Turn to Matthew 26, if you would, please, as we give our attention now to the study of God's Word. We're going to pick up in Matthew 26 near the end of this chapter. It's a pretty long chapter, as you can tell, as we've spent the last few weeks in it. As we look at the events pertaining to the arrest and the trial and ultimately the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, followed by his resurrection and the Great Commission. I've entitled this morning's message, The Trial Before the Jews, for no other purposes than that is essentially what the content is. What we're going to see this week is Jesus being tried, sort of, and convicted, for sure, of being the Christ, the Son of God. It's really the main point of today's passage is Matthew is going to help us to see that the reason that Jesus was condemned to the cross was because He was the Christ, the Son of God. Now, last week, if you were with us, we saw Jesus' arrest and betrayal. And in that context, most particularly, what we saw very clearly is that Jesus was ultimately the one that was in control the whole time. If you'll recall, When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, that is the Roman cohort. Now, like we said last week, a cohort's about 600 men as far as those that are actually being deployed at any given time. A cohort's about 600 men on station. And it was very likely somewhere between two and four hundred of them that were part of this arresting officers detachment. Together with that would have been the temple guards, that is the local authorities. So, kind of like temple police, if you will. That is, the officials or the officers of the Sanhedrin. And so you're looking at somewhere, depending on who you read, somewhere between 300 and 600 or 800 soldiers that come at night to arrest Jesus. And despite that huge military force that has come out to arrest Him, you remember that it's Jesus that wakes up His disciples and He says, it's time. The betrayer is at hand. Let's go meet them. And he personally steps forward and says to those coming to arrest him, whom do you seek? And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. And he says, I am. And you remember, they all fall down. It's a clear demonstration of the absolute total power and authority and control of Jesus from the very beginning. And when they stand back up, which it just amazes me, to read the text of Scripture and see they still stand up and they still go through with the arrest. To an extent, it's mind-boggling. But from a believing perspective, this is what helps us to see, you know what? Jesus really is fully God manifest in flesh. And this is His power on display. When they get back up, He says, whom do you seek? They say, Jesus of Nazareth. He says, so then leave these guys alone. And they do. When Peter seeks to take matters into his own hands, when Judas comes and betrays him, Peter takes out a sword and he's going to take on three to six hundred soldiers by himself. Now, from a human perspective, that's incredible courage and boldness, is it not? That is a manifestation of Peter saying, you know what, even if I have to die, I'm willing to die with you. And Jesus rebukes him and says, Peter, all you're doing is sinning. All you're doing is sinning. Should I not submit to the scriptures? Should I not fulfill the scriptures and accomplish God's plan like he sent me here to do to begin with? You take up a sword like that. You live by the sword. You're going to die. You're committing a capital offense and you're going to suffer the penalty for a capital offense. You continue. He said, by the way, no, Peter, I really don't need you anyways, because don't you think if I Which really fascinates me as well. Jesus just showed he doesn't need them because he said, I am, and they all fell down. So then Peter's going to take matters into his own hands and take out one of them, right? And he says, put your sword away. And he heals the man's ear. And he says, don't you think that if I wanted to stop this, that I could just ask my father and he'd send me 12 legions of angels? One angel slew 185,000 Assyrians in a night. The 12 legions ought to be able to handle what? The whole of creation? Not just this earth, but all the I mean, seriously, Peter, if I if I was going to take this in a military direction, I wouldn't be using you. Right. And yet Jesus, nevertheless, still submits to and allows himself to be arrested. And just like Jesus promised at the end of verse 56, all the disciples left him and it all took place to fulfill the scriptures and the prophets. And that's the other key. Notice that Jesus, in Matthew 26, verses 55 and 56, He tells those arresting Him, that's what they're doing. He says, Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in a temple teaching and you didn't seize me. If I was really doing anything wrong, If you were really just in your actions of arresting me, you would have done it when I was doing right there wide open in public what you're arresting me for. But you didn't. And that's a testimony against you. Nevertheless, all of this has taken place to fulfill the scriptures of the prophets. All you're doing, gentlemen, is fulfilling the word of God. And he submits to the governing authorities and allows himself to be arrested and led away. Now, that's where we left off last week. And this completely coincides not only with the testimony of the Old Testament that this is the way it's going to play out. This completely aligns with what Jesus has been saying throughout his earthly life and ministry. You remember in John chapter 10, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd and I lay my life down of my own what? Authority. Nobody is going to take it from me and I will take it up again by my own authority. This is what Jesus has been saying throughout. That's who Jesus is. That's a clear testimony of the Gospel. It's a clear testimony of Scripture. The clear testimony of the Old Testament is it's going to play out this way. The clear testimony of the New Testament is that it did, and Jesus is the one who did it. Now, as we walk into the text in verses 57 to 68, what Matthew is going to tell us today is, one, he's going to tell us historically about the trial of Jesus before the religious leaders. Now, for the sake of our study this morning, I'm going to do this again more in a teaching type of a format than a preaching, but I can't promise you I won't switch once in a while, but I really want to lay out for you kind of a harmonization of the Gospels, because as you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you'll see that there were three hearings John talks about the initial hearing before Annas, while Caiaphas puts together his little group, his little subcommittee of the Sanhedrin, his little cronies, as they get ready to do the wee hours of the morning hearing to come up with a set of charges to formally present to the Sanhedrin the first thing in the morning. And Matthew tells us in verses 57 to 68 about the hearing before Caiaphas, and a subcommittee of the Sanhedrin. Then in chapter 27, he says in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders conferred together. So there's that third hearing. It's a it's a briefer one that Luke tells us about where they just kind of rubber stamp what Caiaphas and the smaller subset have concluded. And then they ship him off to to Pilate. So there are three hearings and we're going to look at all three of those. in order to demonstrate to you the point that all of the Gospels are making, namely, that when Jesus was condemned to die and found worthy of a capital offense, the crime they convict Him of is the crime of being the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, they attribute it to blasphemy. That's what they say. And you know something, if Jesus isn't the Son of God, if he isn't the Christ, then he is blaspheming and he is guilty of a capital crime. But what's most important is that that is the grounds upon which they convicted him. And that's what I want you to see very clearly as we go through the text this morning. We'll look at the three stages of the trials of Jesus, the trial of Jesus before the Jews, so that we can see very clearly that when he was condemned by the Jewish people, by the religious leaders of Israel, he was condemned on the basis of who he is, the Christ, the Son of the living God. They didn't find him guilty of false teaching. They didn't find him guilty of sin. They didn't find him guilty of any legitimate offense. They found him guilty of claiming to be the Christ, the son of God. Now, if he isn't, he deserves to be executed, but if he is, they executed him, though he was innocent. And remember, Matthew's point in this whole gospel from beginning to end has been to show to a biblically literate, at least an Old Testament biblically literate audience, that Jesus is the Messiah. That's why he starts with the genealogy from Abraham through David to Jesus. That's why he includes the prophetic fulfillments in chapters 1 and 2 of conceived of a virgin, Emmanuel, born in Bethlehem, etc. That's why it includes the ministry of John the Baptist and the Sermon on the Mount. That's why it includes the list of miracles in chapters 8 and 9. This is all an apologetic presentation of the evidences or the proofs that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. And it is presented to those who are biblically literate from an Old Testament perspective, those who are Jewish, Those who are God-fearers, those who are looking for the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Old Testament, Matthew is showing you He fulfills the Old Testament through the letter. Now, as we pick up in verses 57 and 58, I want you to take a look at the text with me as I read. Matthew goes on to say, those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. But Peter was following Him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest. And he entered in and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. Now, we're going to discuss Peter next time. OK, the boldness of Peter, the courage of Peter, the the absolute commitment to stay with Jesus as he promised to do is so admirable in lots of ways. And Peter will talk about that next time when we go through his triple denial. But if you think about this, even at verse 58, Peter's following Jesus at a distance. If you go back to verse 56 at the end, it says all the disciples left Jesus and fled. They all did. Just like Jesus said. They all fled. Then he's being led away. And you can picture, now this is from the Mount of Olives. So they go back down the Kidron Valley, they go around the wall, they go back into the city, and they go to the high priest's house or estate. Okay? And you can see, remember when they came out to arrest Jesus in the middle of the night? This is probably about two o'clock in the morning. They come out to arrest Jesus. Remember what it said? They come out with swords and clubs and torches and lanterns. So all the disciples scatter and you see this crowd of a few hundred guys, 300 guys. Tell me something. Is it difficult, do you think, to follow 300 guys in the middle of night that are marching a prisoner with all the torches and lanterns? No, and that's exactly what Peter did. He kind of then he flees, but then he sees Jesus being led away and he follows along behind him. And what's really cool is he goes all the way up to the to the gate of the high priest. And John will tell us that it is one of the disciples, most likely John himself, who had family connections to the high priest household and the servants there. who got Peter access into the high priest's courtyard that night. And so Peter is even sitting there in the high priest's courtyard amongst the soldiers that arrested Jesus. And Peter didn't just blend in with the disciples during the arrest, did he? Think about it. Peter is the one who pulled the sword and went out after the high priest's servant and cut off his ear, right? You've got to imagine, surely one of those guys recognizes Peter's face. I mean, this is movie stuff. Do you know what I'm saying? This is movie stuff that Peter would follow along with Jesus and go all the way into the lion's den, so to speak, and sit there and warm his hands by the fire along with all the rest of those officers that just arrested Jesus and would have seen and remembered Him. That's where the whole conversation... Hey, wait a minute, I've seen you with Him. That's where all that recollection comes from. So we'll talk about Peter next week, but this this is just telling us that from the time Jesus was arrested, Peter fled. But then he watches the soldiers as they're leading Jesus away and he comes along and follows at a distance and manages to get his way all the way into the courtyard of the high priest. Now, one of the things we really have to work out here is the harmonization of the accounts, because In John 18, both Caiaphas and Annas are referred to as high priests. How can you have two high priests? I thought there was a high priest. And the answer is understanding the historical context behind all this. So what we're going to start with is keeping our finger on Matthew 26 and turning in your Bibles to John 18. So look at John 18 with me. We'll pick up in verse 12. We'll go through the opening of this very quickly. We'll come back to this text next week when we go through Peter. But in John 18 and verse 12, we're told the Roman cohort and the commander and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus. They bound him and they led him to notice it says to Annas first, because he was father in law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now, that's the key. Annas is high priest. But so too is Caiaphas. Now, the one actually holding the office at this point is Caiaphas. And where the confusion comes in is in the fact that the way the political scheme worked in those days, the Romans took over control of Jerusalem and they determined and started appointing who was going to be high priest. And if you remember Quirinius, you remember in the Gospel of Luke, you remember Quirinius, right? He was a governor there. He is the one who appointed Annas to be high priest. That was in 6 A.D. He remained high priest until 15 A.D. when Valerius Gratis was appointed as the new prefect over Judea. And one of the means by which Gratis maintained a kind of a control over Israel and over Judea And as a Roman province was he kept deposing high priests and putting his own guy in there. And he did several times, four times, if I remember correctly, when he first takes over, the first thing he does is throw Annas out. Why? He's got a lot of clout. He's got a lot of power and he's exercising that power. He's he what he says, the whole of the Council of Elders, the whole of the Sanhedrin follows. So the first thing he did. was threw him out. He deposed him as high priest, and he appointed another guy. And a couple years later, it became clear that he's not really doing a good enough job and pro-Roman enough, so he threw him out. And in a few years, he's gone through not only having deposed Annas, but three other guys, and the fourth guy that he puts in that job in 18 AD. So this is quite amazing. From 15 to 18 AD, he puts in Now Caiaphas, and Caiaphas is a pretty amazing man in himself because he's the kind of a guy that is not only he's the son-in-law to Annas incidentally, so he's somehow able to make his father-in-law happy and at the same time make the Roman governors happy because he holds that position from 18 AD to 36 AD. So he is actually sitting as high priest during the whole of Jesus' ministry, even up to and including His condemnation, His crucifixion, and resurrection. Caiaphas, then, is sitting officially as High Priest. Well, why do they call Annas High Priest, even right here in John 18? Both Caiaphas and Annas are defined as being High Priest. Answer. Because in the Old Testament, the High Priest was a job you held for life, according to Scripture. While a Roman authority may depose a high priest, those who are Jews still continue to recognize him as high priest. As an additional side note, I read again this week that Annas not only had a tremendous amount of control and political clout amongst the religious leaders in the Jewish Sanhedrin and amongst the priests, and really was still essentially behind Caiaphas, but he also very likely had holdings in the buying and selling and the raising of sacrificial animals for the temple services. You remember when Jesus goes into the temple and he cleanses the temple? He actually did it twice. One was in John 2 at the beginning of his ministry. Another one is in Matthew 21 at the end of his ministry. And he walks in and he flips over the tables of the money changers. making a profit on people converting to temple currency so they could do their offerings, and making a profit by selling animals that are pre-certified as spotless and blameless and acceptable animal sacrifices. Some historians have said, no, that's not that anus, that's a different anus. In either case, anus had a lot going on at the temple. And the whole temple system was set up in such a way that the high priest, Annas, and all of his lackeys, including his son-in-law, had so much going on and were making such a killing, literally and figuratively, on the sacrificial system. Buying and selling the animals, overseeing the money changers, and putting so much of that money in their pocket. That when Jesus comes along and cleanses the temple, at the start of his ministry and says, you have turned my father's house into a house of markets. It's no wonder the Pharisees immediately respond, wow. We like this guy. Nicodemus comes to Jesus in John 3 right after he cleanses the temple and says, hey, no one could do what you do unless God is with him. Wow. God is clearly with you. That's an acknowledgment that you're a prophet. It's the beginning of asking the question, are you the Messiah? You follow me? It takes the next three years of Jesus's ministry to offend the Pharisees enough by calling them on their legalism and religious hypocrisy and calling even starting with Nicodemus, calling them to be born again in order to enter the kingdom of heaven before he's offended all of them enough before these two groups that hate each other, the priests and the Pharisees, are together willing to condemn Jesus. Now that's kind of the historical backdrop of this whole trial situation. Now what you have here in the context of John 18, coupled with Matthew 26, is they arrest Jesus and they're going to take him and have him appear before Caiaphas and a subcommittee of the Sanhedrin in order to try to find legal ground, so to speak, to condemn him. So they've arrested him at night. They've paid for one of his disciples to betray him. There's no pursuit of justice here. There's the pursuit of a condemnation. And in John 18, we find that the real power behind this whole process is none other than Annas. The Roman cohort, verse 12, and the commander and the officers of the Jews, they arrest Jesus, they bind him and they lead him to Annas first because he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the priest that year. Caiaphas was the one, by the way, who advised the Jews it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people. You can read about that in John 11. Verse 15, Simon Peter's following Jesus, etc. He tells how he gets access to the courtyard. Verse 19, then the high priest questioned Jesus. This high priest that's being referred to here is Annas. He's the one they still recognize as high priest. He questions Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. And Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all the Jews come together and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them. They know what I said. In other words. You want to know what I'm teaching? You want to try to find fault with me? You want to try to condemn me on the basis of something that I'm teaching? Okay, go ask those that taught. And bring your witnesses. They know what I said. In other words, I'm not going to sit here and argue or debate with you. And when he said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, Is this the way that you answer the high priest? Notice. Notice the violation of all judicial precedence and the violation of righteousness. You don't like the answer you're getting? Wham! Right across the mouth. Notice the way Jesus responds. Verse 23, Jesus answered him, If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong. But if rightly, why do you strike me? So Annas, not being able to get some dirt on Jesus, now is ready to send him to Caiaphas for the official subcommittee hearing. now in the middle of the night. And just as a footnote here, when Jesus appears before Annas, he's already being mistreated, is he not? He's already being handled unjustly. This is not the only time that we see religious leaders handling God or his people unjustly. Remember the Apostle Paul? Remember when the Apostle Paul was brought before the Sanhedrin? And then the high priest has one of the guys strike him across the face. And what does Paul say? May God smite you, you whited wall. Oh, I'm so there with Paul. And then somebody goes, you know, that's the high priest. You know what? I'm sorry. Please forgive me. I misspoke. You know what? Even the apostle Paul cracked under these kinds of circumstances. You know what you never see Jesus doing? even under the most severe of these circumstances, you never see him cracking even once. He answers honestly and truthfully, and somebody smacks him for not doing what the high priest is telling him to do. And you know what he says? Okay, if I've done something wrong, tell me what it is. Otherwise, tell me why you smacked me. Isn't that amazing? You ever lose your temper? Well, Adam and I have the rest, you probably not. If you ever do, if you ever do. In that case, you'll be more like Paul than you are, Jesus. Notice how even when unjustly smitten. When struck and smited unfairly, illegally. He still turns the other cheek. That's our Lord and Savior. That's the perfect perfection of Christ that's on display even from the beginning. And it will continue to be on display all the way to and through the cross. Jesus did not get arrested because he couldn't get away or find a way out or was hopelessly lost or things just played out wrong. Jesus was the epitome of meekness, absolute, total strength under complete control. He submitted to the governing authorities even when they were unjust and entrusted himself to him who judges justly. It's not only an example for us, that is a testimony to us of the absolute perfect righteousness of Christ. Now, number two, if you take your Bibles and turn with me back to Matthew 26, we look at the passage that's really in front of us now. And Matthew is the one, Matthew and Mark, but Matthew in particular, since that's the text we're going through, is the one that records this hearing for us. So the first hearing was before Annas. The second one is before Caiaphas. Now, they talk about the courtyard of the high priest where Peter was, waiting to see how things were going to turn out. And this becomes a little confusing when you say, well, is Annas the high priest or is Caiaphas the high priest? And whose house are we at? The answer is yes. Yes, there is the high priest's estate and it had multiple buildings. There was a wall constructed along the outer walls that connected those buildings. And there's a there's a large open area between the buildings, which is the open air court courtyard. And that's where all the officials are. And that's where Peter sneaks in and the servant girl that that confronts him in the whole bit. All of that is right in there. And they've got a fire going and they're warming themselves by the fire. And Annas' household is on one end of this estate and Caiaphas is on the other. And so they take him to the high priest. The intention is to have him appear formally before Caiaphas and a subcommittee, so to speak, of the Sanhedrin. In the meantime, they first take him before Annas, because he's the real power behind this. When Annas can't get anything on him, mistreats him a little bit, then sends him over to Caiaphas. And a subset of the Sanhedrin have gathered together. And that's what we're told in verse 57. Those who had seized Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and elders were gathered together. Now, this is not the full Sanhedrin. How do you know? Well, one, because in chapter 27, it says, when morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together. against Jesus to put him to death. And we'll see that account in Luke 22 when we go there at the end. Furthermore, we're told in Mark 55 and 56. Sorry, that's a different passage. We're told in Mark 14 that at the end of this, there is a universal agreement at the end of this second trial or hearing before Caiaphas and a subset of the elders. We're told that it was universally declared that Jesus is guilty and worthy of death. When you get to the full Sanhedrin, you see there were some objections and they were ignored. So this is a second hearing, the first before Annas. Now we get to the official subcommittee hearing before the Sanhedrin, verse 59. Now the chief priests and the whole council, that is all of those who were present, kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus so that they might put Him to death. They're trying to find a charge that they can convict Jesus on that is worthy of death. And the whole council kept doing it, meaning all the guys that were there, they're all in on it and they're all trying to either bear witness or put together a case against Jesus. And their singular goal throughout is not to find out if he's innocent or guilty. It is not to find out or pursue the truth. They are looking for a justification for a death sentence. We're told right there in verse 59. The most amazing thing here is verse 60. Matthew says they did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. Isn't that amazing? They just couldn't get any dirt on this guy. You think about the day we live in. Think about how much dirt that you can get on anybody with a few keystrokes. At least that's the way it seems, isn't it? And these guys have been after Jesus for three years. Three years. And you're going to see they have to go back three years to come up with anything, and that's even a misquote. Jesus has lived a public life and ministry for three years. For three years. And these are some of the smartest, highest-ranking muckety-mucks of the day, and the best they can come up with is conflicting stories? Turn in your Bible to Mark 14 for a minute. Keep your finger in Matthew 26. Look at Mark 14. Look at verses 55 and 56. Mark says the chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put him to death, and they weren't finding any because many were giving false testimony against him. But what their testimony wasn't consistent. These guys are trying to make stuff up and they can't even get it to agree. They're going to any extent possible to find some sin, some offense, some criminal charge they can level against him, and they can't come up with any. Tell me something. Would it be difficult for the people that you work with, the people that you interact with, the people that you live with, to level a charge against you? Would it be difficult for your wife or your husband, your kids or your parents, your brother, your sister, your boss, your co-worker, your net? Would it be difficult for the people that see you driving on the road to level a charge against you? These guys are working together for over an hour and they can't come up with diddly on Jesus. Even the guys making stuff up can't put it together in a way that agrees with each other. What's it tell you about Jesus? What's it tell you about his absolute, true, sinless perfection? When the Bible says, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, what's that tell you? He was absolutely sinless. He's so much different than us. So much above us, so much better than that. Listen, that's your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He really did live a perfect, sinless life before all men. When all of his enemies getting together, trying to come up with anything, can't lay their finger on him for even one charge, even when they seek to provoke him by punching him. His response is, hey, if I said something wrong, tell me, what did I say wrong? Otherwise, why did you punch me? I mean, that's Jesus. That's Jesus. You know, with a word, he could have said, OK, that's it. Great White Throne. Let's start now with you. I mean, that's what we would do, isn't it? That's not Jesus. See, when when you look at this trial, I really hope that you don't just rip through the historical fact. I hope you start to think about what does this say about Jesus when all of his enemies get together and they can't come up with even a tiny little shred of of an offense against him? They can't level one charge against him. What's that say about your Lord and Savior? He really is perfect. He really is the sinless son of God. I find it also fascinating. We won't go down this road, but if you were to turn, you can write this in your notes. Deuteronomy 19 verses 15 to 21. Really interesting text there in the law of Moses about those who bear false witness in a trial. If you bear false witness and you are found to have given false witness, your punishment is whatever punishment was due would have gone against the person you were bearing false witness. So if it's a you know, if it's just a legal case with regard to moving boundary lines or whatever, and the punishment is a financial penalty, then if it was going to cost him five thousand, it's going to cost you five thousand for false witness. Well, this is a capital case. So what should have been the judicial consequence of bearing false witness in a capital case for every one of these guys? Yeah, capital punishment. I find it interesting that the text tells us clearly that there was no mention of any of that. Notice in verse 60, though, middle of the verse, later on, two came forward. Why does it say two came forward? Because they finally have two that can agree on their testimony against Jesus. So the one thing that they can get on Jesus is this. Two witnesses come forward and they say, this man stated, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. Now, what's so cool about this, and I just love this, this goes back three years. This is John two at the beginning of Jesus's ministry when he said this, and not that he couldn't do this. I mean, He spoke the universe into existence out of nothing, right? So could He destroy the physical temple and speak it into existence in three days? Yeah. I mean, that's the hard way. Normally, God just says, let there be light, and light comes into existence. But if you want Him to take three days, He could do that. But that's not even what He said. Take your Bibles and turn with me to John 2. Look at what Jesus actually said. John, chapter two, starting in verse 13, it's the Passover of the Jews. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. He finds in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. He makes a scourge of cords, drives them out of the temple along with the sheep and the oxen. He pours out the coins of the money changers and overturns the tables. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, take these things away. Stop making my father's house a place of business. The disciples remembered that it was written in the scriptures, zeal for your house will consume me. This is their first inkling, inkling that this really is the Messiah. Notice the challenge the Jews bring against him, and when John uses the term Jews, he's referring to the religious leaders and the religious leaders there in the temple would be the high priest and his Biggest, highest ranking muckety mucks. The Jews said to him, what sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things? Where do you go? Prove to me you have the authority to come in here and address this kind of stuff going on here in the temple grounds, because who is it that has authority over the temple grounds? The priests. Jesus said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again. Notice he didn't say, I will destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. That's not what he said. That's what they're saying in Matthew 26 at his trial three years later. And you at least have two witnesses agreeing on the testimony. But it's not it's still not even an accurate testimony. And by the way, notice John goes on to explain he was speaking of the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they then believe the scripture that the word which Jesus and the word which Jesus had spoken. Jesus said, You destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again. What temple is He speaking of? His body. How is His body a temple? Answer. Who is Jesus? God, incarnate in human flesh, right? The body is not God. The one in the body is God. So that body is a physical residence for Almighty God. You destroy this body, You destroy this temple and in three days I will what? Raise it up again. What happened at the resurrection? Three days. He's risen. Now, that's what he said. Now, the response of the Jews in that day, they didn't understand what he was saying, because in verse 20 of John two, we're told the Jews then said it took 46 years to build this temple and you'll raise it up in three days. They're thinking of the physical temple, but he was referring to himself. Now, if the best If the best that someone can do in finding fault with you is a false quote. How righteous is Jesus? Perfectly righteous. That's a clear point that Matthew is making as we go through here. Two came forward and they said, this man stated, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. And then a high priest stood up and said to him, do you not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against you? Aren't you going to answer any of these charges? Notice it says, but Jesus kept silent. Why? Because, listen, you don't have to bear witness against yourself. It's not up to you to convict yourself. It's up to those leveling charges against you to prove the case. In fact, and a lot of commentators go here, a lot of writers. It is true. There are so many illegal or illegalities and so many injustices in this trial. I've just highlighted a couple of them. There are other things we could point out that go way beyond the text here that set the context as being an absolutely unjust trial and hearing that they go through and the process they go through in condemning Jesus. Things like that it was illegal to be tried at night. It was illegal to try a capital crime on the eve of a feast. Why? Well, you don't do it at night. You don't do it on the eve of a feast so that you're not worried about the feast. You're giving your full and undivided attention to the trial. You don't do it in the middle of the night so that everybody's tired. You give a full and proper hearing when everybody's alert, everybody's awake. This is this is a capital case. A life is at stake. You couldn't be called to testify against yourself. That's exactly what the priest is. The high priest is telling Caiaphas is telling Jesus to do to testify against himself. By the way, you also couldn't be convicted without two days of hearings and deliberations in order to allow for a full review of the case before rendering sentence. And this is this is what I find really cool. You couldn't be interrogated by the high priest. He's supposed to be your advocate. Between you and God. He's not supposed to be the one that is condemning you, he's supposed to be the one that's interceding on your behalf. Now, lots of writers make a great deal of attention about this and all of it's true. But the more I study the text, the more convinced I am that that's really not the main focus. You know what the main focus is? The Jews have decided to reject Jesus as Messiah, and they look for every justification of condemning him they could possibly find by evaluating his life, by evaluating his teaching, by evaluating his behavior, and they couldn't find anything to condemn him on. And all this attests to what? The sinlessness of Jesus. the innocence of Jesus. Well then, on what basis did they condemn him? Look at verse 63. The high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. Now this is really well translated. The only problem is most people don't really know what adjure means in English. The word essentially means to put someone under oath. It's an excellent translation. The Greek word speaks of formally calling for a legal testimony. It's like saying, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Then tell me what's the answer to this question. I adjure you. By the living God, that is the strongest, most formal way you can call for a for a testimony. Tell us, and here's the ultimate question. Whether you are the Christ, the son of God, are you the Messiah and do you claim to be equal with God? Verse 64. Jesus said to him, you have said it yourself. Nevertheless, I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. That is an affirmation. That is a yes. That may not be the way that we would like to read. I mean, wouldn't it be cool if he just said, yes, I am. Just like you have said, that's the way we would kind of say it in English. Sometimes when we read this, I think as we as we go through here, we that feels a little squishy to us. Oh, I wish he just came right out and said it. I would just love one time for Jesus. Just flat. Say it when a Greek he did flat. Say it. In fact, let me just put your heart at rest. I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Mark 14. And look at the parallel passage. We'll pick up in verse 61 and then you'll see it in verse 62. They keep bringing all these charges. Aren't you going to answer this? He keeps silent. So 61, the high priest is questioning him, saying to him, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one, the son of God? Jesus said to him what? I am. And you shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. You go back to Matthew 26. You say, why doesn't it say it that way in Matthew 26? Answer, because what he said was the combination of both of those statements. I am. It is as you say. Nevertheless, I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Yes, I'm the Messiah. Yes, I'm God incarnate. And yes, The next time you see Me, you will be answering to Me. The next time you see Me, it will be at the right hand of the power of God. And I will be coming on the clouds to establish My Kingdom and exact judgment." Notice, in most of your Bibles, the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. It's in all caps. Why? Because this is a reference to the passage I prayed through this morning Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14. Now, you don't need to turn there. Just listen as I read that text. And if you were a high priest in those days or one of those religious leaders that knew your Bible pretty well, you would immediately catch this reference. Daniel says, I kept looking in the night visions. And this is about seeing the ultimate consummation of the age and God establishing His kingdom. I kept looking in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming and he came up to the ancient of days. He came up to the most high God himself. And he was presented before him and to him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom so that all the people's nations and men of every language might serve him. And his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. When Jesus quotes from this text here and says, yes, I am. It is just as you have said yourself. And the next time you see me, it'll be at the right hand of the power coming on the clouds to establish dominion over all of my creation. What's he just said? Yeah, yeah, I'm God. I'm the Messiah and I'm God. This is an absolute affirmation. This is the same type of an answer, this you said it yourself, that we will see in Matthew 27 and verse 11, when Jesus says before Pilate, are you a king? You've said it yourself. It's the same same type of an answer that we saw in Matthew 26 and verse 25, when Jesus, when Judas comes up and says, surely not I, Lord, you've said it yourself. The Apostle Paul, in reference to this exact statement that Jesus says in Matthew 27 before Pilate, Paul calls this the good confession in 1 Timothy 6. And the clearest and most easy way to see that it's an absolute affirmation by Jesus is to look at verses 65 and 66 and see the response of the religious leaders, most particularly the high priest. The high priest then tore his robes and said he has blasphemed He has just spoken slanderously about God. He has blasphemed. What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy. What do you think? He calls what Jesus just said blasphemy. And for the record, listen, if Jesus isn't God, what he just said, what? It is blasphemy. If Jesus isn't the Messiah and he isn't the Son of God, if he isn't the one that's going to next be seen, seated at the right hand of the power and glory, which incidentally is what Stephen attests to in Acts, is it not? Right before Stephen is taken out and stoned, he says, I see Jesus seated at the right hand. Yeah. Anyways, sorry, I digress. The high priest tears his robes and he says he's blaspheming. If Jesus isn't the Son of God, if he isn't the Messiah, it is blasphemy. He deserves to die. But if he is the Son of God and he is the Messiah, then this is a false charge. Blasphemy is a false charge. And the most important thing Matthew wants you to get is the reason that the Jews reject the grounds upon which the Jews rejected Jesus and condemned him to death and turned him over to the Romans is on the basis of him being the Christ, the Son of God. You want to know why the Jews rejected Jesus? Because they did not accept Him as their Messiah, and they did not accept Him as God incarnate, so they rejected Him and turned Him over to be executed by the Romans. That's the only grounds that they could find Jesus guilty of. He was condemned because He was the Messiah, the Son of God. And for no other reason. There is no additional charge that could be leveled against Jesus. other than being God. He says to them, You have now heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they answered, He deserves death. Mark 14, verse 64 tells us it was a unanimous decision. And so there you have it. The way it wraps up is they spat in his face. They beat him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, Prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is the one who hit you? Does that sound like a lawful, proper judicial trial? No, this is schoolyard bullies. Mark tells us, by the way, they covered his face and then started doing that. Before Jesus actually is taken, before the Sanhedrin here, first thing in the morning, this is the middle of the night stuff. This is 4 to 5 a.m. Then they're going to haul him from here, according to Matthew 27, as well as the Luke text we'll look at next, They're going to haul him to the to the official council chambers of the Sanhedrin, which is almost certainly on a temple mount. And when they get him there, he's going to have already been beaten up and mistreated. This is far from from a legal trial. This is animosity, this is hatred, this is rejection. This is mocking prophesy to us, you Christ, who is the one who hit you? These guys are enjoying beating them up. They're expressing their disdain and hatred for Christ. And just as a side note here, you can read this as well. In Leviticus 21, verses 10 to 12, you know what it says? It says the high priest is not allowed to tear his robes. Remember when Aaron wasn't allowed to mourn his sons? Because what God did in striking him down was right. So even though they're your own sons, you can't mourn them because you're the high priest. But the high priest tears his robes. There are so many, so many compromises of of the biblical principles and of and of laws. This is this is anything anything but. An actual trial. This is a deliberate effort by a wicked authority structure. To find justification for condemning Christ. And despite all their efforts, And despite all their mistreatment and abuse, despite all their efforts to coerce and their efforts to come up with false testimonies, etc., you know the only thing that they can truly level against Jesus is what? That He's the Christ, the Son of the living God. And that's why they condemn Him. Jesus was rejected as the Messiah. Now, as we close, I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Luke 22. And see the full account of that larger hearing. We're not going to come back here when we get to Matthew 27. So take a look at Luke 22. And we'll start in verse 66. When it was day, so now we're to the early morning, this is actually Matthew 27, verse one. The council of elders and of the people assembled both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away to their council chamber now. So this is no longer the high priest courtyard. Incidentally, the triple denial by Peter, that all happens in the high priest courtyard. So that's all done. Jesus looks at Peter. Peter goes away into the night weeping over having fulfilled the Lord's prophetic declaration about him. And then Jesus is led away to the final hearing before the Sanhedrin, before they take him to Pilate. So it's day and the council of elders and people assemble, chief priests and scribes. They lead him away to their council chamber, saying, if you are the Christ, then tell us. And you can imagine at this point now he's all beat up, he's bruised, he's he's he's got to have some swelling on his face. And yet, having already condemned him, now they bring him before the whole council and they say, if you are the Christ, tell us. He says, if I tell you, you won't believe. And if I ask a question, you won't answer. So there's no point in bearing witness at this juncture. But notice, he again says, but from now on, the son of man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. Next time you see me, you'll be answering to me. The next time you see me, you will be giving account for all of your deeds, including this one. And they all said, Are you the son of God then? And he said to them, Yes, I am. And they said, What further need do we have of any testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. And the whole body of them got up, brought him before Pilate. Now, the other Gospels tell us there were some dissenting voices, including Joseph of Arimathea, most likely Nicodemus, maybe a couple of others. The key point here is this. Why was Jesus condemned? Because he's the Christ. I think there's three really good lessons we learn from this. One, I think we see very clearly Christ's perfect submission to God. He never rebelled even against unjust authorities. He submitted to His arrest. He submitted to the trial. He answered truthfully. And He did so knowing even full well that it would result in His execution and death. What's more, He submitted fully even to all the ungodly abuse He suffered all the way up to and through the cross. I think that's a glorious testimony. to the sinlessness of Christ and most particularly to the submission of Christ to the Father. I think that's a marvelous lesson to us. Don't you? You ever have trouble submitting to authority? When you disagree? How about when it's wrong? How about when it's unfair? Jesus submitted even though it cost him his life and was wrong. evil and unfair. Number two, I think it attests to his perfect innocence. When a parade of false witnesses cannot produce a single charge against you, it's pretty clear you're living a holy life. When even unjust treatment can't provoke you to sin and take matters into your own hands, it's pretty clear you're living a sinless, holy life. When the only charge that can be leveled against you that sticks is that you claim to be who you really are, God in human flesh, it's pretty clear you are one who knew no sin and was made sin for us. And finally, since all of this is true, I think this attests pretty clearly to the perfect, perfect sovereignty of Christ overall. He said to them, and in essence, he says to us, the next time you see him, It will be at the right hand of the power coming on clouds to establish dominion over his creation. Let me ask you a question. Are you ready? Are you ready for him to come? I'll tell you a little story. If you came in on I this morning, did you notice at the corner of I and 70th, did you notice that our sign isn't up anymore? Did you notice that it's sitting out in the courtyard here? Do you know why? This Friday night, there was a car coming down I and a car coming up 70th and the car on 70th ran the stop sign or stopped and then I think it pulled out, stopped and didn't look, didn't see and pulled out and the oncoming car hit on the driver's side and there was Denver and Gaynor were here and Denver said, you didn't hear any skids, you didn't hear anything except for what sounded like a sonic boom. And when you get out there, you see that the car, the oncoming car hit the car that pulled out in front of him and drove it 30 feet back through our sign, took the sign right out. The driver in the car that was oncoming, now I don't know whether he was going too fast or not, I don't know. The fact of the matter is the person at the stop sign pulled out in front of him. He died Saturday morning. I don't know about the other person. Denver was out there and said they hauled him off in helicopters the whole bit. Whether the guy was driving too fast or not, the fact of the matter is, and Denver said when he got there, the guy was incoherent. He was talking, but that was it. He was gone the next morning. He's just driving along and somebody pulls out in front of him and he's gone. Are you ready if that's you? The Bible says it is a it is appointed to man once to die and after that judgment. There are two ways to face judgment. You either stand before Jesus in his righteousness, his sacrifice, having paid for your sins, or you stand before him in your sinfulness and get account for everything you've ever done. That could be today. Are you ready? Father, thank you. For sending your son, Jesus, thank you. For your perfect righteousness and total submission. Thank you for dying for us. And thank you for offering to forgive our sins on the basis of your once for all sacrifice. I pray that you would fill us with a real appreciation, not only of your perfection and as of your love and grace shown to us, but most particularly that you would give us an appreciation of your absolute sovereignty and supremacy over all of us so that from the heart we would submit to you and find our greatest sense of joy and pleasure in living for you. In Jesus' name and for His glory, I pray, Amen.