You Have Said It
Notes
Transcript
Lets go back to Matthew 16 because I think we can give us a back drop for today’s text.
Matthew 16:13–17 (NIV)
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
Then in verse 20 he tells them not to tell anyone that he’s the Messiah
Jesus asks the disciples about his identity. What are others saying then what do they think. Specifically.
Simon Peter, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Pay attention cause those questions come up again.
Read text Matthew 26:57-68
Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. But Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward and declared, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’ ” Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered. Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?”
We know that Jesus was not caught off guard by this arrest.
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
-Spoiler alert!
-Jesus was preparing his followers for what was about to take place
2. We know that the whole trial was a sham.
Jews saw Jesus as a religious law breaker
Would only Be able to get Rome on board if they could make him look like he was usurping the Roman government.
To make matter worse there was no credible evidence, they had to go “looking for false evidence”. Even that fell short
Finally found 2 guys who could string together a half truth
“this fellow said ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in 3 days”
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
3. With this clearly false accusation they begin to make their case. However, Jesus remains silent.
the psalmist foretold
Those who want to kill me set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they scheme and lie. I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply.
and Isaiah
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
-what could he say, he knew this was God’s will.
Isaiah 53:10 (NIV)
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
4. Finally the High Priest uses some of the strongest language possible.
Swear by God .
Pause for second and look at what’s going on, it’s the opposite of Jesus with his disciples in chapter 16.
This time Jesus is being questioned, “Who are you?” The High Priest asks are you the Messiah, the son of God?
When Peter responded Jesus said hegot this his answer from God.
where is this current line of questioning coming from? a place of hate.
This is nothing less than an attempt to snare Jesus. If Jesus says no, I’m not convinced that the heat is turned down. They would come up with a “then why did you…?”
If Jesus says yes, well that’s all they needed.
But Jesus says, “you have said it” literally “those are your words” or “if you say so”
They obviously had very different understandings of the Messiah but Jesus will no longer deny the fact and his next statement is huge
Matthew 26:64 (NIV)
“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
MIC DROP!
The first quote is from Psalm 110:1
The Lord says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
The second from Daniel 7:13
“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.
Pause again for just a second. Who is hearing this? Who is in the room? The religious leaders. But remember Peter snuck in and not long ago he was told by Jesus that he was the Messiah. That was a different moment than what he was witnessing now.
Jesus goes on to tell him that the gates of hell would not prevail against this truth the truth on which the church was built. Jesus warns of battle and already the sabers are beginning to rattle.
Blasphemy is the charge and the damning evidence comes from Jesus himself.
The high priest tears his robe, people are calling for the death sentence and the beatings and spitting start accompanied by snarky comments, “If your’re the Messiah prophecy, who hit you?”
So what is our take away from all of this?
God sovereign. He accomplishes his will. Sometimes his will accomplished through wicked people.
Let’s be honest that’s not how any of us would have done this.
Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion that you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have. So let us leave behind all thee boys’ philosophies – – these over simple answers. The problem is not simple and the answer is not going to be simple either. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book II, chapter 2, “The Invasion,” page 36).
2. Fooy on anyone who says Jesus didn’t make any Messianic claims. It were those claims that got him murdered on a cross.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
–C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
He is the Messiah, the son of God!