We return once again to Mark's gospel, as we continue to examine it verse by verse. So take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 14. And we will be looking at verses 53 through 65. Let me read the text to you.

"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.

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 we're giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent.

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.

The high priest stood up and came forward in questions Jesus saying, 'Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?'

But He kept silent and did not answer. Again, the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, 'Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?' And Jesus said, 'I am; AND THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, ANDD COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.'

Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, 'What further need do we have of witnesses?

You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?' And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.

Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him and to beat him with their fists, and to say to Him, 'Prophesy!' And the officers received Him with slaps in the face."

As we look at Mark's account, along with other gospel writers, I would like to emphasize two things that we will use as part of our outline. First of all, we're going to look at number one, the mock trial. And secondly, I want you to focus with me on the majestic Messiah. We're going to see this in contrast, in this passage.

You know, we are increasingly witnessing the weaponization of our judicial system as our country continues to descend into the abyss of Marxism. And it is not at all uncommon for us to see corrupt politicians and judges and attorneys, holding kangaroo courts, using novel legal theories and perverted principles of law and justice, and false witnesses even, to prosecute their political rivals. And this is exactly what we see here in this historical narrative that reveals the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of civilization. But here we also witness the falsely accused being the victor. Moreover, we will see the corrupt accusers becoming the vanquished. Though they will not fully experience their fate until later. To be sure God is not mocked, right? Whatsoever a man sows that will he also reap. And what the inspired gospel writers revealed in this scenario, must be considered yet another irrefutable evidence of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ--the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel, the Lord of the church, and the coming King of Glory. And my goal this morning, is not only to help you understand what really happened in this historical narrative back in the first century, but I want to also address issues like why do people choose to believe things that are demonstrably false? You ever thought about that? And what causes people to do the things that they do, in light of such evil. But the biggest question of all is, what will you do with Jesus? That's the most important issue. What will you do with Jesus? And I trust you will be moved to bow low before him as we immerse ourselves in the scene.

Let me remind you of the context; a massive armed force, led by Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 and the religious leaders of Israel, the temple police, and a cohort of Roman soldiers, have all come now and arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And they asked if he was that person, and he said, "I am"--the covenant name of God. And at that point, they all were flattened on their back, what an amazing scene. Wow, would I have loved to have been there to see that. And somehow in my mind, I can see it. And then Peter gets upset and cuts off the ear of one of the servants. And Jesus heals the ear right there in front of everybody. And then he rebukes Peter. And then he willingly allows his captors to seize Him. And at that point, all of the disciples flee.

Now, this brings us to the mock trial. Notice verse 53. "They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together." Now, these religious phonies are ruled by the sin of covetousness that we talked about the last time we were together, just like Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. They all craved material blessings, material wealth, which were easily attainable, because of their power and their prestige among the people. And Judas, of course, as you will recall, was frustrated because Jesus was not coming through for him the way he wanted to. He wasn't establishing the kingdom, so that he could be one of the big shots in the kingdom and have all these things that he wanted. Especially the prominence and the wealth that went along with it. But the high priest and the chief priests and the elders and the scribes, they already had a lot of wealth, they already had a lot of this, but Jesus was a threat, to their power, to their authority, and to their whole phony religious empire.

Moreover, they were jealous, they wanted what Jesus had--popularity. We see this all the time, don't we? In athletics. If you've been watching this whole WNBA thing with Caitlin Clark, you see the jealousy. You see it in politics, in the workplace, you see it in the families, you see it at times in church. Remember, the religious leaders did everything they possibly could to impress the people, to get them to worship them. But the problem is, this Jesus of Nazareth has come along and he's getting all of the attention. And he's doing things that's completely blowing everybody's mind with his miracles. In fact, we read in Matthew 21, verse 14, "And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests of the scribe saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children were shouting in the temple, 'Hosanna, to the son of David,' they became indignant..." And later on, even Pilate could see what was driving these guys. Mark records this in Mark 15, beginning in verse nine, "Pilate answered them, saying, 'Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?' For he was aware that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy." Envy, jealousy, covetousness they're all part of the same category of sin. And they always produce strife and divisiveness, and factions and hatred and manipulation, lies, theft, violence, and on and on it goes. So "They led Jesus away to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together."

Now you need to have some more background here. Very important. This will be the first of a three-part trial conducted by the Jewish leaders. First, Jesus will appear before Annas who was the former high priest and the father in law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, according to John 18. And Annas was, you could liken him to a mafia boss, he ran the temple merchants and the money changers. It was a very lucrative enterprise. In fact, they nicknamed that whole enterprise the Bizarre of Annas. And, of course, Jesus disrupted it totally two times, one at the beginning of his ministry the other time at the end of his ministry. You will remember in Matthew 21:13, Jesus said to them, "'It is written, "MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER"; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN."'" And it's also important to note that, over the years in that era, five of Annas' son's held that office of high priest. A little nepotism going on there. But now his son in law, Caiaphas, held the office, and they're all corrupt. So first, Jesus is going to go to Anis and then he's going to appear before Caiaphas in the Sanhedrin. And finally, he will appear before the Sanhedrin, just a second time after dawn.

But it didn't end there. Also, there will be beyond the three-part Jewish trial, which is some kind sometimes called the ecclesiastical trial, there will be a three part Roman trial, sometimes called the civil trial, and there he will appear before Pilate, and then Herod Antipas, and then Pilate again.

Now, as we come to this text, bear in mind that Mark is focusing on the second part of the Jewish trials, not when he appeared before Annas recorded in John 18:13 and following, but when Jesus was unfairly convicted by Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, as we will see. But before examining this closely, I want to take you back to the first trial to give you a little sense of what has happened up to this point. Let's see what happened when Jesus stood before the blood thirsty Annas, who was clearly in search of a crime worthy of death. He's trying to trap Jesus, John 18, beginning in verse 19, we read about it, "The high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching. Jesus answered him, 'I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues in in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing and secret. Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.'"

Now, this was a very legitimate response by Jesus. Because under the Mosaic Law charges were not allowed to be brought against a person without credible witnesses. So this was an illegal arraignment from the outset. Verse 22, goes on, "When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus saying, 'Is that the way You answer the high priest?' Jesus answered him, 'If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?' So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest." In other words, he's unable to find any reason to charge him for something worthy of death. So he sends him over to Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin, to see if they could conjure up something which will include on their part, enlisting--probably through bribery--false witnesses to testify against Jesus. Testimonies that proved to be contradictory and further proved what a legal farce this whole thing really is.

Now, notice what else Mark adds and we come back to the text. It's kind of a parenthetical statement here, undoubtedly at the request of Peter, who was giving him so much of this information because Peter was there. Verse 54, "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." Now of course by this time, Peter's conscience is screaming at him; he has left Jesus. And to be sure, he is terrified like anyone would be. But he's also plagued with guilt. And no doubt Jesus statement concerning Satan wanting to sift him like wheat is resonating in the back of his mind. Moreover, he was thinking about Jesus' prediction that you're going to deny me three times, before the rooster crows; all of these things must have been weighing on his heart. Plus, he truly loved Jesus. Although he was learning how much more he loved himself. So this scene is going to set up his denial in the courtyard recorded later on in the chapter.

So we come back to verse 55, "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." Now bear in mind, the Romans would not allow the Jews to have the power of capital punishment. So therefore, the Jews had to give them a reason for a death sentence. And it had to be something beyond "Well, he's violating the Sabbath" or he's healing people on the Sabbath, or he claims to be our Messiah. I mean, the Romans would just laugh at all of that; they don't care about any of that stuff. They considered Judaism as nothing more than kind of a ridiculous and offensive oriental cult, practiced by a bizarre group of people that they have subjugated. So, you know, none of that is going to fly with them. But the Sanhedrin also knew that at Passover, Jerusalem would be filled with nationalistic Jews that wanted to somehow revolt against Rome. And so at Passover time, it was a powder keg; a powder keg for revolution. And the deadly knife of the Jewish guerrilla warriors known as the Sicarii, which means "dagger men" were always lurking in the shadows, and they were there by the 1000s. Especially on special occasions, like Passover. You may recall in Acts 21:38 The commander asks Paul, if he was, quote, "'...the Egyptian who had some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the 4000 men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?'" So the Sanhedrin knew that the Romans would be on guard. This, however, would be something that would play to their advantage, if they could find some way of accusing Jesus of being an insurrectionist. That would turn the Romans against him.

But they also had to find a charge severe enough to inflame the Jews, of whom so many of them love Jesus, for the wrong reasons. But inflame them enough to warrant a death penalty. Now, to accomplish all of this, they're going to have to violate every standard of jurisprudence, including their own laws. Let me give you a little feel of what their laws were so you can see what's going on here. As it relates to Jewish law, the Sanhedrin was only allowed to investigate and adjudicate cases brought to them. They weren't allowed to go out and try to find them. They were not allowed to initiate charges. But I believe obviously they're ignoring all of this. And private trials were forbidden. Trials away from the temple were forbidden, according to the Mosaic Law. They're violating this. Moreover, according to Pharisaic law, hearings pertaining to capital punishment were not allowed on the eve of a major festival, like Passover. you couldn't do that. Nor were they allowed at night. Yet Jesus is going to be tried and condemned between the hours of basically one and 3am. Also, Jewish law did not permit the sentence of capital punishment to be pronounced until a day passed after the accuser was convicted. Members of the court were required to fast; they were required to pray and to reflect upon their decision. And by the way, this is why the trials were not allowed on the day before a feast, when fasting was not permitted, and they believed, and I think this has great merit that that 24 hour period provided time for further testimony to surface. But of course, they violated all of this. Worse yet Jesus was executed on the day of the feast. None of this mattered. Remember, these vindictive religious phonies, had determined to kill Jesus a long time ago. But they feared that an assassination might initiate a bloody uprising among the Jews, which would result in Roman reprisals and might jeopardize their positions of authority. And so they had to weaponize their own legal system to do something to accomplish the task. And of course, this is a common practice, as I said earlier, among our politicians today, law enforcement agencies, attorneys, judges, in fact, we've got a name for it today. It's called lawfare.

So again, verse 55, "Now the chief priests in the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death. And they were not finding any." So, if you can't find any, what are you going to do, well you gonna bribe some guys to come in and give false testimony. Verse 56, "For many, we're giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. Some stood up and began to give the 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."'" Now, of course, this is not only a misinterpretation, but it is a mis quotation of what Jesus said. They're trying to say that Jesus was mocking the temple, and he's going to destroy it. You know, it's absurd. In John 2:19, for example, Jesus said, "'Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.'" And then in verse 21, it says, "Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body." So it's easy to twist and to distort things to make it somehow spin in your favor.

Verse 59, Mark goes on to add, "Not even in this respect, was their testimony consistent." You see, liars cannot be consistent with their false statements. That's why police, when they arrest a group of people, they always separate them to question them. That's how you get all of the discrepancies. But if people are telling the truth, even when you separate them, they're essentially going to say the same thing, because that's really what they witnessed, rather than this is what they are making up. So the false testimonies were inconsistent. And they were also too flimsy, shall we say, to incriminate Jesus, much less than justify a death sentence. Therefore, knowing that this thing is going nowhere fast, all right, the whole thing is not going the way Caiaphas and the boys wanted it to. So Caiaphas decides to take over, he jumps to his feet, takes charge, verse 60, "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." Obviously, this infuriated Caiaphas. He was not used to anyone ignoring Him. But Jesus also knew he was being led into a trap. Plus Jesus refused to give credibility to the false testimonies by somehow offering a defense. Why legitimize a lie by responding to it? But even more importantly, his silence was also part of the Father's decorative will. This is what the Father had ordained in eternity past. And therefore, it was prophesied for example, in Isaiah 42, beginning in verse one. There we read, "'Behold, My Servant whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.'"

And we see Jesus' silence prophesied even more specifically in Isaiah 53 verse seven, "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that has led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth." You may recall that later, Jesus remained silent before Pilate, recorded in Mark 15, beginning in verse four, There we read, "Then Pilate question Him again, saying, 'Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You!' But Jesus made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed."

Back to Mark 14 verse 61, later in the verse again, "...the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, 'Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?'" Matthew gives us this insight in Matthew 26 verse 63, "And 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.'" In other words, I'm placing you under oath before the living God. My, what another example of the deceptive power of hypocrisy, right? Yeah, I mean, after all, God will judge liars in a court like this. We can't have any of that, we can't have any deception in this most holy court. Hypocrisy knows no bounds, right? This is the kind of sanctimonious behavior that Jesus condemned so many times. For example, in Matthew 23, beginning in verse 23, he said, "'Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!'"

Now, Caiaphas and these guys with the Sanhedrin, knew very well that Jesus claimed to be Christ, the Son of God; that was a well-known claim of Jesus. But this was also, shall we say, the decisive question. This was the key reason the Jews hated him. Because he claimed to be God's Son. That was blasphemy, that was worthy of death. Now, as I think about it, I'm sure some of those in attendance were thinking to themselves, "you know what, he just may be. After everything I've seen, I mean, I can look on my robes right now and see the grass stain and the dust from being thrown onto my back. Every part of me is aching from being thrown to the ground when he said 'I am.' I saw him heal the ear."

You know, this brings up that question, why do people choose to believe things that are demonstrably false? I mean, the evidence that Jesus was who He claimed to be, was absolutely overwhelming. Beloved, the answer is quite simple. People believe what they want to believe. They have to believe that which will advance their agenda, that which will justify their sin. That which will maintain their autonomy from God. That which will, further their rabid self-determination. A commitment that so many people have. I mean, think about it, the Jewish elite didn't care about the truth. They cared about their positions of power and prestige. So they're going to believe what they want to believe. Forget the truth. We see this all the time in our culture, do we not? I think of evolutionary theory. There is no evidence of single celled life transitioning into multicellular life forms over millions of years. And even if there were, where did the first cell come from? I mean, people believe what they want to believe. I mean, if you don't believe in evolution, you have to believe there was a creator. And if there's a creator, that means, oh, my, I should probably worship him and he will probably judge me. Because they're made in the image of God. They know that that is true. That's why Romans one says "...they suppress the truth in unrighteousness." The self-loathing transgender, believes in their mind that he or she is the opposite sex. Of course, that is demonstrably false. Why do they believe that? Well, they believe what they want to believe, because in their mind, this is their identity. This is how they can find life. This is how they can find fulfillment. This is how they can gain attention. This is how they can be treated special, although they're miserable, and they need Christ. So we try to force everyone to affirm them by using their pronouns so that we all join in with their delusion. They believe what they want to believe. Many religious people believe things that are biblically, and exegetically, indefensible. Why? Because their belief supports their preconceived ideas and convictions, not because they're true. And the cost of somehow acknowledging that they might be wrong is way too high. So I'm going to believe what I want to believe. Just listen to the so-called Christian homosexual, who will try to support their perversions with scripture, rather than asking, I'm wondering if it is possible that this text doesn't justify homosexuality? Is it possible for this text to justify homosexuality without doing violence to sober exegesis? Instead, they will violate every principle, every standard of hermeneutics, to make a text mean something that is utterly ridiculous. Why? Because they want to believe something that will justify their sin.

Think of politics. We're all aware of the debate this last week, and all that's going on with all of this chaos in the world system of presidential election. I was laughing, there are people who claim to believe that our president is mentally fit for office, that the economy is doing great, and that the border is secure. And you have the administration and the media that they can control, constantly gaslighting us to believe these things. But by every metric, those assertions are demonstrably false. And any reasonable, unbiased, informed person would agree with that. I mean, it's so sad, you see the debate and you see this decrepit old man that's senile in serious cognitive decline. I mean, ask yourself, if you were on the board of a major corporation, and this guy was applying to be the CEO, would you hire him? Obviously not. Yet he wants to be the leader of the free world. This is insane. Why do people believe those things? You pay your grocery bills, you pay your gas bills, your interest rate. I mean, you look at millions of people crossing the border. I mean, this is lunacy. But again, people want these things to be true. Because it is necessary for them to be true in order for them to promote their agenda. And in this case, it's kind of that immoral, globalist, centralized government agenda. You have to deify the state. So you've got to believe these things.

Well, this is the type of thing going on with the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas and his band of merry hypocrites knew they were violating the laws of jurisprudence. They knew Jesus was innocent, and they probably knew, at least some of them, that he was or just might be, who he said he was, but they simply could not bring themselves to embrace that. Moreover, we know that to the natural man, the things of the spirit are foolishness, and he cannot understand them because he's spiritually appraised. Not only that, Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers, right? Hearts are desperately... they're deceived, desperately wicked. So they believe what they wanted to believe, regardless of the truth, although it was all demonstrably false, so they could stay in power.

Now Caiaphas is so blinded by covetousness and rage that he treads where angels fear to tread. He gets in Jesus's face essentially, and says, I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. Here my friends, we move from my first point of the mock trial, I want you to notice now, secondly, the majestic Messiah. Verse 62. "And 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.'" I marvel at the scene; Jesus not only acknowledges that he is indeed the Christ, the Son of God, which is blasphemy. But then he goes on to drive this nail of truth, even further into their evil hearts by claiming that he is the fulfillment of two Messianic prophecies that they would have been very familiar with. The first one, he quotes a portion of David's song of praise, directed at the coming Messiah. It's recorded in Psalm 110 verse one. We read, "The LORD says to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" Let me just briefly exegete that. The LORD, that's Yahweh, that's the covenant name, too holy to utter sometimes called the tetragrammaton--the four letters to wonderous to even utter from the lips, Y H W H-- "The LORD says to my Lord:" and here this is Adonai, this is a substitute for his covenant name; this is a title name referring to "master." "'Sit My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" So there, David is saying, Yahweh, Jehovah God, addressed my Lord, Messiah, my ancestral Son, the very Son of God, and by extension, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what Yahweh said to my Lord Messiah, "'Sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet.'" In other words, Yaweh promised his mediator--the Messiah, David's master, David's Lord--that He might give him the final and ultimate glory, and majesty and power. Dear friends, this is a promise of preeminence, that could only be given to God himself and Jesus is saying, that's me. Caiaphas and all the other Jewish scholars understood this.

Let me add verse two of that text, "The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion saying, 'Rule in the midst of Your enemies.'" Can you imagine interrogating the incarnate Son of God? Can you imagine sitting in judgment of your Creator? I mean, folks, this is a prop. This is a an example of pride that just exceeds the limit of imagination. But what is amazing is Jesus is undaunted. I love this. He looks Caiaphas in the eye, so to speak. And with penetrating clarity, he tells him and the whole lot of them, that I am the Christ, the Son of God. And the Father has ordained that I sit at his right hand until the time when I make my enemies like you, a footstool for my feet. What an amazing in your face answer. And I might add, this was a warning. What an act of mercy on Jesus' part. Indeed, Messiah waits for the final surrender of his enemies, Hebrews 10:13.

Moreover, think of Paul in First Corinthians 15, beginning of verse 25. He comes into Corinth and he's telling them, "He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death." So again, think about this, Jesus pokes Caiaphas right in the eye with a sharp stick of truth. You want the truth presented in the presence of the living God? Here it is. Notice what else Jesus said, He responded to Caiaphas by quoting a portion of Daniel seven and verse 13. I'm going to read that to you, but also verse 14, because they would have understood it in that context. "'I kept looking at 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 and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.'" In other words, guys, that is a reference to me, Jesus is saying. You know, this is this is such a powerful example of proper evangelism. I hear people many times say, you know, I just really don't know what to tell people, I really don't know where to begin. I, you know, especially people that are hostile to Christianity, like some of those in my family. Folks, I'll tell you what to tell them. Do what Jesus did, Tell them who Jesus is. That's where you begin. Tell them what he has done for you, and why he did what he did. You will recall in Matthew 16, verse 13, Jesus was asking his disciples, "'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" Folks, that's what you tell people. Beloved, there is no gospel, apart from the clear proclamation of the unsearchable riches of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Never be ashamed of that. Tell them Romans three, verse 23, that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as the propitiation in His blood through faith." In other words, he was the satisfaction of divine wrath on my part. Let me tell you who Jesus is. Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 10, beginning in verse nine, "...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord," which of course requires that you know who he is, "and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will shall be saved, for with the heart person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For scripture says, 'WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.'" Again, never be ashamed of the gospel, dear friend, never be ashamed of Christ. Confess him before men, never tried to adjust the truth, never tried to compromise the truth, never tried to obfuscate the truth. Lovingly, but with spiritual boldness, look, a person in the eye. Look Caiaphas in the eye, lean forward and with indefatigable boldness, tell them who Jesus is.

I think of Paul as he went to the wicked, wicked city of Corinth, as some of us just returned from recently. In First Corinthians two, verse two, he said, For I determined to know nothing among you, except the social gospel....I determined to know nothing among you except the prosperity gospel...."I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, and in fear and in much trembling and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God." So again, go back to the scene with his neck, veins bulging and rage; this high hypocrite gets in Jesus' face and says, "'I adjure You by the living God, that You will tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.' And Jesus said, "I am; And you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF PWOER AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.'" This was more than Caiaphas could handle.

Verse 63, "Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, 'What further need of witnesses do we have?'" Of course, this is an Academy Award winning performance at this point. I mean, tearing one's clothes was a sign of grief, in that culture it could be a sign of mourning, but also of righteous indignation. It's interesting that the Jewish Talmud even outlines how you tear your clothes, you must tear them with the outermost garment from the neck down in the front. But bear in mind, Caiaphas is not expressing grief, he is expressing glee. He is so happy. Oh, we've got him now. And his feigned righteous indignation was all show. Nothing more than pretend outrage. I don't know if I've ever quoted Shakespeare in the pulpit before, but me thinks Caiaphas doth protest too much. I mean, this sanctimonious old fool. I mean, he was as crooked as a barrel of snakes and all of them were that way. So this vile serpent spews even more venom at our Lord in verse 64. And to the rest of them, he says, "'You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?' And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death."

Now, bear in mind legally after the Sanhedrin made a verdict deserving of death, they were required to wait a full day before making a formal sentence. But they were afraid to wait that long, for fear that those brave disciples might amass an army and come take Jesus away, you know, get all of the people to revolt. So they had to get creative. Moreover, they had to preserve some semblance of jurisprudence. And so what they did is decided, well, why don't we just reconvene again a few hours later, early in the morning. And then after that trial, then the three trials with the Romans would begin. Well, friends, there you have it, the majestic Jesus, he's standing alone condemned for his explicit claims pertaining to his Messiahship, and his deity.

I might add as a footnote, according to Luke 23, verses 50 and 51, Joseph of Arimathea who later asked Pilate for the body of Jesus was, quote, "a good and righteous man." And the text says that "he did not consent to their plan of action." Isn't it interesting, even in the ranks of the most wicked, God is never without a witness. Verse 65, "Some began to spit at Him. "That's a horrible thing. I've had that happen to me. I remember the first time I was leading a small group of men and I made the comment that there is salvation in no other name apart from Jesus and a man got up and cussed me and walked over to me and knelt down and spit in my face and walked out. I remember being in Israel and a young Jewish pastor was telling the story, how he was walking down the street there in central Israel and an Orthodox Jewish man and his son, saw him, knew who he was, and he stopped the young pastor, and said to his son, I want you to see how we treat Christians. And then the man spit in his face and told his son to do the same thing.

Friends, the cruelty of the wicked knows no bounds. They spit at him. Verse 65. They blindfolded him, they beat him with their fists, "...and they said to Him 'Prophesy!' And the officers received Him with slaps in the face." They mocked him, they defied his claim to deity, demanding that he somehow prove his omniscience, which, of course, he could have done. And he will someday when they stand before him in judgment. Matthew 26 verse 68, we read what they said, "'Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?'" You know, I cannot fathom such sadistic, inhumane cruelty that the Lord endured, and is going to grow so much worse. And I want to remind you folks, that this kind of hatred is extended towards us today. And it's going to get much worse. I think of what Jesus said in John 15, beginning in verse 18, "'If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you.'" And Paul told young Timothy in Second Timothy three beginning of verse 12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And he went on to add, "But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."

Beloved, I can assure you if it weren't for the laws that we have in our country that are gradually being removed, we would be treated equally as bad. Don't forget, Jesus predicted all of this, all the way back in Mark 10, beginning of verse 33. He said, "'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later, He will rise again.'" That's exactly what happened. Let me ask another question, what causes a person to have such intense hatred of Christ? The answer is, people despise anyone who tells them the truth about their sin. Jesus said in John seven, verse seven, the world "'...hates Me because I testify of it, that it's deeds are evil.'" I mentioned it earlier in Romans one, verse 18, we read how "...the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them." Beloved, we need to love people enough to tell them the truth about their sin and the love of the Savior. And if they are among the elect to the Spirit of God will move upon their heart with that gospel message. And he will use that truth to pry open that box that they are trying to suppress so that they will see the horror of their sin and the glory of the cross, and they will be saved by the regenerating power of the Spirit of God.

I wish to leave you with this and again imagine the scene, Jesus is standing there alone. He's blindfolded. By now he is bruised, he has swelled. He has spittle covering his bloodied face. Unimaginable humiliation and pain that he is suffering. And this is mild compared to what he will endure. And yet Peter tells us and his epistle, First Peter two verse 23, "...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." O, what a Savior, what pain he endured. What love beyond measure, when in my place, he stood.

My friend, if you're here today, and you've never done business with God, and you've never humbled yourself before him, and acknowledged your sinfulness and cried out for the undeserved mercy that he would give you, I plead with you to do that before it's too late. Because one day you will stand before him either as your Savior and King or your judge and executioner. And for those of us who know and love Christ, may we leave here today with a renewed sense of what he suffered on our behalf and the glory that awaits us with him because of his saving grace, Amen.

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word, may they find lodging in each heart and may they bear fruits of repentance for some and fruits of greater praise for others. We give you thanks, we give you praise for all you have done for us in Christ and it's in his name that I pray. Amen.