First Sunday in Lent “God Meant it for Good” Conc.Sem. Lent Series
March 9, 2025 Luke 22: (Gibbs.22?)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
“You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” The rhythm of the church year is a biblical & divine thing. So, here we are again in Lent. It’s a time to reflect & repent & pray in our Lord Jesus as He moves humbly toward the terrible cross, and powerfully into =& out of= the grave. Lent & Easter are inseparable as a time for blessing for us -the church- , as we wait for the return of our Savior at the Last Day.
We also count it a blessing that the Holy Spirit gave to us not one, but FOUR Gospels to account for the earthly presence of the Son of God. Each of them is about the same Jesus, telling of His movement toward the cross, and His victorious exit from the tomb. Each gospel is like a wonderful painting from a slightly different angle. Like four faithful witnesses of Christ, they complement one another. For our Sundays in Lent, we will follow the leading of the Gospel according to Luke.
Before we delve into that, let’s recall something from the book of Genesis. The first sentence of this sermon was a quote from Gen.50, vs.20 “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” It’s from the story of Joseph. Joseph was the favored son of his father, Jacob. His older brothers resented him; and Joseph did have his faults. But his brothers’ inward hatred grew outward, just as our own sin does. So they verbally abused him = that’s evil; they sold him as a slave to traders going to Egypt = human trafficking is evil; they poured animal blood on his coat & lied to father Jacob that Joseph has been killed by wild beasts = that’s evil!
In Egypt, Joseph’s life had ups & downs. But finally, thru God’s will & blessing,
he rose to prominence in Egypt, and God used Joseph’s wisdom to save many people from starving to death == including his own family, and the brothers who had done such evil things to him. Then father-Jacob dies. And Joseph’s brothers were dreading that day! If Joseph had just been ‘playing nice’ to please his father, now they were utterly doomed. If Joseph was like them, it would be revenge-time.
However, Joseph is different than them. Oh, he has definitely not forgotten their history with him. He woke up every day in Egypt reminded of how they changed his life completely; certainly against his will & his dreams & his desires.
How could he forget the years of rejection & loneliness? Forgetting evil is largely outside our human ability to do. But, the Spirit & faith God supplies us gives us a more powerful ability to overcome our weakness. That ability is: ‘to forgive.’ Not to forget, but to ‘move on.’
Joseph says, ‘You meant evil against me. But God meant it for good. This is not some spiritual self-improvement exercise, so don’t misunderstand Joseph’s words. His brothers meant evil against him, and they did evil. God didn’t do it, or make them do it; & beyond our understanding it, God did not stop them. God used their evil for a larger purpose, His purpose; and He doesn’t have to explain it to us. That’s the true definition of God’s ‘sovereignty.’ Everyone was clueless as to what God was going to do, but God is never clueless. He is eternally wise, & always good. So, for our Sundays in Lent, we’ll ponder Luke chapters 22 & 23 under that theme idea: whether coming from Satan or man, evil doesn’t succeed; God uses it for his good.
So, listen to these verses from Luke 22: (1-13)
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover.
2 And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put Jesus to death, for they feared the people. 3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray Jesus to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray Jesus to them in the absence of a crowd.
7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us,
that we may eat it.” 9 They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” 10 He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters 11 and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ 12 And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.”
13 And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It’s Passover time; but this time it will be the Passover to end all Passovers.
Here, Luke refers five times to this festival so that the historic reference is clear in our minds. A chief thing about the Passover is that it was the time when all of Israel remembered; for their faith & salvation, God didn’t want them to forget.
They were to remember that they were living under the power of evil. God’s people, after Joseph’s time, became slaves in Egypt for hundred’s of years. Evil had come against them; evil was done to them. Then Pharaoh, and the demonic gods of Egypt, resisted God’s plan to set his people Israel free. Even tho God sent plague after plague, Pharaoh hardened his heart. So much so, that God gave him over to that hard heart in divine judgment.
Even after Pharaoh’s mouth allowed Israel to leave, his hard-heart changed his mind. He led the most powerful army in the world to chase after the people, catching up to them at the Red Sea. With evil intent, if he couldn’t have them as slaves, he would utterly destroy them. He meant evil; but God meant it for good. God brought His justice down upon evil pharaoh & his army, and they were drowned in the Sea. God rescued His people; they passed thru death and out into life with the Lord = their Deliverer & Redeemer.
They faced evil, but God brought good. That was the great Passover event that God’s people were always to remember & never forget. And now Luke is pointing out to us that what God did at that Passover in Moses’ day for Israel, what God did thru the Exodus from Egypt, now He was going to do in an even greater way thru His Son, for all nations of people.
So, That’s the FIRST TRUTH that emerges from our reading. It is the historic Passover-time, and the time has come for a greater salvation, a greater exodus & deliverance than ever before; the whole world would behold the greatest death ever, so that the greatest life would be revealed for all.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now, Here’s the SECOND TRUTH in these verses. Evil is going to come against Jesus. Evil men of every sort would conspire against him; and Luke even points out that the most evil one, Satan himself, would bring his ‘A’ game in order to destroy Jesus. In our text we heard this: “the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to put him to death,…”
The priests & the scholars who were supposed to guide & uphold the people, and prepare them to receive their promised Messiah; but they were blinded by their own evil, by greed, jealousy, & false teaching. Then Luke points out another enemy. He says, “Then Satan entered Judas called Iscariot.” Satan has been the chief evil ‘strong man’; he was rejected & thrown down from heaven to the earth; he hates God & God’s ways; and he works to keep people slaves to sin.
Evil came against Jesus, but Jesus also came against evil. In Luke 13 Jesus healed a woman that Satan had bound with illness for 18 years. In Luke 10 Jesus sent out 72 disciples, and they cast out demons, and Jesus said that he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Jesus refers to Satan as the strong man, but shows himself to be the Stronger Man who came to set the captives free.
These smaller battles carried on for 3 years; but now was time for the battle royale. And Satan uses … Judas! We might forget how shocking & tragic this was that one of Jesus’ own disciples was a traitor. Yes. Satan & Judas both had a hand in it; both do evil. God doesn’t do evil; but we can count on God to make evil accomplish His good. Judas approaches the chief priests, and together they make a plan. Judas does it for money; Satan does it to kill souls. At the first Passover in Egypt, the evil was bad enough. But this time it’s far worse. That’s the second truth: Evil is coming – against Jesus.
_++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now comes the THIRD TRUTH from this reading. This third truth is made more amazing because all the evil we just talked about. Like a gathering storm, there were human enemies, a human traitor, & that powerful demon-enemy all allied against Jesus at this Passover. Satan had been stirring up the religious leaders; the religious leaders had been stirring up each other & the people; Judas saw an opportunity to use Jesus to get a payday. The disciples could feel the opposition to Jesus growing every time they were in Jerusalem.
And finally the third truth is seen as Luke emphasizes something. Four times Luke plants in our minds a particular word; that word is: prepared. “Prepare the Passover … Where shall we prepare? … A large upper room furnished … prepare there … and they prepared the Passover.”
The HSp repeats this word for a purpose: God is a God who prepares, & He’s revealing here that everything is ready around the Messiah for the big work: Salvation. God is ready to bring about Satan’s final defeat, evil’s final defeat, and mankind’s final gracious exodus.
As God plans, so the Son of God plans. Jesus says, ‘a man will meet you, follow him, & the master of the house will show you a large upper room… and so on. Jesus has made arrangements; He’s made sure that various things around Him are prepared because He is now prepared.
He knows about the evil plans of the leaders; He knows the evil of the one who tempted Him in the wilderness; He knows about the blind-greed of Judas; He knows what was prophesied in the Scripture, which must be fulfilled. He also knows that now He must trust that the Father will not fail Him; He is in good hands; the Father’s plan will succeed.
That’s why Luke records for us the last thing that Jesus says from the cross, which is,
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
Evil is coming, and God’s plan was to let evil to do its worst, for sin & Satan to have their moment, their hour of darkness. But Jesus is ready. And He knows that in this greater rescue than Joseph accomplished for his brothers, in this greater exodus than what Moses brought, Jesus knows that His enemies meant everything for evil, but His Father meant it for good, and the greatest salvation of all will be accomplished.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We recall that Peter & the others were not prepared, altho Jesus taught them; they didn’t want to hear it when Jesus spoke of this suffering & death. We recall that the women were not ready for Jesus to rise from the dead, and so instead they got spices ready for early Sunday morning to go & anoint the corpse of Jesus. But everything else is ready, and Jesus is prepared.
All this begs the Q: what are we ready for? We should be ready for everything that has been spoken to us because, with the word & Spirit of God, we have the tools to be prepared for everything: for temptation & evil, and for grace to help us in our times of need. Lent is to have a special role in our NT life of faith each year, like the Passover did for the OT people of God.
We are to remember and not forget the greater Passover purpose, the reality of evil, and to be trusting the Messiah, who was prepared to accomplish God’s good for us, using the cross & tomb. In Him, in this faith, we ready ourselves to repent and turn away from evil, in whatever form it comes against us in our lives. Doubts come against us as we see the power of evil in the world. Fears come against us because of sickness, finances, our job, our relationships. What if things go bad for us, and God is not ready to help?
The Gospel of Luke helps us to face those fears & doubts as we see how the Messiah-our-Deliverer faced all those evils in order to lead us thru death and into life. This is the purpose of the Season of Lent, and its great value for us in our life of faith. We ask the Spirit-of-God to grow our faith, and strengthen our hold on Jesus, and firm-up our trust in
the Father.
We want to learn to speak our faith in the same way Joseph learned to speak, when he looked at everything in his life from the view given to him from the God who is always prepared, and only good. Our God is made even more clear for us in this NT-time than what Joseph saw in his day. Because of Christ Jesus our faith has given us the ability to say:
‘You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good.’
Amen