It's exciting stuff. Exciting yesterday, also thank you. If you came out and served for our Saturday of service, we get together as a church a few times a year and serve different groups in our city, different locations, and even had some things going on here that we hope to be able to bless the community with. So thank you if you served. Let's see here. If you have a Bible, go ahead and turn with me to Mark chapter 14. We're going to continue our sermon series through the gospel of Mark. And we're going to look at verses 53 through 65 this morning. If you don't have a Bible, you can grab one from underneath the chair in front of you. It's going to be on page 183. And let me just advance warning, I really would like you to keep your Bibles out and open. We're really going to literally touch on every verse as we move through this passage this morning. So it'd be really good for us to have our eyes on the word. So here now, God's holy and true word, Mark chapter 14 starting in verse 53. And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. And Peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death. But they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him saying, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands. And in three days, I will build another not made with hands. Yet even about this, their testimony did not agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But he remained silent and made no answer. Again, the high priest asked him, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest tore his garments and said, what further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision? And they all condemned him as deserving death. And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, sang to him, prophesy. And the guards received him with blows. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you that we get to gather together and to spend time singing your praises and hearing your voice and your word. The Lord Jesus says that His sheep know His voice. And we want to hear His voice this morning. Holy Spirit, would you open our eyes and hearts to receive from you today? And would you use this time to build us up and equip us with the knowledge and the love of the gospel so that we are better able to bring this good news to our neighbors and to the nations and so that it grows ever sweeter in our own hearts as well. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Interesting scene here that we're looking at this morning and Jesus being falsely accused and judged by these religious leaders and His ability to endure that and remain calm. It is really shocking. If you think about it, we've all probably experienced being judged, being falsely accused of things and unjustly judged, knowing that people think about us a certain way. And we know that that's not really true about us or maybe they say certain things about us and that's not true. And there's a real pain that can settle in when we feel like we are judged. And what's so interesting about that is at the same time, we all struggle not to judge others. It's a battle with an every human heart to avoid judging people that we know, but we do it. And it's not right, it's not a good thing, but we'd be liars if we said we never judged. How do you know something judgmental is about to come out of your mouth? You preface it with, I don't mean to be judgmental, but so there's this interesting dynamic in the way that we hate being judged, but yet we struggle with judging others. And what I just love, and I think it's gonna be so powerful for us as a church, as we look at Jesus in this moment, looking at the way he responds and what he says and realizing, therefore, that it's really through faith in him, it's through faith in Christ that we can endure false judgment against us, being falsely judged, as well as being set free from our tendency to judge others. I mean, it's really amazing what we see from Jesus in this passage that we can be enabled and empowered to endure when we're falsely judged, as well as being liberated from that tendency we have to judge others. So, we're gonna look at two things if you're making an outline and wanna remind you, keep your bibles open because we're really gonna look at pretty much every verse. Two things, we'll talk about Jesus is judged, and that's what we're really seeing here in this passage that Jesus is judged by the Sanhedrin or this council of Jewish rulers. But then we're gonna talk about how Jesus is judged, okay? So, there's our roadmap for this morning. First, we'll look at Jesus is judged and then we'll see that Jesus is judged. Okay, let's jump in. Look at 53 through 61, starting in verse 53, we'll talk about Jesus is judged, really focusing on the fact that the way that we respond to the false judgment of others depends on what we believe about God, okay? The way that we respond when people are falsely accusing us, falsely judging us is really gonna depend on what we believe about God, 53. And they led Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together, okay, a little bit of context. If you remember, last week, they arrested Jesus and they led him away under guard and this is where they led him to. They take him to the home of the high priest. It's in the middle of the night, it's dark, it's cold. And this high priest's name is Caiaphas. Now, Mark doesn't tell us that but Matthew and John tell us that in their gospels. And so they bring Jesus to the home of the high priest Caiaphas and they have what sort of looks like a trial but there's some fishy things going on here because this is not the place that you would normally have a trial or is it the time that you would normally have a trial? Interestingly enough, all these members of the Sanhedrin, this council are just happen to be available in the middle of the night. And what that shows is this is all part of their plan to take Jesus out. The Sanhedrin is this ruling council of the Jews and it's made up of the high priest and then 70 members, they were either Pharisees or elders or scribes or chief priests and it was really modeled after when Moses was the leader of Israel and then there were 70 elders. So they modeled after that and in order to have some sort of proceeding or trial, they have to have a certain of them there and it looks like a lot of them if not all of them were present. So that's kind of the scene here where we've got all these council members and Jesus. Now we jump outside in verse 54 and it says Peter had followed him at a distance, right? Into the courtyard of the high priest and he was sitting with the guards warming himself at the fire. Now Peter gets off the hook this week. His mic is gonna help us understand what's happening in his denial next week but the reason that Mark puts this here about Peter is so that we know it's really a literary device. It's so that we know that these things are happening simultaneously. What we're looking at this week and what we'll look at next week are happening at the exact same time. Okay, so more on Peter next week. Now back to our regular scheduled trial. Look at 55. Now the chief priest and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death but they found none. For many more false witness against him but their testimony did not agree. Here's what they're doing. Here's what they're after. The Jewish law stated from in Deuteronomy and in numbers that in order for a trial to take place in order for charges to be made against somebody you had to have at least two witnesses. Okay, ultimately two witnesses saying the same thing and so what's happening here is you got the council members present, you got Jesus present and they're bringing in individuals one at a time. That's how they would have done that and that individual one at a time would give some sort of testimony. And obviously what's happening here is one person is saying one thing and then they leave and another person is coming in and saying something similar but it doesn't quite match and therefore the testimony of all of these different individuals who tell some similar but different it ends up all being admissible and these charges just keep falling off of Jesus by the way, how interesting. Not only are all these council members just happen to be available in the middle of night but all these witnesses are able to show up too and it's really just showing you it's emphasizing what's really happening here. Look at 55 again, makes it crystal clear the chief priest and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death but they found none. What does that tell you? What that tells you is that the truth is not what they're after here. These false accusations and these false judgments that they're making really has nothing to do with the truth. Their desire, their goal is to hurt Jesus to get him killed. Now that's really important for you and me to know when we think about sometimes the false accusations and false judgment that people throw towards us, it may have absolutely nothing to do with what's actually true about us and everything to do with their desire simply to hurt. So they're not looking for the truth, they're just looking for a way to get Jesus killed 57. And some set up and bore false witness against him saying, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands and in three days I will build another, not made with hands. Yet even about this, Mark tells us that their testimony did not agree, now why this? Why does Mark point out this particular accusation? And the reason is because the reality of the situation for this Jewish council is that even if they get some sort of charge to stick on him, they can't execute him. They don't have the authority, they're under Roman rule and the Romans very jealously guarded their exclusive right to carry out executions. So they need something that they can hand over to the Roman government to have Jesus executed. And the reality is that in this time, in the Greco-Roman world, destroying or desecrating a place of worship was a capital of fence. So they really want to get him on this one. But they can't. So what happens is they give this testimony. Now the reality is they really are just messing up what Jesus actually said. They're just misrepresenting his words. In chapter 13 verse two, we saw in this gospel that we're in, we saw that Jesus said the temple was gonna be destroyed. He didn't say he was gonna do it. But he said it was going to be destroyed. Then of course, if you're familiar with John's gospel and John's gospel, Jesus says destroy this temple. And in three days, I will raise it up. Now, what John tells us is that he was talking about his body. Even though some of the people there present did think he was talking about the temple, but notice, even still. He simply said, if this temple is destroyed, I will raise it up. He never said, I am going to destroy anything. So they're trying to spin things. They're trying to get him, get these charges to stick. They're not after the truth. They have a goal. They just want to hurt him. They want to get him killed. And so what Mark is really shining a light on here is the innocence of Jesus. That he's done nothing wrong. And that's being buried out in the way that they can't get anything to stick. He's lived every moment of his life by the book. And even through his ministry, he never broke any laws at all whatsoever. So at this point now, everybody's probably getting pretty frustrated. Why can't we get him? Why can't we get these things to stick? And so the high priest jumps in and he tries to question Jesus. And there's some question as to whether or not this was legal for him to do this, to try to get Jesus to incriminate himself. But he doesn't care about the truth. Caiaphas doesn't care about what's true, what's right. He just wants to get Jesus in trouble. So look at 60. It says that Caiaphas stands up and says, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent and made no answer. Now his silence is really amazing. His silence emphasizing his innocence, but also this is just one other place we've seen this before. That Mark is really making sure that we are making the connection between Jesus and this suffering servant that Isaiah prophesied about hundreds of years before this time. Mark wants to make sure that we see that Jesus is that suffering servant. Look at Isaiah 53 verse seven. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like sheep that before its shears is silent. He opened not his mouth. And one of the things that this shows us is that things are going according to plan. He is this suffering servant who is remaining silent as he's being oppressed and afflicted. And it's, you know, he knows Jesus knows there's a reason. There's a purpose for which he is undergoing this false testimony, these false judgments against him from the Sanhedron. So we see from his silence that he's the suffering servant but we also see an opportunity for us to really consider how we respond when people are leveling false accusations against us that aren't true. Because we live in a world where everybody says it's wrong to judge people but yet everybody still judges people and we're not supposed to judge one another. Jesus makes that very clear. And the reality is how we respond when somebody is judging us, when they are thinking or speaking falsely against us the way we respond, it really depends on what we believe about God. It doesn't depend on whether we can defend ourselves or prove our innocence. It really, how we respond in that moment, how we're impacted. Depends on what we believe about God. One thing that's interesting, we know Peter's outside, right? And Peter will later write this and it helps us to understand what's going through Jesus' mind when all these false accusations are flying at him. Look at this, first Peter, 223. And we can put Jesus' name in there because that's who Peter's talking about. When Jesus was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. You see it? Jesus is enduring these false accusations, his false testimony against him because he is trusting fully in the one who judges justly. If we want strength to endure the false judgment of others and false accusations, we need to focus less on what they're saying about us and more on the fact that God alone is our judge. God alone is the one whose opinion, whose view, whose judgment, whose words matter about us. Listen to that, God alone is your judge and God alone is my judge. Paul fleshes this out a little bit in First Corinthians. If you're on the reading plan, you read this just in the last week or so. First Corinthians four, one through five, I've got a couple of those verses on the screen for you but listen to these words from the Apostle Paul. He says, this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God moreover. It is required of stewards that they be found faithful. Verse three, listen to this. But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. Far I am not aware of anything against myself but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. He goes on to say, therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the Lord comes. Who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart then each one will receive his commendation from our God. Do you see that? Paul is making very clear that we are judged solely by God. He's the only one who can actually judge. So here's what we need to realize that we can endure the false judgment of others when we believe deeply that God alone is our judge. This is a huge thing for you and I living in this type of world. We have got to believe that God alone is our judge and that has some unbelievable healing power when we're experiencing the false accusations and false judgments of others. Think about this, look what Paul says, this is phenomenal. Here's what he says, if we really will believe this, if we'll really believe that the Lord alone, God alone is our judge, then the reality is that the things that people say the false things against us will become a small thing to us. He doesn't say it won't hurt at all but he does say again, but with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. So what that means is the more that we believe that God alone is our judge, the smaller impact that false words of others will have against us. Also, he says that he doesn't even judge himself. So the other impact of believing that God alone is our judge is we don't get to judge ourselves and some of us struggle so much with what we say about ourselves. We never hear what other people are saying about us and what you say about yourself done count either. God alone is your judge, God alone is your judge which is what makes this rest of what we're seeing here so sweet and beautiful. So let's talk about Jesus being the judge. We've talked about Jesus is judged in this passage but he's also judge. And the reality is the way that we view God as our judge depends on what we believe about Jesus. So if we're going to believe that God alone is our judge, the number one thing we have to do is think about what do we believe about Jesus? What does this passage tell us about Jesus as our judge? Let's talk about that 61 B, the second part of 61. And we'll move all the way through 65 here. So again, the high priest asked him, this is verse 61. He says, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed? Now, just for some clarification here, this question is interesting. The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. So what definitely is happening is Caiaphas is asking Jesus if he is the Messiah. Now, when he says son of the blessed, that is he's really what he's saying is son of God but the Jews didn't like to use the word God so they would use what's called circumlocution, there's a five dollar word for you, circumlocution. And so what they would use is a word that people would know meant God. Jesus does that too in a minute by referring to God as power but Caiaphas is asking him, therefore, are you the Messiah, the son of God? Now, he's not necessarily asking Jesus if Jesus believes he is the unique divine son of God because the title of son of God is applied a few places in scripture. In fact, if you and I are believers, we are sons of God, okay? So he's not necessarily asking if Jesus is divine here. He's primarily asking, are you the Messiah? And so Jesus, in verse 62, whatever Caiaphas is really asking, makes completely sure that everybody understands who he knows he is, that he is indeed, the unique son of God, that he is indeed the son of man, that he is indeed God, the judge of all things. Look at 62, unbelievable. Here's what he says. I am, okay? Are you the Messiah? Is what Caiaphas is asking? And he says, yes, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. And right here, he's using a couple different places from the Old Testament and this is just an explosive and incredible verse, an incredible thing for him to say here. What he's doing is he's, once again, he's referring to Daniel chapter 7, 13 and 14. We've been through this several times in this gospel because Jesus keeps calling himself the son of man. And this is what he's referring to here with, when you've got clouds and you've got the son of man, here it is, this is the passage in the Old Testament that Jesus is claiming here for himself. He says, I saw, or Daniel said, I saw in the night and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is never lasting dominion which will not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. And so right here Jesus is claiming that he is this son of man, this promised person who's gonna rule over all things and the clouds were imagery for judgment. So he's really putting himself in the place of the supreme judge and he also says, seated at the right hand of power. And what he's doing is referring to Psalm 110, verse 1. Psalm 110, one of the most quoted Psalms in the New Testament. And here's what Psalm 1101 says. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make you and until I make your enemies, your footstool. And so what's happening in this moment is Jesus is putting himself in the place of God as the supreme judge over all things, all people of all time. He's saying that the day will come when those who are judging him now will see him with unmistakable clarity enthroned at God's side, invested with power and majesty and assigned with the task of judging all things and all people throughout all time. This is what Paul is later going to write about in 2 Corinthians 5.10 and when he writes, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And so what Jesus is saying here is, you, these counsels, and you are judging me unjustly.
But one day you will see that I am the ultimate judge over all things. Now, this puts Caiaphas in a really, really challenging situation because Caiaphas being the high priest and the leader of all of the ruling counsel of the Jews, they are the ones who are supposed to be able to recognize the Messiah when he comes. And so he's got really two options here based on what Jesus has said and claiming, putting himself in the place of God and the judge of all things, Caiaphas has two options. He can either believe and drop and battle the need to him right there, or he can say this is blasphemy. That's his two options, belief or a blasphemy charge. He chooses the latter, 63, and the high priest tore his garments to sign of the guilt of somebody who's accused of something. And what further witness do we need? He says you have heard his blasphemy, what is your decision? And they condemn him deserving death. Now blasphemy is an interesting thing.
Ultimately, we know blasphemy is speaking untrue things about God using God's name in ways that we shouldn't, and interestingly, in Leviticus 24, the way that blasphemy is described, the verbiage used shows that blasphemy is really, it's defaming God's name, it's using God's name, in ways that significantly undervalue him, or diminish his glory or his majesty. In other words, what Caiaphas is saying in leveling a blasphemy charge, he's saying, what you just said, Jesus defames God, undervalues God.
And this is because of who it's coming from. Because in Caiaphas mind, Jesus is, there's no way that he's God's anointed. There's no way he's the judge. Not him, not this teacher who seems to socialize with and seems to love sinners can't be him, not this teacher who won't follow the traditions that the elders and the Pharisees have made up, this he can't be God's anointed. Not this man who's telling sinners they're forgiven, this can't be, not this kind, compassionate man who's touching lepers and sick people and possessed people, this is no way. This man can't be God's anointed, chosen Messiah and the judge of all things. So he says blasphemy and they all say, yep, that'll work, let's do it. And they condemn him as deserving death. And then just to see the true nature in their hearts come out 65 and they begin to spit on him and cover his face and hit him and they mock him and they beat him, just showing their utter hatred of him. And interestingly enough, they do exactly what Jesus said they would do. In Mark 10, 33 and 34, Jesus said, see, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priest in the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise and this is indeed what happens as we'll see as we continue our sermon series through the Gospel of Mark that Jesus does indeed go. He is handed over to the Gentiles, the Romans. He is placed on a cross and it is on the cross that he not only suffers the wrath of the Jews and the human beings and the Romans, it is also he is really actually receiving and absorbing and suffering God's wrath, God's judgment against the sin of God's people. This is how we're able to be set free from the penalty and power of sin like we said in our affirmation of faith because of God's judgment coming down upon Jesus. That's how we're able to be saved by faith in him. And it's just so amazing. See, the primary reason why the religious leaders did not think Jesus could actually be the Messiah that he could actually be God's anointed is because of the way that he treated sinners. I mean, all the way back, they're verdict that they were trying to get here, goes all the way back even into chapter three, the very beginning of chapter three. If you remember, Jesus healed a man with a withered hand. And verse six of chapter three it said that the Pharisees right there started looking for a way to destroy him because he welcomed sinners. He healed them, he taught them. He never wants lowered the bar of morality, not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of an inch. But at the same time, everyone in his presence even some of the vile of sinners that we read about in the pages of the gospels did not feel judged by him. John captures this so beautifully and the verse after the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3, 16, we all know for God, so love the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. But verse 17 sums this up for God to not send his son into the world to condemn the world. He didn't send his son into the world to judge. But in order that the world might be saved through him.
And here's what that means. That as judge, ruler over all things, authoritative over all things, the judge who has the knowledge, power, wisdom, authority, might, glory, majesty, ability, and every possible reason to carry out judgment upon people for their sin comes to be judged. This is what we're seeing, that Jesus, who was not guilty, was willing to be judged guilty by people so that people who are guilty will one day be judged not guilty by Jesus. And that's real, listen to me. We think that sometimes we think that forgiveness is just kind of this nice idea, but you gotta understand that when Jesus took our sin with him to the cross, he was literally went with him, it left us and he paid for it and it's gone. And when he said it is finished, he was talking about the removal of our guilt for our sin, past, present, and future. That's why we worship him and know that it's only through him. Can we actually be forgiven? Cause he removes the stains of our guilt. So we will literally be judged not guilty because he took our guilt with him to the cross and paid for it with his own blood, his own body, his own life. And this means that, so if we are believers then, what this means is not only do we have tremendous power through the work of the Holy Spirit to endure when we are unjustly judged and false accusations are thrown against us, we can endure that because we know that God alone is my judge. And simultaneously we know that we can have incredible power to not judge others because we get to walk around everyday knowing that the judge of all the earth is my judge and my judge has chosen not to judge me. He's taken my judgment upon himself so that he can not judge me and that makes us want to be like him. That's where the power for growing in our ability to not judge people comes from. It's that constant belief, that deep belief that God is not judging you and me because he judged Jesus. I think the one of the times in my life, when I felt this, more than others, was when Hannah and I, Hannah is my wife.
Hannah and I were getting pretty close to getting engaged.
I knew I felt convicted that I needed to tell her that I had a past, that there was a period in my life where I had walked away from the church and did a number of things that I was ashamed of and that I regretted and that were wrong and sinful and I wish I could get rid of them. And I thank the Lord every day that He has. So I knew I was forgiven by God. But here's this woman, I've never loved anybody else on the whole planet as much as I loved her. But I felt like I got to tell her about these things that I've done. It's only fair, she needs to know these things and I felt like I need to risk losing her love because otherwise she's marrying someone that she doesn't really know. And so I sat her down and I began to explain to her things I did when I was living trusting in the ways of the world and not understanding the beauty and the glory of the gospel. And when I had finished giving a confession really of the ways that I had lived, this was her response.
That doesn't change things for me. I love you.
That doesn't change things for me.
And I felt that what it's like to really not be judged
than it was beautiful and you have to realize that if our faith is in Christ, God looks at you and me and He sees all the things that He knows that we've done. And because of Christ, He says that doesn't change things for me. I love you. That's the power of the cross. With Him alone as our judge, what the world may say about us can fall away and be but a small thing. And at the same time, we walk around every day knowing what it's like to not be judged by the king of the world and universe and that empowers us to look to others and not judge them one bit. Isn't that amazing? As the musicians come up, I want to read the rest of Romans 8, 31 through 39. We saw a little bit in our assurance of forgiveness this morning but I want you to hear these words. Romans 8, 31 through 39, Paul writes, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised,
who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword as it is written? For your sake, we are being killed all the day long and regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us where I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor death nor anything else. In all creation, we will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we want to endure when the world says things about us that are true and we want to say things to the world that are true in such a way that they don't feel judgment. We want the world to know this good news. And so, would you just take these two realities that flow from you as our judge? Get them deep down into our heart so that they will change us, and empower us and equip us. You alone are our judge, and as our judge, you took our judgment upon yourself. So, we praise your name forever and ever in Jesus' name. Amen? Will you rise? Amen?