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.