Who is Jesus? Expediency 12-17-23

Overview

Two Faces of Expediency

Expediency is doing what is convenient, advantageous, or self-serving in the moment rather than what is right. Scripture gives us sobering portraits of it. Pilate, "wishing to satisfy the crowd," released Barabbas and handed Jesus over to be crucified Mark 15. Caiaphas reasoned that "it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed" John 11. In each case, leaders chose what worked for them over what was true.

Jesus Exposes Expediency

Four days before the cross, the chief priests, scribes, and elders—the Sanhedrin—confronted Jesus in the temple, demanding, "By what authority are you doing these things?" Luke 20:1-8. They came suddenly and with hostile intent, questioning the very Son of God, the heir of David's throne, the Messiah. Following a familiar rabbinic pattern, Jesus answered with a question of His own: "Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" Their huddled deliberation reveals everything. If they affirmed John's divine commission, they would condemn their own unbelief; if they denied it, the people would turn on them. So they pleaded ignorance—a humiliating answer from those charged with discerning such matters—and Jesus responded, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." Their expediency was publicly exposed.

The Mirror Turned Toward Us

The Lord's word turns this same mirror on us. Expediency is the birth mother of pragmatism—a life shaped not by principle but by what works in the moment, what benefits self, what is convenient. We meet it at every fork in the road, where the easy way diverges from the right way. The right way is often harder, with more bumps and challenges, and we are tempted again and again to take the easier path because it costs us less.

The Positive Expediency of Christ

Yet "expediency" also carries a beautiful, positive meaning: that which is truly beneficial. Jesus Christ is its embodiment. "In the beginning was the Word… and the Word became flesh and lived among us" John 1. He took on flesh and was born to go to the cross, bearing the sin of the world—including all our sinful expediency—paying the debt and rising from the tomb in triumph. Because of His grace, we are freed: freed from pragmatism's chokehold, freed to live by principle drawn from the wellspring of Scripture, freed to seek the good of others rather than ourselves, freed to choose the right road whatever it costs. This is cleansing. This is the life of an audience of One. So we come, faithful, to adore Him—Jesus the Christ, the embodiment of expediency in its truest and most glorious sense.

Transcript

Would you open your Bibles, please, with me to the 20th chapter of the Gospel of Luke? 3s

If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that on page 72 in 9s

the New Testament, the 20th chapter of the Gospel of Luke for our study this morning. 14s

Expediency, expediency, that's such a fascinating word, isn't it? 23s

It's a word that perhaps we don't use to often in our vocabulary and our conversations, 30s

but it certainly is a word. 40s

That can be embodied. It can be lived out. 43s

And expediency can certainly have a negative meaning to it. 51s

The negative meaning is around the sense of doing something for one's own interest, or doing 61s

something. To benefit oneself, to do something that is simply the convenient thing to do, 68s

because it just fits that particular moment and what is going on and one's on particular 80s

motives. 89s

Expediency is a word that certainly has a negative meaning to it. I think for example of 92s

Pilate. There is Pilate before the crowd, the crowd is clamoring for the crucifixion of Jesus 100s

and for the release of Barabas. Pilate is going to release one of them, and scripture tells 107s

us in Mark the 15th chapter, so Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd expediency. 114s

Release Barabas for them, and after vlogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. 125s

You've heard the phrase, well, that person just acted out of political expediency. Well, 134s

later, doing that, which was simply convenient doing that, which was selfish, doing that, 144s

for their own interest, or k-ephas, John 11th chapter. So the chief priests and the Pharisees 154s

called the meeting of the council and said, what do we do? This man is performing many 163s

signs if we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come 168s

and destroy both our holy place and our nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest 174s

that year, said to them, you do not understand that it's better for you to have one man die 182s

for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed. And what is that? It's not doing what's 189s

why it's doing what's expedient. Our text for today is the embodiment of expediency in different forms. 198s

So, let's look at Luke the 20th chapter, beginning in verse 1. One day, as he was teaching the 223s

people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the 231s

elders and said to him, tell us, by what authority are you doing, these things, who is it who 237s

gave you this authority? Let's break it down here. When it starts out with one day, 246s

what we see in the chronology of the events here, that this is four days before the cross. So, 253s

the cross is incredibly imminent right now. And the three groups there, the chief priests, 260s

describes and the elders, those are the three groups that comprise the Sanhedrin, the Jewish 267s

Supreme Court. It is clear upon a superficial reading of the gospel of Luke that the religious 273s

establishment wanted Jesus dead. Looking at a few more details. The word there that says they 284s

came upon him, the Greek form that word tells us that they came upon him with a with a suddenness 298s

and with a hostile intent in mind. When they say, what authority do you have to do? These things, 306s

well, what are these things? Well, immediately before in the 19th chapter of Luke, is the second 316s

cleansing of the temple by our Lord. The cleansing of the money changes and those that turn the 323s

temple into a place where they could sell things, there is the cleansing of the temple. And the question 330s

then comes of Jesus by what authority are you doing? These things, what are these things? 337s

Cleansing the temple, what are these things? The teaching and the miracles by what authority 344s

are you doing this fascinating question? Is it not? For they are asking the son of God, 351s

God in the flesh, the second member of the Trinidad. The one who is the inheritor of the throne of David, 363s

the ruler of the house of Judah, the one who is the Messiah, the Christ, 373s

Lord, they are asking Him. By what authority are you doing? These things. 382s

Jesus is response. Verse 3, He answered them. I will also ask you a question. 397s

And you tell me. Now Jesus isn't being coy here. This is a rabbinical method of ancient day. 408s

It was quite common when a rabbi would be asked a question for the rabbi to respond with a 418s

question. We've all had teachers, right? Like that? Right? It is a really, really good teaching method. 424s

Because when your teacher does that, when you ask a question to a teacher, and the teacher comes 432s

back with a question, the teacher is trying to force you to a different level, trying to force 439s

what's behind the question, trying to force you to ponder it. I remember going up to my 449s

professor after class one day in seminary and saying, well can't I say no to Jesus? And his response 458s

to me was, why would you want to do that? You see, that's the question coming back to the question. 465s

Right? And what was the professor doing? Forcing me to go deeper, forcing me to analyze the very 473s

question that I was asking. That's what Jesus is doing here, not being coy. This is a teaching method. 479s

And what's the question? Verse 4. Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human 488s

origin? Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin? 502s

We know the baptism of John, Mark the first chapter tells us, John the baptizer appeared in the 513s

wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and people from the 519s

whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem. We're going out to him and were baptized 526s

by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins. We know the baptism of John. Jesus is question. 534s

Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin? 542s

Now get into your minds. I hear what happens next? 554s

Because there's a ten visually of comedy. Verse 5, after being given the question, 559s

they discussed it with one another saying, if we say from heaven, he'll say, 575s

why did you not believe him? But if we say of human origin, all that people will stone us 581s

for they are convinced that John was a prophet. They have seen your minds, I what's going on here, 587s

right? Is there having their unholy Hubble who's standing there? Waiting. But Jesus is they gather 593s

together to strategize and to come up here with the press release that they're going to give in 603s

terms of the answer to this question. Is they trying to figure it out? This little pickle that really 610s

they're in by their own actions here. Jesus stands and waits for the response. And what is the response? 616s

Verse 7. So they answered that they did not know. 630s

Where it came? 640s

You see, if they acknowledged that John's baptism was of divine origin, then the question then 641s

logically comes, then why aren't you listening to John? Why didn't you listen to him? 658s

And who did John point two as the Messiah but Christ? They certainly don't want to affirm that. 665s

And if they say John's baptism was of human origin, the people will kill him, will kill them. 675s

Because they rightly understood John as a prophet. And so they're answering them. 685s

We don't know. And what is that? 696s

It's expediency. Isn't it? 705s

It's not doing what's right. It's doing what's convenient. 711s

It's doing what they hope will work for them in the moment. 719s

And so they plead ignorance, which from this group to plead ignorance, 726s

would be a profound embarrassment because they should have the answer. 738s

The very next verse verse 8, then Jesus said to them, 746s

neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 751s

And Jesus has publicly exposed their expediency. They are doing what was convenient 763s

for them. And with us? With us? When I was a boy, we would oftentimes play as a family, a game 781s

called Probe. It was a word, you know, again, I haven't seen it in years. 798s

There's a game in which you all had these kind of like plastic little things where you fit letters into it. 806s

You each had your own stack of letters and you would think of a word. It's kind of like 814s

real of fortune but more layers to it. You've come up with your word and what it was 821s

is you wanted to guess the other people's letters, other people's words, get yourselves some points 829s

and you wanted to be the the last person there with your word covered up. 838s

So you think of a word then you'd put the letters into the various slots in the various slots. 846s

Of course, bonded with various points if someone correctly guessed a letter. They then get 851s

whatever the points were associated with that slot. There was another layer on top where you 857s

pull a card and sometimes you'd get lose a turn or take an additional turn and other times 863s

you would get if you have a blank expose it and a blank was just a card that had a dot right in the 868s

middle of it. And if you're trying to be sneaky, you would put maybe a blank or two sometimes even 877s

three. On the front end or the back end of the word or both. So your word looked longer 885s

then it was. But the skilled players of that game, the skilled players of that game could 895s

could see right through those kind of shenanigans going up and expose the word. 906s

Jesus comes to us in His word and He exposes our expediency. 921s

He exposes those times when we're not living out by principle, we're living out by 933s

expediency's birth mother of pragmatism. Instead of the life birth from principle, 942s

know what is seen, the offspring is simply pragmatism. What works in the moment, what works 953s

for for me, what's convenient. The Lord comes and through His word, He reveals to us those times 966s

in which we live with expediency where we're more concerned about what's good for me than what's 980s

good for the other. And so we take the action that's the expediency of it all. Knowing full well 986s

that we're taking that action because that action will benefit ourselves. 995s

He comes in the word and He exposes those times in our lives when we come to the fork in the 1002s

easy way and then there's the right way. But the right way is the harder way to take. In fact, 1009s

there's more likely more bumps on the right way. There's more likely more difficulties and challenges 1017s

on the right way. And so as we stand in the fork of the road and we look at the easy way and we look 1023s

at the harder way but the harder way is right. He exposes to us the times in which we took the 1029s

easy road, not the right road. We took the easy road because it was more convenient for us. 1036s

It was more convenient. It was more pragmatic for us to take that route. 1047s

He exposes in our lives. All of our sinful expediency. What then? What then? 1058s

Fascinating word. This word expediency. Because not only does it have, not only does it have this 1084s

negative understanding but it also, interestingly, has a positive meaning to it also. 1093s

It is the negative meaning of expediency but there's also the positive meaning of expediency 1102s

and the positive meaning of expediency is that which has been official in the most positive 1108s

of senses. One week from today, we will gather on the next Lord's Day Christmas Eve 1117s

falling on the Lord's Day this year. We will gather once again for a glorious celebration 1127s

of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very Savior of the world. Who is the embodiment 1137s

on the positive meaning of expediency? 1151s

The Apostle writes in the beginning, was the word that's always capitalized because it's simply 1167s

another meaning for Jesus. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word 1174s

was God. Then he goes on to say, and the word became flesh and lived among us and we've seen his glory 1183s

the glorious of a Father's only Son full of grace and truths. And the second member of the 1195s

Trinity Jesus Christ took on flesh. He became embodied and he was born to go to the cross 1207s

to bear all of our sin, all of it. The sin of the entire world, all of our sin 1223s

including all of our sinful expediency. And he paid the debt and pronounced forgiveness for us. 1234s

He rose out of the tomb, the sacrifice accepted death overcome reconciliation with humankind. 1252s

The grace of God seems so clearly in the inflection and the embodiment of the Lord Jesus Christ 1264s

who embodies the positive understanding of expedience. Because of what the Lord Jesus Christ have 1277s

done beloved, we are freed. We are freed now and empowered to live a different kind of life. 1294s

We are empowered by His grace to live a life of principle as opposed to pragmatism. We are 1303s

empowered to live a life born out of the principles that we see in God's own word, the clarity 1312s

of His word for us and that frees us. It frees us away from the clutch of pragmatism where we look 1319s

upon ourselves and say, what's the expedient thing to do in the moment? But we are freed to live 1330s

the life of principle and that's cleansing is it not. It's cleansing to be able to live the life, 1337s

not in the ways of the world and what the world wants and all of the pragmatism, but in the ways 1347s

that God wants and God empowers the life that is born out of principle, not simply what works 1353s

in the moment, a life born on the well-spring of scripture itself and it's cleansing to live, 1363s

cleansing to live as a people, not out of pragmatism, but out of principle. 1376s

frees us. He frees us from experience, experiences, 1388s

chokehold of where we're solely focused on what it is that's good for us in the moment and what it is 1396s

that's convenient for us. He frees us from all of that to where we don't regard any of that. 1405s

But what we see is how can we serve the other and how can we be of a benefit, how can we be 1413s

an official for the other? He frees us from all of that into a different way of living. He frees us. 1420s

When we come to the fork in the road and we see the easy, expedient way or we see the right way 1433s

that can oftentimes be hard, he frees us. To choose that which will glorify him the right road that he has revealed 1447s

through his word, whatever comes, whatever bone for pain comes and in doing that, on being on that 1461s

right road of choosing that right road by his grace, it's that cleansing is it not. 1469s

Because amidst whatever comes the way from choosing that which is right, whatever comes 1479s

because of choosing that way, we know it's the way that's bringing him glory and all of life 1486s

is simply to be lived with the audience of one bowing before him and we're read, we're read, 1493s

how live born of principles born of the focus on the other, we're freed to say, 1505s

I want the right road, I want the right road, not the easier expedient. I want the right. 1523s

Welcome, or your faithful, or come or your faithful and adore him, or come, 1542s

or your faithful, the one to whom the angels sing, or come, or your faithful, 1560s

and worship the one who's the embodiment of expediency in the most positive sense. 1575s

Jesus, the Christ. 1595s