John 18, and let's all rise together as we read this portion of Scripture. I'd like to begin with verse 1 and then go on down through 14. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron where there was a garden which he and his disciples entered. who betrayed him also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that would come upon him, went forward and said to them, whom are you seeking? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am he. And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with Him. Now when He said to them, I am He, they drew back and fell to the ground. Then he asked them again, whom are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. Therefore, if you seek me, let these go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled, which he spoke of those whom you gave me. I have lost none. Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant. and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which my father has given me? Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him, and they led him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now, it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. And everybody said, Amen. Please be seated. Is there a value to secular history? Is there a value to know what is going on in the lives of the most powerful systems, rulers, empires of the world? If you read the histories of Josephus and the Roman historians, they pretty much miss the big event, the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A bare mention in most histories of the first century, they consider the crucifixion of Jesus the least significant fact possibly in all of history. But now, we consider it to be the most important fact in all of history, the most important event in history. So you see, the way that you see history will be set by your worldview. And most history books, I'm here to tell you, minimize the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the reign of Christ in history. They just ignore it. Practically, there's a little bit of a reference here and there to it, but it's a pretty minor detail in secular history. But for us, it is vitally important. Now, it is important for us to see the rest of history as well, because history is a backdrop in which these events took place. Now I want to give you a little historical background to help you to better understand what the word of God is conveying to us here in this scripture. So I'll spend just a little time with this this morning. One reason is because you need to know that these things happened in real time, in real history, in real life. So let me begin with some basic historical information about what is going on surrounding the death and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus. There were two magnificent temples that were built at the turn of the first century. Two amazing temples, the first of which was built by King Herod. It was a magnificent temple. And Herod was an extraordinarily powerful man. Herod was a cruel man. He killed his brother-in-law, Aristobulus, who also happened to be the high priest at the time. He had this man, Aristobulus, drowned, and then he killed his own wife and two sons. Augustus Caesar spoke of this man Herod, Augustus Caesar being one of the most powerful and most important men in all of history, certainly important in the development of the history of Rome. Augustus Caesar said of Herod, it is better to be Herod's dog than to be one of his sons. This is Herod, and Herod built this incredibly magnificent building for the Jews. It was the second temple of the Jews, and it was an incredible structure. Herod began to build the temple in 18 BC and finished it, just about finished it, 46 years later when Jesus was 27 years old. Just about three years before Jesus presented himself as the other temple. See, there were two temples that appeared at the same time, both the most magnificent temples in the history of mankind. Herod's temple and Jesus. Jesus established his own temple in his own body. In fact, at one point he said, destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up again, or it will be built up again. So Jesus's body is indeed the temple. And Jesus's body is the more impressive temple, though largely missed, sadly, by even Christians or even those who profess to be believers in the first century. It would have been an overwhelming sight to see Harrods Temple in that first century B.C. It is considered one of the, if not the most important, significant, and the greatest architectural accomplishment in the first century B.C. Some of the stones weighed well over 100 tons. The largest stone in Harrods Temple measured 45 feet by 11 feet by 17 feet and weighed approximately 600 tons. King Herod used architects from Greek, from the Greeks, from the Romans, and from the Egyptians to work out the construction. Let me just describe the Western Wall of this great temple. The Western Wall, or sometimes called the Wailing Wall, is part of a 500 meter long retaining wall that was designed to hold a huge man-made platform that could accommodate 24 football fields. When it was completed, It was the world's largest functioning religious site, and until today, this area, this platform remains the largest man-made platform in the world. The temple was constructed to accommodate six to seven million Jews that would gather on the feast days. So it was big because the Jews took their religion seriously. Now the outbuildings of this temple were finally completed in AD 62. Now you know what happened eight years later, don't you? The greatest temple built to that point in all of human history came down eight years later because God took it down. God destroyed this temple. It was a monstrosity. God had something different in mind for a temple, and it wasn't Herod's temple. Now, you need to understand the way that man thinks. I think we all think this way. We tend to be amazed by bigness. That is, you know, large buildings and big empires and powerful men. And these were the days of big buildings. This was when Rome was achieving its very tip-top heights in terms of its power. Big politics, big buildings, and big power centers made up this period of time in Roman history. The second thing you need to understand also is that this temple was built by public monies. And what the government funds, the government controls. We say this often, don't we? We know that if the government begins to fund anything relating to the church, or the government funds your children's raising, or children's education, or your children's food, or whatever it is, or children's medicine, then eventually they're gonna dictate immunizations and all the rest. So what the government funds, the government controls, and that certainly was the case with that temple in the first century. The Romans took control. of the Jewish government in 6 AD. That is, Herod the Great was largely self-ruling the area of Judea for the period of time that he was in charge. But in 6 AD, Quirinius, the governor up in Syria, deposed the governor of Judea, and that was Herod's son, And Quirinius appointed Annas as high priest of the Jewish worship at the temple in Jerusalem at that time. So you need to understand that the government came down hard on the temple worship and wanted to control the priest appointment and control the politics of what was going on in Judea, in Jerusalem, at the temple at that time. And they had a right to it. because the Jews were subservient to the Romans, and on top of that, the temple had been built by public monies. So Annas was appointed as high priest of the official church in 6 AD, and he lasted until about 15 AD. Annas was a Sadducee. of the most liberal, the most unbelieving party, the most influenced by Greek philosophy, and that's why the Pharisees didn't like the Sadducees very much. You see, it's like appointing a Democrat to head up the Anglican church in England or the Baptist church in America. That would have been somewhat galling for the Pharisees. That is the more conservative class in the Baptist churches or the Anglican churches in America or in England. So Annas was a Sadducee, and of course that isn't much of a surprise, is it, that the Roman powers should appoint somebody like Annas, somebody that liberal as a Sadducee to head up the religious cult or the religious faith in Jerusalem at that time. In fact, just last year, some of you may know, that the Vatican approved of the Communist Party appointing bishops as heading the Catholic Church in China. This happened just last August. This is remarkable. It's the first time, as far as we know, that that's happened in China. But it shouldn't be surprising who the Communist Party will appoint to head up the Catholic Church in China, given that they have the power to do so at this point, as provided by the Vatican. So, effectively, this would be like this Three-Self Church in China that is largely regulated and controlled by the Communist Party and has been for, what, 40 or 50 years. It's not like the house church movement. This would be more like the Three-Self Church movement in China. Who is this Annas? Let's talk about Annas for a moment, because remember, Annas is the one who's calling the shots, and Jesus appears first before Annas in his trials. Who is this Annas? As I was considering Annas, I thought maybe the best way to describe Annas and his ilk would be maybe like a pit of vipers. Or maybe a brood of vipers. Anybody recognize that term at all? In other words, as you read about him, you consider this and you think, wow, Annas is perhaps one of the worst men, worst leaders of a church who ever lived. Annas had five sons, he had many grandsons as well. And between AD 15 and AD 70, almost all of the high priests were sons and grandsons of Annas. Now, there are two things that characterize the house of Annas probably better than anything else, and that would have been money and politics. When Jesus drove out the money changers in Matthew chapter 21, the sons of Annas were apparently among them, or at least considered beneficiaries of the business that was going on in the temple at that time. In the Talmud, and I checked this out, you can read the Talmud, it's all online right now, if you'd like to research Annas and learn something about Annas, the Talmud describes Annas and his dynasty as great hoarders of money. In fact, you'll also find out that these first century priests of the house of Annas would beat people with rods. in order that they would receive more money from the hides of sheep and goats. So if somebody was not giving them enough of the sheep and goat hides, they would beat them with rods in order to gain more increase from the people. They were certainly the leaders of the scribes. They were the pinnacle of religious leadership in Jerusalem. And well did Jesus say in Matthew 23, 14, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore, you will receive greater condemnation. Now, as it turns out, three years ago, archaeologists found the house of Annas. So this is a pretty new discovery, and I think it's interesting to understand what sort of a man he was. They discovered in this house of Annas luxuries that they had only seen in the house of Herod, like murex dyes, royal bathtubs, and so forth. He was living high off the hog, and it was only Annas and Herod that were the most rich, the most powerful, and the most politically connected people in Judea at that time. So their wealth and their power was very important to them, and it was very important to them that they keep the Romans happy. They were the political sycophants of the day, and they knew very well the side on which their bread was buttered. So that's really the point that needs to be made, is this is a time of high politics. And if anybody knows what politics is like in the business world, or in politics proper, or even in the church, where you begin to develop these large denominations, and there's a lot of moving around, there's a little bit of jostling for position and so forth, you know that people tend to fight out ferociously for their piece of the cake when it comes to the power and the money in the corporate world or anywhere else. And that's the kind of environment that existed here in Jerusalem at that time. Annas and his son-in-law Caiaphas were the men who ordered the arrest of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Messiah of Israel. So why do we go through all of this? Well, that's because we're dealing with real history. This really happens. This happened some 2,000 years ago. Let me ask you this, children. Was Trump elected in 2016? Was Donald Trump elected as President of the United States in 2016? Yes, he was. Were you alive at that time? Now, if you're over two years of age, you would say, yes, I was alive at that time. Now, let me ask you this. Do you exist, children? Yes, you do. You are real. You are a real person, and you existed during a significant political event in the history of the United States, and that was the election of Trump as president. Well, the same thing applies to the time of Jesus. Was Jesus real? Absolutely. Did Jesus, was he born in the time of the reign of Quirinius, who was governor at Syria at the time? Yes, he was. Was Quirinius real? Is Pilate real? Was Annas real? Was Caiaphas real? Yes, they were all real. These things really happened. Jesus was really alive at that time because this was real history. And that's why it's important for us to go over these facts. The last 20 years, or the last 100 years, it's amazing. We've had so much more vindication of scriptural truths, such as the discovery of the house of Annas, and other discoveries done by pagan archeologists. And yet, for the most part, it seems that people are increasingly doubting the evidence of scripture, and yet we have so many confirmations about the truth of these historical events. Well, what has happened here is the Son of God came to Earth. The apostates of the first century Jewish church, the Sadducees, put him to death. The Pharisees were on board with it as well, but it was the Sadducees that were calling the shots at the time. The apostates of the first century Jewish church killed Jesus. Then they built a temple as well. It was a glorious, impressive, man-constructed, tax-funded system. And they were very offended in Acts chapter 7. Remember, Stephen was preaching to the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious rulers of the time, and he reminded them that the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands. And that was really particularly irritating to those that were listening at the time. The Sadducees, the rulers of the Jews also were not happy about the condemnation that Jesus brought to their hypocrisies, to their religious exercises, to their temple, to the superficialities of their religious life. This is what Jesus brought out. He poked at them. He pointed out that they were just a shell and they didn't really represent the truths of God's laws. They didn't represent the core righteousness that God demands of us. Rather, he just kept on pointing out that they really lived that superficial sort of life in which their religion was of no value whatsoever. And this sort of thing is offensive to people. And it certainly was offensive to them. And that's one of the reasons why they led him to trial and then eventually to his death. So Jesus, again, rose from the dead three days later, and His temple replaced their temple. So that's what happened in history. Now, one more fact about Annas before we get into our text this morning, and that is that Annas was deposed after about nine years. He was deposed in A.D. 15. He was actually a high priest for longer than most, so he had a pretty long stint as high priest for the Jews, but he was deposed in AD 15 by the procurator Gratis, who served as procurator in Jerusalem and Judea before Pilate took over later on. So the procurator Gratis yanked Annas from his position in AD 15, and I think you need to know why The procurator did that to Annas. It was because Annas had a bad habit. And what was his bad habit according to ancient Roman history? Annas' bad habit was imposing and executing capital sentences which had been forbidden by the imperial government. What does that mean? That means that Annas as the high priest, Annas as say the elder of the church, as in the position that I am in or Todd is in in this church, they wanted to lean in and to execute those who they wanted to execute. So whether it be this person who had violated this law, or this person who had violated this law over here, or those who they had perceived to have violated some law, whether it be their own law or God's law, I don't think it really mattered for Annas. But he got a little too carried away with his execution of the prisoners, without the permission of the Romans. And that's why he lost his position in A.D. 15. Now, does that show up at all in the trials that we're about to study? Yes, it seems that they're rather eager to see somebody executed. Do you remember that there seemed to be a commitment on the part of many of those who are standing around to crucify Jesus? Do you remember that? Do you remember the cries, crucify him, crucify him, that went up? Well, again, this is an indication that Annas and KFS and the Jewish leaders were very committed to this role of executing people and had been all the way back from AD 15 to the present day or to the day at which Jesus was arrested. Historians have noted that every horrible persecution against Christians in Judea occurred during the high priesthood of the House of Annas. The House of Annas was in place 37 years out of the 65 years from AD 6 to AD 70. So over that period of 64 years, the House of Annas had the priesthood, the high priesthood, 36 years out of that, which was a little bit more than half of those years. And all of the persecutions recorded in the book of Acts and in church history that occurred in Jerusalem, occurred under the influence of Annas and his sons and grandsons. In A.D. 33, Annas Senior presided over the crucifixion of Jesus. In A.D. 33, Caiaphas, his son-in-law, presided over the first trial of the apostles. In A.D. 34, Caiaphas presided over the second trial of the apostles. In A.D. 36 and 37, Jonathan, the son of Annas, presided over the murder of Stephen. You remember that happened in Acts chapter 7. And then in A.D. 43, Matthias, also the son of Annas, presided over the murder of James, the apostle. And then in A.D. 62, Ananos, the younger, the son of Annas, presided over the murder of James, the pastor of the church of Jerusalem. So in every case where we have some record of a persecution that was put up against God's people in the book of Acts, it came at the hands of these very wicked men, Annas, his sons, and his grandsons. All right, so that's the background for this passage, and I hope this illuminates it somewhat. Do you better understand it now? Do you understand John 18 verses 12 through 14? Let me read that to you one more time, because I think this will help. Now, in this church, We do not have captains. We don't have police officers. We don't have an arresting corps that we send out to arrest you if you have not kept a certain law right, or we have some concern that you may have broken a moral law or a civil law of some sort. We don't have a police force. Does it surprise you in verse 12 that there are captains and officers of Jews out arresting people? Does that surprise you at all? Does it surprise you that this was just something that Addis and KFS did routinely? that they had done since roughly AD 15. They had been doing this for several decades, at least. And this is why Annas tended to get into trouble, because he was over-anxious. And once he was able to get a trial in the Sanhedrin to convict a prisoner, he would like to rush them off to the heel of execution as quickly as possible without gaining the approval stamp of the Roman authorities. And that's why Annas lost his position some 16 years earlier. So John 18 and verse 12, again we see this, that the detachment of troops and the captain in the offices of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him and they led him away to Annas first for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was the high priest that year. Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. So let's take a look at this prophecy that Caiaphas provides and he We first see it in John chapter 11, so if you back up to John 11 verses 49 through 52, you'll find where that comes from. It's referenced tacitly there in verse 14, but it really is first mentioned in John 11, 49 through 52. So let me read that so you have a little bit more of a fuller idea of what Caiaphas said. John 11, 49, and one of them, Caiaphas, being the high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish. Now this he did not say on his own authority, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God, who were scattered about. Amen. Well, here's Caiaphas rendering a prophecy. First and foremost, remember that no matter how evil this man was, he was still the only high priest for the Jewish Old Testament system at that time. So God still considered him to be a high priest for God's people at that time. Nevertheless, you understand how evil this man was. Caiaphas, as well as Annas, His father-in-law. But as we read this prophecy, please understand that this whole sequence of events is ordered by God. See, this is God's sovereign control over all of the details of what is going on here. Nothing is out of God's purpose. Nothing is out of God's plan. God is using Caiaphas to prophesy the meaning of Christ's death. God is in sovereign control of all of this. And no matter how powerful, and no matter how rich, and no matter how controlling Caiaphas is, or appears to be at this time, God is still in control. Caiaphas is playing apart in God's plan, God's purpose that is working its way out. You know, figure all these actions and reactions and cause and effects that are going on in all the world today. We talked about this a couple of days ago, how there are at one point billions if not quadrillions of actions and reactions going on at the same time. God is in control of all of this. God is using all of these elements to bring about His plan and His purpose in history. Nothing is out of God's control. And it may appear to the disciples that these powerful influences from Rome and Judea and elsewhere are controlling all of these different aspects, but really God is there bringing about His perfect purpose and His perfect plan. in the life of Caiaphas, and God establishes, ordains a prophecy for this man, Caiaphas, and even though he is an outstanding religious hypocrite, and there are many religious hypocrites among church leaders, but God still uses them, and He'll use them to speak the truth at times. He uses them as He used Balaam, or remember Balaam's donkey. You wouldn't think that the donkey would be able to give any kind of a truth or communicate any kind of truth, but God will use everything and all things for his own purposes. So let's be convinced of that first. Let's rest in that fact first before we go forward. Now I wanna close the sermon this morning with just a brief comparison. The comparison is this, concerning the prophecy that Caiaphas brought out before the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas thought he was prophesying. And Caiaphas thought he was prophesying something, but it turns out he was prophesying something else. So let's contrast this. Let's contrast what he thought he was saying to what he was really saying. And we pull this from John 11 in our text here in John 18 this morning. When Jesus entered into the city, Do you remember I read from that this morning? He came in on a donkey's colt, and everybody was singing Hosanna, Hosanna to God in the highest. And the word Hosanna means what? Do you know what it means? Do you know what Hosanna means? Hosanna means Save us, oh God! Save us, please, oh, save us, God! We pray that you would save us. It's an emotional and a passionate cry to God for salvation. It's effectively what our brother Josh brought out from Psalm 121 this morning. And so this is the cry of God's people. This was the cry of God's people at that time. But the Jews wanted a Savior, and everybody wants a Savior. But the problem is they don't know what they want to be saved from. They may want to be saved from their political problems, or their emotional problems, or their financial problems. So that seems to be the thing that's on the minds of most people. And Caiaphas had the problem wrong. The house of Annas, their number one concern was what? To maintain their position. To keep the Romans happy. With the hope that the Jewish nation would survive. That was the thing that they wanted. So Caiaphas' prophecy had to do with sending one man out to die in order to keep the Romans happy with the hope that the Jewish nation would survive. The only problem is this. Israel's problem is not with Rome. Israel's problem was with God. And of course, that's the way it is with us too, isn't it? Israel always had this problem of trusting the latest political power, the most powerful state. They wanted to trust in Egypt to help them with the Assyrians and the Babylonians. We find that in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Back in Isaiah 31, take a look at verses 1 through 3. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord. Now the Egyptians are men, not God. Their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the Lord stretches out His hand, both he who helps will fall, and he who is helped will fall down, and they all will perish together. See, this is the tendency of man. Man looks at the problem as basically a problem with himself. And then he looks to man for salvation. And God is ignored. God is ignored. You know, the great irony about this is that Israel had been delivered from Egypt 800 years earlier. And now, With Isaiah, and the northern tribes, and Judah, the southern tribes, trying to escape the power of Babylon, where are they going for salvation? To Egypt! Remember, Keith Green had this song, So You Want to Go Back to Egypt, for the leaks. They wanted to go back to Egypt for salvation. What a tremendous irony, what a sick, sick irony. Doesn't this just horrify you? They were saved from Egypt. Now they're going back to Egypt for their salvation. It's outrageous. But what is the problem here? They didn't trust God to save them. Man looms, man is big, man's the problem, man's the solution. This is the carnal mind. This is where the carnal mind wants to go. Israel is thinking Babylon's the problem and Egypt is the solution. What's the problem here? Babylon is not the problem and Egypt is not the solution. That's the issue. Now, some of you may be thinking, well, at least this doesn't apply to us. But friends, where do men turn instinctively for their salvation? When they face their problems, when they face their troubles. Man is always moving towards his emotional crutches. Of course, we live in an age where man is using drugs and music and food and alcohol and entertainment far more than any other culture or any other time in all of human history. Americans are relying on worldly psychology to prop them up. It's just sick what is going on around us. But here's the question. When push comes to shove in your life, when your back is against the wall, And you're facing the gigantic trial of your life. And you're encountering this incredibly weighty and difficult emotional depression in your life. You're confronted with a question, and that is this, is God big enough for this? That's the question we're all going to be facing in God's providence. We all face significant trials. God will bring you the trial of your life. He will put you into the valley of humiliation. He'll put you into a time of testing and trial. He will push you to your very limits, and you will feel the guilt. You'll feel the doubt, the depression, and everything else. At that moment, here's the question, is God big enough for this? Do I believe in the promises of God? Who is your savior, really? There will come a time at which you just simply cannot rely on the emotional boost you get from your music. And there will be a time at which you cannot rely on the emotional boost you might get from a sermon, or from a sequence of songs you get, that used to make you feel a certain way, because that's the way our society is. But there's a point at which you're gonna have to shove all of the music aside, all of your emotional props aside, and ask the question, do I believe in Jesus? Do I believe in the Savior? Do I really have faith that God can save me from my sins and from all of this? Do I believe this? And fakey, emotional, American, evangelical Christianity is going to have to come face to face with this question. Do I believe these lyrics in this song? I'm done feeling the lyrics, it's time to believe the lyrics. So we come face to face with the question, do I believe in God? Or I'm gonna run down to Egypt again and again and again for another pseudo salvation. We must come to the point, brothers and sisters, where we say, I cannot go anywhere else. I cannot seek anything else. I cannot look anywhere else but to God. And I believe When I'm counseling my brothers and sisters, and I'm going through these trials, and God is ratcheting it up, and ratcheting it up, and ratcheting it up, and ratcheting it up, and it seems like it's just crazy hard and crazy difficult, there's one question God is asking, are you going to look to me? Am I your Savior, or are you going to look somewhere else? The problem with Caiaphas and the problem with the Jews at that time, the problem they had for a thousand years, is they didn't consider God. Behold your God. He's coming to save you. He's rending the heavens. He's coming down to bring about a radical salvation. Are you going to look to Him? Are you going to look to God in this? The omnipotent, sovereign, merciful, covenant-keeping God, the creator of heaven and earth, a God who has proven himself before and will continue to prove himself all the way to the end of this world. God was a non-factor for Caiaphas. He severely underestimated the problem with himself and the Jews and everybody else. Okay, so that's Caiaphas' problem. He's looking to the Romans to satisfy the Romans, keep the Romans happy, throw a man into the fire, maybe that'll keep the Romans happy temporarily. But here's the problem. And here's what Caiaphas was really prophesying. The Jews' problem was not with the Romans. Their problem was with God. And that didn't even occur to Caiaphas. He didn't see it. He couldn't understand it, didn't realize it. He says one man must die. But why? To keep the Romans happy? Or to meet the wrath of God upon us for our sins? To temporarily pacify the Romans? Or to permanently quell the wrath of God? from an infinitely just and holy God against us. You see, it was a bigger deal than Kenneth thought it was. Our problem is with God. Because our sin is against God. I wanna take a moment and I wanna address this issue of suicide. The increase of suicide here in America and also suicides prevalent in Japan, where I grew up, is a shocking, horrible thing. And oftentimes, it's connected to the issue of shame. See, some cultures are shame cultures. Some cultures are very affected by bullying. 13-year-old girls in American junior highs, they're affected by shame. They're called shame cultures. But I want to contrast shame and guilt. Shame is concerned with men. Guilt is concerned with God. Some cultures, some folks are filled with shame and controlled by shame because they're always concerned with what society thinks of them. Society is their God, or they themselves are their God because they don't want anybody thinking badly of them. and they're very full of shame when people turn against them, and their lives become so miserable, and the weight becomes so heavy, some people commit suicide because they cannot handle the shame that weighs them down. But here's the problem, friends, that shame is a heavy weight, but it's only a heavy weight that's pressed upon them by themselves and by others. It is only concerned with men, ourselves and others in the horizontal. But let me say this, to be shamed like this is an insult to God. to be weighed down by a shame in relation to what other people are saying or thinking about you is an insult to God? It is a matter of ignoring God and considering God a non-issue of no concern whatsoever. And that's utterly reprehensible. The problem with shame is that ignores God. It locks God out of the picture. It takes him clean out. It says, God, you're not an issue. All I care about is what other people think about me. All I care about is what the society thinks about me. All I care about is what I think about me. But David says, uh-uh, no, no, I don't even care what Bathsheba thinks about me. I don't care what Uriah the Hittite and all his family members think about me. I don't care about what anybody thinks about me right now. God, against you and against you only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. In other words, yes, it's true that David offended Bathsheba. Yes, he offended Uriah the Hittite. Yes, he offended others. But he says, at this moment, I am so alone on the stage of all of human existence that I have only one to consider, and that is God. I have sinned against God, and that is a million times more severe, and the weight is a billion times heavier upon me than what the rest of society thinks, or even the people that I've molested, the people I've murdered. If we have a problem, our problem is with God. This is the problem with shame cultures. They need to come to the realization it's not about all these other people. It's not about the God-like society that controls me. No, no, no, no. What matters is God. What matters is what God thinks. What matters is my offense against God, not my offense against everybody else. That's not the central issue. The central issue is how I've sinned against the true and living God, the thrice holy God, the absolute righteous and just and holy God, who is 10 billion times more righteous and just and holy than Uriah the Hittite and Bathsheba's wife and all the others. God, the essence of holiness. He's the one that we've offended. So now one man has to die. And he has to die. He really has to die. He really has to die. Caiaphas could not have imagined the criticality of this man having to die. He really, really, really has to die, more so than Campas was thinking concerning pacifying the Romans for the next two years. No, no, no. There is only one solution to this problem of terrible guilt, this terrible sin. One man has to die to keep God happy, not to keep the Romans happy. The apostles explain the effect of Christ's death, which John Owen refers to as the death of death, the death of Christ. Jesus became an atoning sacrifice on the cross to satisfy God's justice and to reconcile us to God. Listen to Colossians 1 verse 19. It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. This is God. This is the Son of God. This is the eternally begotten Son of God. This is the creator of heaven and earth. Without him was not anything made that was made. The creator of the galaxies. The one who existed before all existence here on this earth. It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness, the fullness of what? The fullness of His own Godhead should dwell. All of the fullness of God's Godhead dwelling in Jesus and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 1 Peter 2 and verse 24, And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross. so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds you were healed. And then 1 Peter 3.18, for Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God. What is this saying? What is it telling us? This is not just some raggedy carpenter from Nazareth. satisfying the Roman power. No, this is the just one suffering for the unjust. This is the son of the father reconciling all things to himself, making peace with God. That's what reconciliation means. It means that we had a serious problem. We had a relational breakdown, not between each other, but between ourselves and God. And Jesus came to solve this cosmic relational issue. That's 10 billion times more severe than a man who is in bad relationship with his own wife. This one was busted. This relationship was in terrible shape. But Jesus came to reconcile it all to Himself, to make peace with God, to solve this cosmic problem that has disrupted the earth and brought God's judgment upon the whole earth. Isaiah 53 speaks to this. Isaiah 53 speaks of the father's perspective here. If you look at verses 9, 10, and 11, it was the father's will to bring this about. This wasn't Caiaphas's idea. This was the father's idea. This was the father's purpose. He looked upon the travail of his son's soul, and he was satisfied. He saw the suffering, not just of the body of His Son, but the soul of His Son suffering, travailing, bearing the weight, feeling the pain, not just the physical pain, the emotional and the spiritual pain, the soul pain of our Savior Jesus. I could never describe it. How could we ever describe it? None of us have ever been to hell before. How could we ever describe the sole pain of our Lord on the cross? Jesus suffering, feeling it. I'm trying to present this to you so that you'll love our Savior just a little bit more this morning. Do you? Do you love our Savior? Do you love Him because He loved you first and suffered so? The Father saw His Son in travail. He saw His Son in the worst moment, in the hardest moment of His existence and said, I'm satisfied. The justice is met. My wrath has been quenched. I've been reconciled through Jesus to these sinners. It was the Father's will. that his sons suffer in this way. Some of you may say, this is more than I can take. I can't face this. But I encourage you just for a moment to consider that God is just, God is holy, much more so than any of us. We all have a sense of justice, but God more so. And God just cannot forgive your sin. He can't just let it go, and that's why you feel all the guilt and the shame. That's why all of us do. That's why all the drugs, that's why all the escapism in the world, that's why all of these things that are just ways in which we sort of make it work, we band-aid it, just to try to get through so we don't have to commit suicide right away, we can put off the suicide another 10 years perhaps. See, man deals with all of this guilt and this shame upon himself. And that's because man knows that we've offended not just a human, but God's. This is it. This is the justice of God we have violated. And so the Son of God had to step in our place and receive this punishment upon Himself. And He becomes the atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins. And then Isaiah 53 in verse 10 is probably the most awe-inspiring words in all of Scripture. They're hard for us to comprehend. We're not going to really get to the core of it, but it does say, it pleased the Lord. The word is kapetz. In the Hebrew, it doesn't mean willed. The ESV tries to soften it by changing it to willed. It's not willed. There's absolutely no translation anywhere that would provide the word will for that word kapats. No, it's not the Father willed. It's not a mere will. It's not the mere purpose of the Father. This is pleased. This is pleased. It pleased the Father. He looked on His Son's sacrifice and He was pleased with the sacrifice of His Son. It pleased the Lord to crush him. Why? Why would it please the father who loved his son? This isn't a father who doesn't love his son. It's a father who loved his son still. It pleased him to crush his son. that He would be an offering for sin in order that His righteous servant would justify many. See, it was God's purpose. He saw the greater good in it. The Son agreed to it. It was a pleased on both sides of this. But the Father saw that there was a need to crush the Son, His only begotten Son, in order that we would not be crushed. In order that we would be received and forgiven, cleansed, sanctified, glorified, and most importantly, made part of His body. So all the shame and the guilt that tortures billions of people That 100 billion tons of weight that presses down on not just you but billions of others around the world and causes them to run to drugs and to 60 years of psychotherapy and to suicide and all the rest, taken care of by the Son of God on the cross. One man had to die. One man had to die. The most painful part of the suffering of Christ was not the physical torture of the Romans, it was the spiritual, it was the relational. Causing the Son of God to cry out those words, Eli, Eli, la max bactani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The relationship that he had from all eternity. For a moment, the father turns his head. For a moment, he suffers the wrath of his father. For a moment, he receives this soul torture upon himself, fully realizing the pain of the separation. Jesus took every ounce of rejection and guilt and shame upon himself so that we would never again need to see the back of the head of God. But we would see his head, his face turned towards us. Say, these are my children. These are my children. Well, let me close with another significant transcendence of Caiaphas' expectations back up to John 11, 52. Just very briefly, there's more good news here. It turns out the sacrifice would do more than temporarily relieve a little political pressure in Jerusalem. I already said it. It was a permanent effect in that God is related to us. God is reconciled to us perfectly forever and ever. That is, God is always happy with us forever and ever. Amen. But also John 11, 52. Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus must die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that he would gather together in one the children of God who are scattered abroad. Hallelujah. Praise be to Jesus. The scope of his sacrifice wouldn't just be the Jewish nation. And the plan all the way from the beginning was that every nation would be blessed in Abraham. Indeed, every nation is blessed in the seed singular of Abraham, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So that at the end, we're singing one important song. There will be one song that we will know how to sing together, because we've all been redeemed by the same God, redeemed by the same blood of Jesus Christ. Revelation 5 and verse 9, they sang a new song saying, You are worthy, you are worthy to Jesus. You are worthy to take the scroll and to open the seals thereof, for you were slain, one man slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. That will be the song we'll sing into eternity, and we'll continue singing it, and continue singing it, because we will be unified around this one thing, that we were sinners, but one man died for us, that we will be redeemed to God by his blood. Hallelujah. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Father in heaven, oh God, we praise you. We thank you, oh God, for this great one who had to die, and the necessity of that death established, O God, by your decree, established by your purposeful, loving election for us. Father, that you loved us from all eternity, and you knew that your Son would have to sacrifice from all eternity because this is a great exercise of your eternal love for us. Father, we delight in this one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our sin, who bore the curse upon His own back, who carried that weight up into Calvary and felt the weight, the spiritual weight, the soul weight, the physical torture and all of it upon Himself because of His love, because His love for us. Father, we praise you. We stand with those that have already ascended into heaven and those that are still around the world today from every tribe and nation, and we say with these men and women and children, you were slain and you have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And we say hallelujah. Praise be to Jesus. Praise be to the name of the Lamb this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. We come to the Lord's table now and we have a little bit on how we practice the Lord's table at the church here. It's at the back of the bulletin. We ask the visitors to take a peek at that before you partake with us this morning. I'd like to draw from Matthew 23, 37. As we come to the table today, Jesus at the end of his condemnation of the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Jews, Verse 37 of Matthew 23, Jesus says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate, for I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. I know that's a little bit of an odd passage for the Lord's Supper, but I want you to focus in on the heart of Jesus here. It has a similarity to the prophecy of Caiaphas, where Caiaphas reveals the purpose of Jesus's death. In John 11, remember what he said. Remember what Jesus said about this, that he would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. That was what Jesus was going to do by his death. One man would die in order that he would gather together in one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So this is the heart of Jesus. This is what Jesus wants. This is his desire. It's a gathering. like a hen gathers her chicks. He has this instinct in him. Jesus has a hen instinct. He wants to bring all the chicks together under his wings. See, this is what Jesus wants, more than anything. He wants this unity. It's similar to what he prayed for in John 17, isn't it? But this is the end goal. How is Jesus going to gather the unity of the body in a disunified world? There's so much disunity in our world. There's so much disunity between Reformed denominations. We hardly talk to our Reformed brothers 20 miles down the road from here. They turn their backs on us, sometimes we turn our backs on them as well. This is a shameful thing. This is utterly repulsive. Utterly repulsive. Any kind of disunity amongst the evangelical churches should be utterly rejected out of hand, completely. It is not Jesus. If there's any turning our backs on one another in the Reformed denominations, in our evangelical denominations, it is sickening. We absolutely must repudiate all in any of that. All of it. Because it's not Christ. Christ brings us all together under his wings. This is the heart of Jesus. Do you feel it? Do you say amen to it? Do you agree with it? Absolutely. We must say amen to this bringing the body together because He reconciles all together in His wounded body. That's how He does it. It's by the cutting in His flesh. It would be impossible to reconcile the Reformed denominations had it not been for the body of Jesus cut sliced and diced on the cross. This is how He brings us together under His wings. One man must die. One man must bleed. One man must be cut. In order that we all come together, brothers. In order that we come together under the wings of Jesus. He died to bring this about. Praise the Lord. Amen. It's beautiful. There was a thousand years of diaspora, division between the North and the South kingdoms, the exiles, the obliteration of the northern tribes, you know, all of that. It was a thousand years of all of that. Jesus says, in my body, as one man dies, I bring it all together under my feathers, under my wings. Jesus wasn't just out to keep Rome happy. Rome was coming down by division, but Jesus was building a church in his own body that the world does not understand. But it is a oneness that is experienced in this church and in our churches by our fraternal relations with each other, by our sharing of this table with ourselves and other evangelicals. We experienced this oneness that Rome could not sustain, but Jesus can. He really can by his own wounded body. So the world is filled with fragmentation, constant divisions and schisms caused by sin and pride and competitions and envy and unforgiveness that just divides and divides and divides the world to the infinite degree, but not the body of Christ. His wounded body gathers us all together in one and cleanses us with His blood. Amen. Father, today we draw in to the wounded body of Jesus. We all are on our knees, weeping over His feet. receiving His blood to wash us clean. Nobody's better than anybody else here. There's no division. There's no pride. There's just humbly coming to the table and receiving the blood of Jesus in a spiritual way. Father, We pray for each person taking the bread and taking this wine, this juice, that they would receive it in faith and saying, I need this broken body. I need this washing of the blood. I need it for my life, for my cleansing, for my forgiveness. Father, that all of us should come together in one under the wings and receive of the body and the blood of Jesus, administered by the Holy Spirit of God. Oh, Holy Spirit, open our hearts to this. Give us the faith, oh, that we would reach out in faith and connect with the body of Jesus and see this unity that Jesus had envisioned. And oh, Holy Spirit of God, fulfill the desire of the Son today at this table. all gathered together as one, in Jesus. Amen.