September 21, 2025

Luke 22:63-71

What Is Your Response To Jesus Christ?

Sunday Sermons

Curious about God? Seeking truth about who Jesus was and is? This study, rooted in the Gospels’ parallel accounts, helps us discover the powerful question at the heart of Christianity: What is your response to Jesus Christ?

This sermon unveils three realities: 1. There are those who are Belligerent Unbelievers, who reject God, risking eternal consequences. 2. Jesus was a Suffering Savior who sacrificed all for our redemption, forgiving even the worst of His enemies. 3. Jesus made some bold claims about Himself as the Self-Revealed Son of God. Jesus declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Join Pastor Jim as he dives into the gripping narrative of Jesus’ trials from Luke 22:63-71, John 18:12-24, and Matthew 26:59-68, where betrayal, mockery, and injustice collide. Explore the resilience of Christianity against all odds. Don’t miss this chance to reflect on faith, eternity, and your personal response to Jesus Christ.

Speaker

Jim Thomas

Series

The Gospel According to Luke

Go to Series

Scripture

Luke 22:63-71

Topics
Community Life Growth & Discipleship

Sermon Notes

Luke 22:63-71

What Is Your Response To Jesus Christ?

Pastor Jim Thomas

“At least five times…the Faith has to all appearances gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases it was the dog that died.”
G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

  1. Trial before Annas & Peter’s first denial: John 18:12-24
  2. Peter’s second & third denials: Luke 22:58-62
  3. Unofficial trial before Sanhedrin: Matthew 26:59-68; Mark 14:55-65
  4. Official trial before Sanhedrin: Luke 22:66-71; Mark 15:1a
  5. Death of Judas: Matthew 27:3-10
  6. First trial before Pilate: John 18:28-38
  7. Trial before Herod: Luke 23:7-12
  8. Second trial before Pilate: Luke 23:13-22
  9. The scourging: Mark 15:16-20
  10. Condemnation by Pilate before crowds: John 19:4-16

 

What is your response to Jesus Christ?

1. The Belligerent Unbelievers

“Unbelief is the great stone lying at the door of your heart and preventing that door from being opened!”
C. H. Spurgeon

“The unbeliever has preferred to be by himself, without God, defying God, having God against him, and he shall have his preference. Nobody stands under the wrath of God except those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, nothing less.”
J. I. Packer, Knowing God

2. The Suffering Savior

“Christians follow someone who sacrificed everything to redeem and renew the world. At the heart of the Christian faith is a man who died a victim of injustice and who called for the forgiveness of his enemies.”
Tim Keller, The Reason for God

3. The Self-Understanding and Self-Revelation of Jesus Christ

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”
Hebrews 1:1-4

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

What is your response to Jesus Christ?

“The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof, and the worshiping heart needs none.”
A. W. Tozer

Discussion Questions

  • Who is Jesus? Who does He say He is? Who does the world say He is? What can we learn about the heart and character of God the Father from what we know about who Jesus is?
  • How do we respond to Jesus? As believers, how do we respond to those whose response to Jesus is belligerent unbelief?
  • When studying the Word, how important is it to look at the passage in its greater context, as a part of the collective whole of the scriptures? With the Gospels, how important is it to compare and cross-reference all four accounts, while considering the different writers’ backgrounds, audience, and focus? How can this holistic approach help shape how we think about the scriptures and the One who inspired them?

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“On Christ The Solid Rock“ by William Batchelder Bradbury, Edward Mote
“I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)” by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel
“Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun“ Verse Words by Isaac Watts, Verse Music by John Hatton, Chorus Words and Music by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty and Ed Cash, Choir arr. by Paul Campbell, Orch. arr. by John Langley
“Jesus Only Jesus“ by Christy Nockels, Nathan Nockels, Matt Redman, Kristian Stanfill, Chris Tomlin and Tony Wood
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690

Call To Worship: To God Be the Glory

Leader: To our God and Father be glory forever and ever!
People: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

Leader: To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, Be honor and glory forever and ever.
People: I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

All: To our God and Father be glory forever and ever! Amen!

Confession of Faith:

The Apostles’ Creed – I Believe in the Holy Universal Church, part 2
Article III. “I Believe in the Holy Universal Church”
ACNA, Q. 95, 96

Leader: What are the “marks” or characteristics of the Church?
People: The Nicene Creed expands upon the Apostles’ Creed to list four characteristics of the Church: it is “one, holy, catholic (or universal), and apostolic.”

Leader: In what sense is the Church “one”?
People: The Church is one because all its members form the one Body of Christ, having “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” The Church is called to embody this unity in all relationships between believers.

Classic Prayer: Book of Common Prayer, 1549

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that You have done for us. We thank You for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love. We thank You for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side. We thank You for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank You also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. Above all, we thank You for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of His Word and the example of His life; for His steadfast obedience, by which He overcame temptation; for His dying, through which He overcame death; and for His rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Him and make Him known; and through Him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to You in all things. Amen.

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