You Have the Right to a Fair Trial?
10 Laws Broken in the Trial of Jesus:
- No trials allowed during FEASTS . (Mk 14:12)
- Trials must be PUBLIC . (Mk 14:53)
- No trials allowed at NIGHT . (Mk 14:53)
- No convictions allowed at NIGHT . (Mk 14:53)
- Sanhedrin could investigate an accusation, not INITIATE . (Mk 14:55)
- Witnesses had to AGREE . (Mk 14:56, 59)
- The judge could not act as PROSECUTOR . (Mk 14:60)
- No self-incrimination ALLOWED . (Mk 14:61)
- Accused was to have a WITNESS . (Mk 14:63)
- No sentences passed without waiting 1 DAY . (Mk 14:64)
Handling Injustice Like Jesus:
- When falsely accused, speak NOTHING . (Mk 14:61)
- When questioned, speak BOLDLY . (Mk 14:62)
- When mistreated, trust GOD . (Mk 14:65)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above with your cursor for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Grab your Bibles, let's go to Mark chapter 14.
00:05-00:06
Mark chapter 14.
00:08-00:26
And I've shared this story with some of you before and it just seemed very appropriate to share it with you now and to be honest with you, every time I share this story with anyone they come back afterwards and say, "Did that really happen?" This story is absolutely true.
00:27-01:30
years ago my wife and I, before we had children, we were foster parents and we had a brother and a sister. And very long story very short, the children's parent or the children's mother rather, the children's mother took us to court because the little girl came home, she was seven at the time, turned eight while we had her, but she came home and she goes, "Jeff, the kids on the bus told me that there is no such thing as Santa Claus, is that true?" So I sat down with her and I said, "Honey, Santa Claus is like Batman. Like we know, we know he's not real, but if you want to watch a movie about him or have a coloring book or, you know, pretend, it's okay. It's okay." Well, the kid's mother took us to court over that. And what was the movie where that happened? Is that Miracle on 34th Street or whatever? Okay, well it was like a scene right out of that movie.
01:31-02:19
Okay, we're in the courthouse and there's a judge on a bench and there's lawyers and I'm sitting on the stand and the mother's attorney says, "Mr. Miller, did you or did you not tell this little girl that there is no Santa clause. And I will never, this absolutely true, I will never forget that moment in time sitting there going, "Is this really happening? Is this really happening?" And I explained to them, well, then more accusations started coming. They said, "Mr. Miller, did you or did you not buy the little boy, buy the Passion of the Christ for him on DVD for Christmas.
02:21-02:24
And you know I can be a little smart-alecky, especially at this point in time.
02:25-02:29
And in my mind I'm thinking, yeah, here's a little boy that can't read and he can't speak Aramaic.
02:30-02:31
So I thought, you know what would be a good gift for him?
02:32-02:35
Let's get him a movie where they speak nothing but Aramaic, but it's subtitled in English.
02:35-02:37
That'd be a perfect gift for a five-year-old.
02:39-02:40
I didn't say that.
02:42-02:42
I said no.
02:45-02:47
and the accusations kept coming.
02:47-02:51
Mr. Miller, did you or did you not baptize these children into your church?
02:52-03:00
No, I did not baptize these children and I got to teach the courtroom what we teach about baptism.
03:01-03:07
We believe that baptism is a response when Jesus Christ changes you.
03:07-03:13
When you give your life to Jesus Christ, baptism is the outward sign of that, the public profession of faith.
03:13-03:15
I get to preach a little sermon in the courtroom.
03:16-03:23
And even to this day, I think back, did that stuff really happen?
03:24-03:36
Sitting in a courtroom with all of these accusations, false accusations, I guess with the exception of the Santa Claus thing.
03:38-03:41
We're gonna be talking about injustice today.
03:42-03:56
And here's the thing, as crazy as my day in court was that day, as crazy as that day was, we're going to be looking at Jesus' day in court and it is 10,000 times crazier.
03:58-04:07
If you're walking with us through the Gospel of Mark, remember, we're Friday morning at this point, we're talking middle of the night and the religious leaders finally have Jesus.
04:07-04:16
Judas betrayed Jesus and led the chief priests, the scribes, the temple guard, Roman guards He led, Judas led them right to where Jesus would go to pray.
04:17-04:20
Jesus would go to the Garden of Gethsemane often to pray, and Judas knew that.
04:20-04:21
He goes, "Here's my chance.
04:21-04:26
I can lead them right to Him." And remember they paid Him, how much?
04:26-04:27
How much did they pay Him?
04:29-04:30
Right, right, 30 pieces of silver.
04:31-04:39
And Judas said, "Yeah, you give me a little money, I'll take you right to Him." That's exactly what happened.
04:40-04:41
But there's a problem.
04:42-04:50
The problem is this, I've shared with you before, that at this time in Israel's history, Israel was under Roman occupation, which meant they were living in their land.
04:50-04:56
They were allowed to govern themselves to a point, but one of the things that Israel could not do was execute someone.
04:57-05:00
Okay, they were not allowed to execute someone that they deemed a criminal.
05:01-05:10
So if Israel wanted to execute someone, they had to convince the Romans that this person needed to be executed, And the Romans did it.
05:10-05:12
How did the Jews execute people?
05:12-05:13
They did it by stoning.
05:14-05:17
Okay, but they weren't really allowed to do that.
05:17-05:22
So they had to convince the Romans to execute Jesus.
05:24-05:28
Bible students, Jesus actually went through two trials.
05:28-05:32
He went through a religious trial under Israel, under the high priest.
05:32-05:36
And Jesus went through a secular trial through Rome.
05:37-05:40
So each of those trials had three phases.
05:40-05:55
Okay, if you put all the Gospels together, you see first of all the Jews took Jesus through these three "religious" trials before Annas, who was the high priest, and Caiaphas, who was the current high priest, and then before the whole Sanhedrin.
05:56-06:12
And after Jesus went through those three phases under Israel, they took him to Rome where they took him to Pilate, and Pilate whisked him off before Herod, who sent him back to And Pilate, where Jesus was ultimately crucified under Pilate.
06:14-06:19
We're going to be looking at this passage, and I want to read it.
06:19-06:20
I'm going to make a couple of comments.
06:21-06:30
I hope that you have something to write some things down with, because I need to share with you some of the background so we understand what's really happening.
06:32-06:35
Mark is communicating to us under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
06:36-06:38
So let's pick up, where are we going to pick up?
06:38-06:39
Verse 53.
06:41-06:46
It says, "And they led Jesus to the high priest." Okay, that's Caiaphas.
06:48-06:58
"And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together." They actually went to Caiaphas' house, we find out in the Gospel of John.
06:58-06:59
I'm going to talk about that in a second.
06:59-07:03
They didn't go to like a courthouse, they went to the man's personal home.
07:05-07:10
It says, "And Peter had followed him at a distance right into the courtyard of the high priest.
07:13-07:24
And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire." We're going to be talking about Peter next week, but Mark's just reminding us that he's following the action here, okay?
07:25-07:40
It says, "Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none." Do you realize how backwards this is?
07:41-07:42
How does that phrase go?
07:42-07:45
"Innocent until what?" Presumed guilty, right?
07:46-07:52
And don't you go to the court and… Don't people usually like hear the evidence before reaching a verdict?
07:53-07:53
Isn't that how it works?
07:54-07:57
But you see, in Jesus' case, it was backwards.
07:58-07:59
They said, "We want to kill Him.
08:01-08:03
Let's figure out how we're going to make that happen.
08:04-08:13
We need to find something to charge Him so He can get the death sentence, so let's figure out what we can charge Him with." That's what your Bible says.
08:14-08:16
That was the fair trial that Jesus got.
08:18-08:25
Verse 56 says, "For many bore false witness against Him, but their testimony did not agree.
08:27-08:43
And some stood up and bore false witness against Him, saying, 'We heard Him say, "I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands."'" Wow.
08:43-08:44
Jesus so did not say that.
08:45-08:48
That actually is from John chapter 2, I believe verse 19.
08:50-08:51
Not even close.
08:54-08:54
False testimony.
08:57-09:03
Verse 59, Mark reminds us again, "Yet even about this, their testimony did not agree.
09:05-09:10
And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, 'Have you no answer to make?
09:13-09:15
What is it that these men testify against you?
09:17-09:18
This is so wicked.
09:18-09:22
This is so unbelievably wicked what Jesus was going through.
09:23-09:24
Do you see this scene?
09:25-09:26
Do you see what's going on here?
09:27-09:32
All these false witnesses were giving these reports, and none of them matched up.
09:35-09:41
And somehow the high priest is calling Jesus to the carpet for these… Do you realize how crazy that is?
09:42-09:57
That would be like if we took Ken to court and okay, we brought all these false witnesses in and one says, "Yeah, I saw Ken, he had a gun and he was at Target." And another witness was like, "No, no, no, no, he had a knife and he was standing on my front lawn with his knife.
09:57-10:00
That's what Ken was doing." And somebody else was like, "No, no, no, no, Ken wasn't doing it.
10:01-10:04
He was intoxicated and driving down McKnight Road.
10:04-10:37
That's what Ken was doing." And all of these false witnesses are giving all these reports and then the judge just and says, "Okay, Ken, what do you say about you? What do you have to say for yourself?" "Well, you know, give me an answer, Ken. What do you have to say amidst these accusations against you?" Like, what? Are you kidding me? He didn't do all that. He didn't do any of that. And that's exactly what was happening to Jesus. They're throwing out all these idiotic accusations against him. And the high priest was like, "Well, Jesus, what do you have to say for yourself?" Excuse me.
10:38-10:38
Crazy.
10:40-11:11
Verse 61 says, "He remained silent and made no answer." Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" And Jesus said, "I am." And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven.
11:13-11:19
And the high priest tore his garments and said, "What further witnesses do we need?
11:19-11:21
You have heard his blasphemy.
11:22-11:27
What is your decision?" And they all condemned him as deserving death.
11:29-11:40
You know that sign of tearing your clothes, that was a sign of, in the Old Testament, a sign of repentance, or it was a sign of remorse, or it was a sign of anguish.
11:40-11:47
And actually the high priest was not allowed to do that, except in the case of blasphemy.
11:48-11:51
That's what he was doing here, putting on this show before Jesus.
11:51-11:52
He's committing blasphemy!
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He's calling himself God.
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I can't believe he's doing this." And they would just like rip their clothes.
12:00-12:01
What should we do with him?
12:01-12:05
And they said he deserves to die for his blasphemy.
12:06-12:24
Verse 65, "And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to strike him, saying to him, 'Prophesy!' And the guards received him with blows.
12:25-12:27
Covered his face so he couldn't see.
12:28-12:33
And then taking slaps and spitting on him and knocking him around with his face covered.
12:33-12:35
"Oh come on prophet, aren't you the prophet?
12:36-12:44
Who's hitting you?" And making a complete mockery of Jesus Christ.
12:45-12:48
I knew there were some shady things going on with this trial.
12:49-13:04
through my studies this week, I've come to realize that in this passage, Mark in writing this, wanted to communicate - in these verses we read, what Mark wanted to communicate above everything was the unfairness of this trial.
13:06-13:08
Because it's easy for us to miss.
13:08-13:15
In the United States of America, there are laws, there are rules about how court is conducted, right?
13:15-13:16
You know what I'm talking about.
13:17-13:22
For example, when you're arrested, you have the right to remain silent.
13:24-13:25
And what other rights are there?
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Come on, help me out.
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Okay, you have a right to an attorney.
13:30-13:31
And we have all these laws.
13:32-13:34
Like the Fifth Amendment is what?
13:35-13:43
I plead the fifth, meaning you don't have to incriminate yourself, meaning you don't have to say anything that would bring a charge against you.
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You have the right to remain silent.
13:45-13:46
That's the Fifth Amendment.
13:46-13:51
And the sixth amendment is you have the right to a, what is it, a fair and speedy trial or something.
13:51-13:51
How's that go?
13:52-13:53
History was so not my thing.
13:54-13:54
Okay?
13:54-13:56
But I was trying to study that this week.
13:56-14:02
But you have, in the United States of America, you have all these rules about how court is to be conducted.
14:02-14:10
A jury of your peers and, you know, the judge and attorneys and we have all these rules.
14:12-14:24
And what Mark is doing in this passage, and I want you to jot some things down here in a second, he was showing that they broke all of Israel's rules when it came to court of law.
14:25-14:32
In other words, we were picking on Ken earlier, it would be like us saying, "Okay, so all these false witnesses came and they took Ken to court, but guess what?
14:33-14:50
The judge was also the prosecuting attorney, and he wasn't allowed a jury, and he wasn't a lot of witnesses to come to his defense, and the judge forced him to speak, and you'd be sitting there going, "What are you talking about? All that stuff's illegal that you're telling me that happened at Canaan Court." That's what Mark is doing in this passage.
14:51-15:10
Everything that happened, everything that happened to Jesus in this court hearing was illegal according to Israel's laws. Everything. You're like, "Was it really that bad?" Let's put it this way, I whittled it down to 10.
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I'm going to go through these extremely quickly.
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I whittled the list down to 10 of Israel's laws that they broke to do this.
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You're like, what are you talking about?
15:23-15:28
If you're writing this down, number one, 10 laws broken in the trial of Jesus.
15:29-15:32
Number one, no trials were allowed during feasts.
15:32-15:33
That was one of Israel's laws.
15:34-15:37
No trials were allowed to take place during the feast.
15:37-15:43
And if you go back to Mark chapter 14 and verse 12, what was going on in Israel at the time of this?
15:43-15:45
The Passover, right Bob, the Passover.
15:45-15:48
They were not allowed to have a trial during the Passover.
15:50-15:51
Violated that.
15:51-15:54
Number two, trials must be public.
15:56-15:57
The trial must be public.
15:58-16:28
Okay, and as I said, when you study this, especially in John's gospel, they took him to Caiaphas's house. Okay, this wasn't at the courthouse, this was in like Caiaphas's living room where they tried Jesus, and that was illegal. Courts had to be, the trials rather, had to be public. Number three, you were not allowed to have trials, you're not allowed to have trials at night. You were not allowed to do that.
16:28-16:56
Trials had to happen during the day. None of this sneaky, in the dark, under the cover of night, we're going to… You were not allowed to do that. It was illegal to have a trial at night. And similarly, number four, you were not allowed to have a conviction handed down at night. Not only could you not have a trial at night, if you had a trial during the day, you weren't allowed to hand down the conviction at night. That was illegal.
16:56-17:30
And that happened in this passage. Did you see it? What should we do with him? He deserves to die. Done. Let's do it. All illegal. This is the middle of the night Friday. Illegal, illegal, illegal. Number five, the Sanhedrin, this Jewish ruling body of 71 members, the Sanhedrin could investigate an accusation, they could not initiate an accusation. Do you see the difference? Do you see the difference? This one's hard for us to understand because Do you watch those court shows on TV?
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Who's your favorite TV judge?
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Judge Judy?
17:35-17:36
How many people are like Judge Judy fans?
17:37-17:38
Okay, a couple of us.
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Well, one of the problems with us liking these court shows is in these court shows you have the judge pushing the issue to get people to say something, sort of give enough rope and hang themselves kind of thing.
17:54-18:05
The judge leads these people down this path where they eventually are able to determine, "OK, you're lying and you're telling the truth, and here's how I'm going to rule." That's really not supposed to happen.
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The judge is to make a determination, but it's the lawyers presenting the case and the jury and all that.
18:10-18:23
But under Israel's law, the Sanhedrin was allowed to investigate when an accusation came up, but the Sanhedrin was not allowed to initiate an investigation to say, "We're going after this person." That was illegal.
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It was illegal.
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Judge Judy might have been on the Sanhedrin board at this time.
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I forgot to look that part up.
18:35-18:38
So on number six, the witnesses had to agree.
18:39-18:39
That was another law.
18:40-18:42
If you brought witnesses in, the witnesses had to agree.
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Did you notice Mark said twice, the witnesses didn't agree.
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Their testimonies didn't line up.
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They had to agree.
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Number seven, the judge could not act as a prosecutor.
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Similarly to not initiating an accusation.
18:57-19:03
The judge couldn't all of a sudden act like he's a lawyer on the case.
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Again Jesus was convicted before he was tried.
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They had their minds made up.
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Now let's find a reason to kill him.
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Number eight, no self-incrimination.
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Like our fifth amendment, no self-incrimination.
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Verse 61 makes it very clear that that's exactly what the high priest was trying to do to Jesus.
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Number nine, the accused was to have a witness.
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And who was Jesus' witness again?
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Who stood beside Jesus to testify on His behalf?
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Who was that?
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No one.
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Where were the disciples at?
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Well, Peter was like hanging outside on Caiaphas' patio.
19:44-19:46
And you know, just hanging out there.
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All the other disciples took off.
19:48-19:53
And nobody was standing beside Jesus.
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Illegal.
19:58-20:02
And then number ten, no sentences were passed without waiting one day.
20:03-20:04
That was their law.
20:05-20:07
So you had to trial.
20:07-20:10
You had to wait one day before you passed a sentence. Why?
20:10-20:12
So you didn't make any rash decisions.
20:12-20:14
It was to give an opportunity for mercy.
20:14-20:24
It was like, we're just going to sit on this for a day hand down a conviction. Did that happen for Jesus? Absolutely not. No, there's more.
20:25-21:16
But I'm going to stop there. The point is this. If any one of those would have happened, it would have been a mistrial and Jesus could have walked out the door legally. If any one of them would have happened. I whittled the list down to ten. And here's the point. Mark It wasn't just a little shady. It wasn't just, "Well, maybe protocol wasn't exactly done." He's like, "It was so obnoxiously, wickedly carried out that there is no way anybody, no matter what they had done, should be convicted in any circumstance." And here you have an innocent man who didn't really commit any crimes, except in the eyes of his accusers.
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So what's the point here?
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The point is injustice.
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No one has ever faced worse injustice, and no one has ever handled it better than Jesus Christ.
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So as we wrap up here, I want you to jot three things down.
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Handling injustice like Jesus.
21:40-21:44
How to handle injustice like Jesus, because we're going to deal with injustice.
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We're going to.
21:45-21:53
Maybe you're not going to be in court over Santa Claus, and maybe you're not going to be in court because you said you were God.
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I certainly hope not.
21:57-21:59
But we're a people who deal with injustice.
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There are people here, I know we've talked about it, we've prayed about it, there are people here that deal with injustice at work.
22:07-22:18
They deal with injustice at work, being wrongfully targeted and wrongfully accused and discriminated against and fired.
22:19-22:27
Somebody who was a prominent member of this church that had to move for work was wrongly fired.
22:28-22:30
I was fired up about that.
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Good friends that wrongly terminated.
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Maybe you deal with the injustice.
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Maybe it's not from work.
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Maybe it's family.
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Maybe you have a family that mistreats you.
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Maybe your family is unjust in the way that they act towards you.
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Maybe your family has been falsely accusing you of something for years.
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You're like, well, how do I handle that?
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It's not fair.
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It's not fair.
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I should stand up for myself.
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I shouldn't let this happen.
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What should I do?
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I just want to show you three things this passage very quickly, that Jesus did when He was facing the worst injustice.
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Number one, when falsely accused, speak nothing.
23:18-23:21
When falsely accused, speak nothing.
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That's what the Bible says.
23:22-23:25
When Jesus was accused, it says what?
23:25-23:27
But He remained silent and made no answer.
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In the face of the accusations, Jesus didn't say a word.
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For two reasons.
23:31-23:33
One, is it as a direct fulfillment of prophecy.
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Isaiah 53, 7, "Like a sheep before its years, he was silent." That's a prophecy of the Messiah.
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That's the main reason, I believe, that Jesus gave no answer.
23:43-23:53
He was fulfilling prophecy, but there's really another reason that Jesus gave no answer, and the reason is this, giving an answer when falsely accused is ultimately pointless.
23:56-24:04
You mean you've got 30 people telling you 35 different stories, and you think you're You're going to say something that's going to convince people that you're innocent?
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Would it have really mattered what Jesus said in the face of these accusations?
24:11-24:11
No.
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Their minds were made up that they were going to believe whatever lie came down about Jesus.
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Even this misquote from John chapter 2 about destroying the temple.
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When falsely accused, speak nothing.
24:31-24:33
How many people remember Deflategate?
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Where the Patriots were accused of deflating the footballs because it made it easier to hold and to throw and they had these accusations.
24:49-24:51
Patriots got in trouble for cheating before, right?
24:53-24:57
Let me tell you why I think that they deflated those footballs.
24:57-24:59
Let me tell you why I think they did.
25:00-25:04
because they had like three immediate press conferences right after.
25:05-25:06
Did you see these things?
25:06-25:18
I was literally laughing out loud when Bill Belichick comes to the podium looking like he just rolled out of a dumpster and he's like, he starts giving this speech.
25:19-25:41
Well, we got these atmospheric conditions with the barometric pressure in the pigskin And thermodynamics and the fifth law of entropy would sometimes cause just one team's footballs to deflate, and that's why they appeared to register in a lesser...
25:43-25:45
And then he came out again and did it again.
25:45-25:49
Oh yeah, when you really study the science behind atmospheric, blah, blah, blah, blah.
25:49-25:57
I'm just like, dude, the more you talk, The more I'm convinced you're lying, right?
25:59-26:01
The more you talk, the more you look guilty, dude.
26:04-26:04
That's just how it is.
26:06-26:09
I was accused in Bible college of staggering out of a bar drunk at two in the morning.
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I realized that the more I tried to track people down and convince them that that was so not the case, I was working at the time, okay?
26:20-26:28
I was a magazine vendor and I was at one of my stores and I had witnesses and I didn't.
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The story was completely fabricated.
26:32-26:37
But do you see how doubt is cast if I start walking around like, "Justin, I wasn't drunk, man.
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I wasn't drunk.
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I didn't stay around that bar drunk.
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I mean, come on, Bob.
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You've got to believe me.
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I wasn't.
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I didn't." "Hmmm, me thinks thou dost protest too much." Right?
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So, when falsely accused, if you're being accused of something that's not true, you don't have to say anything.
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Because as much as you want the right thing to happen, as much as you want justice, there's somebody who loves justice a lot more than you, and that's God.
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And all you need to say is, "God will be my defender." So when falsely accused, speak nothing.
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Number two, when questioned, speak boldly.
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Okay, so moving from the false accusations, you see Jesus was asked a direct theological question.
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They moved from, "Jesus, what did you do?" to the high priest actually asked, "Jesus, who are you?" But notice his question.
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He says, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" And that's really a two-part question, actually.
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It's a two-part, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" What he was saying was, "Are you claiming to be the Messiah and God at the same time?
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Is that what you're saying?
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Are you the Christ, the Messiah?
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Are you...to say you're the Son of God was the same as saying, 'Oh, you're telling people you're God in the flesh.
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Is that what you're saying?' But they didn't say God.
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That's why they said, "Son of the Blessed." they wouldn't even use God's name.
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Same, they move from what you did to who you are.
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Confess blasphemy, Jesus, because under Old Testament law, confessing blasphemy, that's a quick way to get a death sentence.
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And the time for silence is not when it's time to speak up for the Lord.
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Okay, under the false accusations, Jesus said nothing.
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But when it came time to speak up for the Lord, you see what Jesus said.
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He said, "I am." You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven." And Jesus' response, obviously from Psalm 110, from Daniel 7, Jesus was saying, "That's exactly who I am.
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I am the Christ and I am God in the flesh." But notice Jesus jumps ahead, passed the cross, and what Jesus says to them is, "Here's what you're going to see next." Jesus said, "You know what you're going to see next?
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Is my exaltation." And Jesus was saying, "Because here's the thing.
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I'm on trial now.
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The next trial, I'm going to be the judge.
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And you're going to be on trial.
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Do you see that?
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understanding, unrighteously putting me on trial, and in like 10 minutes, I'm going to be righteously putting you on trial.
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You are wrongly judging me.
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I'm going to be rightly judging you.
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Scale of 1 to 10, how inflammatory do you think that was?
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Like, are you God?
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are so close to finding out.
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10?
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Yeah, that's what I thought.
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Notice Jesus, not obnoxious, but short and clear.
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When it's time to speak for the Lord, when it's time to speak for the Lord, you do three things.
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You stand up, you speak up, and then you shut up.
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Okay?
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When it's time to speak for the Lord, like Jesus here, that's what he did.
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Stand up, you speak up, done.
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Are you the Christ? Yeah.
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I am.
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And finally, what do we say when falsely accused speak nothing, when questioned speak boldly?
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Number three, when mistreated, trust God.
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When mistreated, trust God.
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I get so bent out of shape if I think somebody's cheating at trivial pursuit.
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You were reading the cards, man!
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You had the game out and were reading the cards and studying.
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I get bent out of shape if I think somebody's cheating in a stupid board game that means nothing.
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So I'm studying this this week and I'm like, "How can the most righteous and holy person in the universe stand in the middle of such injustice?
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Stand in the middle of such wickedness?" Well here's the answer.
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First Peter chapter 2 verses 21 through 23 says, "For to this you have been called." Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in His steps.
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He committed no sin.
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Neither was deceit found in His mouth.
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When He was reviled, He did not revile in return.
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When He suffered, He did not threaten.
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Listen to this last phrase.
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But continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.
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I want to read that again.
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How did Jesus stand in the midst of this horrible injustice.
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How can you at work or in your family or wherever you're facing unfairness or injustice, how can you stand?
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Here's the example that Jesus gave, I'm gonna read it again.
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He continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
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Who is that?
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Who judges justly?
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Who judges justly?
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God.
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So the whole time Jesus was standing on trial, he was saying, "I trust my Father.
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I trust my Father.
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I trust my Father.
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I trust my Father.
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I trust my Father.
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Jesus, this is looking pretty out of control right now.
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I trust my Father.
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I trust Him.
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I trust my Father.
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Can you follow Jesus' example?
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Because you see, trusting Him who judges justly is not a one-time event, but it was a constant state of mind.
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Can you follow His example?
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Because in about ten minutes, Jesus will return to judge.
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In righteousness, can you trust God in the meantime?
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Can you say, "God, You know what I'm going through.
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God, You're watching what I'm going through right now.
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And God, I know, I know that the time is coming and you're going to set everything right.
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Can you do that?
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Follow Jesus' example.
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, we are impatient, quick-tempered, quick to speak, slow to listen, slow to pray sometimes.
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God, when we face injustice, we are a people who tend to jump up and down and insist that people hear us and that we get our way we get justice immediately.
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And I pray, God, today, that there would be a turnaround for my brothers and sisters here who might be suffering unjustly.
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I pray that Jesus' example would revolutionize our thinking.
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That we would be a people who entrust ourselves to You.
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So Father, we thank You for the example that Jesus gave, You didn't just give us an example.
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Your Word tells us that He gives us the power that we might obey the things that You call us to.
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Father, we thank You.
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Every step in this journey that we've been studying is ultimately leading to the way that You purchased our salvation.
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We thank You for Jesus' example along the way.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 14:53-65
Why did Jesus not answer the false accusations (Mk 14:61a)? What example does this give us when falsely accused? How should we handle it?
Explain the significance of Jesus' answer to the high priest in Mk 14:62. Why did He say that?
BONUS: See how many laws the Jewish leaders violated that your group can remember. (I gave 10 Sunday.)
Breakout Questions:
Has your testimony this week been faithful to the love you have for Jesus Christ in both your words and actions? How? Pray for one another.