“The Darkest Night in History”

Turn in your Bibles with me to Deuteronomy chapter 16. The title of the message today is, “The Darkest night in history.” This message today is about the sinister trial of Christ shortly before He is nailed to a cross where He died for the sins of His people.

We live in a time where there has been many books and movies written about our law system. We have a program on television called, “Court T.V.” where you can actually just watch certain trials.

I remember in 1994 watching the NBA finals between the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks. It was game 5 of a great series and all of a sudden the game was interrupted to show a car chase in California. This car pursuit was watched by over 95 million people because as many of you know this was the famous O.J. Simpson chase. Eventually all eyers were glued to this famous 8 month trial where O.J. was acquitted of murder. Over the years there has been much that has been put into people’s fascination over trials and our judicial system. In ancient times the Jewish people were very proud of the way they ran things. Their very own judicial system was set up so that they would honor God. Since God’s truth was central to Israel’s system of justice than we can run to it to see how things were.

Deuteronomy 16:18–20 ESV

18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Notice here, a righteous judgement. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality and accept a bribe. These were all ways to have a just and fair trial. But what exactly did this judicial system look like? Well by the time Jesus showed up Israel’s system had been well established. The Sanhedrin council was made up of 23 men who acted as judge and jury in all legal matters. There was also a Great Sanhedrin Council in Jerusalem which was the final authority and looked much like our Supreme Court today. This court consisted of 70 men from 3 different categories. This would have been chief priests, elders, and scribes. Their laws mandated three specific requirements any time there was a criminal proceeding. This would consist of a public trial, a defense for the accused, and a confirmation of guilt by two or three witnesses. Because the last point was so crucial, their law put into place a very severe penalty for false witnesses that would come against someone who was innocent.

I want to take time today to help you understand that the Jewish legal system did everything they could to make sure there was justice and fairness in their legal system. When Jesus stood trial we know that clearly those principles were thrown out the window.

A. First of all the Lord’s trial took place in the priest’s home and not in the temple.

B. Second, Jesus was tried without a defense.

C. Jesus was also accused of blasphemy without actually blaspheming in the technical sense.

D. Also, the verdict was rendered in only one day, when legally two days were required.

E. Jesus was also tried on a feast day.

In other words, the Lord’s illegal and unjust trial before these Jewish authorities was a sham. Turn with me to Luke 22 and we are going to take a look into this unjust trial.

Luke 22:63–71 ESV

63 Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. 64 They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” 65 And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him. 66 When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, 67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, 68 and if I ask you, you will not answer. 69 But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” 70 So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”

Why was this night so dark? Let me share 4 reasons, 4 unjust reasons

1. The Unjust Treatment of Christ.

Luke 22:63–65 ESV

63 Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. 64 They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” 65 And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.

From our text last week, I explained to you how Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and led this group of soldiers to Christ in the Garden. Sadly, as these soldiers and men arrested Jesus in the Garden they began to mock and hit Jesus. Some of the other gospels tell us that these wicked leaders even spit in His face. What we see is the humility of our Savior and that He was willing to take this for His people. This unjust action came as no surprise to our omniscient Lord. In Luke 18 and verse 31 Jesus took the 12 disciples aside and told them, “Behold we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. So, the Jewish leaders treatment of Jesus here was in keeping up with their past treatment of the prophets. How was the Lord mistreated?

A. He is mocked.

These men are mocking the Lord as a prophet. A prophet was one who brought the Word of God to the people. In the Old Testament the prophets would declare, “Thus says the Lord.” Now Jesus came to bring the good news about God to these people and they mocked his message as well. So, these men had already rejected that Jesus came to bring God’s message to them.

B. He is blindfolded and beaten.

These men also begin to play this game where they blind fold Jesus and take turns hitting him saying who was it that hit you Jesus? Someday these men will give an account before Jesus and the Lord will say I know that it was you who hit me, depart from me you worker of iniquity.

C. He is blasphemed.

To blaspheme someone is to slander them or to speak against a person. We can only imagine the terrible things that were said about Jesus. And yet Jesus is submissive to these insults. This shows us the depth of His love toward sinners. Jesus could have stopped this unjust treatment but He knew the great work He had come to do on earth. Jesus came to drink the bitter cup to save sinners and for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning it’s shame.

Many of us today have perhaps been guilty of the same things these leaders did. Have you blasphemed God? Have you rejected that Jesus is the Son of God? How many of you have take the Lord’s name in vain? There are many people today who have mocked the Lord by saying if Jesus were really God than why doesn’t he do this. You can fill in the blank. If you see the ugliness of your sin and confess it to the Lord today you can be forgiven. You see that was the difference between these religious leaders, they never saw what they were doing was wrong and repented of it. So today if you have perhaps become angry at God or cursed God repent of your sin and submit to his lordship before it is too late.

2. The Unjust Witness against Christ.

Luke 22:66 ESV

66 When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said,

After the Lord’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was first taken to Annas. We see this in John 18 verses 12 and 13. Annas had been high priest from A.D. 6 -15, when Pilate’s predecessor as Roman governor removed him from office. Although he was no longer in office, he still remained the real power behind the scenes. Annas the high priest was notorious for his greed which came from the temple when people came to exchange their money. He would charge incredible high rates. Another way he made money was from the sale of animals for sacrifice. People that brought their animals to be offered as a sacrifice would not be allowed to because they would have a blemish and he would sell them animals for a high price. Annas hated Jesus, because of the Lord’s assaults on the temple when he threw the money changers out.

The others religious leaders like the scribes and the Pharisees also hated and opposed Jesus because he exposed their hypocrisy and attacked their self- righteous religious system. The only witnesses that these leaders had were false witnesses who had been hired to tell lies about Jesus. When Jesus raised a question, one of the officials slapped Him across the face and said is that how you answer the high priest? Jesus responded if what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong, but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?

Unable to come up with any evidence to use against Jesus, Annas sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas who was the current high priest at the time. Caiaphas had quickly gathered together members of the Sanhedrin and when they were all together , the second phase of this unjust trial began. These unjust priests and witnesses accused Jesus of blasphemy because He claimed to be the Son of God. Yet even that accusation was a violation of Jewish law.

This not only shows us the unjust witnesses but also the unjust trial. These men were fully aware that they were not allowed to have a trial at night, in a private home, nor on a feast day. Also, there was no indictment brought forth and no witnesses to prove that Jesus was guilty of execution. But this was exactly the verdict that they were aiming for. The religious leaders had the hardest of all hearts. That means that they refused all proof and reason that Jesus was the Son of God. They all had hearts that refused to admit what was true and right. But despite the hardest of all hearts this could not stop the advancement of God’s good plan.

3. The Unjust Questioning.

Luke 22:67–69 ESV

67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, 68 and if I ask you, you will not answer. 69 But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”

Anna’s questioning of Jesus totally violated the Jewish legal system. Since he was no longer the high priest and served in no official capacity, he had no legal authority to conduct what in modern terms would be considered an arraignment or preliminary hearing. Also, his questioning was an attempt to lead Jesus to incriminate himself.

What is interesting here is that Jesus did not directly answer their question. He knew their hard hearts and that whatever He said, no matter how truthful and accurate it was would be rejected. His words would be used against Him. In the long run our Lord knew that it was better to remain quiet than for Him to say anything that they could use against Him.

Here in these verses we do see that our Lord responds to these hard-hearted leaders. The Lord tells them that the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. This is a direct reference to Daniel chapter 7 and verses 13-14 where we see a heavenly being who comes to the throne of Ancient Days. Jesus helps us to see that he has come from heaven and will return back to heaven. But more importantly we learn that the Son of Man (Jesus) has been appointed to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is explaining to these leaders that yes I am the Son of Man and this is not the last time that we will meet. I will be back and I will be back with the authority of heaven and you will be judged by me. This is very clear as He explains to them that He will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.

4. The Unjust Condemnation.

Luke 22:70–71 ESV

70 So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” And he said to them, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips.”

Caiaphas demanded to know who Jesus was. He was desperate because none of the false witnesses panned out and now he puts the Lord under oath by making the statement, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us wether you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God? This statement comes from Matthews gospel.

The final words that our Lord speaks here is, “You say that I am.” The members of this unjust council have by now lost what little patience they had when Jesus makes this statement. They confess what further testimony do we need? These members were convinced that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy and deserved death because Jesus claimed to be God. Again it was not a capital offense to claim to be the Messiah or even to claim to be God. Jewish law carefully defined what blasphemy was. To be guilty of blasphemy, you had to directly curse the name of God and of course Jesus did not do this. Jesus blessed the name of God.

The Leaders were convinced that Jesus was guilty of a capital offense, but they also knew that Rome would never put him to death for blasphemy because Rome did not care about that. So they sent Jesus to Pilate with the charge that Jesus claimed to be king.

Luke 23:2 ESV

2 And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”

Pilate doesn’t know what to do about this Jewish problem so he sends Jesus to Herod Antipas but eventually Pilate washes his hands of the problem and delivers Jesus over to the religious leaders bo be crucified.

Conclusion: These men rejected Christ by condemning the Lord of glory. All those who reject Christ will rightly be judged by Him. Think about these religious leaders. They ignored the Lord’s powerful teaching. They ignored His miracles which truly gave evidence that Jesus was who He claimed to be. As a result these men condemned themselves to hell. What about you today? Do you have a hard heart? Have you rejected Christ? John tells us in his gospel this is why the good news of the Gospel has been written. So that people may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. Don’t be found to be rejecting Christ. Believe in Him today while there is still time.

(Pray)

(Lead into Communion)