The Trial of Jesus

In Jesus trial we see men sit in judgment over the son of God, men who are deluded by their sense of spiritual-knowledge, and political-power. Men who think they are smarter than God, men who think they are in control of their own destiny.

Today people still sit in judgment over God; their verdict is that God is not good, or God is not

All-powerful. That God is not the creator, and that man is not made in God’s image, and that there is no life after death. Today people sit in judgment over who Jesus is; and their verdict is he’s just another religious figure of human history.

The verdict you render concerning Jesus is the most important decision you will ever make in your life.

This morning I want you to take a seat in the jury box, where we will listen in on the trial of Jesus.

We will hear the facts, weight the evidence, and make a decision about whether Jesus Christ is who He says he is, or not.

We discover in these verses that Jesus actually went through two trials: Jesus went on trial before the religious leaders, and before the political leaders.

Each of these trials have a purpose; each one of these trials accomplished just exactly what God intended.

On trial before the religious leaders we are given:

1. The Identity of Jesus.

V:66-71.

Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, taken by the soldiers to the high priest house where they beat him and mocked him. To the Roman soldiers Jesus was a joke, they blindfolded him, and said if you’re a prophet, tell us who hit you. They punched Jesus and spit in his face. To people who do not believe that Jesus is the son of God, He is just a joke, someone to abuse, mock and make fun of.

These men who mocked Jesus were fulfilling prophecies that Jesus had made:

-”Jesus said, he will be delivered unto the Gentiles, and should be marked, and spitefully treated, and spit on.

Never forget that Jesus suffered these things for you and me. Jesus was our suffering Savior! Jesus was abused, and mocked all night.

The religious trial could not formally begin until daybreak, V:66-“as soon as it was day…

Don’t get the idea this is going to be a fair trial, Ananias, Caiaphas and the other religious leaders had already decided that Jesus had to be killed.

Jesus was going to be on trial before the Sanhedrin, they were 70 of them, the Supreme Court of the Jewish people. Can you picture this kangaroo court, glaring at Jesus? They sit in their seats, with their long beards, and long robes, they hate Jesus, their eyes are red with rage, and their tongues are like razors. They think they have Jesus where they want him, they feel that they are now in control, but they are wrong! God has allowed all of this to happen, for Jesus to be on trial before these religious leaders to declare one more time that Jesus is, the Christ, Son of Man, and son of God.

On trial before the religious leaders, God gives us the identity of Jesus. Nothing is more important than knowing the true identity of Jesus.

Luke has been trying to help us see Jesus identity throughout his gospel. He wants us to know who Jesus is, and when we know who he is, place our faith in him for salvation. Jesus once again makes his identity clear.

Look at their opening question V:67-“ if you are the Christ, tell us…

a. Jesus is the “Christ”.

V:67-68.

Christ is not the last name of Jesus, but the title of Jesus. It is the Hebrew word Messiah, which means the anointed one. The Christ is the Savior that God had promised to send. The Christ was the promised son of David, that’s why later these men would tell Pilate that Jesus had identified himself as Christ, the king.

The title Christ is used 25 times in Luke for Jesus.

These religious leaders are not asking this question because they wanted an answer! They had already rejected Jesus as their Messiah. But if they could get Jesus to admit that he was a Messiah, they could claim that he wanted to overthrow the Roman government, and take him before Pilate, the Roman governor. Their question is insincere, they didn’t want facts, they had an agenda, do away with Jesus.

Their question was, “if you are the Christ…?

Of course Jesus is the Christ!

Luke has been showing us this all the way through his gospel.

When Jesus birth was announced to Mary by the angel Gabriel he said, -“The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David”.

Jesus would be the Messiah because only the Messiah could sit on David’s throne. And when Jesus was born, the shepherds heard the angel of the Lord say, -“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord “.

Later Luke tells us that when the baby Jesus was taken to the temple, a man named Simeon saw, -“the Lord’s Christ”.

Then there is the famous confession of Peter, who declared Jesus to be, -“the Christ of God”. There are no “ifs” about it: Jesus is the Christ, the savior of the World! Jesus knows they had already decided to reject whatever he said. Jesus had already performed many miracles before their eyes. Their problem was not a lack of evidence, but a refusal to accept the evidence already given.

God has revealed his wisdom, power and beauty in everything from the littlest snowflake, to the farthest star, and the glory, and power of Jesus Christ is revealed on every page of the gospel.

It’s easy to reject Jesus by claiming to need more information. Many people hide behind what they don’t know in order to avoid what they do know. What about you? Will you reject Jesus? Will you pretend that you need more information while clinging to your bias? Or will you be honest? There’s more than enough information and testimony to know the truth. This Gospel was written, so we could be certain that the things we’ve been taught about Jesus are true.

What further testimony do you need?

Here is the question: Is Jesus the Savior who God promised to send, or not?

What answer will you give? Will you believe that Jesus is the Savior who God promised to send?

Still there’s more to know about Jesus, Jesus tells these men one of his other titles.

b. Jesus is “the Son of man”.

V:69-“Hereafter “the Son of Man” will sit on the right hand of the power of God”.

This is Jesus title of choice, it is used 82 times in the Gospels. Jesus is identifying himself as the one that Daniel spoke about in .

-“And I saw One like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was brought before Him. He was given authority to rule, and glory, and a kingdom; so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.

Jesus is telling these men he is the one that Daniel is speaking about. The Son of Man, came from heaven, and was given authority to rule, and glory and a kingdom.

Jesus said, -“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me”..

Jesus declared to the Sanhedrin you’re going to see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God. The men who were judging him, would one day be Judged by him.

Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of Man, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed. He sits at the right hand of God, and is coming in the clouds to judge the world!

c. Jesus is, ”The Son of God”.

V:70-“Are you then the son of God? And he said unto them, you say that I am”.

Or you could translate it, “you got that right”. Jesus is claiming to be God! The religious leaders understand that, that’s why they condemned him for blaspheming. Is Jesus the son of God? Yes He is!

The angel Gabriel told Mary:

-“Jesus would be called the son of the most high”

At Jesus baptism, -“you are my beloved son”

On the Mount of Transfiguration, God the father said, -“This is my son”

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus tells these men, I am the son of God. They did not believe that he was the son of God given for the salvation of sinners, but he was!

These men sadly gave the wrong verdict when they heard the testimony of Jesus, V:71-“And they said, what further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth”

They heard the testimony, but they came to the wrong conclusion. Truly what further testimony did they need!

What further testimony do you need? We have heard the words of Jesus himself! He claims to be the savior who God promised to send, the divine judge who will come in glory at the final judgment, the one and only son of God. What further testimony does anyone need? Believe the testimony he has already given, and you will find salvation in the son of God, the Savior of the world!

The trial before the religious leaders shows us:

1. The identity of Jesus.

The religious trial was now over, the next step was to put him through a political trial, the son of God was to be crucified, and only the Romans could do that.

The trial before the political leaders shows us:

2. The Innocence of Jesus.

, .

Jesus political trial would take place before Pilate the Roman governor of Judea. Luke is careful to place both Jesus birth and death in their historical context. At the beginning of the book of Luke were told that Jesus was born in the days of Herod the king of Judea. Now he tells us that Jesus would be tried before the Roman governor Pilate. The birth, life and death of Jesus is not myth, it happened in human history.

Jesus trial, and death on the cross is something that really happened. Skeptics sometimes say the stories in the Gospels are only make-believe: that Jesus never died on the cross, and he certainly never rose from the dead. In fact, some historians used to doubt whether Pontius Pilate ever existed. The only evidence for him was in the Bible, which they would not accept as credible history. Then in 1961 a team of Italian archaeologists discovered the following inscription at Herod’s amphitheater in Caesarea: “Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, has dedicated to the people of Caesarea a temple in honor of Tiberius.” Not only was Pilate a real person, he was famous enough to have his name inscribed on a public monument!

In fact, archaeologists have since uncovered the very pavement where Jesus stood the morning of his trial before Pilate.

Jesus is just as real as Pilate!

The religious leaders had already determined that Jesus was guilty of blaspheming, and were determined to put him to death. But Rome, and Pilate did not care one bit about the religion of the Jews. The Romans did not consider blaspheming a crime at all. The Jewish leaders knew that their religious laws meant nothing to Roman, so they accused Jesus of:

-“perverting the nation, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king”. This was a lie, there was never any hint of sedition in any of Jesus teaching, Jesus said give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, and Jesus never claimed to be a political king as they were implying.

But accusing Jesus of being a king was their best chance of getting Jesus into trouble with the Roman law. Pilate who was a politician would sit up and pay attention to the political issue of insurrection. There can be no king but Caesar.

Pilate asked Jesus, V:3-Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, it is as you say… Yes I am.

Later they would put a sign above Jesus head as he hung on the cross that said; this is the king of the Jews. Jesus had not come to overthrow the Roman government. But Jesus was the true and rightful King of the Jews.

V:4-“So Pilate said to the chief priest and the crowd, I find no fault in this man”.

This is the first of three times that Pilate says, this man is innocent, and I find no fault in him.

V:4,14,22-Read.

This should have been case closed; V:5-“but they insisted, saying he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place”

Boy that was an understatement! Jesus stirred up people; he stirred up blind Bartimaeus. He cried out son of David have mercy on me!

Jesus stirred up the Lame man who was let down through the roof. Jesus stirred of Zacchaeus.

And Jesus stirred up the unbelieving religious crowd. Has Jesus ever stirred you up?

If you have met him he has!

When Pilate hears that Jesus was from Galilee, he sends him to Herod in, V:6-12.

Pilate does not want to make a decision about Jesus, so he shifts the decision to somebody else.

But Pilate was like a man that had a boomerang, and he bought a new one, and killed himself trying to throw the old one away.

Pilate could not get rid of Jesus, he sent him to Herod, the king of Galilee, and Herod sent him back to Pilate.

The decision about Jesus Christ is a decision that no one else can make for you! Your wife cannot make it. Your parents cannot make it. Your pastor cannot make it. Your sin is a personal matter, and so is your salvation.

Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate, he sends him back wearing a gorgeous, purple robe, V:11.

Herod and his men of war put this robe on Jesus and mocked him as a King. Oh how sad, many people still mock Jesus today. Herod and Pilate did not take Jesus seriously as a King.

Do we take Jesus seriously as a King?

If Jesus really is the king, then anything less than

Willing-obedience and open-worship is treason to King Jesus! We need to acknowledge him as our king every day, go to his throne in prayer every day, listening to his royal decrees from his word every day. Kings are not to be ignored; they are to be honored and obeyed!

If Jesus truly is our King, then we will show his gentleness in our homes, his patience in our trials, his diligence in our work, his faithfulness in our friendships, and his forgiveness for the people it is hard for us to love. Are you living for the King, or are you mocking him by living as if it hardly matters whether he is the King or not? First Pilate tried to pass the buck to Herod to make the decision for him.

Next Pilate just tried to admire Jesus.

-“Pilate said unto them you have brought this man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him; no, neither did Herod, and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him”.

Pilate tries to say some nice words about Jesus Christ. "I've examined Him. There is nothing wrong with Him. He's all right. Pilate's under tremendous pressure. He doesn't want to stand with Jesus. But, he doesn't want to be against Jesus. He thinks he can stay right in the comfortable middle. He thinks that he can say nice things about Jesus, admire Jesus without acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and bowing before him.

It would be better off to be a pagan who has never heard the name of Jesus, than to be a person who sits in Crossway Baptist Church, in an

air-conditioned building, on padded pews, and here the Bible preached, and simply admire Jesus. The greater the light, the greater the judgment. If Jesus is not who he says he is, we should all walk out of here right now! But if Jesus is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, you should bow down and receive him as your Savior and Lord, and stand up and live for him! Just as Jesus was on trial before Pilate, Jesus is on trial before you. What are you going to do with Jesus? Just as Pilate was brought face-to-face with Jesus long ago, you’re being brought face-to-face with Jesus this morning.

And you must make a decision about what you wil do with Jesus.

Pilate had Jesus on his hands, and he couldn’t get rid of him, and neither can you!

Pilate just telling the people:

He is innocent of the charges you’re bringing…

I have found no fault in this man.

He has done nothing worthy of death.

Pilate and Herod, who never agreed about anything, both agreed that Jesus was innocent.

The trial of Jesus before the political leaders shows us the innocence of Jesus.

-“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God”.

Pilate tried to do everything he could to get the people to agree to release Jesus. He said I will beat him and then release him, but the people said no, crucify him.

At the Passover feast the governor would release a prisoner. Pilate said let me release Jesus, they said no, V:18-“Away with this man, and released to us Barabbas, who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder”.

Herod being a politician want to please the people, and retain his office. Pilate was giving into the pressure of the people, and at the end of the day he cared more about his popularity, than he did about the innocence Son of God.

The religious leaders are demanding that Jesus be executed on the grounds that he was stirring up the people to rebel against Rome… And then they ask to release Barabbas a man who was a known insurrectionist, who had caused a rebellion in the city, and murdered someone. The real reason they wanted to kill Jesus, was because exposed their religious hypocrisy, superficial religion.

They would not bow to Jesus as their king, Savior and Lord.

They just kept shouting, V:21-“ crucify him, crucify him, crucify him”.

Pilate says for the third time, V:22-”why, what evil has he done? I have found no reason for death and him. I will therefore chastise him and let him go”.

But the people were not having that:

V:23-24-“they insisted, demanding with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priest prevailed. And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will”.

Long before it was the will of the people for Jesus to die on the cross, it was the will of God the father that Jesus die for our salvation. But God’s eternal plan does not exempt these people; they were still guilty before God for the injustice of murdering his son. God used the evil plans of evil men, to accomplish his perfect plan.

Pilate recognize that Jesus was innocent man, he did everything but the thing that Jesus wanted him to do… Believe in him as his Savior and Lord!

What will you decide to do with Jesus? The Roman trial proves that Jesus was innocent.

Jesus was the innocent one, taking the place of guilty sinners.

-“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”.

Barabbas represents sinners, he represents you and me. Barabbas was a rebel, and a murder, who was headed to his cross to die for the sins he committed. There were three crosses on the hill of Golgotha that day, that middle cross belonged to Barabbas.

Like Barabbas, we are sinful, selfish, and rebellious against the rule of God. Our sin imprisons us and will not let us go. Like Barabbas we are waiting on death row, for the penalty of our sin which is eternal death, and eternal punishment.

Yet an unbelievable thing happens that day, the guilty criminal Barabbas was set free. The innocent man died while the guilty man went free.

Here is a picture of our salvation! Like Barabbas we were dead in our sins and doomed to die and go to hell. But Jesus took our sin, took our place, and the innocent one died in the place of the guilty. Jesus died on our cross, in our place, as our substitute, suffering the death that we deserved to die.

Can you imagine what it must have been like that day for Barabbas? He is locked in a Roman cell awaiting execution.

He hears a Roman soldier coming, he thinks he’s coming to get me to take me to die on the cross. The torch comes, the cell opens, he cringes and moves further back into the cell begins to beg for mercy, crying please don’t let them crucify me.

And the guard says to him, shut up! You Barabbas are the luckiest man in the world. You are not going to die today, you thieving murder! You should die! But you are being set free; grab your coat and get out of here! Barabbas can hardly believe his ears, he doesn’t stay around to ask questions. He grabs his coat and he’s out of there in a flash, he’s back on the streets of Jerusalem. He sees a crowd, moving toward Golgotha, he knows his two friends that were with him are going to be crucified. He finds a place where he can see the execution. He sees his two friends, but he sees the man that’s dying on the middle cross; and he recognizes that cross was intended for me. That man, Jesus Christ, is dying in my place, on the cross that was made for me.

This morning, you are Barabbas, Jesus suffered for your sin, he died on your cross; he took your place that you might go free! Now that’s good news!

You’re being offered a pardon for your sin this morning through the blood of Jesus, will you receive it?

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