In the last few sermons, we've been examining the passion or the suffering of Jesus Christ that leads ultimately to his death on the cross. In these last three chapters of Matthew's Gospel, we have the Gospel, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ placarded before us. His suffering is reported by Matthew in a series, as we've seen, of dramatic, intensely dramatic events that have been occasionally relieved by more pleasant interludes. So chapter 26 opened up with the plot of the priests to kill Jesus by stealth. That was followed by the high point of the woman from Bethany's worship and anointing the body of Jesus. And then in the third scene, we sank to discover the treacherous plot of the betrayer, Judas, for 30 pieces of silver. From there, we looked at the disciples' obedience to go and prepare the upper room for the Passover. Then, at the table, the betrayer is confronted. Then, the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Well, then, no sooner is the Lord's Supper over and all the unity and joy of the Lord's Supper gives way to the dark night of disloyalty and doubt and fear among Jesus' disciples. Jesus predicted this. He predicted their utter collapse in verse 31. He says, you will all fall away because of me this night. And we witnessed that. We witnessed the weakness of humanity illustrated in the boasting of the Apostle Peter, swearing with an oath, if I must die with you, he said, I will not deny you. And then in just four hours after that boasting, he denies Jesus three times. We witness the weakness of humanity, not only in Peter, but in James and John, as Jesus invites them to pray. But they think, well, prayer is not that important. And instead, they choose to sleep rather than stay up with Jesus to watch with him for one hour. And eventually, all the disciples scatter. All of them forsake Jesus. That's where we left off, demonstrating the faithlessness and depravity of humanity. And contrasted to the depravity of humanity, you have Jesus, the true man, in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he learned obedience by contending with his father, asking his father to take the cup of judgment away, but in the end, consenting to the Father's will. It was the Father's will to take the cup away. But He couldn't do it magically. He couldn't just snap His fingers and make the cup go away. The cup of God's judgment had to be born because God's holiness required it. And as much as the Father may have wanted to send 12 legions of angels to defend Jesus, to deliver Him, that would not happen. Jesus had to drink the cup so that the world might go free. It's been said that the battle for the cross was won in Gethsemane. The sorrows and the spiritual warfare that Jesus endured in the Garden of Gethsemane prepared Him for the suffering that was to come when He would be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. And that would happen in the text we looked at last time, that shaming and treasonous betrayal of Judas with a kiss. Jesus is taken away bound from there, but that does not mean he's not in control of the situation. At any time, the Father could have rescued him from the situation, but Jesus went willingly. Verse 56 tells us that this was to fulfill the Scriptures. It says that all this took place that the Scripture of the prophets might be fulfilled, then all the disciples left and fled. So here we have this post-midnight, early morning hour activity. The disciples are all scattered by now, just like Jesus prophesied would happen in the upper room. Only one now is following Him, Peter. Peter is following at a distance to watch the events that are going on, and Jesus is brought to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. Let's look where we left off. Matthew 26, we'll read verses 57 to 68. Matthew 26, verse 57. Then those who had seized Jesus led Him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and elders had gathered. Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though there many false witnesses came forward. At last, two came forward and said, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. The high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? And Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, you have said so. But I tell you from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. The high priest tore his robes and said, he has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? And they answered, he deserves death. And they spit on his face and struck him. And some slapped him saying, prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you? We are over the next three sermons going to look at three trials. Today the Jewish trial, next time the disciples trial, and then thirdly the Roman or the Gentile trial. These are descriptive narratives. It is Jesus in all these cases that is on trial. Jesus is on trial before the Jews. Jesus is on trial before the Roman prosecutors. He's the defendant. But we're going to flip our perspective as we look at these texts. The perspective that we're going to look at is rather than Jesus on trial, we're going to look at the prosecution on trial. So today, for example, we're going to look at the Jewish trial and not merely see the Jews trying Jesus, but rather God trying the Jewish people. We're going to see that there's never a moment in this trial that the Sanhedrin, who are the governing body of Jerusalem, there's never a moment that Jesus is not in charge over the Sanhedrin. There's never a moment that he's not in charge of these proceedings. Next time we're going to try the disciples, particularly Peter and Judas, put them on the defense. And then thirdly, we'll go into chapter 27 and we'll put the prosecution of the Gentile Romans. And again, we're going to discover in all three of these trials, the people, the Jews, the disciples, and the Gentiles are all found guilty. So today, part one, the Jewish trial. We have Jesus arrested, brought to trial. This trial took place, if we do a harmony of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we find out that this trial actually took place in three phases. The beginning phase, the first two phases are actually taking place before daybreak. This was illegal in Judaism. Judaism only permitted trials during the daylight hour, so these are illegal trials taking place somewhere between 3 or 4 in the morning. This is the work of darkness, and as the work of darkness is always done, it is done hastily, and it is done under the cover of night. Now, after a brief appearance before Annas, who is the father-in-law of Caiaphas, a former high priest reported in the Gospel of John, a brief interaction with Annas, Jesus is brought to the home of Caiaphas. Caiaphas is the governing high priest. He was appointed by Rome. This is where the main trial takes place in the text that we just read. The Jewish trial could not have taken place within the temple courts where it should have taken place in daylight in the temple courts. It was illegally done, most likely in the home of Caiaphas, the palace of Caiaphas. But remember, what did the Jewish leaders want to do with Jesus? They wanted to get him by stealth. They wanted it to be secret. They wanted Jesus killed by stealth. They wanted the least amount of people to know as possible. So an illegal trial by night in the privacy of the high priest's home would accomplish that, they thought. They, though, however, would need a legal indictment. So that legal indictment, if you just look ahead to chapter 27, verse 1, there was a legal indictment where the death sentence is officially pronounced in the daylight. Matthew 27, verse 1 says, When the morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death. And from there, Jesus goes to Pilate. And we'll look at that in a couple of weeks. So today we're just looking at the Jewish trial, in particular the second phase of the Jewish trial. Again, the first one, Annas, this is before Caiaphas, and the third one being in chapter 27, where they officially announce the death penalty. So here we are in the palace of Caiaphas. In verses 59 to 63 of our text, we have the deposition of false witnesses. They want to implicate Jesus. They want to charge Jesus with something. The easiest charge would be blasphemy. If they could convict Jesus of blasphemy, they would have the legal warrant for a death penalty under the law of Moses. Now, they don't have any evidence, so Matthew tells us they actually sought, you see the words, false witnesses. They looked for false witnesses. The motive of this trial was not to discover truth, but it was to condemn Jesus. Even the Roman governor Pilate recognized that. He said, I see no fault. I find no fault in this man. Now, they had several false witnesses, and it seems like no two witnesses could agree on any particular blasphemy charge, because under the Mosaic Law, you had to have two witnesses necessary to validate an incident. And this was known by the people, even though the trial was illegal, in their legalism, they had to keep some semblance of the law. So here they are, they're looking for two witnesses, and finally, two witnesses come forward, and they say, we heard this man say, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. And another guy says, yeah, I heard that too. Now, in Mark's version, Mark 14, 59, even though two witnesses remembered this, in the end, their testimony wasn't harmonious either. But it is very interesting that of all the things that Jesus said, that this stood out, this enigmatic statement, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. Jesus actually did make a statement like this, not quite exactly, but he made a statement like this three years earlier. He certainly said many things. He said other things that could have been interpreted as blasphemy against the law of the Jews, especially if they wanted to twist it. But why this statement? Why did this stand out to the witnesses? Let's turn and look at when Jesus said it. Turn to John, the Gospel of John, chapter 2. Let's look at the context of what happened, what Jesus actually did say. John, chapter 2. records the first of two occasions where Jesus cleanses the temple of the buyers and sellers and the money changers. This is around the Passover time. Remember, around the Passover time, there was a lot of activity in the temple. The money changers came in. They'd taken their cut, and they were selling these blemished offerings and animals and all these things. And this one in John 2 is at the beginning of Jesus's ministry. And then the Synoptic Gospels tell us about how it happens again at the end of Jesus's ministry. We'll look at that in a moment. But look at John 2, verse 13. The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. Same thing again would take place almost three years later, again at Passover, buying and selling and money changing going on. Passover was the annual height of thievery in the temple. And this stuck with the Jewish people, especially the religious leaders, who were very greedy. These two times of temple cleansing that occurred stirred considerable hatred for Jesus by the Jewish leaders. Mark records in Mark 11. Stay in John. We're going to continue there. But in Mark 11, verse 18, right after Jesus cleansed the temple the second time, It says this, that the scribes and chief priests heard it and saw how they might destroy him for they feared him because all the people were astonished at his doctrine. So this was the impetus for them to seek the life of Jesus. But if indeed they wanted to put Jesus to death, they couldn't charge him with this. Because they had to admit, it's undeniable, that this is a good thing that Jesus is doing. He's cleansing the temple, God's holy place, of all of this hypocrisy that's going on. He's cleansing the temple of money. Even if they're greedy, they couldn't own their greed, they were forced to admit that Jesus' driving out theft was actually a righteous act. Even if they didn't like what Jesus was doing, it certainly wasn't blasphemy. But the events nevertheless stood out, and that again became the impetus for the Jews wanting to have Jesus arrested and killed. Now look back in John, look at verse 18. So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." The unbelieving Jewish people could only understand it naturally. They could only understand it in the light of the physical, literal building. Look at verse 20. The Jews said, it's taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? But we learn from John that Jesus had another meaning in mind here. Look at verse 21. John says this, but he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. It's interesting that of all that Jesus said and did, the only one thing that two witnesses could have any semblance of agreement on at all was remembering this one statement. This one statement, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. It stuck with them three years later. Most likely this was a statement that became a topic of gossip in the Jewish community for years. You could just hear, can you believe he said that? What do you think he meant by this? Three days to build that structure? Is he threatening our temple? Yeah, I heard him say he's threatening the temple. I heard him say he was going to destroy the temple. gets passed down and passed down. But what did Jesus actually say? Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Jesus did not clarify. He did not say this is a proverbial statement, but it was. This is what is called in the Hebrew a mashal or a proverbial statement with a hidden meaning. Two people can hear the same thing as happens in our text. Two people in two kingdoms, darkness and light, hear the same statement and understand it in two opposite ways. A Mishal is like a parable. A parable is a longer story, a Mishal is a shorter proverb. In this particular Mishal, we know that Jesus is talking about his resurrection. This is a Gospel-centric Mishal. He's talking about his own body, which would be put into the grave and in three days be raised. The same mashal is going to resurface when Jesus is on the cross and they're mocking. This goes to show how it is in the mindset of people for three years. Jesus is on the cross. The criminals crucified with him mock him and say, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. Come down from the cross. This charge was even used after Jesus' death. when the accusers of Stephen claimed that Stephen taught that Jesus would destroy the temple. Well, Jesus' prophecy that the temple would be destroyed actually was fulfilled. In 70 AD, God destroyed the temple. He destroyed one temple in order to construct a different temple, a universal temple that would be under the universal priesthood of the Messiah. No longer just for one people, but for people from every tribe and tongue and nation. This Messiah would give his life to build another temple, but his life would be restored and resurrected in three days. And that's what Jesus is talking about. He's teaching about his resurrection. This temple Mashal is about his body. It's about his resurrection. But only those who have ears to hear understood it. Now look at the statement again if you're still in John. Look in John 18, 19. Exactly what did Jesus say? Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Now go back to Matthew 26 and look at verse 61 and look what the witnesses say at the trial. This is what the witnesses claim. This man said, Jesus said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. You see the change there? Jesus simply said, destroy this temple. They said, I am able to destroy the temple of God. So their testimony has Jesus actually destroying the building, the temple, which indeed would have been a blasphemous threat. But in the end, even the two witnesses couldn't agree. And that's not surprising considering it's something that happened three years earlier. In the end, They had so much. There were so many false witnesses. They had a motive. They wanted to find Jesus guilty of something, anything, but they could not. Jesus was so pure. Jesus was so innocent of any crime that even his worst enemies couldn't find a charge against him. Now up to this point in the trial, Jesus remains silent. He refuses to defend himself. Look at verse 62. The high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent. Not about you, but when I read this, my first question was, why? Why did Jesus remain silent? After all, he's defended himself in other contexts. Why does not Jesus defend himself? He's called upon to defend himself. He could easily defend himself. He could easily have said, I never said I would destroy the temple. But he didn't say that. What is the purpose of the silence here? There must have been some purpose for the silence. He could have defended himself. He had defended himself. Earlier that week, he defended himself against people with horrendous motives. He could have done the same thing, but he chooses silence here. Many explanations have been offered as to why Jesus was silenced. One commentator says that Jesus' silence is in protest against the injustice and illegal nature of the trial. Another says he didn't have to respond because the witnesses didn't agree anyway, so why just not remain silent and let the witnesses give them enough rope and they'll hang themselves, which is kind of what happened. Others see it as a clear fulfillment of Isaiah 53, verse 7, which says this, he was oppressed and afflicted and yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Another says that any defense that Jesus would offer would only work against him. It couldn't help. It was a kangaroo court. They had condemned him before he came in. Others say, well, to defend himself would be casting his pearls before swine. He was refusing to answer fool according to his folly. And I think any of these are good ideas. I think it's important that we do understand that Christ's silence is intentional. It does fulfill Isaiah 53, verse 7, as he is the lamb that is led to the slaughter who did not open his mouth, but at the same time, We can't press this silence motif too much, because Jesus is going to speak up in a little bit. So it's not like he's silent throughout the entire trial. He's silent about this specific point. It is this specific particular proverb about him destroying the temple that Jesus is silent about. Look again at verse 62. Right after the accusation comes, Caiaphas says, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? So he has the two witnesses. Here's your place to defend yourself, Jesus. What is it that you said? He's saying this, he's saying this. What exactly did you say? Caiaphas is asking Jesus to explain the mashal, explain the proverb. But it is the nature of a mashal to be a controversial truth that sifts people. That's the nature, that's the purpose of a mashal. It is to sift people from people. A mashal was an intentionally sharp or controversial truth statement that intentionally covers truth to those who don't have ears to hear while revealing truth to those that do. If you'll recall the preaching of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6, God tells him, I want you to go preach. And he says, this is your mission, Isaiah. Make the hearts of the people dull and their ears heavy. That was his commission. His commission was to go preach to harden the hearts of people. Jesus himself spoke in parables. Why does it say he spoke in parables? Because like a mashal. At the same time, He's revealing truth to those who have ears to hear and hiding truth from those who do not. See, the meaning of a Mashal is sealed. It means someone to break the seals and open the scroll. And only Christ, the Lamb, is worthy and able to do this. And Christ did open up the parables. When He was private with His disciples, He explained the parables to them. But to those who did not have ears, those unbelieving, those in darkness, the meaning was not revealed. So what's Caiaphas asking Jesus to do here? Caiaphas is asking Jesus to reveal the Mashal, but he's not doing so in a place of humility before the King of kings and Lord of lords. See, Jesus is willing to explain the Mashal to those who humbly ask him with the heart of a disciple. But here's Caiaphas in pride, in an exalted position of human Lord and Judge. And what does he do? He commands Jesus, who is rightfully His Lord and His Judge, to explain the Mashal. And you can't separate this. You can't separate the proverb that Jesus spoke from His person. Caiaphas is asking Jesus to reveal the Word without a willingness and a humility of heart for Jesus to reveal Himself. And Jesus could not do this. To do this would actually go against the very purpose for which the Mashal was said in the first place, to sift people from people. This Mashal was separating the sheep and the goats. And that night among the goats, there was Caiaphas. He could not understand it. And many in the room could not understand it. So it is every time that men want answers. Tell me what this means. When we don't understand mashals, whether they be proverbial mashals or even moments in our life, enigmatic moments in our life, which try us and test us, we shake our fists at God and say, why God did you allow this? Tell me, speak up, why is this God? And we pound our fists. Every time we want answers, but are not willing to bow to his authority. It's like being among the Sanhedrin that night, commanding him to explain the Mashal to us. But, brethren, when we are trusting Christ and bowing before His authority, humbly asking Him, what is the meaning of this mashal? What is the meaning of this that I'm going through in my life? Jesus will readily explain, and He will explain it in Gospel terms, as He does here. This is my body, dead, buried, and risen. And so the same mashal that is a stench of death causing people to shake their fists at God, those who are perishing, it becomes a sweet savor. It becomes the bread of life to those who eat and are satisfied. What about you? Is there something in your life, you're questioning, you're asking Christ about why am I in this situation, Lord? And you don't sense that He's answering you. You need to ask yourself, am I asking with the right heart? Do I just want an answer or am I willing to bow? Whatever that answer might be, am I willing to bow to Him as my King? The Gospel itself is like a mashal. It's hidden from those that are perishing. 2 Corinthians 4.3 says the Gospel is veiled to them because the God of this world has blinded them. 1 Corinthians 1.18 says the gospel is folly to them. It's folly. They're veiled. It's like saying to the world, it's like saying to them, I can rebuild this physical structure of this building in three days. To say to someone who is not regenerate, and just go up to them and say, Jesus Christ saves His people from their sins by dying and rising from the dead. and purchasing the free gift of eternal life, that's foolishness to those that are perishing. Today, if you're here, you're just visiting, and you're in your sins, and you're living in darkness, that's foolishness to you. But to we who believe, it's the power of God. It's the wisdom of God. In the very same message of the gospel, two audiences, two responses. I mean, did you ever wonder why? Think about this. What a message we have as Christians, right? This is like an unbelievably amazing, glorious truth that we see. Eternal life, you can live forever in perfect bliss, no more pain, no more tears, and it's a free gift, and it's paid for by another person who did the work for you. Finish that work. He took on flesh, did what we could not do for ourselves for us, and you say, why would anyone in their right mind reject this? I mean, it's such an unbelievable plan. Why on earth would anyone reject this gospel? And the answer is they're spiritually blind. In their blindness, they love the darkness, and they see that message as utterly foolish. because the Gospel is like a mashal. Jesus reveals its meaning to his disciples, to those who have ears to hear. So now in this early morning at Caiaphas' house, Though Jesus is at the human bar of judgment, at the same time God is judging this body of people. They think they're judging Him, meanwhile God is judging them. How so? Because Jesus is silent. He doesn't explain the Mashal. He's not explaining it to them. He's remaining in silence. And this begins, brothers and sisters, this begins a silence that God has continued among the Jewish people to this very day. Silence is a judgment from God. Remember back in the book of Amos, what was the judgment? The judgment was there would be a famine for the Word. They were no longer hearing from God. This is a judgment that's to be dreaded more than any other of His judgments, the silent judgment of God. When God's people have so grieved the Spirit that God says nothing. God did this for approximately 400 years at the end of the Old Testament, before God spoke again in the New Testament, that 400 year period, 10 generations, no record of His speaking. The silence of God is a judgment on a people, a judgment on His people in particular here. And this night in Jesus' silence, In His unwillingness to explain the Mashal, God began His judgment on the Jewish people for their rejection of His Son. Paul writes about this in Romans chapter 11. A partial hardening has come upon Israel in this age. 2 Corinthians 3.14 says there, talking about the Jewish people, their minds were hardened. For to this day, it says, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted. Because only through Christ is it taken away. He says, yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, their own scripture, they can't understand it. When Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. And we thank God that Romans 11 speaks of a day when the veil will be removed, when Messiah returns in glory and opens up the people's eyes. But for now, Caiaphas stands in as the head, and he seals the fate for his people for generations. Now, I find it interesting here that as much as Christ's silence demonstrates his passive obedience, Isaiah 53, the lamb that's led to the slaughter, he's passively being silent, but it also demonstrates an active obedience. See, Christ doesn't speak because he doesn't have to speak. He's Caiaphas's Lord. Caiaphas doesn't tell him what to do. It's Christ's will that's directing the course of this trial. And Jesus, by not speaking here, is showing that His silence rules the day. Sometimes silence speaks louder than words. Sometimes silence demonstrates authority. We always think we've got to talk, we've got to speak. No, Jesus is leading this council. The highest of all councils is in that home that night. And I'm not speaking about the Sanhedrin, and I'm not talking about Caiaphas himself, because in the council that night was the chief prophet and teacher and shepherd, the Lord and judge of the universe, Jesus Christ. And though outwardly it looked like he was being tried, he's actually the one that's trying them. So having not answered the riddle or the mashal of the temple, Jesus is now compelling them. He's pushing the trial. Probe deeper, in a sense. Get to the main issue. His silence on the temple, Mashal, now compels the next line of questioning. Here's Caiaphas. He's frustrated. He's angry. And he makes this bold move that's going to change the proceedings. In verse 63, he comes right out and he asks this direct, Jesus, swear to me. Verse 63, I adjure you, swear to me by the living God, Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God. Being that Jesus won't answer the question about the building of the temple, Caiaphas says, I'm going to go one question up, because I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Let's forget about everything else. Let's really get, swear to me to God, are you the Messiah, the Son of God or not? Jesus finally now speaks up. Caiaphas' challenge He answers Caiaphas' challenge in verse 64, and he says, you have said so. Basically an affirmation. Yes, it's true. I'm not going to swear, because I don't need to. I'm God. And if I swear to God, it's like I'm swearing to myself. Jesus lived his life in the face of God. So swearing was unnecessary to him. You have said so, affirming the truth. Those simple words have all the force of an oath, because it is God who is saying them. But he doesn't leave it there, does he? He prophesies. Look on. He says, but I tell you from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. And with these powerful words drawn from Daniel chapter 7, keep your place in Matthew, look over to Daniel 7, we'll look at it. In these powerful words, Christ passes from silence now to expression. His words are the turning point of the trial. Let's look at this prophecy in Daniel chapter 7. In a sense, Jesus is saying to the Sanhedrin there, today in your hearing, this prophecy is being fulfilled. Daniel 7, look at verses 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all peoples and nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." Hallelujah. Now we read this and our minds can immediately go to the future when in the clouds, with those words like, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the Son of Man. But notice what Jesus says back in verse 64 of Matthew 26 when He tells the Sanhedrin that night. He says, I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of Man. From now on, From now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. From now on. Ironically, this Sanhedrin body is about to condemn Jesus to death. And that's going to initiate the course of events over the next couple of days. ultimately to a few weeks later, where Jesus would ascend into heaven to be seated, where? At the right hand of the Father. And Jesus is saying here, today is the day that this is happening before your eyes. In fact, your very own sinful hands and your sinful motives are bringing about, are making it possible for me, Jesus, to very soon be given dominion and glory and a kingdom and nations and languages that will serve me and everlasting dominion that will not pass away. You think you're taking your life from me, but you're actually giving me something far greater than you can imagine. A kingdom that shall not be destroyed. And this is not just a future promise. This is something that you're going to see. I'm going to be exalted to the right hand of power and this kangaroo court is setting it into motion by what you do. Brethren, today, today, at this moment, Jesus Christ is at the right hand of power. He already has dominion and glory and a kingdom. He already has a people and nations and all languages that serve Him. We don't see it with our eyes yet. We live in this kingdom, though, by faith. One day it will be sight. And brethren, the book of Hebrews tells us, since we have received such a kingdom, a kingdom that cannot be shaken, Let us not be ungrateful people, but offer to God acceptable service and worship." Caiaphas and the judges, they understood. They understood the reference here. Jesus is not mincing words. I'm the Son of Man that's coming in the clouds. I'm the Son of Man that's going to be exalted to the right hand of the Father. He's saying very clearly, I am the Messiah, the Son of God. It's a powerful statement, and it explodes through that room that night, and it casts like a bomb that casts everyone either to the gate of hell or the gates of heaven. Caiaphas and much of the council, here they are, they face the truth. The truth is telling them the truth about himself. and how they respond is their and their nation's last chance. Face to face with the truth. Will they believe that this Yeshua, Jesus, is the Messiah, the Son of God, or not? To hear that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, will prompt one of two reactions. Faith or unbelief. Indifference is unbelief. or unbelief, most in that room with that truth bomb are going to be cast to the gate of hell. A few in that room, a remnant in that room, perhaps men like Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, would be cast to the gates of heaven. Perhaps there are even rejoicing over these powerful words inwardly. Jesus' statement draws a line that bisects the course of their life. These religious leaders had their thing, it was a good thing going, they were living a good life on it. Caiaphas is living his life in one direction, just like all of us before Christ bisected our lives. We live our life in one direction, we have our goals, we have our dreams, we have our aspirations, we have our course set in life, and Jesus comes and says, I am the Messiah, I am the Son of God, and he bisects the pathway that we have chosen for our lives, and he challenges us to go on a different road, one that we have not planned for ourselves. And this path change is called repentance. And it is a challenge to you to alter the course of your life. That which you have planned for yourself, he comes in and he says, no, I have an entirely different course for you. I tell you today, Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. Today He sits at the right hand of power. And the day is coming when He will come in the clouds and judge the living and the dead. And that includes every single one of us here. And yes, He will upset your plans. And He will upset the course of your life. How do you respond to that? Faith or unbelief? See, in reality, it's not Jesus that's on trial. It's you and I. Will you believe and follow this one who says, I am the Messiah, the Son of God, and I will upset your world? Your answer has eternal implications. What you do with Jesus, repent and believe in him and you will be saved. Refuse or ignore his call and you will perish eternally in the lake of fire with Caiaphas and many in the council chamber that morning. Well, after this lengthy investigation, played with illegalities and false witnesses, they fail to unearth any charge against him. Ironic, isn't it, that Jesus then gives his own declaration. And that declaration will give the Sanhedrin the evidence that they're seeking. So Caiaphas gets up from his chair to make a decision. And so he's going to seal the fate. Matthew 26, verse 65. And the high priest tore his robes. Maybe at that moment there's some hope. Maybe he's going to repent. Maybe he's going to tear his heart and not his garment. Tears his robes. It says, he has uttered blasphemy. What further witness do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? And they answered, he deserves death. Jesus gave them what they're looking for. They had the blasphemy charge now, and there were witnesses of it, and their indictment is death. And then in this moment of faked despair, Caiaphas tears his robes, a sign of deep grief, amplifying the emotion of the moment. I say it's fake because he hasn't rented his heart. In his heart, I'm sure he was glad. We finally got him to say something, and I did it, I got him to say that. We finally got the charge to condemn Jesus. Yet, at the same time, God's voice rises above it all, all the voices in the council that night, and God says he's guilty. He's guilty and worthy of death. Same verdict. For the Sanhedrin, it's due to blasphemy. For God, it's because Jesus has taken the blasphemy of others upon himself. So in conclusion, this drama that we've been seeing unfolding of the passion of the Christ has reached now its second act. First act, we saw these moments, these intermittent moments of rest and suffering, rest and suffering. Now in act two, one soul battle after the next. And we're going to see, they're just going to increase. Next time, it's going to be the disciples on trial. Everything that's taking place here and will take place in the next six to nine hours are leading up to Christ's death on the cross. All of it, just one painful moment after the next, just increasing the emotional pain. In the narratives of Christ's betrayal and abandonment and denial and trial and crucifixion, all throughout, Jesus is suffering great shame. Yes, there's the physical pain, but there is also the shame The shame is massive here. In Hebrews 12, it says, Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, it says He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He endured the cross. He despised the shame. And when we see in Jesus' statement to Caiaphas about being seated on the right hand of power, how Christ keeps His eyes on His exaltation, He keeps His eyes on His Father, and there's joy in this that He has. But there's these mammoth obstacles in His way, the cross and the shame. The cross stands for the pain, the abandonment, the spiritual darkness that he endured while he hung on the cross. But then there's the shame that he also despised. It says he despised the shame. But despite despising the shame, he bore that shame. And we see this shame as his friends abandon him, his reputation given way to mockery, decency to nakedness, dignity to groaning on a tree. to the point where people would say, who would follow such a shameful leader? That's part of the foolishness of the gospel, by the way. You follow a crucified leader? A guy who was found guilty? That's who your Lord is? That's part of the shame and foolishness of the gospel to the world. But here the shame is demonstrated in living color here in the conclusion of our text. Look at verse 67 and 68. Then they spit in his face, struck him. Some slapped him, saying, prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you? Here it is. The Sanhedrin has just announced the death sentence. One would imagine a verdict like that. Guilty, worthy of death. That would lead to a sobering, solemn, somber moment. They announce he's worthy of death, and immediately these old men get up and they have their fun mocking him. They mock the victim. This is not something that happened to Ted Bundy or John Wayne Gacy or Jeffrey Dahmer. They did not receive such treatment. But here, they strike Christ. They scorn Him. They spit on Him. And this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 50, verse 6, where the suffering servant says, I gave my back to those who strike, my cheek to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. They spit on him. They blindfolded him, and they mock him. They say, come on now, prophesy. Now you're blindfolded. And they strike him, and they say, who was it? Which one of us struck you? And they mock the prophetic office of Jesus, reducing it to the parlor games of some phony cheap magic act. We'll see in two sermons that the kingly office of Jesus is mocked by the Roman Gentiles when they put the robe and the crown on him. But here it's mocked first, his prophetic office is mocked in a most defying way. Think of the shame here. These are his own who he came to save. These are his people who he came, who he loved, who he pleaded for. He came to prophesy to them, and they're degrading the very office he came. Their mockery sinks to a diabolical level. They're converting the holy office of God into a joke. Defiance of these people who spit on him, degrade his prophetic office to the level of a fortune telling continues to this day, brother. Religious folks all over the world continue to mock Jesus. They would never say they are. But I read this week a seminary president. This is a president of a seminary responsible for teaching young people the gospel. how she denied the necessity of the bodily resurrection of Christ. That's a mockery. That is a mockery. Think about the rise in our culture of atheism. Foolish atheists who mock God, who say that He doesn't exist. That's a mockery of Jesus Christ. We've seen leaders in our own nation, how they have mocked Christ just this week, not even being able to use His name, Christian. the name Christian because it contains Christ. It's a mockery of Christ. We see how the world's religions say they honor Jesus Christ as a prophet, but they do not bow to Him as the Son of God. They mock Him. We see how Christian churches teach that Jesus can be Savior, but He doesn't have to be Lord. They mock Him. And brethren, yes, our voice are among the mockers as well. We mock God every time we think we can gain merit by our own good works. When we choose an external religious ritual to genuine heartfelt repentance. When we tear our garments and not our hearts. We mock God when we fake remorse like Caiaphas did. We mock Him when we mock our civil magistrates. We mock them. We mock Him when we lie, thinking that no one will see. We mock Him when we mock our wives, or our husbands, or our children, or our co-workers, or anyone who is created in the image of God. We mock Him. We mock God when we think that we will not reap what we have sown. We mock Him when we give of our service and our giving when we leave Him the leftovers instead of giving Him the first and the best. We mock Him. We mock Him when we say, I'll die for you, and then we hide the Gospel out of shame. We mock Him. But brethren, though Jesus despises the shame, He nevertheless bears the shame. He bears the shame for every mocking voice, including yours and mine. He who knew no mockery endured it for us." What a Savior. What a Savior. He's blindfolded. He's mocked. He can fix his eyes on God and he can still save people whose voices are among the ones who are spitting and scoffing him. Praise God. Praise God that our shame has been borne, brothers and sisters. If you're in Christ today, even the shame of your sin has been taken by Christ. He bore the shame of mockery. Today, we can openly confess our sins, not hide them in fear and shame. Why? Because Christ bore the shame. He removed the obstacle of shame and He gave you freedom to confess. What are you going to find to mock in Him? Mocker, what are you going to find to mock in Christ? Is He not worthy to bow down before? Amen.