The passage today is Matthew, chapter 26, beginning in verse 57, would you stand for the reading of God's Word? Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the High Priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the High Priest, and going inside he set with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none. And though many false witnesses came forward, at last two came forward and said, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And the High Priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you, but Jesus remained silent? And the High Priest said to him, I adure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus said to him, you have said so, but I tell you from now on you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. And then the High Priest tore his robe and said, he has uttered blasphemy. What further witness do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy, what is your judgment? And they answered, he deserves death. And they spit in his face and struck him, and some slapped him saying, prophesied who asked you Christ, who is it that struck you? This is the word of the Lord. Maybe so, maybe so. Two powerful kings had fought to a standstill. They stood in front of Jerusalem and negotiated for peace, October the 2nd, 1187, King Ballion, King of Jerusalem, and King Saladin, Sultan of the Empire of the Muslim world. Someone had the upper hand of numbers. The other fiercely determined not to lose, but the handwriting was on the wall. There would be a high price for freedom, and it was. The price was put on the head of every man, every woman, and every child. It had to be paid, negotiations were fierce, and finally settled, and Jerusalem was delivered to Saladin. A thousand years plus before, two other great powerful men stand before each other. Two kingdoms are clashing. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. These two had to face one another. They had never met publicly that we know Jesus and Caiaphas. The battle had been coming and coming and coming, and now the time was there. One had the upper hand. Jesus is bound, betrayed by one of his own that had been secretly paid for by the other ruler, and Caiaphas thinks he has the answer. And so this battle, Caiaphas thought, was over. Now the question simply was, how do we make this look acceptable? So witnesses are brought in, false witnesses, but they could not agree. They wanted to destroy Jesus. Caiaphas knew that this had to be done because the decision had already been determined. John and his gospel speaks of this moment just a day before when Jesus had been confronted, and the Jews had said gathered around him and said, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly, and Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do, and my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. And the Jews picked up stones again to stone him, and Jesus said, I have shown you many good works from the father, for which of them are you going to stone me? And the Jews answered, it is not for a good work, we're going to stone you, but it is for blessed for me, because you being a man, make yourself to be God. Jesus walks away from this crowd, and shortly thereafter raises Lazarus from the dead, and then Chiapas enters the scene. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, what are we to do? So this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone who will believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation. But one of them, Chiapas, who was high priest that year said to them, you know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. And then John comments, he did not say this on his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on, they made plans to put him to death. This mockery of a trial was illegal, contrived, and false. They could not find witnesses who would agree. They could only wrestle with this issue of a statement Jesus had made three years before about tearing down the temple and raising it up, but he had spoken that of himself. And now this great leader, Chiapas, could feel the foolishness of the moment, and he could feel that his opportunity to cinch this deal that had already been decided was slipping away that would make him feel good and look good in front of the people. And so he took a very brilliant and risky step. He did the only thing that could make Jesus speak, because Jesus remained silent during this time, because there were no criminal charges, and he wasn't about to have any part of this foolishness. But Chiapas said, I charge you, I adure you under the oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. This was brilliant for two reasons. He had very precisely chosen his words. For if he had simply asked, tell us if you're the Messiah, Jesus could have answered that even in the affirmative without any jeopardy, because many people had claimed to be the Messiah in the past, but politically they were dealt with by the Romans. Time would have simply told the answer to that. But secondly, he had realized this, if he had only asked if Jesus was the Son of God, Jesus could have answered that as well. As a matter of fact, he had already answered that. He had accused him of saying that, and he says, aren't all of us Jews, sons of God quoting Psalm 82, but because he had worded it in this way, tell us not just you are the Messiah and a Son of God in a general way, but are you the Messiah who is God? And he knew Jesus had to answer the question. And so Jesus said to him, yes, it is as you say. Now why does Jesus seem to answer at this moment, where the two great powers between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man are facing one another? Very clear reason. Because the way Jesus asks the question means when the answer is given, it has to come back on the enquirer to accept the responsibility of the answer. And so in essence, Jesus is saying them, yes, you have said it and you therefore are responsible for it, but Jesus doesn't stop there. He goes far beyond chiasis, weak human understanding of what a Messiah was or is. He affirms he is the Messiah, the Son of God, by basing it on the very words of God himself from the prophet Daniel. And he uses the title he had chosen for himself, which was the Son of Man. And every person in that room knew this prophecy. And Jesus said, quoting from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God of power coming on the clouds of heaven. The next time you see me, I will be coming as the everlasting king who will reign forever Messiah, Son of God, as the passage goes on to reveal. He blows away their weak understanding because all they wanted was an earthly king that would promote their interests. Caiaphas is great leader now, thanks. He has his man, blasphemy, he's worthy of death, but it is Jesus who has his man. Those go Caiaphas by his own words has condemned himself, but better than that, he has opened the very plan of God that had been intended for all a time and eternity. He played right into the very hand of God because you see, the ultimate victory between these two kingdoms was not through power, but it was through death. It was not through who was going to be ruler. It was through the cross, and Jesus has won the trial because that's what he came to do. Two kingdoms face each other, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. But these two kingdoms still face each other today. Do we build our kingdom or do we build his kingdom? Do we crown him as king Lord of all or do we crown ourselves as Lord overall of our life? Is it his will that will be done on earth or is it our will that will be done on earth? And one said, the kingdom of self is heavily fortified and it doesn't die easily. But my friends, that's why we have the cross. I can't give up my kingdom of self. I can't overrule myself. Only Christ can, only He can because of the cross, and that's why He came to die. That's why He confronted the spiritual powers of the day. That's why later He confronted the political powers of the day. That was no problem for Him. But truly the great issue was who was going to rule Christ, the cross, his death. That's who rules.