The Unjust Trial
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction:
Introduction:
This morning, we finish what we started last week, one of the most unjust trials in history—the trial of Jesus Christ before the Sanhedrin. It was a court of men, blinded by their own self-righteousness, twisting the truth to serve their own ends. They sought to condemn the only truly innocent man who ever lived.
In the face of false accusations, Jesus remained silent. He could have called forth countless witnesses—those He healed, those He raised from the dead, even the very demons who recognized His deity. Yet, He chose to say nothing. Why? Because His silence was not weakness; it was fulfillment. He stood there, not as a helpless victim, but as the sovereign Lamb of God, fulfilling Isaiah 53:7:
"He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth."
This moment was not about the power of men to judge Christ—it was about the power of Christ to submit to the Father’s plan. And as we examine His trial today, we will see that while men put Jesus on trial, it was they who were truly being judged.
This passage calls us to ask ourselves: Where do we stand? Are we among the scoffers? Or do we stand firm in Christ, trusting in His perfect plan?
vv. 60–62) The silent Lamb and sovereign King :
vv. 60–62) The silent Lamb and sovereign King :
[60] This morning let us set the stage, in verses 54–59, Jesus stands before the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was a Jewish court system which handled judicial, religious, and civil matters. The term comes from the Greek word synedrion, which means “council” or “sitting together.”
All around Jesus in a semi-circle are: the chief priest, elders, and scribes. Peter at this point is outside in the courtyard. The chief priests and the council sought to destroy Jesus; bringing against Him false accusations. However, none of their false testimonies agreed, meaning they had no biblical grounds to put Jesus to death.
These religionists didn’t understand the purpose of what the Messiah was called to do, they didn’t want to understand, so they twisted and distorted the word of Christ.
15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
[Warning]
Pick up now with our passage this morning, the high priest Caiaphas stands from his seat and advances into the semi-circle of the council towards Jesus—a action of irritation, he is a baffled man by the lack of evidence and the inability to get a false accusation to stick to Jesus.
“It was a tacit confession that Christ had been proved innocent up till then. The high priest would not have needed to draw something out of the accused one if there had been sufficient material against him elsewhere. The trial had been a dead failure up to that point, and he knew it, and was red with rage. Now he attempts to bully the prisoner that he may extract some declaration from him which may save all further trouble of witnesses, and end the matter.”–Spurgeon
But here is the kicker. Jesus remained silent. There should be no doubt Jesus could have mounted a magnificent defense, calling forth all the various witnesses to His deity, power, and character. The people He taught, the people He healed, the dead which were raised to life, the blind who see, even the demons themselves testified to His deity. But Jesus didn’t say anything?
Why? To fulfill Scripture.
1 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
In this trial, Jesus was calm and stood silent before these men, yet assured before God.
The two witnesses who charged Jesus with being a revolutionary could not agree.
Jesus “held His peace.” He was silent; He said nothing in defending Himself against the false charges.
The High Priest and court became disturbed and perhaps confused by Jesus’ silence. They needed Him to speak, hoping He would add evidence to the charges, thereby incriminating Himself.
Food for though: The example of Jesus under attack
Example of being patient. Jesus stood there patiently while false charge after false charge was leveled against HIm.
He endured it all.
He had control over Himself. His emotions and tongue were under His control. He doesn’t retaliate.
How difficult it is to remain silent and to control our tongue! Especially when you are innocent and the accusations are false!
10 For
“He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
3 He who guards his mouth preserves his life,
But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue
Keeps his soul from troubles.
[61b-62] Caiaphas asks him plainly, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
By “blessed” is meant God. The Jews, when mentioning God’s name, would usually say, “God, blessed for ever.” The word “blessed” came to be a title for God.
Pay attention to Jesus’ strong assertion in answering the court:
Jesus pulled no punches, left no room for doubt. He used the striking words of deity: “I am (ego eimi).”
Jesus calls Himself “the Son of Man.” A messianic title from Daniel.
He gives two proofs of His claim: His resurrection and exaltation and His second coming. Both would prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, His person and authority.
As Christians we hope in the resurrection and exaltation and in the second coming of Christ, however, the emphasis of Jesus to these unbelievers was judgement.
His resurrection declared Him to be the Son of God with power:
4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
His exaltation declares His position and authority to rule and reign over all men.
32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
His return will declare His execution of justice and judgment:
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
Essentially Jesus, when asked under formal oath to incriminate Himself, said, “You now stand in judgement of Me, but I will be the ultimate judge.” Words like this would give any wise judge pause but did not slow down His accusers.
Here Jesus is on trial and seems to lose, but in reality He won. His conduct at His trial showed His innocence and was all part of the plan of redemption—which we must receive as God’s gift.
In a real sense, it wasn’t Jesus on trial at all—it was more accurate to say the religious leaders were on trial. They seemed to win, but they lost.
Family we are all on trial before Christ Jesus and will be held to account for what we do with Him.
vv. 63–65) The rejection of Christ:
vv. 63–65) The rejection of Christ:
There was the frenzied mob of religionist—they got their what they were looking for, the death sentence they need.
The true character of the High Priest is one full of enmity and bitter hatred. He ripped his clothes, which was a custom when God’s name was disgraced.
1 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
Caiaphas shouted out for the verdict and the whole scene is a travesty, a terrible abuse of justice. Caiaphas pictured for us the character of every man who chooses this world and its institutional religion over Jesus.
Two things got the best of Caiaphas:
He wished to have this world with its rewards of position and wealth, recognition and pleasure.
He wished to have a religion of self-image instead of God’s image.
Too often, the same two things get the best of us.
The true character of men.
There was the ridicule of Jesus’ claim and the heaping of sarcasm upon Him. This is seen in the religionists’ shout to Him:
68 saying, “Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?”
There was bitter behavior and hatred. Spitting in the face was a sign of monstrous disrespect. Beating with the first and palms was an outburst of the inner bitterness within their hearts against Jesus.
Here’s something to note: At first they reacted with self-righteous, melodramatic horror, then with abuse and brutality.
As terrible as the judgment of these leaders was against Christ, at least it had a reason—envy and fear. These officers, on the other hand, take bizarre pleasure in torturing Jesus, and there was no reason for it. They were hungry for blood.
Family, what Jesus endured the pain and humiliation should cause us to respond in three ways:
We should bravely bear pain and humiliation for the sake of Jesus ourselves.
“How ready should be to hear slander and ridicule for Jesus’ sake. Do not get into a huff, and think it a strange thing that people should mock you. Who are you, dear sir? Who are you? What can you be if compared with Christ? If they spat upon him, why should they not spit upon you? If they buffeted him, why should they not buffet you? Shall your Master have all the rough of it? Shall he have all the bitter, and you all the sweet? A pretty soldier you, to demand better fare than your Captain!”–Spurgeon
We should be more diligent to praise Jesus.
“How earnestly, next, ought we to honor our dear Lord. If men were so eager to put him to shame, let us be ten time more earnest to bring him glory. Is there anything we can do today by which he may be honored? Let us set about it. Can we make any sacrifice? Can we perform any difficult task which would glory him? Let us not deliberate, but at once do it with our might. Let us be inventive in modes of glorifying him, even as his adversaries were ingenious in the methods of his shame.”–Spurgeon
We should have more assurance and confidence in receiving the finished work of Jesus for our redemption.
“Surely I know that he who suffered this, since he was verily the Son of the blessed, must have ability to save us. Such griefs must be a full atonement for our transgressions. Glory be to God, that spittle on his countenance means a clear, bright face for me. Those false accusations on his character mean no condemnation of me.”–Spurgeon
vv. 14:66–72) Peter’s denial:
vv. 14:66–72) Peter’s denial:
Failing the Lord is very, very serious. Peter failed Jesus in several areas, and his failure reached its climax in an actual denial of the Lord. But he was forgiven, and there is forgiveness for any believer who fails.
Mark concludes the story of Peter’s denial here in our passage. This is a flashback of sorts. This didn’t happen as Jesus was beaten, but as He was on trial.
The cause of Peter’s ultimate denial of Christ was because he was below in the courtyard, among the worldly and unbelievers.
He was where he shouldn’t be. He was with the crowd of rejecters, sitting with them and warming himself by their fire. As the case would be in any similar situation, the crowd was discussing the trial and mocking, joking, and cursing Jesus because of His claims.
Family, Peter followed Jesus at a distance. When we distance ourselves from Jesus and surround ourselves with the world, it makes it incredibly difficult to make a proper stand for Christ at the critical time.
Peter sat with the servants and warmed himself by their fire. Peter found fellowship and warmth in the company of the ungodly, having forsaken the fellowship of the fleeing disciples. Peter wanted to seem just one of this crowd, not a follower of Jesus.
Also officers of verse 65 who struck Jesus are the same people as the servants in verse 54, because the same Greek word is used for both. Peter sat and associated himself with the same men who beat Jesus, and they beat Him just because someone else told them too.
I believe there are at least 4 areas in which led to Peter failure.
His misunderstanding of God’s Word. He only thought of the Kingdom of God in physical and material terms only. He failed to see the spiritual kingdom of God, which is:
the death and resurrection of Christ
The Lord’s indwelling power, His rule and reign within the hearts of believers.
The remaking of a new heavens and earth, which he was later to understand in the clearest of terms:
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
His confusion. Peter drew his sword and attacked. He had been ready to act in the flesh, to fight to establish the Lord’s kingdom, yet Jesus had rebuked him and stopped him. Peter didn’t understand and was probably very confused. He was here in the midst of sinner s because he was looking for answers.
His fear. Peter had created a bad situation for himself. He had attacked the arresting party. He had failed to wait upon the Lord’s directive. Now to some degree he was a hunted man. In the heat of the moment he fled, yet because he really does love Jesus he sought after Christ. But followed Jesus at a “safe” distance.
His weak faith. Peter had failed to trust Jesus in the midst of confusing and threatening circumstances. Peter didn’t interpret the Lord’s words literally; therefore, his faith was based upon error. This led to weak faith and being unprepared for the events he is currently facing.
It is these four things which will cause failure for us:
Misunderstanding God’s Word.
Confusion.
Fear.
Weak faith (due to misinterpreting the Lord’s words).
[67–68] A maid simply walked up to Peter and said he had been with Jesus of nazareth. There seems to be no threat or danger in the statement to Peter. At worst, it seems it would have led only to some bantering and ridicule. Peter cracked under his fear. He denied Jesus, pretending he knew nothing about Him nor had anything to do with Him. He just claimed ignorance of the whole matter.
The fear of ridicule and embarrassment often causes a person to deny Jesus. Sometimes the denial is by voice, by act (going along with the person or crowd), or by silence.
Family, when out in the world, too many pretend not to know Jesus. Professing Jesus only on Sundays and among believers yet never saying a word about Him otherwise. Another travesty is they live no differently from the world. No one ever knows they are professing believers, such pretension is denial.
38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
25 The fear of man brings a snare,
But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
[69–70] Peter also fears this crowd. This time a maid recognized him and said to the crowd standing around, “this is one of them.” The pressure is on Peter now, and it is stronger because all eyes are on him. He denied it more emphatically this time.
Peter denied Jesus before all of them, and he denied Jesus using an oath. He was falling (progressing) more and more into sin.
Instead of standing by his savior’s side, he chose to stand with the Lord’s rejecters.
Peter feared persecution and Peter was so ready to follow Jesus when He was popular and had a large following. But now he could not stand the heat when Jesus was being opposed and rejected by most.
[70–72] Now Peter is confronted again which causes him to curse and swear denial of Jesus. The pressure from this crowd is nothing to scoff, Peters Galilaean speech gave him away. I’m sure his chest was bound to be pounding with emotion and fear. Thoughts flying, trying to figure out how to escape.
Which led him to curse and swear… Immediately upon his denial the rooster crowed a second time.
Peter had remembered what Christ said. He had failed his Lord and failed Him so miserably. Peter loved Jesus, and somehow he knew he was not where he belonged. He might not understand what was happening to the Lord. The idea here in verse 72 is this, Peter was utterly heartbroken and added wept.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
He wept, and the more he though about the situation, the more he wept. He was genuinely heartbroken. He was grieved, this hurt and it was painful.
There is a significant contrast between Judas and Peter. Both men denied Jesus in one way or another, but one was restored and the other was not.
Restoring Peter was important to Jesus; after His resurrection, Jesus had private meeting with Peter and a public restoration. Judas ended up as an apostate, Peter was a backslider who suffered spiritual decline from an experience he once enjoyed.
Note this family:
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
11 Now therefore, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers, and do His will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the pagan wives.”
13 He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
24 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
25 The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
