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I'd like to begin this morning
where we've begun the last two Sundays. Romans 6, verse 23. For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. As you think about that free
gift, for you, salvation is a free gift by grace alone through faith
alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. There is nothing that
you have done or ever could do that would make you deserve to
be saved from your sins. There is nothing that you could
do to pay the price that is required for your sins, other than death and an eternity
in hell. And when you consider the fact
that hell is eternal, tells us that that price will never be
paid, if it's being paid by you. It will never get to the end,
to where it is paid off. That is the high cost of sins
against a holy God. But God. Two of the most important
words you will see in the Bible. When you come across those two
words in the Bible, you will notice that I haven't looked
at every instance I should do that sometime, but almost every
time. If you read what comes before
those two words, you'll see something that man has messed up. Something
that man has gotten wrong. And then following those two
words, you will see how God has fixed it. How God has shown grace
and fixed what man has ruined. But God. Ephesians 2, verses
4 and 5 says, But God, being rich in mercy, because of his
great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in
our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace,
you have been saved." So it took someone who was rich in mercy,
according to God's Word. God is very rich in mercy to
be able to pay the price that's required for our sin to be forgiven. Because our sin debt was not
just cancelled out. It had to be paid. A very high
price required. And it had to be paid. And only
Jesus was worthy. Only Jesus is capable of paying
that debt for us. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse
9 tells us this. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake
He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich."
Now you think about the contrasts in that verse. How rich was Jesus? That though He was rich, He became
poor. How rich was Jesus before He
became poor? You just think about the position
that Jesus was in. He had an eternal, unhindered,
perfect relationship with God the Father. He was the Creator,
which means that the whole universe belonged to Him. He had all the
attributes of God, holiness, perfection, omniscience, omnipotence,
omnipresence. He was self-existent. Which means
he depended on and needed nothing and no one. He had all the praise
and the service of all the holy angels in heaven. He's God. He could have had anything he
wanted. But we read this in Philippians
2, verses 5-7. Have this attitude in yourselves
which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. Now that means that he did not
see his equality with God as something to be selfishly clung
to. He was willing to let go of the glories and the privileges
of being God without stopping being God. Verse seven, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness
of men. Again, back in 2 Corinthians
8, verse 9, we saw that though Jesus was rich, yet for your
sake He became poor. How poor did Jesus become? Again,
He never stopped being God. But Paul tells us here in Philippians
2 that He became man. He took on a human nature. Not
just any man. He didn't come as a rich man
or a king with servants. He came to be a servant. But
it was actually less than that. The word there in Philippians
2 actually means slave. Jesus came to be a slave. But really it was even less than
that. Because Philippians chapter 2
verse 8 tells us, He humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. As we've
been seeing in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus taking those steps
down in humility as he paid the price for our sin. Paul there
in Philippians kind of takes those same steps down. He became
man. Not just a man, he came to be a slave. Not just a slave. He came to die. Not just to die. He came to die on a cross. For
us. For our sin. So that is how poor
Jesus became. Though He was so rich. So that we through His poverty
might become rich. That is amazing grace. I don't think we comprehend just
how amazing that grace is. I don't think we truly comprehend
how rich we are in Christ if you are one who has received
the grace of salvation. And I don't think we truly comprehend
how poor Jesus became so He could save us. And it probably shows
in the ways that we still can treat sin lightly In ways that
we still are okay with sin sometimes. Especially if it's ours. In the
ways that we don't take the death of Jesus as seriously as it was. But that's what we're seeking
to understand a little better as we continue in our study of
the Gospel of Mark. We're in chapter 14. And through Jesus' suffering,
His grieving nearly to death in the Garden of Gethsemane,
because of what He knew was coming. That whole time while He was
going through that, He was being ignored by His sleeping friends. And then being betrayed by, as
Mark pointed out, one of the twelve. One who had been a friend
of Jesus. had been a close companion with
Jesus, Judas, turned Him over to captors who came to get Him
with swords and clubs, to be taken away, turned over then
to those who wanted Him dead. And being abandoned by all the
rest of the disciples, where we ended last week, Jesus was
being led away alone, forsaken by all of His friends, to face
his accusers who hate him and want him dead. And through all
of that we should be getting a little better idea of how much
it cost for Jesus to be able to forgive your sins. And hopefully
a little better idea today in the next verses we're looking
at this morning, Mark 14, when we see Jesus and his accusers. There's something Interesting
that we're going to see in today's passage and interesting not in
a good way But interesting that almost everything that happens
in this passage is illegal Almost nothing that happened in this
passage happened according to the law Now the law that God
gave to Israel through Moses is had some different aspects
to it. One of those elements of God's
law was that it regulated worship of God. And that's the part that
we probably most often think of, the sacrifices that the people
made and things about the temple and how God was to be worshipped.
And we see in that that God is holy. and that he can't be just
approached and worshipped in any way that man decides to. God is holy. There are other
parts of that law that were intended to keep the Israelites separate
from the other nations. Things about the clothes they
wore, the things they were allowed to eat and not allowed to eat.
God had set them apart. They were His people, and He
didn't want them to be corrupted by the wicked nations around
them. It's another aspect of God's law. Then there were other
parts of that law that we may not think about as often, but
they were meant to give Israel in the Promised Land an ordered
society. They were to have peace, justice,
and people were to be treated fairly. Now the religious leaders
of Israel, especially in the first century AD, they really
prided themselves on their law keeping. Everything for them
was about the law. Their lives revolved around their
understanding of the law. They made it look like they held
the law in such high regard, even though a lot of what they
did was just for show. That night, When Jesus stood
before his accusers, the religious leaders of Israel almost completely
ignored that law. And Jesus, perfect, holy God,
stood there to be accused and judged by these lawbreakers,
these sinners. And we first see the place where
it happened, and that's significant. Verses 53 and 54 of Mark 14 tell
us this, they led Jesus away to the high priest and all the
chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together.
Peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the
high priest and he was sitting with the officers and warming
himself at the fire. And these details about Peter
are important. We're going to save most of the
details we have here for next time, because we're going to
see more about Peter in the next passage. But his presence at
the high priest's courtyard is another reason for us and a reminder
for us to not be too hard on Peter. When we read things about
Peter, we often come across the many ways that he messed up.
And we often want to pile on and point out how Peter so often
messed up. When you think about this scene
here, probably not many would have been brave enough even to
follow Jesus at a distance and to go in where Jesus was. Probably
not many would be willing to do that. Let's also not be too
quick to praise Peter. He had run away in fear in the
Garden of Gethsemane, lack of faith, And by this point in Mark,
in these verses that we just read, Peter has already denied
Jesus once. Remember, Jesus said he was going
to do it three times before morning? He's already done it once. Mark
doesn't record it. John does in his gospel. He's
already done it once. Now, considering Peter, his relationship
with Jesus, His weak faith at this time. I definitely would
not say that Peter was one who hated Jesus. I wouldn't say that
at all. But he is trying to blend in with those who hate Jesus.
Here in this scene we see in Mark 14. He doesn't want people to know
that he had been with Jesus. He wants people to think that
he's just one of them. So yeah, it is kind of commendable
that he was brave enough to even be there. But his being there
wasn't really helping Jesus. As he continues to deny being
with Jesus, deny knowing Jesus. More about that next time. Now
the description of where Peter was gives us some information
about the location of this trial of Jesus. And they shouldn't
have been there. This was wrong. They led Jesus
away to the high priest, according to verse 53. Verse 54 tells us
the high priest, all the other chief priests, and the people
of the Sanhedrin were gathered at the high priest's house. According
to the law, now some of this was the law that God gave, some
of it is laws that were added to over time, and I don't know
which all of these were, But according to the laws that they
had at the time, trials before the Sanhedrin were not supposed
to be private. This was against the law for
this to happen in a private home. There was a place at the temple
where a trial of this kind should have happened, not that this
trial should have happened at all, but a trial of this sort
should have happened at the temple. Well, there's some more information
that makes this even worse, that John records, that Mark doesn't,
that this wasn't the first place that Jesus was taken. According
to John chapter 18, verse 13, those who arrested Jesus led
him to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas,
who was the high priest that year. So, Annas first, to his
house, who was the father-in-law of the high priest, and then
taken to the home of the high priest Caiaphas. I mentioned
this a couple weeks ago, but it was actually the Romans who
decided who the high priest would be at that time. The high priest
position was all very political. It was all about who could gain
the most favor with the Romans through whatever means that took.
That's who would be the high priest. Now Annas had been the
high priest some years before this. And then one of his sons
was the next one. And then his son-in-law Caiaphas
next. Then a few more of his sons and
then a grandson. And so Annas, even though he
wasn't technically the high priest on that day, he still had a lot
of power, a lot of influence. He still maintained the title.
Even though he wasn't the high priest yet, he still had the
title of high priest. People called him that. It's
kind of like in our day how past presidents still have the title
of president even after they're no longer president. Same kind
of thing. Now while there at Annas' house,
Jesus pointed out some of the problems with how they were doing
things. They were questioning Jesus and trying to trap Him
in something. And Jesus said, why don't you ask the people
who were there? Call for the witnesses who heard what I said
and saw what I did. As a result of Jesus speaking
the truth about what should be done, He got punched for it. And so, the illegal proceedings
began in Annas' house. Then it moved to another illegal
location to Caiaphas house. The illegalities continued on.
You read verses 55 and 56, it says, Now the chief priests and
the whole council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus
to put him to death, and they were not finding any. For many
were giving false testimony against him, but their testimony was
not consistent. There's some big problems here
in these verses. the chief priests and the whole
council, and that's referring to the Sanhedrin. The purpose
of the Sanhedrin is a group of 71 men, the people with the most
influence, the most power of anyone in Israel under the leadership
of the Romans, but they had most power in Israel among the Israelites.
Their purpose was to try cases. They were to investigate charges
that were brought against people. They were the judges, not the
prosecutors. That was the purpose of the Sanhedrin,
to be judges, not the prosecutors. It was not their place to bring
charges or to try to build a case against anyone. That wasn't supposed
to be happening at all. The Sanhedrin should not have
been involved in that. Do you remember what those same
religious leaders said just after Jesus raised Lazarus from the
dead? That happened maybe a month, maybe a couple of months before
what we're reading about here in Mark 14. Do you remember their
response after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? John chapter 11,
verses 47 to 53. We read this, John 11, 47. Therefore the chief priests and
the Pharisees convened a council. They brought together the Sanhedrin,
all the mighty men of Israel. They brought them together and
were saying, what are we doing? For this man is performing many
signs. They're not denying that he is
doing these things. They could not deny that Lazarus
had been dead and in the grave for four days. They knew he was
dead. And now he's walking around alive.
They couldn't deny that. Verse 48, if we let him go on
like this, all men will believe in him. And the Romans will come
and take away both our place and our nation. And what was
their concern? People are going to start to follow Jesus instead
of us. The Romans are going to start to maybe favor Him instead
of us. They're going to take away our positions of power and
prestige, money-making opportunities. We'll lose it. Verse 49, But
one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to
them, You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account
that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people,
and that the whole nation not perish. Now he did not say this
on his own initiative, but being a high priest that year, he prophesied
that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation
only, but in order that he might also gather together into one
the children of God who are scattered abroad. And verse 53, pay attention
here. So from that day on, they planned
together to kill him. They made plans. And we're starting
to seek the opportunity. From that day on, we're going
to kill Jesus. It's going to happen. Now that
tells us, when we're here in Mark chapter 14, we see this
trial at Caiaphas' house. The verdict and the sentence
has already been decided. Before any of this trial ever
happened. They've already decided they're gonna try to kill Jesus. And so they already knew what
the outcome was going to be. Now they just had to find a legitimate
looking reason to make it come out that way. They already knew
the ending, now they had to make up the story to get to that ending.
That's what they're attempting to do in this trial. Now if they
went around killing too many people, they would have problems. You remember these same people
later on, they will decide very quickly to put Stephen to death. They stone him. So that did happen
sometimes. But it happened too often, especially
if it happened to people who were kind of popular with the
people as Jesus was. There could be a riot. Now that
would get the Romans involved in a way that they wouldn't want
the Romans to be involved. So they needed to try to make
this look believable. They knew that they were going
to be doing this. They didn't know when it was
going to happen exactly. It kind of came up abruptly that Judas
turned him over to them that night, but they knew this was
going to happen. So they maybe had some notice
to go out, try to find some people. Now these people they found probably
had a little added incentive, meaning that they bribed them.
to testify against Jesus. Now it looks like they were probably
coached by different people of the Sanhedrin about what they're
supposed to say. We want this man dead. We're
going to pay you to bring testimony against him. Here's what you
need to say. But they weren't saying it quite
right. They weren't very smart men apparently. They couldn't
get their stories to line up. They were contradicting each
other. It was obvious to anyone that they were lying. Now in the law that God gave
to the nation of Israel, it was commanded that if someone gave
false testimony against another person, then whatever penalty
would be if that person was found guilty, would be given to the
person that gave false testimony. So if they were going after a
death sentence, in this case. That's what rightly should have
happened to those false witnesses who are wrongly accusing Jesus.
They deserve to die for their false testimonies. They keep trying. They're not
getting anywhere yet. Look at verses 57 to 59. Some
stood up and began to give false testimony against him, saying,
We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands,
and in three days I will build another made without hands. Not
even in this respect was their testimony consistent." Is that
what Jesus said? Obviously it wasn't. It was about
two or three years before this. Jesus made a statement that had
some of those words in it, but it wasn't this. Jesus was talking
about the temple of his body. And it wasn't him saying, I'm
going to destroy this temple. He's saying they're going to
destroy it. But it would be built again without
hands in three days. And it was referring to his resurrection
from the dead. But it didn't really matter what
he meant. They would take what he said and twist it. But these
false witnesses couldn't even agree on those details. And so
it still wasn't getting them anywhere. Then the high priest
steps in. He tries to move this along.
This is taking too long. They haven't made any progress
in building a case against Jesus yet. Now remember, this is happening
in the middle of the night. Thursday night, maybe somewhere
near midnight or probably very early Friday morning. It's still
nighttime and That was illegal According to their laws They
were not to have a trial at night They were not to have a trial
on a feast day, which they were They were not to have a trial
on a Sabbath. You know, the Sabbath was coming
And they were going to keep that one. It's kind of interesting
how strict they were about keeping the Sabbath. They had to make
sure they keep that law. They're breaking so many others,
but they've got to hurry up to get this done before the Sabbath,
which would be sundown that Friday night. The other laws don't matter. We've got to keep this one. So
we've got to get this moving along. So verse 60 and beginning
of verse 61, The high priest stood up and came forward and
questioned Jesus saying, do you not answer? What is it that these
men are testifying against you? But he kept silent and did not
answer. One way of looking at this is
that Jesus didn't really need to answer these charges because
they were so obviously false. They weren't getting anywhere
in these accusations because nobody was agreeing with anyone
else. Jesus could just stand there silently while their case
fell apart. Well, it's not surprising that
they couldn't find anything to pin on Jesus because He's perfect. There is nothing they could honestly
charge Him with doing that is wrong because He's perfect. But
Jesus was also fulfilling prophecy. As these sinners were bearing
false witness, accusing him of doing things that he did not
do. Jesus fulfilled prophecy, like Isaiah 53 verse 7, where
it says he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did
not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did
not open his mouth. written hundreds of years before
what we see here in Mark 14. But Mark 14 is fulfilling that
scripture. Jesus did not open His mouth.
He kept silent as He was being oppressed and afflicted. Going
on in verse 61, again the high priest was questioning Him and
saying to Him, Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? This
is a change in tactic. They weren't getting anywhere
with the false witnesses. So now he's going to try to catch
Jesus in his own words. Now asking him, are you the Christ? That in itself wasn't that big
of a deal. Quite a few people in Israel's
history had claimed to be the Christ or the Messiah. There
were others who had been thought to be the Messiah. A lot of people
thought Jesus was the Messiah. These men, the chief priests,
the men of Sanhedrin, they did not believe he was the Messiah.
If he claimed to be, they could have an argument about that,
why they didn't think he was. But when they connect it to the
next part, do you think you are the Messiah and the Son of the
Blessed One, the Son of God? That's when this gets serious.
Now, Jesus had said things before that sounded like he was saying.
that he was the Son of God. And if that was the case, they
thought they would have him on a charge of blasphemy. Because
anyone who made a claim of being equal with God, which someone
would be claiming by saying they are the Son of God. Now notice
Caiaphas, he says the son of the blessed one. By saying the
blessed one, that was one of their superstitious ways of not
saying God's name. Not saying His actual name. Because
they had this fear, if they said His name wrong, then they would
be guilty of blasphemy. Misusing God's name. And that's
ironic, isn't it? That he would shield himself
from saying God's name wrong, shield himself from blasphemy
by saying the blessed one. when he was standing there blaspheming
the Lord Jesus Christ that night. Jesus is God. He was blaspheming
him right to his face. The question for Jesus is, do
you say you are the Messiah and that you are equal with God?
Jesus answers, verse 62, Jesus said, I am. That's the same thing Jesus said
in the garden when the soldiers and all those people who came
to arrest Him were flattened out on their faces before the
Holy One, before the I Am. Jesus says the same thing here.
Somehow and for some reason He restrains the power of that name
at this time. But it's still the I Am. Jesus
said, I Am. and you shall see the Son of
Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the
clouds of heaven. Jesus is here quoting from Psalm
110 verse 1 Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 and this is Jesus saying
by claiming these scriptures as applying to him he's saying
I am the Messiah that scripture that prophesied the coming Messiah
yes that's me I am the Son of God. And beyond this day, by
quoting these scriptures, He's saying, you will see me as the
judge that you will be answering to. That He is sitting at the
right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. I
am the judge. You sit here today judging me.
I am the judge that you will one day be answering to. Well, this guy Caiaphas and probably
everyone else in that room, they knew some things about Jesus.
They knew he had raised Lazarus from the dead. No one could refute
that that had happened. Isn't it interesting that they
didn't call Lazarus as a witness in this trial? So many other miracles that Jesus
was well known for The thousands of people that Jesus had healed.
They didn't call any of them to come and be a witness for
Jesus. All the things that Jesus taught that people heard and
they said, we've never heard anyone teach with this kind of
authority. They didn't call them to be witnesses.
There's so much evidence. So many witnesses that proved
who Jesus really was. They didn't call on any of them
to testify. The high priest, everyone else
in that room, should have been rightly trembling on their faces
before Jesus that night. But they rejected the real evidence.
They rejected the truth. They rejected the Messiah. And
they traded it all for the world. That was their motivation and
what they were doing. They traded their souls for the world. They
wanted to keep their positions of power. They wanted to keep
their influence. They wanted to keep their popularity.
They wanted to keep their opportunities to make money through the temple.
And all of their selfish desires blinded them to the truth of
who this was who is standing right in front of them that night.
Verse 63, tearing his clothes, the high priest said, what further
need do we have of witnesses? And when someone tore their clothes,
that was supposed to be a sign of intense grieving. Now Caiaphas
put on a display of, this is so terrible. How could anyone
disrespect God so deeply? But in reality, that was what
he put on the outside. On the inside, this is exactly
what he wanted Jesus to say. So that he could accuse Jesus
of and then sentence him for blasphemy. Verse 64, you have
heard the blasphemy. How does it seem to you? And
they all condemned him to be deserving of death. According
to the law, a full 24 hours was supposed to go by after the end
of a trial before the sentence of death would be passed down.
And that was because if there was any possibility of any new
evidence coming forward, or just to make sure that nothing was
missed, this didn't happen hastily. They were supposed to let it
sit for a day. They didn't. They broke that
law. They sentenced Jesus to death right away, because the
Sabbath was coming. They've got to get this done
before the Sabbath. And they had to get this done
quickly, so there was not time for the truth to get out. So
the people who knew Jesus, trusted in Jesus, could not give testimony,
the truth of who Jesus is. Now when we read verse 65, As
we read this verse, remember, this is your Savior. This is
God, who laid aside all the glories of heaven, the privileges of
being God, to humble Himself as He stood there alone to pay
the price that was necessary for your sins to be forgiven. Remember as we read verse 65,
he deserved none of this, we deserved all of it. Verse 65,
some began to spit at him. Now that was at that time and
still is the most disrespectful thing you can do to someone.
If you hate someone with all of your being, you disrespect
them as much as you can, you spit in their face. We shouldn't
do that to anyone. That's what they were saying
by doing this to Jesus. And to blindfold him, and to
beat him with their fists, and to say to him, prophesy. Now this was the chief priests,
the Sanhedrin, these men who were supposedly so dignified
as leaders of Israel, they're playing games with Jesus. They
blindfolded him and punched him and say, guess who it was that
punched you now, Jesus? Try to predict which side of
your face you're going to be hit on this time, Jesus. The officers received him with
slaps in the face. Now he's back in the custody
of the temple police. They continue the beatings, showing
no respect at all for your Savior. Remember, He came to suffer this
for you. So your sin, could be forgiven. The cost of the forgiveness of
our sin was so high. What we have seen so far is bad,
but it's going to keep getting worse. Now as we leave with this for
this Sunday, let's go with 1 Peter 2, verses 21-25 in mind. Where Peter says, For you have
been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for
you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps, who
committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And
while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering,
he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who
judges righteously. 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. For you were continually straying
like sheep. But now you have returned to
the shepherd and guardian of your soul.
Jesus and His Accusers (Mark 14:53-65)
Series Mark
| Sermon ID | 72251318272659 |
| Duration | 41:11 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Mark 14:53-65 |
| Language | English |
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