Two Journeys

Jesus, who had no sin, stood on trial before a wicked and corrupt judicial system. He bore the sins of mankind as a substitute and died as a display of God's justice.

Christianity is a religion of paradoxes. What are paradoxes? They're seeming contradictions, things that don't seem apparently to harmonize with one another. They're both true. We see that concerning the Christian life. We're told that we see by invisible things. We conquer by submitting. We rest by taking a yoke upon ourselves. We reign by serving others. We become great by becoming small. We're most exalted when we're most humble. We live by dying. We gain by losing. When we are weak, then we're strong. These are all paradoxes. All of these paradoxes, and so many others in the Christian life, originate with Christ himself, the ultimate paradox of the incarnation. Things that we just cannot find any way to really totally harmonize and understand. The greatest paradoxes of Christ ultimately come down to His cross. Christ at His weakest is also Christ at His strongest, most powerful. Christ, at His most apparently foolish, is the wisdom of God.

The day of Christ's death, supernaturally dark but yet gloriously bright, that we find in this Man of Sorrows, the only way toward eternal joy of these paradoxes really focus ultimately on the cross. We're going to walk through one of them this morning with this sermon. We're going to see the beginning of trials of Jesus Christ before human authorities. God on trial before man, as man probes Him and accuses Him and demands answers from Him, and we see this paradox.

Immeasurable injustice and an eternal display of justice all at once. How can it be that the greatest display of injustice in human history is also the most perfect display of divine justice in human history? But it is, it is. We have a perfect man, the God man on trial before wicked men. There's the display of injustice, as only by them being unjust to Him can Jesus be condemned to death, because He had done nothing wrong. They have to be unjust to Jesus in order for God to display His justice while also saving us. That's what we're going to walk through today.

We have immeasurable injustice toward Jesus as they break every rule in the book pretty much to get Jesus killed. But in the end, based on Romans 3, we're going to see that it is only by this way that God can display His justice in saving sinners like us. And then in the end, it's not justice that's going to save us. It is mercy. It is grace. It is compassion. Us as sinners in heaven is not a display of divine justice. Jesus dying under the wrath of God is, but us being there in the new heaven, new earth, now that's mercy. That's mercy.

 We're going to walk through that today. It's strange to consider God on trial before man, isn't it? C.S. Lewis wrote some essays that were gathered together in a book called, God in the Dock; it’s British for “God on trial.” They got that title from a statement that C.S. Lewis wrote.  He said, "This ancient man approached God as the accused person approaches his judge, but for modern man, the roles are reversed. He is the judge and God is in the dock," meaning on trial. Man is hopefully quite a kindly judge, if God should have a reasonable defense for being the God who permits war and poverty and disease, He's ready to listen to it and the trial may even end in God's acquittal if we're really nice to God. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.” 

It's a massive role reversal, but honestly, it is the truth. Human beings put God on trial every day in their minds and hearts. God is the accused, they're the accuser, especially when it comes to human suffering. Somehow God owes me an explanation or perhaps even God owes me an apology. Elie Wiesel in his book on the Jewish Holocaust said openly that seeing the suffering of the Jewish people made him strong in his accusations against God. He wrote, "This day I cease to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. He needs to give me an answer. He needs to give me an explanation." You see that reversal. Job himself we saw, as we walked through the Book of Job, got to that place too through his own suffering. In Job 31, he said, "I sign now my defense, let the Almighty answer me." Whoa, how did we get to that place? “Let my accuser [that’s God] put His indictment in writing. Surely I would wear it on my shoulder. I would put it on like a crown.”

In other words, I'm going to have the final word on this. Job’s saying, “I would give him an account of my every step. Like a prince I would approach Him.” Of course that didn't last long when God appeared in a whirlwind and spoke to him. “Who is this, who's talking?” He says, "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him." “Now I'm going to reverse it back, because I am God and you are my creations.” That's the Book of Job. We can see that tendency. Man, in his pain and his suffering or as part of the suffering human race, feels the right to put God on trial and demand explanations from Him. 

In the text and where we're at in the Gospel of Mark, we've got to that place now. Jesus' trials are a picture of this reversal.  Jesus, the glorious incarnate son of God standing on trial before wicked men, and they demand answers from Him. They accuse Him of crimes, they condemn Him to death and then they mistreat Him shamefully. Spitting in His face, slapping Him and all that. But we know, based also in the Book of Job, the future holds something very different, very different. The entire human race, every single member of it will be arraigned before the Judgment Seat of God. That's the truth, and the one seated on that seat will be Jesus himself. As He said in John 5, "The Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the son. That all may honor the son even as they honor the Father." It's an incredible statement”. I am the judge of the earth", Jesus is saying there. He is. He openly says what it's going to be like in Matthew 25:31-32, "When the son of man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, he will sit on His throne in heavenly glory and all the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." That's what it's going to look like.

As we look at this account today, picture Annas and Caiaphas and all of the Sanhedrin, and not only that, but Pontius Pilate and all of them, everyone who spit in Jesus' face and slapped Him and mocked Him, all of them on their knees before Jesus and His glorious judgment seat, because that's going to come. And not just them, but all of us. It's good for us to picture that now by faith. See that it's coming, because it is.

 So first, let's focus on what I've displayed or declared to be the most massive miscarriage of injustice in human history, which it is, the trials of Jesus, specifically this morning before Jewish religious leaders.  Let's walk through it. I'll give you an overview of Jesus' trials. There are two main phases and each of those two phases had three parts, so effectively six aspects of His trial. The first was a religious trial before the Jewish authorities, and the second was a secular trial before Roman authority, and each of those had three subparts. I think God ordained that so that there would be an equal sharing of blame between Jews and Gentiles for the death of Jesus, the only-begotten son. Both Jews and Gentiles alike are responsible for killing Jesus. God ordained that, I think. 

So as I said, each of these trials had three parts.  Phase one was a religious trial. The first part of that is not in our account today, but it's in John's Gospel in John 18:13-24. It was an arraignment in the middle of the night or early morning at Annas' house. Jesus is brought to Annas. He was kind of like a one-man grand jury to try to ascertain what specific charges that they would make against Jesus.  Annas was the true power behind all of this. He was the spider, the black spider at the center of all of this web; Annas was  truly an evil man. He had been a high priest until the year 15 AD. The Romans seeing his power removed him, but allowed him to have significant influence in who would be his successor. Ordinarily, the  high priest would serve till their death, but the Romans wanted to keep control so they removed him and everyone that succeeded him was part of his family, either his sons or his son-in-law. Caiaphas was his son-in-law.  When Jesus was brought to Annas' home, Annas tried to get Jesus to incriminate himself, which is going to happen before the Sanhedrin as well. He probed Him about His doctrine, "So tell me..." This kind of thing. It's completely illegal. Jesus calls his bluff and demands witnesses, bring the witnesses in. Annas can't deal with that. So that early first phase is done rather quickly. 

Part two, the first trial before the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas is presiding. That's the trial recorded for us in the text in Mark 14. We're going to walk through that. The third, part three, the same group is reconvened just before dawn to pronounce sentence on Jesus. That's recorded in Matthew 27:1. Then the next phase is a secular trial first before Pontius Pilate who then shipped  the matter over to Herod Antipas, who's the Tetrarch of Galilee, who happened to be in Jerusalem at that time. That's recorded for us in Luke 23:6-12.  Then back to Pilate one more time for him to wash his hands and finally condemn Jesus to death. Those are the six phases of Jesus' trial. 

Now, all of these, all of them, are scandalous miscarriages of human justice. The are a clear display of injustice every step of the way. It's fascinating, because in different ways, but very similarly, both Jews and Romans prided themselves on their systems of jurisprudence, very proud of their enlightened systems of justice, and yet both broke many rules to get Jesus killed.

Concerning Jewish justice, it was established in the laws of Moses, given by God through Moses. God wanted to establish the Jewish people as a paradigm example to the worlds of justice of an enlightened human society.  So the commandment, love your neighbor as yourself and you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, these were foundational to the system of justice- basic building blocks. The key text is Deuteronomy 16:18-20. There God says through Moses, "Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twist the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God has given you." That's clear principle.

The Sanhedrin was established for the purpose of justice, making sure that accused people got a fair trial. Any Jewish community with at least 120 men could form their own counsel to try cases. The council came to be known by the Greek term for “sitting together,” “Sunedrion”, which comes over to Sanhedrin. There was a great, like the Supreme Court, great Sanhedrin, that's the one in Jerusalem and that's the one Jesus was arraigned before, but there were Sanhedrins all over the place, but the goal of all of them was to guarantee justice for someone accused of a crime.

Capital crimes, of course, had to be handled with special precision and care. Deuteronomy 17:6, "On the testimony of two or three witnesses, a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness." Really amazingly false witnesses were to be punished most severely in Deuteronomy 19:16-19. It says, "If anyone is proven to be a false witness in a case, then whatever penalty would've come to that individual that they're accusing, would now come on the false witness." That's a pretty strong guarantee of justice there. But it didn't happen the night Jesus was on trial, not at all.

Rabbinical law also added to this in the same patterns to establish and make certain of justice, fairness, mercy. Rabbinical law kept going in that same way. It required that the sentence of death could not be carried out until the third day after the trial. The council members were to fast on the intervening days to make certain they were hearing from God right. This gave additional time also for witnesses that they hadn't been able to find yet that might be able to exonerate the individual. That's also by the way, why a capital trial could never occur during a feast, because they wouldn't be able to fast for that intervening day.

The witnesses that came had to give the exact date and time and location of the incident they're accusing the person of. There was always the presumption of innocence and the defense of the accused was handled with great care. If the verdict of death was not overturned, then an officer of the council would escort the prisoner to the place of execution. A herald would go ahead of the slow moving procession, declaring an loud voice, "This man, so-and-so, is led to punishment for such and such a crime. The witnesses who have sworn against him are so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so. So if anyone else has evidence in his favor, come forward quickly." This kind of thing.

At the place of execution, the convicted man was urged to confess his crime and then a powerful sedative drink was given to dull his senses and make the death less painful. In addition, no trial could begin or continue into the night. In the Sanhedrin when the vote for conviction was taken, it would proceed one at a time from the youngest to the oldest, so the youngest would not be unduly influenced by the older ones. This is fascinating, if the vote was ever unanimous for execution, the accused was immediately set free, because the necessary element of mercy was lacking from the Sanhedrin. In all of these things they operated under the principle that the Sanhedrin is to save, not destroy life. The goal was not merely justice, but mercy wherever possible.

Can you not see how all of this is thrown out in the case of Christ? All of it. Massive injustice at every point. The Sanhedrin violated virtually every principle of justice and mercy when it came to the trial of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was effectively condemned before even coming to trial. The Jewish leaders had already tried and convicted Jesus illegally and unjustly in their own minds long before He stood before them. Nicodemus showed that when he said, "Do we condemn somebody without even having heard from…?" He knows what's happening. He can tell what's happening. He's condemned. They're just trying to find a way to kill him.

He was tried at night and in private. He had no defense counsel. There were many false witnesses, but none of them were held accountable for their false testimony. He was executed the same day he was tried and sentenced. There was no chance at an appeal, no opportunity for the counsel to fast to be sure they were doing the right thing. The whole thing was hastily thrown together in the middle of the night or early in the morning with the bare semblance of justice, because there was no justice in any of it. 

Furthermore, they treated Jesus with tremendous disgrace, dishonor. They mocked him, they spat upon him something that would never, should never be done in any case.  And who was it they were doing this to? The only perfect man that's ever lived. The only Jew that ever perfectly obeyed the laws of Moses from His first breath until His death. The only perfectly loving man that has ever lived, perfectly fulfilling the two great commandments. He loved the Lord  God every moment of His life and loved His neighbor as Himself. No one ever did it like Jesus. That's the one they're trying to kill. Jesus at one point said directly to His enemies, this is amazing, John 8:46, "Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?" Imagine saying that to someone or to a group of people that hated Him. They couldn’t prove it, because He had never done anything wrong. 1 Peter 2:22 says, "He committed no sin and nor was there any deceit in His mouth." 

Why then? Why? Why this hatred? Because concerning these corrupt Jewish leaders, He testified that what they did was evil, because He exposed their righteousness as a sham.  They were whitewashed tombs, because He cleansed the temple twice, at the beginning of His ministry and then again at the end, thus hitting them in what they cared about the most, which was money, because He exposed their wicked oppression of the poor. Such as widows, devouring their homes, because they were jealous of His popularity with the people and of His miracles, that He had that kind of power. Because they were afraid and insecure, in reference to the Romans, afraid that the Romans would come and take away their place and their nation. For all of those reasons. 

Caiaphas speaking politically and as a schemer, but also amazingly prophetically in John 11:50 said to the Sanhedrin, his fellow plotters, "You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." What a great statement. Then the Apostle John puts in the editorial comment under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "Caiaphas did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die not for the Jews only, but for the sins of the world.”  Leaders all come to the same conclusion long before this, as the text says, the chief priest and the whole Sanhedrin are looking for evidence, false evidence against Jesus so they can put Him to death. That's all.

Let's walk through the facts of this corrupt trial in Mark's account. First of all, Mark skips the first step, that brief arraignment at Annas' house, John gives us that. Mark goes right to the first trial before the Sanhedrin, verse 53, “They took Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priests and elders, teachers of the law came together.” It's the middle of the night, so it’s already illegal.

We're tracking a side note on Peter in verse 54. Peter followed Him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire. We'll do Peter, I think next week. We'll set him aside, but you know what's coming with Peter. But now let's focus on the trial verse 55, 56. 

The chief priest and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put Him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against Him, but their statements did not agree. So it was very difficult practically for the Sanhedrin to get false witnesses together at I'm guessing 3:00 in the morning. Hard to do, however they did it. How? Money. Money talks power. So they're able to rouse some men together out of their beds and get them to come.  But they did a bad job. Their statements didn't agree. It was really, really bad. Strange too. They had a certain level of acceptable wickedness and injustice here and these guys were below it. It's really corrupt the whole thing. Also, once they're proven to be false witnesses, they should have been exposed and condemned by the law of Moses, but they weren't. There was no real quest for justice that night. Then other witnesses come up and they come closest to something Jesus actually did say, but even that they messed up. Verse 57, 58, "Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him." We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this manmade temple and in three days build another not made by man.’” But look at this, verse 59, "Yet even then their testimony did not agree." 

What did Jesus actually say about that? The account is written for us in John chapter 2. Again, Jesus cleansed the temple early in his ministry. He did it twice, at the beginning and at the  end. He does it at the beginning of his ministry as recorded in John 2, and the religious leaders came and challenged Jesus about his authority to do that. "What sign do you show us for doing these things?" This is John 2:18 and following. “Jesus answered them,’Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken 46 years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days?’" Look carefully, did Jesus claim that He would destroy or to be able to destroy the physical temple of Herod and rebuild it in three days? No, it's not what He said. No, His words were effectively, "You do the destroying, I'll do the raising. You destroy this temple. I'll raise it up in three days."

Now clearly He's talking about His body and John tells us that in John 2. That was the very thing they were in the process of doing, destroying Jesus' body, killing Him, and then He would do the raising. He would raise himself up from the dead on the third day. This is the reason the false witnesses were bickering about what Jesus actually had said and tried to shape their testimony accordingly. It is interesting to me that the second part of their words comes pretty close to the spiritual reality however. The tabernacle and the temple were pictures of Jesus's saving work as our great high priest. There were symbols, there were prophecies, prophetic pictures of the death of Jesus and resurrection and His ministry for us as high priest. Look at verse 58,  “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this manmade temple and in three days we'll build another not made by man.’"

It sounds an awful lot like what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 9:11, "When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not manmade. That is to say not a part of this creation." That's pretty beautiful, isn't it? Jesus's body, dead on the cross and then raised up, becomes our spiritual tabernacle, the place by which our sins are forgiven and the place of access by which we enter into the presence of God, the author to Hebrews tells us.

Back to the trial, the frustration reaches a climax. Clearly even these witnesses can't agree. Verse 60, "Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, 'Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?'" Again, this is completely illegal. He should not be asking the accused directly for statements by which He would incriminate Himself by witnesses alone, if a man is to be put to death. He's doing the very thing that Annas had done earlier as recorded in John 18. So he goes after Jesus, trying to get Him out of His own mouth, He's going to say something that's going to condemn Him, but Jesus remains silent. Verse 61, "Jesus would not grace their wicked injustice with a single word." This was also a direct fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 53:7, "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it shears his silence, so He did not open His mouth."

Then the high priest makes a final attempt in verse 61 again, the high priest asked Him, "Are you the Christ? The son of the blessed one?" The Gospel of Matthew tells us Caiaphas has charged Jesus with a solemn oath to tell the truth, "I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." This is incredibly hypocritical. What does the oath involve? Let's remember we're all in the presence of the Holy God, let's keep that in mind. "By the living God I charge you to tell the truth, because He sees you and He knows all that you're doing." Do you see how hypocritical this thing is? Charge you under oath by the living God. "Are you the Christ? The son of the blessed one, Son of God?" The high priest is luring Jesus, he thinks, to His own death by this and Jesus gives this stunning answer, verse 62, "I am."

What a statement, “I am.” Does that mean anything to the Jews? It means everything to the Jews. That's God's name. As the angel of the Lord revealed to Moses when Moses said, "What is your name?" "I am who I am. Tell them I am has sent you.” "I am.” This is a very, very important declaration by Jesus. Twenty-one  times in the Gospel of John, Jesus uses this important phrase, “I am.” “Ego eimi “in the Greek. Most famously, most dramatically earlier in his ministry in John 8:58, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am." They knew what He was claiming. They picked up stones to stone Him right there on the spot for blasphemy, claiming clearly to be God. Now at the critical moment of His trial, standing before the Sanhedrin, before the religious authorities of the Jewish nation, He claims overtly to be God in the flesh.  Jesus knew full well what would come when He said that. It would be the way by which they would kill Him, and yet look what He did. Look at His courage in telling the truth. 

Why did He do it? Because it is the truth and it's not just any truth. It is the truth we must all come to if we're going to be saved. You have to believe in the incarnation in order to be saved. You have to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is God in the flesh or you will not be saved. It's not optional doctrine here. John 8:24, "I told you," Jesus said to His enemies, "that you would die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”  We see the sublime courage of Jesus and He's not just speaking to them, but He's speaking to everyone that would ever read the scriptures. Through the Holy Spirit's recording of this, this is a message to us all, “I am.” But then He makes a prophetic claim about the future, "And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven.” This is a combination of Psalm 1:10 and Daniel 7. In Psalm 1:10, David wrote, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'" Jesus had made the point that the Messiah was more than merely the biological descendant of David. Whose son is the Christ? The Son of David was the reflex answer.  How is it then the David speaking by the Spirit calls him Lord? For David said, "The Lord said to my Lord," what? What did he say? "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies of foot still for your feet." Jesus, at this climactic legal moment of His life, says, "I am," claiming to be God. Then in the future you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven.

That also is an allusion to Daniel 7, the most stunning and spectacular prophecy in the Old Testament concerning the incarnation.  In Daniel 7, the Son of Man vision, verse 13 and 14 says this, "In my vision at night I looked and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All peoples nations and men of every language worshiped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed." Daniel has a vision of the heavenly realms and almighty God, the Ancient of Days, God the Father seated on a throne ruling over earth and then another individual in Daniel's vision, one like a Son of Man, meaning human, approaches the Ancient of Days riding on clouds. That's a figure of deity and comes right into the presence of the Ancient of Days and receives from Him sovereign power and authority over the entire human race so that people from every tribe and language and people in nation would worship Him. That's deity. So you've got humanity, Son of Man, and you've got deity, all in one vision.

I believe as a side note, it's why Jesus has consistently called himself Son of Man. Read Daniel 7, every time He said Son of Man. Who do you think the Son of Man is in Daniel 7? He couches it in terms of a prophecy hereafter or in the future you will see this. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven, a prediction of the Second Coming and of Judgment Day. And they will see it. As a matter of fact, every eye will see it, all the nations of the earth will see it. Everyone.

This shows, by the way, the significance in my opinion of the Daniel 7 prophecy. It's the one Jesus reaches for at this climactic moment as He stands before the Jewish nation with His legal future hanging in the balance, He reaches for Daniel 7. How significant must that prophecy be? What should the Jews have done at that moment? We all know they should have fallen on their faces in worship and believed in Him. Did you not have sufficient evidence? Were His miracles not sufficient? Was His character not sufficient? Were all the prophecies He'd fulfilled not sufficient? It was all sufficient. However, if they'd done that, none of us would ever have been saved. Their unbelief and rejection and their injustice was essential to our salvation.

The high priest tore his clothes, verse 63, "Why do we need any more witnesses?" He asked. "You've all heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" They all condemned him as worthy of death. Why did the high priest tear his clothes? Caiaphas tore his clothes. Oh, his ears, he just couldn't handle, his zeal for the glory of God was so great. He couldn't listen to this blasphemy. It's a sign of tremendous grief and sorrow. That's what he's doing on the outside. What's he thinking inside? "Got you. Finally, got you. Because now we can kill you." It's unbelievably wicked. This sham of tearing the clothes. Her was fulfilling this tragedy of tragedies in John 1:10-11, "He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own and His own did not receive Him."

What follows Caiaphas’ utter shamefulness, human synod is worse, verse 65, "Then some began to spit at Him. They blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists and said, 'Prophesy.' And the guards took Him and beat Him." To spit in someone's face is the ultimate display of disrespect, stripping that person of humanity. Worse, they're mocking His powers as a supernatural wonder worker. They're blindfolding Him, striking Him and say, "All right, who hit you?" He knew who hit Him. Such treatment of a prisoner was completely illegal. Don't dishonor and strip somebody of their honor. It was great wickedness, but everything they did that night was illegal. The greatest display of injustice in human history. I can't help but thinking though, of the infinite and perfect fulfillment of some words spoken so so long before that by Joseph to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, for the saving of many lives." Oh, they did mean it for evil, but God's purpose was for the salvation of a countless multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

At the human level, this is a repulsive display of wickedness. But at God's level it is, and here I transition, an infinite display of His perfect justice, His justice. My assertion is that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross was the greatest display of God's justice in human history.  Where do I get that? I get it from Romans 3:25-26,"God presented Him," [Jesus] "as a propitiation, a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice." Just stop there. That's it. The death of Jesus, the bloody death of Jesus on the cross was done by God to display His justice. Why? Paul goes on, "because in His forbearance, He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time so as to be just, and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

First of all, concerning Old Testament saints, their sins were never properly dealt with. The clearest example of this is David with Bathsheba. David lusts after another man's wife, sees her, takes her, has sex with her, and then kills her husband to cover it up, that whole thing. Then Nathan, the prophet, comes in the name of God Almighty to convict him of sin. David is genuinely broken, genuinely humbled by it. And what does Nathan say? Nathan says, "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." Whoa, wait a minute, now wait a minute. Where's the justice for what David did? The justice is at the cross of Christ. That's where it is. God in His forbearance and His long patience had overlooked Moses's murder and his showing disrespect when he struck the rock, when he wasn't told to do that, God overlooked that.  He overlooked the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar. If he's up in heaven, God overlooked a lot. He overlooked the prostitution of Rahab. He overlooked all of those sins. In His forbearance He had left those sins committed beforehand, unpunished. What happened to those people when they died? They went up to paradise. They went to be with God. The spirits of righteous men made perfect. What about their sins? 

Let's not be too hard on them. What about yours? How is God going to be just and also forgive you and me? That's a real problem for God. We might not think of it as a problem, but God's the one that gave us the Ten Commandments and meant them when He gave them. And God gave us the two Great Commandments and meant them when He gave them and we break them. How can God elevate His righteous laws and still save sinners like you and me? There is one and only one answer, and that is the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is the greatest display of the justice of God, because here's how it works. Do we have any sense of how much God the Father loved Jesus? We can't even measure it. "Here is my son, whom I love," he said. At his baptism and at the Mount of Transfiguration, God said He dearly love Jesus. He was the perfect reflection of God's own glory. 

But here's what I want to say. God would rather slaughter His own son, pouring out His wrath on Him, than let sinners like us up into heaven without our sins dealt with justly. That is God's commitment to justice.  So God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. That exchange Jesus taking our sins on himself and then suffering the judgment we deserved. "You meant it for evil," Joseph said, "but God meant it, ordained it, planned it, and executed it for good, for the salvation of many lives." 

First, let's just be appalled at human injustice. This is appalling. This is the greatest display of something that's going on every day of human history, including now, human beings being unjust to other human beings, especially those in power. Those that are judges and rulers and have authority and they use their positions of power to take advantage of poor people, to swindle them, to crush them. It's going on now. We should be appalled at it. Jesus talks about it in this parable of the persistent widow.  Because she goes to the wicked judge and says, "Give me justice against my adversary." Jesus sums that whole thing up saying, "And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?" I tell you, He'll see that they get justice and quickly. So first application is Jesus understands people who are oppressed and who experience injustice. He went through it more than we ever would, so He understands.

 Secondly, as I said earlier, our salvation is not a display of justice. Jesus' death is but our salvation, our forgiveness, our reconciliation, our being in heaven, happy clothed in white robes to cover our shameful nakedness. All of that is mercy, not justice. Because Paul deals with this in Romans 9:14-15, "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all. For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" Wait a minute, Paul, you just changed the subject. I asked, is God unjust? No, God's merciful. It's what He is. The justice was displayed at the cross.

Finally, just a warning to the human race, God cannot be mocked, neither can He be put on trial. You're the one on trial. So am I. Someday we will all appear before God's judgment seat, that each one may give an account for the things that we have done, all of us. The only way we're going to survive that is by faith in Christ.  

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the things that we've learned in this very dark account of Jesus' trial before the Jewish authorities. Pray, oh Lord, that we would take to heart these lessons. We thank you for the display of your perfect justice, the fact that you upheld your law, you upheld your righteousness, you upheld your pure, perfect laws and still forgave us, because of what Jesus did on the cross. Help us to trust in you. Help us to walk in this now. In Jesus name. Amen.

Jesus, who had no sin, stood trial before a wicked and corrupt judicial system. He bore mankind’s sins as a substitute and died as a display of God's justice.

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Christians should display proper living according to the transformation that salvation brings and always be ready for good works.

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The Book of Daniel closes in chapter 12 with final predictions about the end of the world, with insights about the final battle on heaven and earth, and the resurrection of the elect.

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Paul details the elect and the hardened among the nation of Israel, describing the “remnant chosen by grace” and the rest who are hardened by their blessings.

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Hezekiah, an example of courage and faith in the Old Testament, understood the need to put God first in everything and that idolatry was the reason for God’s judgments on Israel.

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Christ’s glory ripped apart the moral darkness of human history, revealing the perfection of His nature, a light shining even in His arrest.

The post Jesus Arrested: A Light Shining in the Darkness (Mark Sermon 81) appeared first on Two Journeys.

In stark contrast to the behavior of all those around him, the glory of Christ ripped apart the moral darkness of human history and showed us the perfection of his nature.

Seven centuries before Jesus was born, the Prophet Isaiah said these beautiful words about the coming of Christ, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned." There's this idea of darkness and people walking in darkness, and you(Jesus) are the great light for us. It's a sense of living in the land of the shadow of death, and you are salvation and life for us.

As we go to this account now in Mark 14, the night that Jesus arrested, we see the darkness of the human race, the darkest night in history, human sin at its worst. But we also see shining Christ's glory, this account of the arrest of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, betrayed to a mob of armed and wicked people by one of his closest friends in the world. In this account, we see the sinfulness of the human race at its darkest.

We see also, if we know what to look for, the radiance of the glory of Christ shining all the brighter by contrast. The night that Jesus was born, the darkness of that night was ripped apart gloriously by the appearance of an angel. Luke 2:9, "An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them." Visible light in a similar way, but very different. The glory of Christ ripped apart the darkness of this night that we're going to study today, the moral darkness of human history, and showed us the perfection of His divine nature, the darkest night in history.

In John 13, two statements are linked to Judas taking the bread by which he agreed to be and identified himself as the betrayer of Jesus Christ. In John 13:27, it says, "As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him." Three verses later it says, "As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out and it was night." If you know anything about John and the way he writes, that's not just a chronological statement. It's definitely a spiritual statement. It was night when Judas went out.

The darkness of that night is human wickedness, human sin, when the alliance between Satan and sinful men reached its darkest and deepest level. In an earlier sermon, I ruminated on Satan's motives at this point. How can we really know? Why would he tempt and induce Simon Peter earlier to speak words of temptation to Jesus to not go to the cross, [Matthew 16, in  Caesarea Philippi,] but then later orchestrate through Judas directly that Jesus would go to the cross?

How do we understand Satan's thought process? How do we understand Satan's motives? Why did he do it? I think the answer is that Satan is a murderer. He's a liar and a murderer. He's been a murderer from the beginning. It is his nature. As much as he just simply wanted to throw a wrench into God's plans and thwart it and tempt Jesus to save his own life and not go to the cross, I think he had a greater desire just to kill him, just to kill him because he's a killer and Jesus is pure light and life. It's just his nature.

In the end, I think his own blood lust overwhelmed his desire to throw a monkey wrench into God's clearly revealed prophetic plan, and he orchestrated the murder of Jesus. This is Satan's hour. Jesus called this time the time of darkness when the evil of sin was on full display. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus spoke these words to the people arresting Him. In Luke 22:53, He says, "Every day I was with you in the temple courts and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour when darkness reigns." Think about those words, "When darkness reigns."

The sinfulness of Judas' treacherous betrayal culminating in the most disgusting symbol of dishonor, a kiss, the sinfulness of the chief priests, the elders of the Jewish nation who should have recognized the time of God's coming to them in the only begotten Son of God, but instead killed him out of selfishness, jealousy, power lust, greed, and pride.

The sinfulness of the Roman soldiers and the crowd who were there to arrest the Prince of Peace with swords and clubs and lanterns, the sinfulness of Peter who, through unbelief did not accept Jesus' repeated statements about His purpose to go to the cross, could not accept it, did not think it was true, did not understand His need to go to the cross to save him from his own sins, and in a bizarre moment, sought to derail God's plan with the swinging of his sword. Then the sinfulness of His disciples who, in selfish cowardice, abandoned Jesus in His hour of need and fled to save their own lives.

The darkest hour, the darkest night in history when the human race arrested, tried, condemned, mocked, and tortured the only perfectly good man that has ever lived, worse, the incarnate Son of God. This darkness was a darkness that could be felt because of the thickness of human evil. Yet in this darkest night, the light of the world shone all the brighter, all the brighter. "Jesus is the light of the world," John 8:12.  John 1 says, "In Him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." Or again, in 1 John 1:5, "This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you God is light, and in Him there's no darkness at all." So Jesus Christ is perfect light,  a perfect display of the attributes, the perfections of God. Hebrews 1:3, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being."

At every moment, Jesus shined with the glory of God, the perfections of God. "To see Him was to see the Father," He said that in John 14:9, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus is going to put the glory of the Father on display in this account and in the ones that are soon to follow. Christ's light shines all the brighter when it's contrasted so plainly with every other human being in this story.

We should just be stunned at this, just marvel at what's happening here. The Son of God being arrested like a common criminal, and then tied up. John 18:12, "The detachment of the soldiers with its commander and Jewish officials arrested Jesus, and they bound Him." They tied His hands. There's only one reason that Jesus stayed bound after His arrest. You have heard of Samson, one greater than Samson is in this story. If He wanted to break those bonds, it would be nothing for Him to do so, as Samson did.  Remember how the ropes fell to the ground like they were charred thread in Samson’s story. But Jesus stayed bound, stayed bound because He wanted to stay bound, because He wanted to die because He loved you and me. As we've said so many times before, Jesus said, John 10:18, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of my own accord." We see that.

Let's talk about the darkness of this dark night and specifically the darkest act on that darkest night, and that is Judas' betrayal. Look at verses 43-52, "Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders. Now, the betrayer had arranged a signal with them. 'The one I kiss is the man. Arrest Him, and lead Him away under guard.' Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, 'Rabbi,' and kissed Him. The men seized Jesus and arrested Him."

The text begins with the words, "While He was still speaking." They were in the private Garden of Gethsemane. We don't know this for sure, but probably a walled garden. The last thing that Jesus said in Mark's Gospel, which we studied last week, was the end of His prayer time and His going back to His sleeping disciples.  Look at verse 41-42, "Returning the third time, He said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting?' Enough. The hour has come. Behold the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer.' Just as you was speaking Judas, one of the twelve, appeared." It's just that quick. Jesus had been pouring out His heart to His Heavenly Father in prayer. His disciples, on the other hand, squandering their last opportunity to get ready for the hardest night of their lives, should have been getting ready for their temptations. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” But they squandered that opportunity through sleep. Jesus' time of prayer continued right up to the last possible moment. He drank in from the Father's presence and from the strength of the angel sent to strengthen Him and got ready for what He was about to endure. Jesus knows that Judas has arrived with his enemies. "Rise, let us go. Here comes my betrayer." This is all the more remarkable if Gethsemane was indeed a walled garden. But Jesus had supernatural knowledge of the timing of everything.

Judas arrives with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs and torches and lanterns. John's account gives us a much clearer display of Christ's supernatural courage at this moment, the clarity of His sense of mission, boldness. It says there that Jesus went out to meet this entourage. He went out because I picture Gethsemane as a walled garden. He goes out through the gate and goes out and meets them. You can imagine being part of that huge mob going to arrest Jesus, and a solitary figure comes out directly to them and starts this whole conversation. You're not even really ready, and there He is. It just gives you a beautiful picture as Jesus is the initiator. The rest of them are the responders. He's taking charge of His own arrest.

John 18:4-6, "Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, 'Who is it you're seeking?' 'Jesus of Nazareth.’ they replied. 'I am,' Jesus said." That's much better than all your English translations that say, "I am He," or, "I'm the one you're looking for." He says "I am." You know the significance of that statement. "Before Abraham was born, I am." It's God's name. Moses says, "Who should I say is sending me?" "I am." He goes out and says, "I am." Judas, the traitor, was standing there with them. When Jesus said, "I am," they all drew back and fell to the ground. That's quite a moment, isn't it? The awesome power of His person and His identification of His name as God, and Satan, in the body of Judas, is on the ground along with everyone else. Isn't that a beautiful picture?

It says in our account, "Judas, one of the twelve." It's amazing how Judas is consistently identified this way by Mark rather than resorting to insulting words like Judas, the wicked traitor or something like that. It was just simply Judas, one of the twelve. Three times in this account, that's how Judas is identified, Judas, one of the twelve. Jesus Himself used this terminology earlier in this chapter in verse 20, Mark 14:20, "It is one of the twelve," He said, "the one who dips bread into the bowl with me."

One of the twelve means he was a privileged man. He was the result of a night of prayer in which Jesus had spent all night so that He would then come down and identify the twelve who would be with Him, the apostles on which the church would be founded. He is one of the most wicked human beings in history, often in popular culture; he's portrayed as in some strange, twisted way, just trying to help, didn't really understand Jesus' mission and was just in some way trying to help.  This is the theme in the '70s rock opera, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which tells its story through Judas's perspective in a very twisted and false way. Nothing could be further from the truth. In John 6, Jesus calls Judas a devil, “One of you is a devil.” Not, will later become a devil,  but is a devil right now. By the consistent identifying of Judas as one of the twelve, they're heightening a sense of moral outrage at the betrayal.  Psalm 41:9, "Even my close friend whom I trusted, he who shared my bread has lifted up his heel against me." It's a sense of very strong betrayal. That's Judas. 

Now, a crowd is with Judas. Verse 43, "With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders." The chief priests and the elders had orchestrated this whole huge crowd, armed for a fight to arrest Jesus.  According to John's Gospel, there is a Greek word “speira”which identifies this as most likely Roman soldiers. It's quite possible, although it could have been just the size of the detachment. But based on that Greek word, “speira", we're looking at 500 to 600 soldiers maybe just detached from the barracks at Fort Antonia. And if so, then also there are temple guards as well, maybe another couple hundred, maybe as many as 1,000 men to arrest Jesus, the Prince of Peace. It's really remarkable.

Jesus had never led any kind of uprising or military, anything at all. He was just teaching in the temple area, and He calls them on this. He highlights the bizarreness of them coming like that for Him. Verse 48 and 49, "'Am I leading a rebellion?' said Jesus, 'that you've come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me.'"

It's very, very late at night, really more, I would say, very early in the morning. Maybe 3:00 in the morning, I don't know, just dead of night. This mixed multitude that has come to arrest Jesus is a picture of the unbelieving world and all of its wickedness. It's a picture of that. The crowd is unjust. Jesus had broken no law of Moses. He had broken no Roman law. He was a perfectly innocent man.

The crowd is mindless. Many of them there, I think, probably didn't fully know what they were doing there. I'm certain that many of them had heard of Jesus, but many perhaps had not. They were just under orders. They're just there following orders, doing their job. They're just hired hands. So also today, most of the world's population thinks little about Jesus, knows little or maybe even nothing about Jesus.

Throughout history, mercenaries have been hired to do a job hostile to Christ and His kingdom and to come and attack Christ's followers in a mindless, mechanical sort of way for money. This is a picture of that. The crowd's also cowardly. They're coming in the dead of night to avoid any difficulty with the thousands and thousands of pilgrims that fill Jerusalem. They didn't want any trouble. The crowd is blasphemous because it is the Son of God they were there to lay hands on, arrest, and lead to His death. That's the crowd.

Everything's set up now for Judas' wicked moment. Look at verses 44-46, "Now, the betrayer had arranged a signal with them. 'The one I kiss is the man. Arrest Him, and lead Him away under guard.' Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, 'Rabbi,' and kissed Him. Then the men seized Jesus and arrested Him." This is the most repulsive, the most disgusting part of this whole affair.

Judas had already received his salary, his wages for betraying the Son of God, 30 pieces of silver, probably jingling in his purse on his person at that moment. But now he has to follow through, do what he's agreed to do, what he's been paid to do. This evil signal seems to have been concocted in the mind of Judas, I would say, directly under the influence of Satan. It's a wicked twist.

A kiss is a sign of love, a sign of a loving relationship. Take back in those days a slave with a master. If the slave had that kind of love for his master, he would be willing to kiss the master's feet or the hem of his garment, something like that or perhaps, if they were particularly close, maybe his hand or his ring, something like that. A kiss up on the cheek showed intimacy and equality, which the subject of a king or the servant of a master would never have presumed to do.

But Judas initiated this kind of intimacy and kisses Him on the cheek. Judas greeted Jesus, "Hail Rabbi," and then he kisses him in a very strong way. The Greek word is “kataphileo”, it was a strong kind of embrace.  It's a big show, maybe multiple kisses on the cheek, something like that. It's exceptionally wicked because of its hypocrisy and its arrogance, and Jesus calls him out on it in Luke's Gospel. Luke 22:48, "Jesus asked him, 'Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?'" A sense of revulsion in that.  Jesus' last words to Judas are recorded in Matthew, not Mark. "Jesus replied, 'Friend, do what you came for. Do what you came to do.' Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus, and arrested Him." It's similar in John's Gospel when He takes a piece of bread, He says, "What you are about to do, do quickly." So it's like Judas himself, inhabited by Satan, is under Jesus' orders. He's orchestrating this whole thing. He's telling him what to do.

I like the fact that in John's Gospel, Jesus goes out boldly and initiates with them, "Who are you looking for?" Whatever. So what is Judas' role at that point? None. The kiss is nothing. Jesus is self-identified as the one they're looking for. So much for Judas Iscariot.

 But now we've got, sadly, the dark acts of Jesus' closest followers, genuine followers of Christ.  Judas exposed his true nature that night, a completely wicked man, a hypocrite under the direct influence of Satan himself. But that night also exposed the moral weakness of Jesus' closest followers, the eleven apostles, men who would be relied on to lead the gospel advance from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. They would be the human foundations on which the entire church would be built, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the chief cornerstone.

They're the foundation, they’re the eyewitnesses. Everything depends on them. They would eventually courageously lay down their lives for their master. All of them would die as martyrs except, church history tells us, except John who would have done it but was in the sovereignty of God exiled to the island of Patmos and gave us the gift of the Book of Revelation. But that night was not so. That night was not so.

It began with this one faithless act. Look at verse 47, "Then one of those standing near drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear." Matthew, Mark, and Luke all maintain this person's anonymity. But you all know who it is because John told us, John let us know it was Peter. John also tells us the servant's name was Malchus.  This is just connecting the dots. Peter consistently refused to believe Jesus' mission, coming right from his lips. He consistently could not see Jesus' work. It was the next step in that progression on and the next step in the most terrible night of Peter's life. As I mentioned already, at Caesarea Philippi [Matthew 16], Peter overtly tempted Jesus to not go to the cross. "'Never, Lord,' he said. He took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 'Never, Lord,' he said. 'This shall never happen to you.' Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.'"

Just hours before that, a short time before this arrest, Peter had boasted of his courage, a unique courage compared to all the other apostles. In verse 31, Peter had insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you. Even if all of them fall away, I never will." Now he has to back it up, and I'm sure he remembered his words. So he pulls out his sword to fight for Jesus.

The sword, a makhaira, it's like a long dagger. It's not really a battle sword. I picture it really as a fisherman's sword to cut up fish. Definitely, Peter is no trained soldier. He's swinging wildly and accomplished really nothing except cutting off Malchus' ear. Peter's actions were completely faithless and misguided. He didn't understand Jesus' mission. He didn't understand the real threat was the wrath of a holy God against his sins, and there was no remedy apart from the bloody death of Jesus, the Son of God. There is no other remedy.  Peter's trying to stop the eternal plan of God. Later he would understand it was not with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect. Peter wrote those words later. But at that night, he did not understand. So he's trying to stop the eternal plan of Almighty God with his sword.  Then Jesus, we're told in Luke 22:51, healed Malchus' ear. "Jesus answered, 'No more of this,' and He touched the man's ear and healed him." I find this amazing, the healing power of Jesus, giving this man a new ear. It's wonderful. 

But let's try to understand Peter, this misguided fight. Jesus will make later a clear statement to Pilate. Pilate said, "So you're king?" Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest from the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is from another place." But that's exactly what Peter tried to do.

They're absolutely at cross purposes here. "My kingdom isn't like that. I'm not building an empire that way. My kingdom doesn't advance by killing, but rather by dying.”  John 12:24, "Unless a kernel of wheat falls onto the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." That's how the kingdom of Christ advances, not by killing, but by dying.

Now we see Jesus' radiant glory and his submission to scripture. Look at 48 and 49, "'Am I leading a rebellion,' said Jesus, 'that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you teaching in the temple courts and you did not arrest me, but the scriptures must be fulfilled.'" Jesus openly declares His willingness to go and die in fulfillment of the Scriptures.  He says this more comprehensively in His conversation with Peter as recorded in Matthew 26. "Jesus says to Peter, 'Put your sword back in its place. For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father and He would at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? But how then would the scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?'" So let's unfold that.

Jesus' clear command to Peter, "Put your sword back in its place," then three reasons in Matthew 26, three reasons. First, all who draw the sword will die by the sword. There’s a lot of different ways to understand that, but I'm not getting into pacifism or any of that. I'll just speak practically. “Peter, take a look around you. There's maybe 800 or 1,000 of them, and there's you with your fisherman's dagger. What do you think is going to happen? You are not long for this world if you keep swinging that thing. So put it away.”

I’ll just keep it simple. We don't have to go into just war theory or any of that. Reason number two, "Peter, if I were trying to escape the cross, would I be using your sword? Do you think I could not go to my Father, who I go to my Father for everything and if I were to ask him, would he not immediately put at my disposal," I love the words, "more than twelve legions of angels?” Let's just start at twelve legions of angels. Legion- 6,000, times 12= 72,000 angels. One angel killed 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night. That's one angel. You can do the unbelievable math. This would be the greatest mismatch in history. How many angels are at Jesus' disposal? Answer, all of them. And how many are there? Daniel and Revelation: 100 million. "Those angels, if they came, would be at my disposal. They would immediately do whatever I told them to do without hesitation."

Now let's get to the real reason. I want you all to listen carefully to this because there is no greater moment in the entire history of the human race or of the Bible that shows a man honoring the Bible, honoring scripture than this statement. "If I were to do that, Peter, how then would the scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" What is Jesus saying there? Let me put it to you this way, Jesus is effectively saying, "I would rather die than disobey scripture.”  Oh, that we might all get to that level in our sanctification. I would rather die than sin. It's powerful. 

A number of years ago, I was counseling with a student that is at one of the wonderful institutions of higher learning nearby, taking a religion class at that institution of higher learning and having serious doubts about the scripture. He grew up in a Christian home, a Christian family, but was a young man. His faith was being assaulted. He wanted help, and he came to me.  I said, "I can't answer all of the objections that are laid out by your professor. But I'll tell you what. You and I are Christians. This is an in-house discussion. What do you say we just agree to have the same attitude toward the Bible that Jesus does? Let's find out what that is." So we walked through Jesus and scripture in the Gospels and came to this as the pinnacle. You see it as the pinnacle. "I would rather die than break scripture.” I could see this man's faith becoming robust and stronger and stronger the more we went on. He realized, like the demon said to the seven sons of Sceva, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" I can say that to any unbelieving professor that questions this book and wonders if it's a human book or really a divine scripture. This is the highest attitude that all of us should have towards scripture. I would rather die than violate scripture.

The scriptures say it must happen in this way. What scriptures? Many. Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And then it goes on in the words of the Psalm 22 to describe, in great detail, His crucifixion. "They have pierced my hands and my feet. They've gambled for my clothes. I am poured out like water and my strength is dried up and I'm surrounded and I can count all my bones." The crucifixion. Psalm 22, 1,000 years before Jesus, written by David.

Then Isaiah 53 clearly explaining the reason for his death. As it says in Isaiah 53:5 and following, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. And by His wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  "So, Peter, this is the eternal plan of God for your salvation, and not just yours, but the salvation of a multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation, a multitude greater than anyone can count. I'm going to pay for their sins this very day. So put your sword away because I would rather die than break scripture."

Then the disciples all fled. They left Jesus all alone. Verse 50-52, "Then everyone deserted Him and fled. A young man wearing nothing but a linen garment was following Jesus. When they seized Him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind." The statement here in verse 50 is, deserted. It's a very strong word. They deserted Him. They deserted Him in His hour of need. Don't minimize that. They were His best friends. This was His greatest moment of need, and they ran away from Him, would not help Him.

The strange account of this young man with the linen garment wearing nothing but the linen garment, and then he's grabbed by the garment and leaves it in the person's hand and runs away, naked. We have no idea who that is. Some people think that it's Mark who wrote the gospel, but that's just speculation. So we all have to wait until we get to heaven to find out who that is. It's just here. It's in the text, and I thought I would preach it this morning.  What the text does show is a determination that all of his close followers had, at whatever cost, to run for their lives. That at least we can get out of it.

 The greatest application of this text, as any, is the same, come to Christ. Trust in Christ. There's a reason for all of this. Why did Jesus want to be arrested? Why did He let Himself be bound? Why did He not call on the Father to send the angels?

The answer is because all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're under the wrath of God for our sins, and we deserve it. We're facing eternity in hell apart from salvation that only Christ can work. That's why. There's a reason for all of this. These are steps leading to the cross. So as we walk through the Gospel of Mark, as we understand who Jesus is, the call is there week after week. Repent of your sins. Trust in Christ, and find full forgiveness. Trust in Him.

This is a plan worked out in the mind and heart of God from before the foundation of the world. For your eternal joy and blessedness, come to Christ. If you've already come to Christ, trusted in Him, then the text helps you to worship Christ for that bright light shining in a dark place. Worship Him for His courage and going out and saying, "Who are you looking for?" Worship Him for His humility, making Himself nothing and being willing to be bound and beaten and spat upon, as we'll study subsequent weeks, God willing.

Worship Him for His love because greater love is no one than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. This is the greatest display of love ever. Worship Him for His authority, that the angel would have immediately done what He said, that all of Jesus' enemies were on the ground in front of Him when He said His name, "I am." That's the greatness of his majesty. Worship Him for that. Worship Him for His wisdom in restraining Himself and submitting to the Father's plan so that we could be saved. Worship Him for all of these beautiful and perfect attributes.

On the other hand, look at the darkness of human sin. Look at it. Look at it. Look at the wickedness here. As you do, I want you to zero in in particular on Judas' kiss. Judas was a reprobate, he was a devil. We're children of God. I understand that. But isn't there some warning in Judas' kiss for all of us to some degree? As I look at that, I think there's a hypocrisy here, an outward show when my heart isn't in it. So that's, I think, any time we ever do anything for Christ, and this is true of us, Matthew 15, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." It's like, “Oh God, would you drive away such hypocrisy from me? Would you make me from the heart, a follower and a lover of Christ? Let me not do any Judas kisses ever again. Let everything I do flow from a genuine heart of affection and love for Christ.”

Finally, as I've urged, as I did with that young man that I met with so many years ago, embrace Christ's view of scripture. Jesus says, "I would rather die than break this." Isaiah 66:2 says, "God says, 'This is the one I esteem. He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word.'" That's Jesus. I want it to be me. I would urge each one of you to have an infinitely high view of this, the Word of God, and seek to live it out by the power of the Spirit.

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this dark, sordid, twisted story, the arrest of Jesus. We thank you that in the midst of such darkness, the Son of God shines all the brighter. I thank you for His determination to go to the cross. I thank you for His love, His power. I thank you for the warning as we see the hypocrisy and the wickedness and the sin of those around Jesus, even His closest followers, in the moment of their greatest weakness, cautionary tale. Help us, oh Lord, to follow you and to love you and serve you as you deserve, in Jesus' name. Amen.

On this episode of TGC Podcast, Ligon Duncan, Bob Thune, Andy Davis, and Philip Ryken examine Christian nationalism, differentiating it from mere patriotism and exploring its influence on Christian identity and societal engagement.

They delve into the historical and biblical perspectives on Christians’ roles in society, emphasizing the need to prioritize Christ above all loyalties. They also discuss strategies for Christians to responsibly advocate for their beliefs in a pluralistic society.

The post Evaluating Christian Nationalism appeared first on Two Journeys.

Paul emphasizes the importance of godliness and warns that neglecting it is to disregard the sacrifice of Christ, who died to sanctify His people.

The post Class in Titus: Waiting for our Blessed Hope appeared first on Two Journeys.