Strange Bedfellows

Let's pray. Our God, our Father, that hymn contains so many beautiful truths and we thank you for them. We thank you that you are the Holy One.

We thank you that you have clothed us in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and stamped his name upon us. And we thank you that you have filled us with your Spirit, empowering us to live in a way that will please you and will be like you. We thank you for everything that you've done for us.

And Lord, we want to lay our lives before you, beginning with these hours that stretch ahead, as we're here in this place, coming to worship you. We pray that you will speak to us, for you are the God who speaks. And more than that, you are the God who opens up a conversation, because you want your people to speak back to you.

So, Lord, speak, we pray. And let open our hearts and our lives that we may speak back with words of love, reflecting back the love that you've given us. Again, in our Lord Jesus Christ.

And in his name we pray. Amen. Would you take your hymn books now, the hymns of faith, and turn to the inside cover.

And let's affirm together the things that we believe. We'll read the Creed together. In these ancient and lovely words, we'll affirm our belief.

So let's read this together. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen. We'll pray again.

Let's pray. Our Father, we bless you for those words which sum up what your word teaches us and what we believe. Lord, you are our creator.

We are accountable to you for the lives that we live. And we confess before you that we fail so often to live up to your standards. Our characters are so very different from yours.

They seem to be bent and twisted inside, Lord, and the good things that we want to do we can't do. And we find ourselves doing those evil things that we really in our hearts don't want to. We thank you that your love continues still despite that and continued till the day when you sent your Son to become Jesus of Nazareth.

We thank you that he lived that holy life. And at the end of it, when holiness was vulnerable, sin took holiness and crucified him on the cross, showing just how foul sin is. But we thank you that that wasn't the end, but that there when Jesus died on the cross, he was the Lamb of God, bearing away the sins of the world, taking their punishment, taking our punishment, suffering the death that was due to us so that we might live, so that we might be free, forgiven, and cleansed.

And we bless you, our God, for all of that which is summed up in these words. And we thank you that you raised him from the dead by the spirit of power. And one day he ascended into heaven, where he sits still working on our behalf, interceding day after day as we've sung already, our friend in heaven, speaking to the Father on our behalf, putting in a good word when we need it, bringing the will of God to the Father that it might be worked out in our lives.

And we bless you again for that. We thank you for the gift of your Spirit, Lord, as we've already prayed, empowering us to live lives that please you, that are more like your character, and for your church, for each other. Lord, we do want to thank you this evening for each other, because we see the Lord Jesus in one another.

We see the work of the Holy Spirit coming into fruit in each other's lives, and we bless you for that. We thank you for the care that we feel, for the love and the help and the encouragement, and we bless you for all these good and perfect gifts. We thank you that one day we can look forward to the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

And Lord, our minds are blown again when your Word declares that you're going to spend all eternity showing your kindness to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't deserve it, but you love us. And we thank you, Father, in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Let's sing again. Lovely friend, lovely him, I mean.

What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

It's 461 in hymns of faith. Lovely friend, lovely Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear.

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. The reading tonight is from Luke 23, verses 1 to 12. Then the whole assembly rose and led Jesus off to Pilate.

And they began to accuse him, saying, We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king. So Pilate asked Jesus, Are you the king of the Jews? Yes, it is as you say, Jesus replied.

Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no basis for a charge against this man. But they insisted. He stirs up people all over Judea by his teaching.

He started in Galilee and has come all the way here. On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer.

The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed him and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate.

That day, Herod and Pilate became friends. Before this, they had been enemies. Now let's keep our Bibles open at that passage of Scripture because the responsibility of the preacher is to take the Word of God and to continue its explanation, helped by the Holy Spirit.

Because as I've said so many times from this pulpit, the important thing is not what we say, but what the Lord makes plain to you in the explanation of Scripture as you test the spoken Word by the written Word. Tim and I are looking forward to dealing with some of the narrative in this great chapter in Luke's Gospel, which helps to set the scene for us for Good Friday and for those days when our Lord Jesus was in the grave, when He was making atonement for our sins. That's a lovely hymn that we've just been singing, isn't it? What a friend we have in Jesus.

If you thought Hugh Hill looked a little different this evening, it was because Hugh actually is preaching out at Little Hampton and Tony Ford, another of our elders, has been leading our service thus far. And in one sense, it's most appropriate because he works for the Far East Broadcasting Association. And the theme tune of those transmitters, of the broadcasts from FEBR, if you're trying to tune in from North Africa or from Southeast Asia, is the opening line of what a friend we have in Jesus.

I want to talk to you about friendship, not for very long because I want this addressed to leaders, to the cross of our Lord Jesus, and for us to be able to take bread and wine in a very meaningful fashion together. But it's right that we set up the context and as we do so, explain afresh the old story of Jesus and His love. Have you ever thought that there are four Gospels? Well, you say, that's not a particularly amazing idea to share from the pulpit.

Of course we know there are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They're all witnesses in one sense. They all testify to the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

Now the older preachers, that is people living a century or so ago, they used to get a great amount of satisfaction in pointing out how our Lord Jesus had four accusers. And those four accusers are balanced by the four witnesses. His accusers, well, there was Annas, wasn't there? And Caiaphas, and there was Pilate, and there was Herod.

You remember how our Lord Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and then He's propelled into the palace of Annas, who was one of the chief priests of Judaism. There our Lord Jesus is very badly maligned and He's pushed almost literally by the people who've arrested Him from the palace of Annas to that of Caiaphas. And there this other high priest does equally badly as far as fairness is concerned in regard to our Lord Jesus.

And then the Saviour is taken to the third of the people who deal with Him in a very grotesque fashion, and that is Pilate. And so He's brought in front of Pilate's judgment hall. And there the priests are in front of Pilate asking that He passes the death sentence on the Saviour.

And though they don't quite get what they want, at least they're pacified in as much as He sends the Lord Jesus to Herod. And so you've got another picture of the fourth person being involved in dealing in a damnable fashion with our Lord Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, on the other hand, they testify not only just to the accuracy of what happened, but they help us to understand the spiritual meaning behind the fashion in which our Lord Jesus is treated.

Now of the two people who dealt so badly with our Lord Jesus, the last two are Pilate and Herod. And it's a strange thing to discover that in the twelfth verse of this twenty-third chapter we are told that these two men, who had very little in common indeed, either politically or racially, they became friends. So I want to talk to you just for a while about strange bedfellows.

And I want to ask you, what sort of friends are you making? And who's your best? Would you ever think of singing what a friend we have in Pilate or Herod? I very much doubt it, not at least if you listen to the information that I give you, although perhaps you're sufficient to go on, not to draw such a faulty conclusion that these men could be your friends tonight. But how wonderful if you could make the signature melody in terms of praise of your life in response to what is being shared from the pulpit. What a friend I have in Jesus.

In the opening verses of Luke 23, we find that Pontius Pilate feels that Herod will get him off the hook. You know what it is to get someone off the hook. It's a proverbial expression.

It means get them out of a difficulty. And Pilate's in a difficulty. His difficulty has to do with Jesus.

And I reckon that everyone, really, every thinking person has a difficulty, if that's the way to express it, as far as Jesus is concerned. At least he or she has to make some decision as to how they evaluate Jesus. There's a bit of a problem with this man, Jesus, to Pilate.

You see, here is Pilate, and he's got Jesus now propelled in front of him. He hasn't invited him. He's been brought there by Annas and Caiaphas and all the motley crew of the Jewish priests.

On their own, they've said that Jesus is guilty of blasphemy, but they know that that charge will not impress Pilate at all. He's a Roman. He has nothing to do with the superstitions of the Jews.

And so in a conniving fashion, they bring Jesus before Pilate, and they change the charge to one of sedition, of treason. Three things. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar.

This man subverts our nation. This man claims to be Christ, the King. Now, Pilate's not daft.

He knows that the Jews dislike the Romans terribly. And the last thing that they're likely to do is to bring somebody who's trying to undermine the power of Rome and ask for the death sentence to be passed by Rome's ambassador. Pilate and the Jews have got little in common.

Pilate's inflicted the poll tax, and that's not a very popular measure. He actually got from the temple the finances to undergird a scheme equivalent to the penetrating of the ground under the channel and opening up the English channel tunnel. Only this was an aqueduct bringing water to Jerusalem, which often was without the precious commodity in the supply that was required.

But they didn't like him for pinching the money from the temple. They didn't like him for bringing into Jerusalem itself the banners of Rome. There were so many things that the Jews didn't like about Pilate that the idea of them bringing to him a man who is treasonable in his attitude was just a farce.

Pilate saw right through it. He doesn't know what to do with Jesus, does he? We mentioned that last week when I preached on Pilate's base in theology, which really means passing the book. This man, they insist, verse 5, stirs up people all over Judea by his teaching.

He started in Galilee. That's a little bit of Jewish genius, bringing out Galilee. Why? Well, you see, Galilee is the headquarters of resistance, where the zealots are.

Today you travel the Holy Land and stop in Ramallah and Nablus, you'll be in difficulty when you try to get out of Israel. I know, because I've had the problem. Because that's where all the insurrection is.

The headquarters or the motivating factor within the Holy Land of the interfather. And here is this Jesus coming from Galilee. Does not that mean that Pilate will immediately give what the Jews are demanding? The death sentence on Jesus? No.

Because Pilate wants to be fair and he's a little concerned about his wife, who feels that Jesus has got more to him than just an ordinary teacher and certainly is no imposter. So Pilate takes the information that he comes from Galilee to get him off the hook. That is Pilate off the hook.

Because the man who is really in control of Galilee is Herod, a sort of half-bred Jew who happens to be in Jerusalem at that time. So wouldn't it be easy if Pilate plays his cards right to pass the buck to Herod? And what's more, he and Herod have not been getting their act together very well. Certain things have happened that have created superstition between them in their relationship.

Maybe at no cost to Pilate he will be able to patch up his relationship with Herod and have Herod deal with Jesus and he can wash his hands of the affair. Strange bedfellow, Pilate and Herod. It's amazing the common denominator that sometimes is birthed in people's resistance to Jesus.

They've got nothing else that would line them up together but this, the way they react or fail to react positively to the Lord Jesus Christ. So here is Jesus and He's propelled now once again up down the flagged streets of Jerusalem with the annoyed rabble of the Jewish priests pushing Him along and He's brought to Herod's apartment in the holy city. When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased.

That could almost be a salvation text, couldn't it? I mean just taken at face value without any context at all, you might feel that Herod is like the wise men of old who were exceedingly glad when they saw the star or the disciples who were so pleased when Jesus came back and He appeared to them. But of course that's not the context. Herod's one of the most disgusting characters in the whole of history.

I choose my words, I choose them well. Herod has already had to do with Jesus' kith and kin. You remember the Baptist? He was cousin of Jesus.

A man of the open spaces. A wild man in some ways. A man who had a peculiar way of dressing and even more strange diet.

But a man who hungered and thirsted after righteousness and was filled with the Spirit of God and had such a charismatic personality that from the villages and the towns around Judea they poured to listen to the Baptist. And Herod has this man of the open spaces incarcerated in a jail. And at the whim of the woman with whom he's having an affair, he has John done to death.

But the rub is this, that when John the Baptist was preaching in front of Herod, he was disturbed to hear John and yet he was attracted to him because the Word of God, the voice crying in the wilderness, was proclaiming to Herod what the Hebrews would have called the bath coal, the inspired oracle of the Lord. And when Herod has recovered from the death of John and his heart has become more hardened, he hears about Jesus. And he's had an ambition for some time to have this man in front of him.

Herod's a superstitious man. Jesus has multiplied bread. Jesus has walked on the water.

Jesus allegedly has done so many remarkable things. Maybe Jesus will perform tricks for him. But Jesus is not a spectacle to be looked at.

He's a Lord to be worshipped. From what he had heard about Him, he hoped to see Him perform some miracle. He plied Him with many questions.

One of the most disgusting incidents in the whole of human history, this fop, Herod, twitters in front of Jesus, whose brow still bears the traces of the bloody sweat that's been on his brow in Gethsemane's garden. He who has been doing business with his father, who has been deliberately putting himself in the way of an awful death to resolve the problems of humankind, is brought face to face with this twittering fop of a Jew or half-Jew who plies Him with questions. Thank God the questions are not even recorded in Scripture.

It's not often that God, through Jesus, has nothing to say to a man. There are occasions when Jesus goes silent in the presence of Caiaphas, when he goes silent in the presence of Pilate. But the only man that we ever read of, of whom Jesus had a perpetual attitude of silence, is Herod himself.

Jesus gave him no answer. Verse 9. He plied Him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The worst beggar in Palestine who saw Jesus go by and asked Him to stop would have got a response.

A leper, stinking with the problems of that contagious disease, would have arrested the attention of Jesus. But not Herod. Why? Because Herod had already heard the voice of Him who cried in the wilderness.

He silenced the voice and last forfeited the right to hear the Word of God as Jesus stands in His presence. Jesus is not a spectacle to be looked at, nor is He a joke to be targeted. Then Herod, verse 11, and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked Him, dressing Him in an elegant robe.

They can get no information from Him, and so they belittle Him, at least as far as their own estimate is concerned. Has it ever been the case that Herod did not die out when this man's life was taken from him? That there are more Herods around today than there ever have been who look at Jesus, who make a spectacle of Him, but do not realize that Jesus demands them to bow the knee. Who laugh and scorn at holy things, not appreciating that the Lord will have them in derision.

The horse running. The 3.30. I forget the ground. The race course on Thursday afternoon of this last week was called God's Solution.

Funny? If you feel it's funny to take the Word of God and what the Bible stands for and ridicule it in terms of giving that as a name to a horse, an extreme example of which there are many other lesser examples of people who today still do the same as Herod. How awful to treat Jesus in a Herod-like fashion. How awful when the buck is passed to you, and you have to come face to face with the person of Jesus.

If he's got nothing to say, Martin Luther said, send me pestilence, send me plague, but dear God, be not silent to me. The silence of our Lord bespeaks that the situation is hopeless. That a man has gone so far in his negative way of life that his heart is hardened and there is no further possibility of him being redeemed.

Now let's come to the 12th verse for this brings the whole of my little address together. They, that is Herod and his men, sent him, that is Jesus, back to Pilate. That day, Herod and Pilate became friends.

Before this, they had been enemies. See the common denominator? Nothing to do with race, as I mentioned. Nothing to do with political philosophy.

Nothing to do with theological agreement. The common denominator they have is that same common denominator as existed between the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were poles apart as far as their understanding of Scripture was concerned. To think of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming and conniving together to bring about the death of our Lord Jesus is really an absurdity.

But such was the hostility of the Pharisees that they sunk all the reservations they had about the Sadducees and joined forces with them to prosecute the Lord Jesus and at the human level to bring about His death. There is a point where extreme Marxism and extreme fascism meets. And here, as far as Herod and Pilate are concerned, there is this meeting together of hearts that have only one thing in common.

A wrong handling of the challenge of Jesus Christ. Both men were callous by their own actions. Not only what had happened before, Pilate had butchered Galileans.

And Herod, well, he was capable of having an innocent man done to death at the whim of his mistress. And each man, if tradition is right, has a most unsavory end. As Herod suffers from a stroke, that's not tradition, that's in the Word of God, it's in the Acts of the Apostles, but according to legend, Pilate commits suicide on the return journey to Rome.

The two of them become friends because of their hostility to Jesus. And neither was ever tempted to sing what a friend I have in Herod, what a friend I have in Pilate, for both sacrificed integrity on the altar of expediency. They dealt badly with our Lord Jesus.

But He has come into this world to make friends, to make friends between Jew and Gentile and between, even more importantly, His Father and ordinary sinful men and women. It says, Paul writing to the Ephesians, He, our Lord Jesus, came and preached peace to those who were far away, the Gentiles, and peace to those who were near, the Jews, so that through Him we might have access to the Father by one Spirit. So I bring my address to a conclusion.

Do you know the Lord Jesus is your friend? That's what He came to be. There's a lovely study that you could do in the book of Proverbs, just taking the word friend with a concordance and going through all the listings of the occasions where that word is repeated in Proverbs, and then linking one verse to the next verse, and you'll find that there are good friends and not-so-good friends, and fair-weather friends, and friends who would be best if you gave them a miss. But in the lovely version of the Authorized, it says at the end of one chapter, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Jesus came into this world to be your friend, to take upon Himself all the consequences of your sin, Pilate and Caiaphas and all the motley crew, feeling that they brought about their will, or actually being used in the overarching providence of God, so that Jesus Christ, your friend, would one day die on the cross of Calvary for your sins and be raised again the third day to ensure that you would know that you have eternal life. What a friend we have in Jesus. Enmity against Jesus unites people.

Strange bedfellows, but the common discipleship that you and I have because we belong to Him, it unites us. It binds us together with cords that cannot be broken. Have you trusted Jesus? As your friend?