Well, good morning, BCF. It's good to see you here this morning, and good to share God's Word with you. My sermon today has the title, A Tale of Two Trials, because we're going to be looking at two different trials, the trial of Peter, which he failed, and the trial of Jesus, which he gloriously passed. And we're reading from Luke chapter 23 and beginning at verse 25. Then seizing him, that is Jesus, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, this man was with him. But he denied it. Woman, I don't know him, he said. A little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them. Man, I am not, Peter replied. About an hour later, another asserted, certainly this fellow was with him, for he's a Galilean. Peter replied, Man, I don't know what you're talking about. Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly. The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating Him. They blindfolded Him and demanded, "'Prophesy! Who hit you?' And they said many other insulting things to Him." At daybreak, the Council of the Elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together and Jesus was led before them. "'If you are the Christ,' they said, "'tell us.' Jesus answered, if I tell you, you will not believe me. And if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God. They all asked, are you then the Son of God? He replied, you are right in saying I am. Then they said, why do we need any more testimony? We've heard it from his own lips. Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king. So Pilate asked Jesus, Are you king of the Jews? Yes, it is as you say, Jesus replied. Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no basis for a charge against this man. But they insisted. He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here. On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he'd been wanting to see him. For what he'd heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day, Herod and Pilate became friends. Before this, they had been enemies. Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, and said to them, you brought me this man as one who is inciting the people to rebellion. I've examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. As you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him. With one voice, they cried out, away with this man. Release Barabbas to us. Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city and for murder. Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. They kept shouting, crucify him, crucify him. For the third time he spoke to them. Why? What crime has this man committed? I found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore, I will have him punished and then release him. But with loud shouts, they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who'd been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will. Father, we thank you for this word, the word of truth, the word that reminds us of the suffering that Jesus was about to undergo, already had begun to undergo, was going to get worse. Lord, we thank you he did this for us, for our salvation, for our love. We pray, Lord, as we study your word together, that you will open our hearts anew to Christ's love for us and for the meaning of his death on the cross for us. Take my lips, I pray, and speak your truth through them. And take our hearts and open them to receive your truth. In Jesus' name. Amen. So we have two trials. First of all, Peter's trial and failure. Peter was a follower of Jesus Christ, one of the twelve disciples. And sadly, it was a trial that he failed. He failed miserably, but it's recorded in Scripture for our instruction, our learning. Before we start dumping on Peter and saying what a terrible guy he was, let's remember that he actually showed enormous courage in following Jesus. Remember when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, The disciples all forsook him and fled. All that is except Peter and also from John. We learn from John's gospel that he also followed Jesus to the high priest's house. And so Peter was only one of two disciples who stuck by Jesus. That demanded some courage because Jesus was arrested. Who knows what they're going to do to his followers? And he could be facing his own death if things didn't turn out right. So we give him good marks for that. But then he goes to... Jesus is taken to the high priest's house. It'll be a house built around a courtyard. So there'll be a gate into the house, and then a courtyard, and then the rooms around that courtyard. Jesus would have been led into one of the inner rooms around the courtyard, where he was actually interrogated by the Jewish leaders. We read that in other Gospels. interrogated there, and they already condemned him to death, illegally, but they did that in that house to begin with. But Peter, meanwhile, was in the courtyard, and he was sitting there, there was a fire, it was a cold night, he was afire, he got close to the fire to warm himself, and it was there he met his demise. Beginning with an innocent question of a servant girl, He was three times asked, in effect, you're one of Jesus' disciples, aren't you? And three times he said, no, I'm not. And after last response, just as dawn was breaking, the cock crowed and Peter remembered Jesus' warning and wept bitterly. So why did he fail? He seems an unlikely candidate for such a sad fall. He was the one, after all, who was one of the three innermost disciples. He'd seen Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He'd seen Jesus in his true glory. He'd actually walked on water, albeit kind of briefly, but never had walked on water at Jesus' command. And he, seen other miracles, he'd been the one who confessed Jesus as the Christ. God had revealed that to him. So he was, in many ways, a leader of the disciples. So why did this man fail, and what can we learn to help us from that failure? So I can think of several reasons, just list a few. He could have been relying on his previous success. We just mentioned his successes as a disciple. Maybe he was relying on those. And let's just remember that past victories in that Christian life don't guarantee future successes. It's one day at a time for all of us. Perhaps it was his self-confidence. Perhaps he was thinking back to all those things he'd done so well and became self-confident rather than Christ-confident. In the upper room, he told the other disciples, hey, I'm going to follow Jesus to death if need be. Jesus knew him better than Peter knew himself and said, oh, by the way, Peter, you're going to deny me three times with all the rooster crows. But then also there was a lack of prayer. He'd been the one, one of the three that Jesus asked to pray with him, and he hadn't been able to do it. He'd just fallen asleep. So he was suffering from a lack of prayer. He was also physically tired. He'd been up all night, and now he was, it was early morning, and he was still awake and obviously physically tired. But he also very, and perhaps most importantly, he was in the wrong place. He was, in the courtyard with the folk who'd arrested Jesus. The soldiers, the servants, the high priests, all these enemies of Jesus were surrounding him, no doubt talking about all the things that were going on. They were probably maybe hearing snippets of the conversation of Jesus being accused. But whatever, they were no doubt gossiping around, oh, he's going to get crucified, sure, yeah, they'll kill him. What about his disciples? Oh, his disciples, they're in big trouble. And he was surrounding himself with all this negative talk. And so when he was charged with being a follower of Jesus, he just lost his nerve. He thought, maybe I'm for the high jump too. I better say I don't know the guy. And so he does. Three times he denies Christ. But before we condemn Peter, let's just say to ourselves, would I ever deny Christ? Paul writes into the Corinthians and says, if you think you're standing firm, be careful you don't fall. And so that's a warning to each one of us. No matter how solid our faith is, how strong our faith is in Jesus Christ, We could all, in theory, be put in circumstances and situations we might be tempted to fall. So let's not become proud. Let's just remember we are daily dependent on Jesus for everything, for our life, for our salvation, and for our courage. But wonderfully, Peter's story doesn't end there. We don't have time to go into all the details, but I think the healing began with that look from Jesus. We read that Jesus looked him, and he looked him in the eye, I'm sure. And Peter, in that look, saw, I think, two things. I think he saw sorrow. He saw Jesus' sorrow that he had been betrayed. But I think he also saw love. In that look, I'm sure he saw and knew that Jesus loved him as he always had and always would. And Peter remembered the words that Jesus had spoken to him, prophesied precisely this, before the rooster crows today, you'll disown me three times. He went outside and wept bitterly. And these were tears, not of remorse, but of repentance. Big difference between those two words, by the way. English bishop, 19th century guy, a long time ago, J.C. Ryle, a good guy by the way, if you ever get a chance to read his stuff, it's good stuff, but he wrote this. Sorrow like this, he said, let us always remember, is an inseparable companion of true repentance. Here lies the grand distinction between repentance unto salvation and unavailing remorse. Remorse can make a man miserable, like Judas Iscariot, but it can do no more. It does not lead him to God. Repentance makes a man's heart soft and conscience tender. and shows itself in a real turning to a father in heaven. And so Judas Iscariot had remorse, but no repentance. He was like a criminal today who was arrested for shoplifting or robbery or whatever. And his sorrow, he's been caught, but he's not going to change his ways. He's going to go back to shoplifting as soon as he gets out of jail. That's remorse. Sorry you're caught, but no real repentance. Repentance is, yes, sorrow what you've done and recognizing it's wrong and confessing it to God and vowing by God's grace not to do it again. And finally, looking, we know that Jesus did restore Peter at the Sea of Galilee when he asked Peter three times if he loved him and Peter three times said, yes, I do. And Jesus gave him a commission to feed his sheep. So let's be encouraged by Jesus' love for Peter. Even though Peter failed ignominiously and shamefully, Jesus never stopped loving him. And Peter's failure was not final, therefore. By God's grace, he went on to become a key leader of the early church. So if, or maybe more likely when, we fail, Jesus will still love us as he did Peter. and he welcomes our true repentance, which leads to forgiveness. If there's anyone listening to my words here, or online, or wherever you are, who thinks that he or she has committed such a serious sin that God cannot love you anymore, let me assure you, on the basis of God's word, that God does love you. He gladly receives repentant sinners into his kingdom. But there's also a warning for us here, because it is possible to deny Jesus by our lack of words as well as our words. And so when you're in a group at school or at work or on the neighborhood, wherever you are, and a group of people get together and start bashing Christians, saying what awful people Christians are and how it's all nonsense. Are you afraid to say something? Are you willing to speak up and say, that's not true? I know that's not true. I know Jesus Christ as my savior. If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? So there's a warning to us as well, to be willing and able to speak up, not be threatened by the circumstances we're in. That's not easy. By God's grace, however, it is possible. And one little sidebar here, this whole story of Peter's denial of Jesus is another strong argument for the authenticity and reliability of the Bible. Because if you'd been writing a Bible that included Peter, who became a leader of the church, became one of the key leaders later on in the New Testament, and you wanted to make Peter look good, you wouldn't put this story in. Or if you put it in, you'd have him boldly sharing his faith in Jesus. you wouldn't put a story of Peter's failure, a key leader's failure, into this book. But the books were honest. This is what happened. In fact, Mark's gospel, which most scholars believe was written, at least in part, from Peter's knowledge, Peter's background information, Mark's gospel really makes Peter look a whole lot worse in this story than in the other gospels. Go read it. You'll see what I mean. So this is just another proof of the authenticity of God's word. But now we turn from Peter to the trial of our Lord. It's painful to read as injustice piles on injustice. We read of our Lord being shamefully abused and unjustly condemned to death. But there's some truths here for us to learn. And so we begin with Jesus' trial by the Jewish leaders. And we might note in passing, this was actually an illegal trial. There are several reasons for this. Books have been published. People listed up to, I think, 10 or 15 reasons, just a few. The initial trial around that courtyard happened at night, but in Jewish law, legal proceedings could not take place at night. Now they did sort of rubber stamp, they did meet early in the morning to rubber stamp their verdict, but the initial verdict was made at night, which was wrong. Capital offences could not be tried on a preparation day for a Sabbath or on a high holy day. Capital trials had to last more than one day to allow for great consideration on the part of the judges. But of course Jesus was condemned and then executed all within a few hours. And when the Sanhedrin went to Pilate, hoping for a death sentence to be carried out according to Roman law, they changed the charges from blasphemy to treason. Again, that's illegal under the law of Moses. But more than that, I think more important is to recognize that Jesus was in control of all these events. Jim made the same point last week in his sermon about Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. That continues to be true right here. Jesus was in control of his own trial. Like in Matthew's account, we read that the chief priests were looking for false evidence. They didn't find any and made lots of accusations. Jesus was silent. He did not respond to these false accusations. in the way he was fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy, where Isaiah in chapter 53 in verse seven says, he was expressed, oppressed, and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. So Jesus, fulfilling that prophecy, did not answer all those false accusations, but he did answer the one question he knew would bring his condemnation. Luke 22 and verse 70, they asked, Are you then the Son of God? He replied, You are right in saying I am. Then they said, Why do we need any more testimony? We've heard it from his own lips. So he confessed that he was the Son of God, which of course was true. They did not believe it. They thought it was blasphemy. They had the charge they wanted, but Jesus gave it to them. He needn't have done that, but he did. He was in control. He knew exactly what he was doing. And Jesus also knew that he was making himself liable to death on the cross. And Old Testament references speak of that. Psalm 22, for example, speaks of suffering that's only consistent with crucifixion. My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. Band of evil men has encircled me. They've pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots of my clothing." All of that came true at Christ's crucifixion. So Jesus was deliberately preparing himself for this horrible death. Why? We'll come back to that. But now look at Jesus' trial before Pilate and Herod. So Jewish leaders condemned him to death, illegally, but nevertheless they did it. So why did they then take him to Pilate? Why didn't they just go out and stone him, which was the punishment for blasphemy? I think a couple of reasons. The most important one is, according to John's Gospel, Pilate said, why don't you judge him yourself? It's your law. He's broken your law. Go and judge him. They said, but we have no right to execute anybody. So in that time in Jerusalem, in Judea, the Roman authority was the only one that had the legal power to execute, and of course they did it by crucifixion. There may have been other reasons. They were obviously hoping to nip this Jesus movement in the bud, and how better way by having the leader of the movement hung on a cross, subject to ridicule and pain and a very public death. But the other reason they went to Pilate is they had a secret weapon up their sleeves, because Pilate was actually, in some ways, in the palm of their hands. I'll tell you why. Three reasons. Number one, he was a procurator, a sort of sub-governor. He only ruled over the province of Judea, but within that province he had absolute authority. And he'd done a couple of bad things from the Jews' point of view. He'd tried to bring military standards bearing images into Jerusalem. The Jews objected to having any images in Jerusalem. And they lay around his house in Caesarea for five days before he relented and agreed to take the shield to help. So that strike won against him in the Jews' eyes. Secondly, he used temple money to build an aqueduct to Jerusalem. And the Jews objected to that. He had plainclothes soldiers infiltrate the crowd. At his signal, they got out clubs and beat many of the protesters to death. Strike two against Pilate in the eyes of the Jews. But in strike three, as he was in a weak position politically, he was most likely appointed to this procuratorship under the sponsorship of a chap called Lucius Sejanus. He was the head of the Praetorian Guard in Rome, and in AD 26, the Emperor Tiberius retired to the island of Capri. Sir Janus was basically in charge. He wasn't the emperor, but he had the emperor's authority. And he basically ruled Rome. And Tiberius retired in AD 26. Pilate was appointed AD 26 or 27. We're not quite sure which one, but most likely after Sir Janus came to power. So he was Sir Janus's puppet in a way in Jerusalem. But then in AD 31, before this trial of Jesus, So Janus was tried, arrested, and tried for treason, and executed. And so Pilate had lost his sponsor. Not only lost him, but he'd lost him. He was now being appointed by this guy who was now a no-good guy. And so he was in a weak position politically. One more strike against him, and the Jews could have had him maybe taken away, deprived his post, and so on. So he had to be very careful not to oppose and offend the Jewish leaders. So when they show up to have Pilate condemn him to death, he plays a game of pass the buck. And so the assembly rose up and led him off to Pilate. They begin to accuse him. And Pilate says, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus says, yes, as you say. again admitted his rightful place. So Pius says, that's fine, I find no basis for a charge against this man. But they insist, that is, the Jewish leaders insist, he stirs up the people all over Judea, he started in Galilee. Oh, Galilee, okay. Well, he's under Herod's jurisdiction then, because Herod was king of Galilee. And Herod's in town. OK, send her off to Herod. So Pilate sends Jesus off to Herod. Herod is delighted. He's always wanted to see Jesus. He wants to see Jesus. He wants to see Him do a miracle. So he probably has some bread and fish spread out at the table. Hey, Jesus, why don't you multiply the bread and fish? I'd like to see you do that. Or, hey, here's my swimming pool. Why don't you walk across my swimming pool? Or he asks lots of questions. Jesus gives him no answers. Pilate gets fed up. This is no good. Let's mock him. Put on a purple robe on him, beat him up, send him back to Pilate. Interestingly, Herod and Pilate became friends that day. How Jesus, even in this trial of his, was able to unite and bring peace between two enemies. So then Pilate calls the chief priest back and says, I find no fault in this guy. He's innocent. The actual words are right here. I said to them, you brought me this man as one who's inciting the people to rebellion. I've examined him in your presence, found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. As you can see, he's done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and release him. So both Pilate and Herod found nothing deserving of death in Jesus. But the Jewish leaders, bitterly opposed to him, continued to demand his death. With unvoiced, they cried out, away with this man, release Barabbas to us. Barabbas has been thrown into prison for an insurrection of the city and for murder. And John's gospel adds this threat, if you let this man go, you're no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. That was a real threat to Pilate, given his precarious position with Rome, he was really, really worried. So he had a third attempt to set Jesus free, but after we read these very sad words, but with loud shouts, they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will. So why did Jesus do all this? Why did he allow himself, the co-creator of the universe, to be abused and lied about and ultimately condemned to a cruel death? There's really only one answer, because he loved us. He loved us so much that he was willing to die for us rather than be separated from us by our sin. Paul writing to the church at Ephesus writes, I pray you, being rooted in establishing love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. One way we can grasp the height and length and high width and depth of Christ's love is to meditate on scriptures like this that describe his sufferings for us. So that's one lesson for us to just to meditate on what Christ has suffered to remind us of his love. What other lessons? Well, the danger of listening to others. The Jewish rulers were driven by jealousy, self-protection, hatred. And Pilate knew this. He knew that Jesus was innocent, but he let himself be persuaded by the loud shouts, insistent demands of the Jewish leaders. It's the same lesson from Peter in a way, we need to be careful not to listen to those around us who do not know Christ. Don't be influenced by those who don't love our Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally, we come to Barabbas. He was a murderer, the leader of an insurrection against Rome, both capital offenses, but he was a beneficiary of an amazing substitution. He woke up that morning expecting, dreading, having to endure an agonizing death on a cross. Instead, he was released, able to go back to his family, if he had one, to celebrate the Sabbath. And how did this happen? because Pilate agreed to substitute Jesus Christ for him. Instead of Barabbas dying in agony on the cross, Jesus took his place and died instead of him. And that is a perfect picture of what Christ has done for us, because all of us, like Barabbas, are under sentence of death. It's a sentence imposed not by an unjust ruler like Pilate, but by the King of kings and Lord of lords, God himself. were sentenced because of their sin, rejection of God. But those who accepted Jesus Christ as their savior have had wonderful, Barabbas-like transformation from imminent death to eternal life. As Paul writes in Ephesians, as for you, you are dead in your transgressions and sins. And then in verse four, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." And then Paul in Romans 3, we've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely through his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. So in other words, we're all Barabbas in one way. We're all justly condemned to death, but God opened our condemned cell and set us free by substituting the death of his son, Jesus, on our behalf. Jesus is our substitute. We belong on that cross, but Jesus took our place for us. So let's go forth rejoicing again in the truth that we've been set free by the death of Jesus Christ and resolve to serve him with our love and our devotion. Amen.