath, but because He had made Himself equal with God. Now look in John 5 and verse 21. Here's what our Lord says, "For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them," watch, "even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." Let me ask you, what is the one attribute that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is God?
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And the answer is, He's sovereign. He's uncontrollable. He's answerable to no one. He does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases. He's God. Now watch this. Verse 21 again. "For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son. Here it is. That all men should honor the Son even as equal to the honor they give to the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which sent him."
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Why did Jesus do that? To prove one thing. He's God. He's sovereign. He's Lord. He quickeneth whom He will. He does as He pleases. Always as He pleases. Only as He pleases. He is the uncontrollable God. When men discover they cannot control God, and they cannot make Him do as they please, they get very upset. They get very angry. God is not answerable or accountable to any man or to any group of men or to anybody or anything because He's God. Any and everything is answerable and accountable to Him. He's not accountable to us.
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In fact, Scripture says He gives no account of any matters to us. He doesn't have to. Why did God take my spouse? Because God is God. Why did God take my child? Because God is God. Why did God save you? Because God is God. Why does God bless you? Because God is God. Why does God withhold His blessing? Because God is God. We have to learn one thing. And this is what the Pharisees refused to learn. They hated it. They did not want to learn it. But here it is. God is in control. Not us. Not man. His kingdom shall stand. Not man's kingdom. And the sooner you and I learn the fact that God is in control, the better off we're going to be.
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Why did they hate Him so? They couldn't contain Him. They couldn't confound Him. And they could not control Him.
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Now let me make some applications. The first one is this. Men are often filled with madness at Christ because He does not work the way they desire, or when they desire. He does not answer their cries or their prayers as they desire. Their anger is based upon the fact that God is beyond their control. If God only submitted to them and did what they wanted and what they pleased, they would not be angry with Him. See what I'm saying? Well, they would love that kind of God. But you know David said in Psalm 115 verse 3, "But our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."
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Have you ever stopped to think how foolish it is to be angry with the only one who could possibly ever help you? You talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face? Why in the world would you get angry with God when He's the only one that can possibly ever, ever help us? The second application is this. Many that are themselves guilty of the greatest crimes are quick to censure others for the most innocent and inoffensive actions.
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Look at Christ and His disciples. They just walked through the wheat field, got a little grain, got the husk off and ate it. And the Pharisees, "Why is it that you and your disciples do that which is unlawful to do on the Sabbath?" That is according to their interpretation. When it was their practice to feed themselves deliciously, especially on the Sabbath days, all you have to do is read Isaiah 58, where God condemns their doing their own pleasure on His days. They were hypocrites. Our Lord rightly asks in Matthew 20 and verse 15, "Is it not lawful for me to do with what I will with mine own?"
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"Is thine eye evil because I am good?" To show you this, you remember last week, I brought the message. "So you got what you want, is that all that matters?" And you remember I told you how Judas came back and threw the 30 pieces of silver down on the floor? And you know what the Pharisees, the Sadducees said? They said this, "It is not lawful to put this into the treasury for its blood money." But now it was lawful to take it out of the treasury to condemn an innocent man. But now that he's condemned, it's not lawful for us to put it back in the treasury. What?
#69 | 51:11 to 52:02 | cleaned
The truth of the matter is this, folks. It's God's law that counts. Man always perverts, misinterprets, and misapplies any and everything from the Word of God. We need to know the Scripture. We need to know the Word of God. So we will not be swayed by the interpretations and the traditions of man.
#70 | 52:10 to 52:42 | cleaned
Thirdly, men are often enraged because others do well in a way in which they do not approve. Did you know God is going to do what He wants to do whether you approve of it or not? Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, God is going to do what He wants to do and what He wills to do, what He's pleased to do. And the truth of the matter is this, I personally I'd rather be in submission to Him and what He wills and what He wants and what He desires and be blessed by Him than to get angry with Him because I can't control Him. And I can't make Him do what I want Him to do. So many people want to change God. You're going to find it's going to be impossible to change the unchangeable God. And you're going to find it's going to be impossible to control the uncontrollable God. For He's sovereign. Do you realize the reason the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians hated Christ and were so angry at Him was because they could not contain Him, they could not confound Him, and they could not control Him.
#71 | 52:45 to 54:17 | cleaned
That's exactly the same reasons why the world is so upset with Him today. That's why politicians hate Him. That's why governments despise Him. Because He demands that they repent and submit to Him. For He's King of kings and Lord of lords and God of gods. And as Psalm 2 says, "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry with thee, and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little." And that's addressed to the kings of the earth. He is the uncontrollable God. Let's pray.
#72 | 54:17 to 55:03 | cleaned
Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for being the sovereign God of heaven and earth. We know that Thou art on the throne of this universe, ruling according to Your own will. And we acknowledge, Heavenly Father, that whatever Thou doest is right and holy, for Thou art God. Give us grace that we may be in submission to Thee, and that we may bow before Thee, and that we may trust Thee and love Thee, and bring our lives in conformity to Your Word. Help us, we pray. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask it. Amen.
#73 | 55:03 to 55:41 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:31:48Z

Mad at Christ

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

Pastor John Weaver examines Luke 6:6-11, where the Pharisees are filled with madness after Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. He identifies three reasons for their anger: they could not contain Christ within their traditions, they could not confound Him in debate, and they could not control His sovereign actions. Weaver applies these truths to modern hostility toward Christ and His people, emphasizing God's uncontrollable sovereignty and calling believers to submission rather than anger.

Opening

Luke chapter 6, and we're going to read verses 6 through 11. The title of the message today is "Mad at Christ." Mad at Christ. Look in Luke chapter 6, beginning there with verse 6.

Scripture Reading — Luke 6:6-11

"And it came to pass also in another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. And there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he

rose and stood forth."

Introduction: The Blasphemy of Being Mad at Christ

Weaver introduces the shocking reality that many people, including professing Christians, are angry with Christ, and notes that the religious leaders were His mortal enemies.

The Meaning of 'Madness' in Luke 6:11

The Greek word for madness denotes senseless rage, folly, and insanity, showing the irrational anger of Christ's enemies.

They Watched Him to Destroy Him

The Pharisees watched Jesus insidiously, seeking an accusation to condemn and destroy Him, not to learn or honor God.

Reason 1: They Could Not Contain Him

The Pharisees could not keep Christ within their legalistic Sabbath traditions; He consistently acted according to God's law, not their interpretations.

Scripture Reading — Luke 6:1-5

"Why is it that you're doing that which is not lawful to be done on the Sabbath days?"

Scripture Reading — Matthew 12:8-12

"For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Reason 2: They Could Not Confound Him

Attempts to trap Jesus in His words failed; He confounded His adversaries, exposing their hypocrisy and ignorance of Scripture.

Scripture Reading — Luke 20:1-8

"And it came to pass that on one of those days,"

everybody has one of those days, you know.

Scripture Reading — Luke 20:1-8

"So it came to pass on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders and spake unto him saying, Tell us by what authority doest thou these things or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing and answer me." "The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned within themselves, saying, If we shall say from heaven, he will say, Why then believe you not him? But if we say of men, all the people will stone us, for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered that they could not tell whence he was. And Jesus said to them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."

Scripture Reading — Luke 20:27-38

"Then came to him a certain of the Sadducees, which denied that there is a resurrection. And they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If any man's brother die having a wife and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. There were therefore seven brethren. The first took a wife and died without children. The second took her to wife and he died childless. The third took her in the like manner, the seven also, and they left no children and died. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she, for seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, and they are

So our Lord once again confounds even the leaders. In Matthew 22 and verse 46, I like this. After all of these things, the Scripture says this.

Scripture Reading — Matthew 22:46

"And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions."

Reason 3: They Could Not Control Him

Jesus demonstrated His sovereignty by healing only one man at Bethesda, proving He does as He pleases; the Pharisees could not stop or control Him.

And thus their wits end. You know what the Pharisees exclaimed in John 12 and verse 19? Listen to this. Here's what they said.

Scripture Reading — John 12:19

"Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. Behold the whole world is going after Him."

That's why they said in John 12, "If we don't do something, we're going to lose our place. We're going to lose our name. We're going to lose everything because He is taking over."

Scripture Reading — John 5:21

"For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,"

watch,

Scripture Reading — John 5:21

"even so the Son quickeneth whom He will."

Scripture Reading — John 5:21

"For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son. Here it is. That all men should honor the Son even as equal to the honor they give to the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which sent him."

Applications: Anger at God's Uncontrollable Sovereignty

Weaver applies the lessons: anger at Christ stems from His refusal to submit to our desires; we must submit to His sovereign will.

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 58

Have you ever stopped to think how foolish it is to be angry with the only one who could possibly ever help you? You talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face? Why in the world would you get angry with God when He's the only one that can possibly ever, ever help us? The second application is this. Many that are themselves guilty of the greatest crimes are quick to censure others for the most innocent and inoffensive actions. Look at Christ and His disciples. They just walked through the wheat field, got a little grain, got the husk off and ate it. And the Pharisees, "Why is it that you and your disciples do that which is unlawful to do on the Sabbath?" That is according to their interpretation. When it was their practice to feed themselves deliciously, especially on the Sabbath days, all you have to do is read Isaiah 58, where God condemns their doing their own pleasure on His days. They were hypocrites. Our Lord rightly asks in Matthew 20 and verse 15, "Is it not lawful for me to do with what I will with mine own?"

Mad at Christ

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	JF4BCyNsujM
Subject	Church Government
Course	Church Order: Worship, Sacraments, and the Lord's Supper
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-06-19
Dictation Name
Book	Book 039: Church Order and Worship - Volume 1 — Chapter 9
Source Timed Segments	73

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Blasphemy of Being Mad at Christ: Weaver introduces the shocking reality that many people, including professing Christians, are angry with Christ, and notes that the religious leaders were His mortal enemies.
The Meaning of 'Madness' in Luke 6:11: The Greek word for madness denotes senseless rage, folly, and insanity, showing the irrational anger of Christ's enemies.
They Watched Him to Destroy Him: The Pharisees watched Jesus insidiously, seeking an accusation to condemn and destroy Him, not to learn or honor God.
Reason 1: They Could Not Contain Him: The Pharisees could not keep Christ within their legalistic Sabbath traditions; He consistently acted according to God's law, not their interpretations.
Reason 2: They Could Not Confound Him: Attempts to trap Jesus in His words failed; He confounded His adversaries, exposing their hypocrisy and ignorance of Scripture.
Reason 3: They Could Not Control Him: Jesus demonstrated His sovereignty by healing only one man at Bethesda, proving He does as He pleases; the Pharisees could not stop or control Him.
Applications: Anger at God's Uncontrollable Sovereignty: Weaver applies the lessons: anger at Christ stems from His refusal to submit to our desires; we must submit to His sovereign will.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Anger at Christ reveals a belief in His existence

Atheists who vehemently fight against God demonstrate that deep down they truly believe He exists, otherwise they would not waste their time opposing Him.

Weaver argues, 'if they really believe that He didn't exist, why in the world waste your time fighting against Him?' (126.2-180.2s).

The Pharisees could not contain Christ within their traditions

Jesus consistently violated Pharisaic Sabbath interpretations by doing good and following God's law, which enraged the religious leaders.

Weaver states, 'They could not stop Him from violating their interpretations of the Sabbath' (904.3-957.3s).

Jesus confounded His adversaries by exposing their hypocrisy

When asked about paying taxes, Jesus used a denarius to reveal the questioners' own complicity with Rome and their violation of the first two commandments.

Weaver explains, 'they were evidencing that they were the hypocrites. They had the coin' (1887.1-1976.8s).

God's sovereignty is the ultimate reason for human anger

People become angry with God because He does not submit to their control or answer prayers as they desire; He acts according to His own will.

Weaver says, 'Their anger is based upon the fact that God is beyond their control' (2922.0-2970.8s).

Submission to God's will is the only proper response

Rather than being angry at God's uncontrollable sovereignty, believers should submit to Him, trust Him, and conform their lives to His Word.

Weaver prays, 'Give us grace that we may be in submission to Thee... bring our lives in conformity to Your Word' (3303.4-3341.4s).

Scripture References

Luke 6:6-11: The primary text: Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees are filled with madness.
Luke 6:1-5: Jesus' disciples pluck grain on the Sabbath, and He defends them by citing David eating the showbread, declaring Himself Lord of the Sabbath.
Deuteronomy 23:25: God's law allowed plucking grain by hand from a neighbor's field, showing the disciples' action was lawful.
1 Samuel 21: David ate the showbread when he was hungry, which Jesus uses to justify His disciples' actions on the Sabbath.
Matthew 12:8-12: Jesus teaches it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, using the example of rescuing a sheep from a pit.
Mark 3:1-6: Jesus heals a withered hand on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees plot with the Herodians to destroy Him.
Luke 13:11-17: Jesus heals a woman bent over for 18 years on the Sabbath, rebuking the synagogue ruler's hypocrisy.
John 7:22-23: Jesus argues that if circumcision is performed on the Sabbath, healing a whole man should not cause anger.
Luke 20:1-8: The chief priests question Jesus' authority; He confounds them by asking about John's baptism.
Luke 20:20-26: Spies try to trap Jesus with a question about paying taxes to Caesar; He confounds them with the coin.
Luke 20:27-38: Sadducees question Jesus about the resurrection; He corrects their error and proves the resurrection from Moses.
Matthew 22:29: Jesus tells the Sadducees they err not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Matthew 22:46: After Jesus' answers, no one dared ask Him any more questions.
John 12:19: The Pharisees exclaim that the whole world is going after Jesus, showing their loss of control.
John 5:1-18: Jesus heals one man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, leading to persecution because He made Himself equal with God.
John 5:21: Jesus declares that the Son quickens whom He will, demonstrating His sovereign will.
John 15:18-20: Jesus warns that the world will hate His disciples because it hated Him first.
Psalm 115:3: Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
Psalm 2:12: Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way.
Isaiah 58: God condemns Israel for doing their own pleasure on His holy day.

Historical References

Pharisees and Sadducees: The religious leaders who opposed Jesus; Sadducees controlled the temple, Pharisees controlled the people, and they were Christ's mortal enemies.
Herodians: A political group that joined with the Pharisees to plot against Jesus after He healed on the Sabbath.
Roman denarius coin: The coin Jesus requested bore the image and inscription of Tiberius Caesar, claiming divinity and high priesthood, exposing the hypocrisy of His questioners.
Tiberius Caesar: The Roman emperor whose image and title ('son of the god Augustus') were on the denarius, representing emperor worship.
Bethesda pool: A pool in Jerusalem with five porches where a multitude of sick waited for healing; Jesus healed one man there.
Levite marriage law: The Sadducees referenced the law of levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-6) to challenge the resurrection.

Important Quotes

And they were filled with madness and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.

This is the key verse showing the irrational rage of the Pharisees after Jesus' healing, which forms the basis of the sermon.

If they really believe that He didn't exist, why in the world waste your time fighting against Him?

Weaver argues that vehement opposition to God actually reveals an underlying belief in His existence.

They could not keep Christ within the confines and the traditions of their belief system.

Summarizes the first reason for the Pharisees' anger: Jesus would not be bound by their man-made rules.

He is not subject to the interpretations or the traditions of man. He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Highlights Christ's authority over Sabbath regulations, which infuriated the legalistic leaders.

He quickeneth whom He will.

A concise declaration of Christ's sovereign freedom to act according to His own will, which is the ultimate reason for human anger.

God is not anyone's little servant boy.

A blunt statement emphasizing that God does not obey human commands or desires.

Their anger is based upon the fact that God is beyond their control.

Weaver's application pinpointing the root of human anger toward God: His uncontrollable sovereignty.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

Why do you think people who deny God's existence often fight so vehemently against Him?

[Context]

Weaver notes that atheists' anger reveals a deep-seated belief in God.

[Question]

In what ways might professing Christians today become 'mad at Christ' when His will crosses theirs?

[Context]

Weaver gives examples of believers angry over loss or unanswered prayers.

[Question]

How can we distinguish between God's law and man-made traditions in our own religious practices?

[Context]

The Pharisees' legalism about the Sabbath is contrasted with God's actual commands.

[Question]

What does Jesus' use of the denarius teach us about engaging with worldly systems while maintaining loyalty to God?

[Context]

Weaver explains how Jesus exposed hypocrisy by asking for the coin.

[Question]

Why did Jesus heal only one man at Bethesda, and what does this reveal about God's sovereignty?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes that God acts according to His will, not human expectations.

[Question]

How should we respond when God does not answer our prayers as we desire?

[Context]

Weaver warns against anger and calls for submission to God's will.

[Question]

What are some modern examples of people trying to 'contain' or 'control' Christ?

[Context]

Weaver applies the Pharisees' attitudes to contemporary hostility toward God.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T03:06:16Z