How to rejoice in Hostility, Part 2 | Finding Joy in Persecution

Luke 22:35-38

Luke 22:35, “And he said to them, ‘When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, did you lack anything?’ They said not a thing. And he said to them, ‘But now whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag. And whoever has no sword should sell his garment and buy one. For I tell you that this which is written must be completed in me, “And he was numbered with the transgressors,” for that which refers to me has its completion.’ And they said, ‘Lord, look, here are two swords.’ And he said to them, ‘It is enough.’”

So having spoken about the reality of hostility, Jesus now wants them to see, secondly, the reason for it. So number two in your notes, the reason for hostility, the reason for hostility. Now that we have acknowledged the reality of hostility for Christ’s name, for his sake, the world is, understand it’s full of Satan’s minions. They advance his hostile agenda against God, against his Christ, against Christ’s people. We acknowledge that reality. We accept that reality, but Jesus wants to take his men a little bit further and help them to understand the reason for it.

The first word of verse 37 introduces an explanatory clause, which gives the reason for the changed circumstances. He tells them, here’s the reality, and verse 37, here’s the reason for. That’s the explanatory little particle, there. He says, “For I tell you that this which is written must be completed in me, ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors,’ for that which refers to me has its completion.”

Notice the explanation, there. Why the hostility? What’s the reason? Anything in what he said about polling data? Does he cite surveys about the change in public opinion, about how maybe he could be a little bit friendlier in his gospel presentation. You know, not so stuck on issues of sin and righteousness, but really kind of catering to people’s felt needs? Maybe that would be a better presentation. He’d win more favor. He’s silent, isn’t he, on any of that. He’s silent also about the very real plots of the Jews, conspiracies from Jewish leadership who are intent on taking him down and killing him. There’s nothing about the infiltration of his inner circle, how they recruited Judas over to their cause, and that was a big victory.

No mention, here, even of, of Satan as an explanation for this hostility. Obviously we know all those things are there. They’re in the background. But he’s citing none of those things here as reasons. Instead, Jesus points to the immutability of God’s will, the redemptive plan in the incarnation, the perfect satisfaction of God’s wrath through Christ’s atoning work. That’s the reason for the hostility. This is all about God being God, all about God getting his way, fulfilling his purpose, executing his plan so that he would secure the full redemption for his people. The consequence of that, of God getting his way on this earth? Sinful man reacts badly to that, reacts badly to God and his goodness, reacts badly to his truth clearly proclaimed, reacts with hostility against salvation offered.

Now, considering the cosmic war that’s been going on ever since Genesis 3, should it surprise us, really, that there will be satanic opposition? Should it surprise us that sinners are going to align with Satan and not like us very much? Shouldn’t surprise us in the least. Now, let’s break this verse down a little bit. This verse, you have to see, is like a vein of pure gold flowing through the rock of this text, this final set of instructions. We are striking pure, unalloyed gold.

First, Jesus says God’s Word must be fulfilled. It must be fulfilled. When he says, “‘For I tell you that this which is written must be completed in me,’” now the specific verse he’s citing is Isaiah 53, prophetic Scripture. But he’s telling his Apostles, that is about me. Isaiah 53, that’s about me. The word, must, very important, here. It’s our translation of a short, indeclinable Greek verb dei. If you write it in your notes, it’s d-e-i. I know that has bad connotations today, but it’s of actual Greek verb. And it’s really a good verb because it means it’s necessary, it must happen. And whenever it’s used in the New Testament, the will of God is implied, the will of God is at work as that which is necessary, that which must happen.

He says, “that which is written.” It makes it sound like it’s a present-tense verb, which is written. It’s actually a perfect-tense verb in the passive voice: It has been written. That is to say, it is durable, it’s fixed, it’s been written, and the results of its writing it down, have continued to the present day and are going to continue into eternity. The translators, in putting it in the present tense, are just simply trying to show the enduring nature of that which has been written. It is inviolable, it is unbreakable, it is abiding, it’s continuing, it’s, it will not change.

So Jesus, recognizing the messianic nature of Isaiah 53, that points to himself, he’s really pointing, here, to the immutability of God’s Word. His plan, his will, that’s what’s going to happen. What God said he will certainly do. This brings us to the message of the prophecy itself that says, second, if you’re just jotting these down as kind of sub-points here, first, God’s Word must be fulfilled. Second, Jesus must be identified with transgressors. He must be identified with transgressors. To be identified, it’s the word logizomai. Logizomai, if some of you are familiar with that word, it means, to reckon or we like this word, to impute. Impute implies the doctrine of imputation. Logizomai is translating a Hebrew verb used in Isaiah 53:12, mana, to, to count or to apportion.

So remarkable, here, what Jesus is doing to instill confidence and explain the reality of the hostility. But to instill confidence in these men, he is, he’s citing the doctrine at the very heart and center of the gospel itself. This is how we know, this is how we have assurance that Jesus can lawfully act as our substitute, that he’s counted, that he’s reckoned, that he’s imputed among the transgressors. This is how we know that he can take our sin upon himself, that he can offer up himself in our place, that he can offer himself up as our substitutionary, atoning sacrifice. This is the doctrine of imputation, our sins reckoned to the sinless Christ so that he can take them and bear them to the cross in order to pay our penalty.

Now I want to dive just a little bit deeper into this and have you turn to Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, because this is so rich with meaning, so much precious insight into Jesus’ mind at this, really this historic moment as he faces the cross. This is telling us, and we’re going to Isaiah 53 because I want you to see this in a little bit more detail than we get it in Luke 22:37, because this is what is on his mind and what he’s thinking about as he moves inexorably to the cross.

Jesus cites the end of the prophecy, which is Isaiah 53:12, and it reinforces his belief, his firm assurance, that what is written in the whole prophecy is certain to be fulfilled. Look at Isaiah 53:12, “‘Therefore, I will divide for him.’” I, refers to God the Father, him, refers to Jesus the Son. “‘Therefore, I will divide for him a portion with the many, and he will divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors.’” There it is. “‘And yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.’”

Notice Jesus, he didn’t even cite the whole verse in Luke 22:37. Very common for Jesus and for New Testament writers to cite a portion to speak to the whole in the New Testament. So familiar are the Apostles, the disciples, the Jews of that day with their Old Testament scriptures that just citing a portion was enough to kind of get it. If I say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” you know what I’m referring to. I don’t need to quite, quote the entire thing. You understand what I’m referring to. Same thing here. He just cites the “numbered with the transgressors” part, and he’s citing that portion rather than another portion.

He’s citing that portion because on his mind is the doctrine of imputation, by which he can take the sins of his disciples upon himself, including, yes, the denial of Peter, that sin. Including, yes, the abandonment of all the other disciples. Yes, that’s sin, too. And that doctrine, isolated in that short phrase from one verse in Isaiah 53, is at the heart of what he knows is going to encourage his men, not only as they reflect on the meaning of that phrase, but on the whole verse. In fact, going to the entirety of that prophecy is going to imbue them with strength and encouragement. That’s what they need to hear.

Now just to keep us on track as we kind of work through a few things in Isaiah 53, let me give you several sub-points, and we’ll come back to Jesus’ immediate intent to cite that small portion of that verse of the whole prophecy. Sub-point A, Isaiah 53:12, that’s the final verse of victory. That’s the final verse of mission accomplished. That’s the verse that cites certain reward. God says of his Messiah, “‘I will divide for him a portion with the many. He’ll divide the spoil with the strong.’” You know when you’re dividing spoil? When the war’s over, when the battles fought, and all the enemy soldiers are dead, and you’re picking through their stuff.

If the Apostles are paying attention, or as they reflect on it later on the meaning of this, they recognize the motive, the note, here, of victory. Even as Jesus speaks of coming hostility, there’s victory. Another sub-point B, sub-point B, This verse says the certain victory and the subsequent certain reward. This is something Messiah has accomplished, namely the dual messianic ministries of propitiation and intercession. Certain victory and certain reward is, as we see there in the verse, “‘because he poured out his soul to death.’” That’s blood atonement. It’s because he was numbered with the transgressors. That’s imputation. It’s because he himself bore the sin of many. That substitution. And it’s because he interceded for the transgressors. That’s intercession.

This is the, the Messiah’s ministry, now. Atonement accomplished by divine imputation and then lawfully authorized by means of substitution, all allowing for the ongoing effectual ministry of intercession, none of that depends on the Apostles, none of that is thwarted by his enemies, none of that could be touched by Satan himself. All of that is what God in Jesus Christ has accomplished for them, victory.

Same truths highlighted, by the way, by the Apostle John in 1 John 2:1-2, “My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” There’s the ministry of intercession. “And he himself is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world, Jew and Gentile.” That’s the ministry of propitiation, the satisfaction of God’s wrath, removing the judgment, removing the condemnation, removing the guilt.

Moving on, sub-point C, we see that Isaiah 53:12 begins with a, therefore. What’s the therefore, there for? Well, it’s an inferential particle which points to what logically follows as an inference or a, a consequence of what came before. What’s that? Well, it’s the entire prophecy, isn’t it? The therefore is at the end of the prophecy, and it points to the entire prophecy. Look back at Isaiah 52:13. That’s where it starts, and I’m going to read this for you because I want you to hear what the disciples failed to meditate on in the moment. I don’t want you to make the same mistake.

Isaiah 52:13, “Behold, my servant will prosper. He’ll be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many people were appalled at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form, more than the sons of men. And thus he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what they had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should desire him.

“He was despised, forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. And surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our peace fell on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

“All of us, like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way; but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he didn’t open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like the sheep that is silent before his shearer, so he didn’t open his mouth. By oppression and judgement he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, that for the transgression of my people striking was due to him.

“So his grave was assigned with wicked men, and he was with the rich, a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. But Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If you would place his soul as a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he’ll prolong his days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. And by his knowledge the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, and he’ll bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide for him a portion with the many, and he will divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and he was numbered with the transgressors; yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.”

The whole thing is written kind of past tense, isn’t it, as if this, written in Isaiah’s times 700 years before Christ, as if this has already happened. What gives? Listen, whatever hostility these Jews face, what Jesus is warning them about, which he calls to their attention, he wants them to see it’s all part of the plan. It’s all been written, it’s all been done. The ink is dried. It’s not changing. This is God’s plan, to cause the iniquity of us all to fall on him, to crush him, putting him to grief for us.

One more note of interest, sub-point D, tells us the reason for this hostility, namely, that the Jews as a nation, as a people in Jesus’ day, in Jesus’ time, and I’ll just say up to this present moment, they’ve got this thing all wrong. They have failed to see God’s purpose in the coming of Jesus Christ. This whole prophecy, Isaiah 53, as I said, it’s written as if it’s past tense, 700 years before Christ. Past tense. It’s written, isn’t it, from the point of view of future Israel. It’s written from the point of view of a redeemed Israel as they look back and lament, as they call their own nation living in Isaiah’s day to look again at Christ, see him differently.

If I could put it this way, imagine if your 70-year-old self could travel back fifty years through time and speak to your 20-year-old self. Would your older, wiser, more experienced, more mature self say anything by the way of correction to your 20-year-old self, you think? That’s what’s going on here. Future, post-Christ, post-cross, regenerated redeemed Israel, that people is speaking to the other people. That people reaching back across time to exhort the pre-Christ, pre-cross, unregenerate, unredeemed Israel, to plead, as it were, they themselves pleading with themselves. Oh, would you wake up? Will you see your Messiah as he really is?

The Jews rightly saw Jesus in their own day as stricken, smitten of God, put to grief, yes. Their error, though, was in failing to acknowledge his sinlessness, pointed to his role not as a sinner, not as rejected by God because he did anything wrong, but being the sin-bearer. His bearing their sin meant he bore the sins of many, namely their sins. They’re the sinners. They’re the ones for whom he’s dying.

Friend, if you’re here today and some of this is foreign to you, listen, if you’ll put your trust in him, if you’ll see yourself as the sinner that you really are, you’re guilty, you’re justly condemned before a holy, all-knowing, all-seeing God, listen, on the basis of God’s Word, I’m so pleased to tell you without any fear of contradiction that he will delight to be the bearer of your sins, too. He’ll forgive you. Whatever it is you’ve done, whatever it is you’ve said, thought, imagined, whatever shame you feel, imagine the horror of having all your secret sins publicly revealed, revealed for all to see, writ large, put up on a screen.

Well, you know what? This Jesus was crucified, he hung publicly, so that all could see in public, in the sight of everybody, Jew and Gentile, that he was bearing not his own shame, but yours and mine. Don’t make the same mistake or commit the same error that the Jews did in their day. Run to the cross, run to Christ. Embrace him, seek his forgiveness. He’ll give it. He will give it.

Listen, I’d love to camp here longer, but we need to return back to Luke 22:37 so we can finish this. We said in our points, here, just kind of recapping, we said Scripture must be fulfilled, because it’s as immutable and unchanging as God is, because it’s his Word, it must be accomplished. Also, we said Jesus must be identified with the transgressors, and this is what explains the hostility. The hatred of sinners against God and his Christ resulted in his crucifixion on the cross. And that same hatred against him spills over on all who identify with him, on all who take his name, on all who walk in obedience, on all who follow after him.

So listen, if you experience no reproach for his name’s sake, check what colors you’re wearing. If you experience no, no, no cross, no shame, if you experience no shame for his name, consider, are you even speaking about him, talk about him? Do people know? Are you confronting them in their sin? What colors are you wearing? Whose side are you on? One more thing, wrap up this second larger point in our outline, God’s Word must be accomplished, and Jesus must be identified with the transgressors. But third, Jesus will complete his mission. He will complete his mission.

He says “‘for that which refers to me has its completion.’” Has, there, is present tense, a continuous kind of action. So that, that which refers to me, you could say is having its completion, as in ongoing, as in right now, Jesus says, as we speak. In other words, he’s saying, My time is at hand. My time, the end of my mission is upon us. It’s right around the corner. So the hostility I’m talking about, that, too, is now. Men, be watchful. Why? Because of what he said back in John 15:18-21, right, what we read earlier. “‘If they persecuted me, they’re going to persecute you also.’” Get your head straight, men, stand by, it’s coming.

Listen, Jesus, here, is going to war. Within the day he’s going to take the field, and though he himself will fall and die on the battlefield, contrary to all expectation, it is his death that wins the victory. No one saw that coming. Satan didn’t see it coming, in fact, he unwittingly played right into God’s hand. He possessed the betrayer, got him to lead the arresting soldiers to Jesus. He set the whole thing up, but he’s being used. He influenced all the leaders, religious leaders of the Jewish nation, political leaders of the Roman province of Judea. He’s brought them all together to accomplish God’s will.

United forces of sinful angels and humans conspired together to accomplish this horrendous deed, the greatest crime ever perpetrated in the history of mankind, or ever will be. At the end of the day, they did exactly what God ordained for them to do. They served God’s purposes to glorify himself by exalting his Son in redeeming his own people. Listen, God wins.

Which brings us to a third and final point, number three, the rejoicing over hostility. We’ve seen the reality, and we’ve seen the reason for hostility, but now we see the rejoicing over hostility. Listen, we can rejoice over the hostility of sinners because every time it happens, it reminds us God won and we’re on his side. Christ has overcome death by his resurrection, and right now he lives. We can rejoice that we’ve become targets of spiritual forces of evil because all that hostility reminds us what side we’re on.

Now, is that what the Apostles thought at this moment? Well, in response to Jesus’ caution about living life in a changed world because of his victory, cited in Isaiah 53:12, the response, the Apostles thought about that a moment, and they responded by taking an inventory of their gear. Huh. Look, Lord, here are two swords. Thanks, guys. Just great, good job. They kind of missed the point, didn’t they? Galileans are kind of like Weld County residents. They all had conceal-carry permits. You never know who’s carrying. Little Granny with a gun tucked in her purse. Do not mess with them in Weld County.

Probably all these guys at one point or another carried swords. Pretty common for them to carry what’s called a machaira, the, these, kind of the Roman short sword, about 18 inches long. It was for, very common to carry that under a cloak or a garment to protect against bandits, the roads were not safe, to deal with the occasional scuffle, whatever they had to deal with. So a couple of them draw swords ready to go, say, “‘Look, Lord, here are two swords.’” The Lord’s unimpressed. He said to them, “‘It’s enough.’” He’s not saying, Good job, guys, glad you’re packing. Now let’s go get those Romans, your two swords and my miraculous power, who can stop us, right?

No, they missed the entire point, here. They won’t be able to get what Jesus is telling them, here, until after the resurrection, when the Spirit comes to illuminate all that he taught them. That’s when it’s all going to come to clarity for them. John 16:12, Jesus said, “‘I have many more things to say to you, but you can’t bear them now.’” You just can’t bear the weight. You can’t understand. It’s too early. “‘When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.’” But for now, time’s up. He’s got an appointment to meet in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he needs to pray first.

And so you say to me, wait a minute, how does this fit the outline point you gave us? Where’s the rejoicing? It’s coming, and it’s coming, relatively speaking, in a very short period of time. In fact, let me show you, if you’ll turn in your Bibles over to Acts chapter 5 and verse 27, and we’ll close with this. Let me just set this up for you, Acts chapter 5. This is post-Pentecost. The Spirit has come upon them. They’ve been preaching. They’ve been making quite the stir. In fact, thousands are coming to Christ and repenting of their sin.

And the Apostles, again, in Acts chapter 5, are preaching, healing in the temple. They’ve just practiced, or the Lord, I should say, has just practiced church discipline. He’s, not like we practice discipline, but the Lord practiced discipline by killing Ananias and Sapphira. Just setting a clarity about the holiness of this new thing called the church. It’s a connection back to Leviticus chapter 10, when he killed Aaron’s two sons in the temple for offering strange fire.

But the Apostles, you would think that church discipline killed the church. No, it didn’t. Thousands more came. Thousands more saw the seriousness, the sobriety of this new thing called the church, and the Spirit came upon them and drew them to put their faith in Jesus Christ, to repent of killing him, it’s a remarkable thing. So they’re preaching. They’re healing in the temple. They’re confounding the chief priests, the Sadducees with the gospel that they’re preaching as they look them in the eye and indict them for the national crime of crucifying the Messiah of Israel.

Well, that was too much for the chief priests and Sadducees to admit. So the high priest had them arrested and jailed. We’ll pick that up at Acts 5:27. “When they had brought them, they stood them before the Sanhedrin.” This is the Jewish ruling council. “And the high priest who presided over the council, he questioned them, saying, ‘We strictly commanded you not to continue teaching in this name, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’ And Peter and the Apostles answered and said, ‘We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you put to death by hanging him on a tree. This one God exalted to his right hand as a leader and Savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We’re witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God gave to those who obey him.’”

Gamaliel speaks up, intervenes in the counsel at this at this point. He’s got pragmatism, pragmatic counsel to give them. It’s utterly devoid of any righteous principle. He’s got no qualm of conscience over the crucifying of Jesus. And his counsel, it prevails. It wins the Sanhedrin. And we read down in verse 40, “So they followed Gamaliel’s advice, and after calling the Apostles in and beating them, they commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then released them.” Big mistake. “So they went on their way from the presence of the Sanhedrin,” look, “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for the name.”

There it is, justification for my outline point. Yeah, the Apostles may not have started well that night when Jesus was betrayed on the night he warned them, calling them to watchfulness, but by God’s grace, look where he brought them and in very short order. And so we look, look at the next verse and, “and every day in the temple,” they said, “Don’t go preaching that name,” “every day in the temple and from house to house, they didn’t cease teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

Listen folks, that is the warrior mentality right there. That’s the winning attitude Christ calls for. And what you need to see in the warning of Luke 22:35-38, Jesus is not stoking the fears of his men, there. He’s not telling them, watch out guys, hide out, make yourself scarce, don’t speak up in meetings. No, he intends to embolden them, strengthen their faith, help them mature, help them to come a point, to a point of strength. Jesus wants his men to see, and he wants you and me to see the same thing today, right now. God is sovereign. He’s always ruling on the throne. Christ is victorious. He’s fought the greatest battle. He’s won the victory and the entire cosmic war. He’s sealed the fate of all of his enemies.

Yes, in the short term, between his first and second advents, it’s going to mean some hostility for us. But let that hostility just, just remind you to double down and focus on his victory, that which secured forgiveness for all who trust him as Savior, for all who follow him as Lord. Listen, let that hostility remind you to rejoice and give thanks, and even when you receive hostility and persecution for his sake, amen? Let’s pray.

Our Father, how remarkable it is that you subvert every expectation of man and angel to accomplish your good purposes. This redemption story is nothing that could be thought up by any man. No wisdom of man, no power of man could accomplish it. It’s only your power and your wisdom that is glorified in the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let that fuel us, strengthen us. Let it fill, let it fill us with confidence and joy and gratitude so that we are bold, unashamed, proclaiming your name for your glory and Christ’s exaltation. Amen.