Untitled Sermon (3)

Big Idea: We see seeds of the gospel through the lens of Jesus’s trial. What is the gospel? The gospel means that Jesus Christ is Lord and we have union with him, which means we are forgiven, righteous, children, made holy, and will ultimately be completely renewed. And what we see in this passage are little windows to the gospel.

We see here two scenes at the same time. Mark again is using a sandwich technique. He says in verse 54 that Peter is in a distance, but really the focal point in this section is in on the trial. What Mark is doing is overlaying two stories which are theological rather than chronological. So Mark connects these two to make a point.

Trial with the religious leaders.

There are a lot of things going on here and it will give us a picture of what is going on here.

Early on the religious leaders were seeking to destroy Jesus. Mark 3:6 “The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.” This is now a present reality. They have been seeking to find ways to end Jesus’s life and ministry. But they need a reason. They were not a sovereign nation. They couldn’t just execute someone. They would need Rome to carry that out for them. They will need all of their political acumen to pull it off.

They were seeking testimony. They are putting the cart before the horse in this kangaroo court. There is clearly an agenda. The agenda is to get rid of Jesus. So they are seeking to find testimony, but found none. Anyone else see a problem here. You have nothing on this guy. They are leaving no stone unturned and have found nothing.

Here were some of the lengths they were willing to go. They were willing to listen to and even admit into their proceedings false testimony. These are the religious leaders of the Jerusalem. The highest officials. They carry both political and religious weight.

I’m not endorsing the theology of all these leaders I’m about to name, but the influence they had would be like getting the pope, Joel Olsteen, Rick Warren, John MacArthur, John Piper, Tim Keller, Stephen Furtick, Joyce Meyer, together to make a decision for the American church.

They are willing to break the 9th commandment. They are actively seeking to find people who are willing to bear false testimony against Jesus. There is no way around that. That is pretty bad.

Now Jewish law need to have 2 witnesses at a bare minimum. So people would need to agree on the what they heard and saw. Deuteronomy 19:15 ““A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” But we se clearly here that Mark highlights the problem. They cannot get 2 witnesses to agree on the testimony.

3. We read a devastating example of true lies being told. Here is an example. They are accusing Jesus of threatening to destroy the temple. Jesus never said he would destroy the temple. He did say the temple would be destroyed. Even in John 2:19 Jesus says, “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”” They are taking something Jesus said and intentionally twisting it to get Jesus in trouble. He did speak against the temple but he did not say he would destroy the temple. What the false accusers don’t understand, because they don’t have the eyes to see or ears to hear is that there will be a new temple. But it is not a building. It is fulfilled in Christ’s resurrection and the church being the place of God’s presence. That the Spirit of God dwells in you and Christ is present now as we gather in his name. Like every good lie, there is an element of truth.

This reminds us of the the temptation in the garden, right? Where satan takes God’s word and twists them. Did God really say…Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””

Genesis 3:3 “but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ””

WE need to ensure that we are not a people of half-truths. But we also don’t always need to dignify half truths with a response. Jesus does not correct their falsehoods. Some accusations don’t merit or dignify a response.

But

The high priest was a political appointee and was the highest-ranking Jewish authority in the land. Religiously, he alone had the privilege of entering the Holy of Holies in the temple once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Politically, he was held accountable to Rome for maintaining public order and ensuring the payment of tribute, and he could be deposed at will. Financially, he oversaw the temple and all its commerce, the hub of Jerusalem’s economy. Under the Romans, the average term of office for the high priest was four years. Caiaphas’s unusually long tenure (AD 18–36) testifies to his adeptness

Now the high priest asks him a question that he can respond to. This is the charge. Are you the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. Are you the son of God. Blessed is an oblique or round about way in referencing the Father.

Jesus draws on 2 different passages to substantiate his claim.

Psalm 110:1 “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””

Daniel 7:13-14 ““I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

How on earth can this man, who has been deserted, who speaks against us, who is here all alone on trial, how can he be the Messiah. We would know right? We know what we are looking for and you aren’t him?

The response to this claim is demonstrative. The chief priest is angered by Jesus’ claims. But it really wasn’t the claim to be messiah that caused the response. It was the claim of being at the right hand of Power. It was a claim of kingly divine authority. Ironically who is really the blasphemer? It’s Caiphas, right?

This is claim is met with vile hatred. Spitting and mockery. This is what the world things of Jesus. Not the charicture of Jesus where he is some hippy guru with nice teachings. But the Jesus who demands people to live a radically different way. The Jesus who calls people to love even their enemies. The Jesus who calls people to leave their lives of sin. The Jesus who calls people to repentance. The Jesus who calls people to take their cross and follow him. The Jesus who asks his followers to love God whole heartedly. The Jesus who says non-one can get to the Father except through him. The Jesus who will judge the living and the dead. That Jesus is not beloved by the people outside of his followers.

Now back to Peter. We have to realize something here that I think is pretty important. Peter is the one giving this accoount to Mark. No one else is there. Peter could have lied and said, I was there, I saw it all. I was the brave disciple. No one else had the courage to stand but I did. But he doesn’t. Instead, he tells Mark the truth.

Peter is following Christ at a distance. He is trying to play it safe. The two scenes are black and white. Jesus is getting pummled and ridiculed. Peter is following at a distance. This is disicpleship from afar. He doesn’t want to get too close. And all the bravado we saw before is absent. We see this clearly when a servant girl, not an authority, not anyone with any power, and Peter denies it. Again she points it out. Then others say, oh yeah you are one of his followers. We you sound like one of them Galileans. He denies it. 3 times, 3 denials.

Peter's failure, slides from denial, to swearing false oaths. In a short period of time, First crowing around 12:30, 1:30, 2:30. 12:00-3:00 am. The watch of military guards. This watch was from 12:00 am to 3:00 am. It was during this short period. No more than a couple of hours that Peter slipped into denial.

Here is the point between these two accounts.

1. The gospel declaring Jesus as Lord is gracious but not safe.

We wear seatbelts, we wear helmets, we wear gloves, we have other protective gear, because we realize That the world is not very safe. There is danger lurking. Not to scare you, but its true. In the same way, the gospel is not safe. God grace incites ire and riducule, persecution.

Peter will receive grace for his failure. And he will eventually die for his faith. But to follow Christ, does not mean life becomes easier. It really is a call of self denial. To die to your own desires and to follow Jesus. And in many other places in the world that is a very dangerous proposition. The very life is at risk. In other places, like where Will and Katye are going, it is not life, but reputation. If you have been a like Peter, here this, Jesus forgives you. But he also wants you to repent and walk in faithful obedience, which mean when the next opportunity arises, you trust him. You walk by faith and you acknowledge that you are a Christian. That you do believe that Jesus Christ is real not only saviour, but Lord, King, ruling over all. That all religions are not basically the same.

The religious leaders have rendered their verdict against Jesus. But they don’t have the authority to carry out the penalty. For that, they will have to appeal to the Roman government. So they have to go through Pilate, the Roman governor who was responsible for maintaining power and influence over the Jews. We can’t overstate how much the Jewish authorities must have hated Jesus to do this. They tolerated Rome, but Romans were pagans. They were unclean. They were immoral. They weren’t part of God’s people. For the Jewish leaders link up with Pilate, shoes how desperate they were to get rid of Jesus.

Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea a.d. 26–36 and is described by Josephus and Philo (ancient Jewish writers) as having had a tempestuous relationship with the Jewish people, caused by his cruel and malicious rule. He was finally removed from his post and sent to Rome apparently on account of complaints by the Jews.

Rome would execute those deemed rebellious. So the charge that they are bringing against him is sedition. Although this charge is laughable, Jesus is not the type of king that Rome should fear, Pilate asks the question. And Jesus responds in an indirect way. Jesus knows their concept of king, and he is not the type of king they are talking about. His kingdom is a reign and rule over our hearts and lives. He is not going to conquer territory by overthrowing Rome.

But the accusation is true. It is just referring to a different type of king and wholly different kingdom.

This is what it means forJesus to be our king according to the heilderberg Catechism. “our eternal king who governs us by his word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us (Matt. 28:18–20; John 10:28; Rev. 12:10–11).

Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

What I find striking about the accounts here is that both the Jewish religious leaders and the pagan Roman government are ultimately responsible. They both represent the fact that all of us culpable for the death of Jesus.

2. Gospel makes us all culpable

The titanic…Unless there is a rescue, we are going to sink.

The gospel, Jesus Christ as the suffering king, he did it for you and for me. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It was your sin, and my sin that Jesus covered by his death and it was his righteousness that he gave to you through his acceptable offering. Romans 4:25 “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

So it wasn’t just the Jews, and there is an unfortunate history of antisemitism in some sections of the church. They were involved, the Roman government was involved. We were involved. It was my sin, and your sin that Jesus endured the trials, spit and mocked, flogged, beaten, abuses, hung on a cross, exposed in shame. Desertion, betrayal, godforsaken. So you could be found in Christ, and be in right standing with God. None of us were ever in right standing with God before he opened our eyes to see. The Scriptures tell us that we were dead in our trespasses. Not on life support, not on a ventilator, not really really sick. Dead. Unable to act. It was God who made us alive. So we receive the gospel with tremendous gratitude and humility because Jesus gave himself up for his people. Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

What’s fascinating is that Pilate does not seemed convinced yet that he should do anything with Jesus. According to all four gospel accounts, the people ask for the release of a man named Barabbas. This guy was a criminal. The Scriptures also tell us that there was a custom around this time that the Roman government would release a prisoner during the passover feast.

Here is what we know about Barabbas. Each of the gospels describes Barabbas differently. John contains the least detail concerning Barabbas (John 18:40), referring to Barabbas as a robber or revolutionary. In Matthew 27:16, Barabbas is a notorious prisoner. In Mark 15:7 Barabbas is a rebel or insurrectionist, and in Luke 23:19 he has been part of an insurrection. Mark and Luke both mention that Barabbas has committed murder.

Given what we just talked about, who is the actually threat to Rome? Who is more “dangerous” to the Jews? It has to be Barabbas. This revolutionary, this rebel, this murderer. He’s got to be a bigger threat!

So we have another contrast…Jesus is innocent. He is not a murderer, he is not a revolutionary.

But we have to remember, don’t ever forget this about the human hurt Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

The heart, before God changes is, does not understand the things of God. The person with an unchanged heart cannot see Jesus for who he truly is. This portion of Mark is a sad reflection of the state of our own hearts apart from the changing power of the gospel. Romans 3:9-12 “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””

So we have not just some bad actors, but people who are blind to the truth of who Jesus truly is. Then we have Pilate who seems to be reasonable. But some have speculated, and I tend to agree that there may be something deeper going on here.

Mark (§29 Handed Over to the Gentiles (Mark 15:1–20))

But this does not mean that Pilate was basically a fair man or that his desire to release Jesus was prompted by any noble motive. It is more likely that, having satisfied himself that Jesus was not actually a revolutionary, Pilate concluded that Jesus was simply a serious thorn in the side of the Jewish leaders. The issue between them was another of what Pilate regarded as the stupid religious controversies always afflicting the Jews. Since Pilate appears to have had little regard for Jewish sensitivities about religious matters and seems to have had trouble with the Jewish authorities on more than one occasion (see note), he may very well have seen this as an excellent opportunity to bedevil them by releasing someone they wanted out of their hair. His motive for trying to release Jesus was likely the desire to make life more difficult for the religious authorities so they would have less time to trouble him.

So the crowd wins out, and Pilate certainly doesn’t want to cause an insurrection. He gives in to the crowds demand.

But we have something more going on hear than a prisoner exchange.

3.We have the Gospel picture of the great exchange.

A guilty man goes free and an innocent man takes his place.

Pilate says in v. 14, what evil has he done. Jesus is innocent. Not only as he not committed any civil crimes. He has not committed any sins, ever. He was perfect. He has done nothing to deserve this treatment. He is guiltless. You see Jesus Christ does not deserve death. He doesn’t deserve imprisonment. He should not be betrayed. He should not be crucified. He should not experience God forsakenness. But he stands in our place. He takes on all that our sin deserves. The punishment, the separation. And takes our place, so that we can be free. Just as Barabbas, the murderous revolutionary is set free and Jesus takes his place, so too, Jesus takes the place of those who place their faith in him.

Now you may think, but Barabbas was really bad. Why would Jesus need to take my place? I mean, I’m pretty good. I’ve never hurt anyone. I pay my taxes. I care about people. I’m a good parent. That may all be true. But James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” Your pastor has broken all of these. The moment I begin to replace God with anything else, I have failed all of the commandments. The moment I get angry and I wish someone would just go away, I murder them in my heart, I have broken all the commandments.

Conclusion:

But don’t miss the good news in the midst of the bad. “Cheer up: You're a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you're more loved than you ever dared hope.”

When you repent and believe the gospel, this exchange becomes yours. You are freed from the guilt, from the penalty of sin. Cosmic treason. And you are given new life in Christ. My hope for you, and for our church is we never lose sight of the simplicity of the gospel. That we can be found in Christ and receive all his benefits by faith. See the gospel for what it really is…

1 Timothy 1:15 “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Make that your own confession/profession, but when we see what Christ did, we land here you're more loved than you ever dared hope.” Receive the love that God has for you and rest securely in his mercy and grace.