Paston Ryan Denton continues his expository preaching series of the Gospel according to Mark. Covered in today's sermon is Mark 14:53-59; Jesus before his accusers.
Grace Covenant Reformed Church
Worship with us Every Lord's Day at 3:00 PM MST
3112 N. Thornton
Clovis, NM 88101
https://clovisreformed.com/
About Us
We are a gospel-driven, confessionally-formed church in Clovis, NM.
Our aim is to glorify God in our worship, evangelism, discipleship, and Christian charity.
The Bible is the only inerrant, infallible, and authoritative rule for what we believe and practice.
Thank you for taking the time to watch, engage, and learn about the One true and living God of the Bible with us. -- God Bless
Chapter 14 mark chapter 14 and we're gonna be in verses 53 through 59 Mark chapter 14 53 through 59. Thank you Eric for the word last week Finally got a good sermon in this pulpit right Yeah, I was that that was a good sermon before I think it was really before Monday rolled around I was hearing from people about how how powerful the sermon was and it was and we are we're always blessed to have Eric preach in the word for us, and I know He's been blessing Roswell as well and Leavic when he goes up there, so we're blessed to have you brother Eric All right mark chapter 14 53 through 59 is dealing with a question regarding Jesus and specifically the attempt to discredit Jesus and When we look at this passage we're going to see that the same thing that happened 2,000 years ago to Jesus at the hands of the high priest when they're trying to discredit what he does or who he is really We look at our culture today, and we find that the same exact thing occurs today, and it's amazing Isn't it sometimes we think that well people are different today. They're more sophisticated today. They're more enlightened today They're smarter today, and so we know you know we need to go about things a little different Than we then what we saw 2,000 years ago and reality human beings have never changed They goes back all the way to the garden that goes to battle that goes the days of Abraham that human beings don't change our hearts are wicked Our hearts are deceitful when it comes to Jesus Christ. We don't want him to be king We don't want him to have a thought we don't want anybody having authority over us But here Christ comes and Christ does have authority and Christ is the king and he's challenging the high priest and he's challenging the status quote quote, and it's causing a lot of Chafing people upset with this in the same exact thing happens today in our culture in America 2020 well, here's it for That's what we're seeing today. All right, so things don't change. Let's read this This is mark chapter 14 53 through 59 and you'll notice something when we see Christ standing before the Sanhedrin council in the middle of the night and namely we'll see number one that Jesus is a Witness the idea here's witness, but we're also going to see his courage now think of Peter's feckless that Peter is very feckless Peter was was a man who was a coward Peter was a man who whenever he was pressured by the girl he says I don't know this man Well, here's Jesus being challenged by the high priest of the land and so let's see what happens here as far as his reaction This is 53 and they let Jesus away to the high priests and with him were assembled all the cheap priests the elders and the scribes So that's the Sanhedrin council But Peter followed him at a distance No, that's important right so Peter although. I mean he's he's like hey, okay, so he's not he's not quite there yet but right into the courtyard of the high priest and he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire and We'll come back to all of this now the chief priests and all the council saw testimony against Jesus or witness against Jesus To put him to death but found none for many more false witness against him But their testimonies did not agree then some rose up and bore false witness You see all the repetition their witness witness witness the word witness there actually means martyr If you read your you know the old and the old in the language it means martyr And so as the Christians went forth and bore witness of what Jesus Christ was doing They were being killed for it and so it became synonymous witness and martyr became synonymous But here's the idea here. So Christ everyone's bearing false witness against Jesus We heard him say this what to say we heard him say this 58 we I will destroy this temple made with hands within three days I will build another made without hands, but not even then did their testimony agree and the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus Saying do you answer nothing? What is it? What is it these men testify against you? But he kept silence and answered nothing Again the high priest asked him saying to him are you the Christ the son of the blessed and that's what we're gonna pause today Okay, so it's kind of a cliffhanger. There's so much meat here. We're gonna take this in two parts But the very first thing we're looking at today is the idea that number one Jesus is still in control Remember last week or two weeks ago. We saw that when Jesus was arrested. It looks like Jesus is very much not in control But then when you start killing the layers back you realize wait a minute Jesus is the one in control He's the one that's predicting the fact that he's about to get arrested. He's the one that heals the man's ear He's the one that tells his disciples to put away their sword. He's the one who's in control Same thing here. He's the one who's arrested and he's in chains and he's standing before the San Huron council, which is the highest core in the land and he is very much in control of the situation here Remember in Isaiah 53 it says he was oppressed and afflicted yet. He opened not his mouth So when you see Christ and he's not saying anything and we think in our culture a lot of times Well, that's a mark of weakness. Well, it's not a mark of weakness This is exactly what was predicted by Isaiah hundreds of years before Christ stepped foot on earth at this point Jesus is like I don't have to say anything. I've been talking for three years now I've already said my piece now. He's actually gonna drop the bomb next week when we look at it But for right now, they're just coming up and they're trying to figure out. Okay, what who is this guy? What do we do with them and they're up against a certain challenge? Okay, because they know that this man is a threat They know this man's a threat They know this man has been declaring himself to be the king of the Jews and in a sense over the entire world or cosmos Including overseas or so they know he's a threat and so here you have the high priest. Okay, they're in the high priest house This is 53. You see there in 53 and they let Jesus away to the high priest and then at other parallel passages like in Luke It tells us exactly where they're at there at his house the high priest house The high priest at this time is a man named Kyophus you get that from John chapter 18 Kyophus presided over the Sanhedrin for 18 years the average was four years so this man has probably accumulated quite a bit of Influence over the how the council is run if you're there for 18 years if you're doing anything for 18 years You gain a certain amount of clout influence. So this man is there the high priest Kyophus But you also have the Sanhedrin council now the Sanhedrin council are the mediators This is that like it's a body that is they act as the mediators between the Jewish populace and the in the Roman government Okay, the Roman occupation and so if they're to if anything is to To take place so they have the jurisdiction when it comes to religious matters and they have partial freedom when it comes to political matters But when it comes to capital crimes, they have no jurisdiction the Sanhedrin council cannot put anybody to death That's why they have to bring this man to Pilate So they have a lot of clout, but usually they can't when it comes to political matters They can't they can't really do much their hands are tied and so when they come together here now you probably heard this I mean you're saying okay. Wait a minute the middle of the night. Isn't that illegal? Have you all heard of this right? You're not supposed to have these councils in the middle of the night So this is an illegal council in a sense You're supposed to wait until everybody's there that kind of thing So is this a violation of Jewish law or not there's a lot of debate over that not to get into the weeds But the arguments are back and forth But what is for sure is that this is a this is a situation that has been hastily Summoned these people they have been hastily summoned now. You ask yourself why okay? Why are they why are they trying to make make this thing happen so quickly? Why not wait for the morning? What would be the problem with waiting? What's the big deal about that? Well number one they don't want people to find out about it Remember Jesus has the support of everybody if if learn starts getting out that we've just arrested Jesus Guess what the population is going to do? Well, they're going to storm the gates. They're going to be upset Remember Jerusalem at this time is crowded with people It's like 12 times the population that you would normally have because it's Passover week So this is a powder keg already. It's very tumultuous and now they know now that they've arrested Jesus Which remember they want it to do after the Passover, but in God's providence God says no I'm gonna make sure my son is crucified during Passover week because he is the lamb that came to be slaughter for the sins of the world Just like the Passover lamb. He is that Passover lamb. So God in his problem that says no It's going to happen there Passover now the chief priests. They have Judas gum They have Judas bill to be as they go into the rest Jesus, but now they're saying okay now we got it we got to take care of this very fast because Things are going to explode if we don't if we don't take care of business the other thing is that pilots just like most politicians, okay He's gonna pack up the next day early and The reason for that is because it's the day before Passover. All right, it would be like our Fridays, you know I mean it's like hey at noon pilots usually not gonna work past Friday at noon All right. He's gonna take off and do his thing. Well, that's the idea here Pilate is going to pack up at noon the next day and that was very common by the way amongst Roman officials All right, so they know we've got to take care of business before the morning because this is our one shot to get this guy to Pilot before the entire thing blows up in our face. So they are there regardless of whether or not. It's an illegal council That's that's up for debate. There's I think good arguments on both sides I don't think it really matters one way or the other what we do know for sure is that they are there They have a zeal to kill. That's what one of the commentators said they have a zeal to kill I mean, they are zealous now to destroy this man and they're doing it as Quickly as possible, but then this leads us to the idea of why because sometimes I mean look sometimes I think we forget It's easy to kind of we've heard the story so often we've seen the Pharisees so often We've seen the sad you see so often the high priest we've you know These are the bad guys Jesus is the good guy, but sometimes it helps just to back up into recognize Okay, what exactly is their problem with Jesus? What exactly is the beef number one? He's an imposter and you see all of these things here in the in the in the accusations He's an imposter. He's claimed to be someone who can forgive sins remember that what people the wrong way They're saying wait him and only God can forgive sin so he he's also mixed with sinners He's also hanging out with people you shouldn't hang out with he also has a tax collector amongst his group He also has a a zealot in his group these people that are that are Anti anti Rome and then anti in one sense with Matthew the task collector anti Jew And so you have all this group of people in his in his camp He also has a very loose You could say free is especially compared to the Pharisees a free or loose attitude to fasting to the Sabbath to the dietary laws Remember they're like wait a minute. You're not washing your hand before you eat What do you mean? You know what what is it? What's up with that? And then he flips the table and he says what you know It's actually about the heart and the the uncleanness of a person's heart. What about the uncleanness there? And so throughout his ministry from the eyes of the Jewish Especially leadership they're saying this guy if he was truly from God. He would not be going against our laws He would not be going against our fasting or our dietary laws He would not be he would not be mixing with sinners if he was truly sent from God That's why they're accusing him of being sick basically doing the work of the devil So number one he's an imposter number two is his attitude to the temple Because in Jerusalem remember he's when he comes into Jerusalem. He's claiming kingship just by writing all the donkey I mean that's something that Alexander the Great did that's something that that anti-akissie pipponies did That's something that Judas Maccabeus Want it to do that's what the Kings do the Kings ride into Jerusalem on donkeys and when they ride in our Jerusalem Into Jerusalem on donkeys. What do people do? Well, they wave the palms. That's that's a sign of royalty So this man is claiming to be the authority over the temple structure now if you're a high priest if you're one of the Members of the Sanhedrin council. What does that make you do? Well, wait a minute? No, that's gonna disrupt everything if all of a sudden this new guy from this these backwoods up north and Nazareth if he comes in And if he's actually the guy then that's gonna disrupt everything number three He's popular That's the problem see if he wasn't popular You know they were uprisings and rebels and Insurrections attempts at insurrection before but they didn't have any teeth. They weren't very popular This guy is popular This guy has the support of the populace of the masses. He has wooed the crowd That's the problem that they have because now they are the bad guys Now that's gonna change when Christ goes to the cross, but y'all get the point right so there's there's a lot going on here But here's look at verse 55 okay in verse 55 It says now the chief priests and all the counsel sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death But found none for many bore false witness against it But their testimonies did not agree now. Have you ever wondered why that matters? Have you ever wondered like okay wait a minute? They've gone through this process of unjustly bringing Jesus in the middle of the night to this guy's house What do they care about whether or not the testimonies actually agree? Have y'all ever wanted that? It's like now all this said we're gonna be really scrupulous about whether or not we're doing things the right way After all this And the reason for this is actually very practical number one guess what see when they go They have to have there's two challenges here. They have to find it charged that sticks in the minds of the Jews That's the first thing because again, he's popular So if they bring this guy out and they say hey they trump up some bogus charge against this man And the population doesn't go along with it. Well then it defeats the very purpose of what they're trying to do Which is basically to try to to Maintain their own position and authority right so they have to have something that the Jewish population is going to hear about and say yeah I get it now. I understand why we're crucifying this guy And so what would that be you see that so if one guy's saying one thing and another guy's saying well No, he's actually not quite like that. Well now that's not gonna That's that's not gonna jive with the population at large So he they have to have something that sticks the other thing is that let's say they did convince the Minds of the Jews on religious grounds. Let's say they say oh the guy blaspheme and the Jews are like yeah That that's definitely we can't have that we agree. We know we like Jesus. He does miracles But yeah, he's a blasphemer. Yeah, he's not he needs to be put down the second problem though Is when they come before pilot pilot is not just going to and this is true for most Roman authorities He's not just going to rubber stamp a guilty charge just for the sake of it They have to have something that actually sticks in the eyes of pilot. This is exemplified in Acts chapter 18 when Paul remember Paul is brought before a guy named Gallio On these charges that the Jews are bringing against Paul and they go before Gallio Who by the way of Seneca y'all know Seneca the old stoic philosopher. That's his brother So this guy Gallio Jesus comes before Gallio the Jews are like yeah, man This guy Paul. He's over here teaching this and that teaching and Gallio's like wait a minute you bring in this guy to me and Your problem with them is is like theological He said I don't I don't care about that get him out of here, but you guys handle that yourself man I don't I don't care about Jewish theology or whatever. What do you guys bring them to me for? I mean, I'm not doing anything about this so they have to have something political as well not just religious not always a blasphemer Pilots can be like well, so what what do I care about that get him out of here now? They have to have something that when they bring them to pilot Pilot himself is going to say yes I agree this man is guilty and he deserves death because he is a legitimate threat to the Roman Empire to the Roman authority Not the Jewish structure the Roman structure. This is why eventually when they do bring him to pilot What are they gonna say he's claiming to be a king? Oh Really that'll perk up pilots here, right because who is the king? Well Caesar's king wait a minute Wait a minute. You're claiming to be what? But if they say oh yeah, he's blaspheming God. Well, who cares? So that's why this is a very serious situation is fine That's why they're going through this meticulous process if they're trying to seek for evidence They're trying now they have a rest at first and then trying to find something later, but now they're like okay But now we got to find something we we have to find something on these two fronts. They do think I mean And this is not to sympathize with the Pharisees and the High Priest here But you have to I mean there there's a sense in which from their perspective They probably Unfortunately think that they're doing the right thing because they really probably are thinking Jesus is a troublemaker Jesus has to go if you read your Shakespeare it reminds me of and this is you know, forgive me the illustration I think it's great though with Julius Caesar, you know Caesar Julius Caesar was assassinated by the Senate bunch of whom were his brothers these guys were like friends and Remember the the famous line a two Brute when Brutus comes up and Brutus is part of the people who are Assassinating Caesar the reason for that is because the the Senate at the time thought you know what? We like Julius Caesar, but Julius Caesar is ushering in a form of government that's going to be Antithhetical to what we as Roman citizens want so we've got to get rid of this guy even if we like him and I think there's something going on here right so there's and I'm not saying they like Jesus not by any stretch But it is something I can assume I assume that they're thinking we know what we're doing the right thing here We're making the right decision here. We're honoring God by doing this here Human nature is much more complex than you know, not everybody's walking around with a little like horns and a pitchfork I mean these guys are human beings who are wicked who are set on the death of Jesus Christ and God is going to destroy them for this But looking at it from their perspective, we have to recognize This is a very complicated situation And not only that what's kind of neat is that in that crowd of these high priests and these the Sanhedrin council You know you also have you have Nicodemus and you have Joseph of Arimathea And we'll get to them eventually But these guys are not going along with what they're seeing so Christ actually has followers in the midst of all of this scene When he's going through this so that's kind of neat, but let's look at this. Okay, so look So it says they were seeking testimony. They were seeking evidence, but they found none They found none in Let's ask ourselves this. Okay in a sense as Christians. Let's we all know this, but do we know this? Okay, when when we come as Christians Do you recognize now I'm gonna ask you a question as a Christian Like heart to heart, you know Do you recognize that as a Christian? Okay, when you follow Christ you are now entering into a A religion you could say I know however you want to phrase it a belief a worldview whatever you want however phrase you want to use it You are entering upon you are entering into something that historically has always been maligned has always Been seen as The scum of the world falsely attacked falsely accused Do you realize that you know sometimes we think Christianity is like cool? Well, I don't know if we ever think that but you know what I mean like just know when you cut and the reason for this is the same Reason it was always that way in the first century when you had Christians in the early church and the Roman Empire is looking at the Christians as Cannibals that's what they were calling Christians cannibals. Why well they eat the flesh of this guy Jesus They drink the blood of this guy Jesus. I mean these guys are sick These guys are weird Do you realize okay in the early church they were considered incestuous the Christians? Oh, they're a bunch of they practice incest What do you mean they practice incest? Yeah, they call each other brothers and sisters they give each other the holy kiss or whatever I mean these guys are they're also atheists. You all heard of that. What right? They're atheists. Well, how are they atheists? They believe it. No, no, no, they don't believe in our God. They only believe in one God You know Zeus and all these other guys. They don't believe in those God. They're atheists They don't go along with the flow and what do you have in our culture today, right? What happens if you don't hang up your rainbow flag in the month of June outside your yard or outside your business or outside of your church or whatever Right. Well, wait a minute. That's kind of weird. Isn't it? You're not gonna hang up the flag. We're all hanging up the flag We're all doing it. Why aren't you doing it? What makes you special what makes you better than us? That's the culture we live in now. That's the culture that the Christians grew up in in the first century If we can say it that way that was the way in the Middle Ages that was it wasn't that that when Islam comes around Was Islam's problem? Well, wait a minute. Jesus isn't the son of God, right? Jesus didn't I so from the very beginning My point is is this number one people have always tried to falsely accuse Jesus Christ of being someone he's not and Therefore if you're a follower of this Jesus Christ because Christians in Christianity up ends the normal situation up in up ends order That's what Christianity does the gospel up ends homes and up ends cultures Things begin to change whatever the gospel goes for it does it not we all experience this in our lives You know how the son someone's a Christian out and then they go home and they're no longer a Christian and for a while the family's like Oh, this is great. You know, he's not kicking the dog anymore, but all of a sudden now it's like wait a minute He's he's actually really serious about the Bible stuff now he wants me to go to church or she wants me to go to church Or now in all of a sudden now there is conflict now There is tension because it's like hey, I don't mind you being a Christian But really I mean you got to pull back on this stuff a little bit same thing in our culture People don't care if you're a Christian in our culture unless you're a serious Christian in our culture unless you're an outspoken Christian in our culture And then they have a problem with hey, let's go a few if you're a Christian that's cool But just don't tell me about it. Don't force that upon me. Don't tell me that Christ is king over me too. You keep that stuff for yourself Christ doesn't keep it to himself. Christ is going around and wherever he's going That's why when the disciples the apostles and acts are going around and what's the first thing they were one of the things they say about Paul They say this is the man who's making the world. They're turning the world upside down This is the man that's starting up trouble wherever he goes. That's what they said about Elijah Is the trouble of Israel that when they have says he says oh trouble of Israel my enemy trouble the trouble of Israel And Elijah says wait a bit. I'm not the troubleer of Israel. You're the troubleer of Israel because you you hate god. You're denying god That's that's Christianity Right and I'm not saying you got to go around with your bull horn I like doing that, but you don't have to you don't have to wear your t-shirt. That's you know God hates the hands that shed innocent blood Those are good t-shirts My point though There's another wrong with that. But even if you're just faithfully living out your life as a Christian you go to work You go to you know, you're on and you just live in that life faithfully. Guess what's gonna happen This is the kind of stuff that's gonna happen. This is always this has always been the case People tried to discredit who Jesus is and in the process because you're aligned with the true Jesus You yourself are going to come under attack That's what Jesus is going through right now This is in our own culture if you just go through here you have We can mention false religions and false gods and all these things all day long You can mention wrong in their purgatory treasury of merit. You can mention Jews who say Jesus is a false prophet He was a liar to this very day. They'll say he's a false prophet. He's a liar You can look at the Mormons who say well, there's many besides there's many gods You can go and you can save your own planet just like Jesus Christ saved this planet If you have enough faith and if you're a good Mormon that kind of thing you can look at the Jehovah's Witnesses Well, Jesus isn't God. You can lose your salvation all these bogus claims, especially the deity of Jesus They say now I want God, but let's okay Okay, right. Is anybody in here about to become a Jehovah's Witness? No Better than right hopefully not But what we do have is this we do live in a culture that tells us all religions are equally valid That's our god in this culture, right? Our state religion is tolerance You're to tolerate all these different religions you're to tolerate homosexuality. You're to tolerate abortion You're to tolerate transgenderism. You're to tolerate things that the bible says you're not to tolerate And if you don't tolerate then you're not following the state religion of the land and therefore you will be ostracized from this culture You will be persecuted by this culture There is Have you all heard this thing like uh, it's it comes out of 1st Corinthians 6 and this is so wicked and in demonic But it's something like the 1948 something Have you all anybody? I know you if if if it's the idea that 1st Corinthians 6 was not in the bible That paul when he's talking about homosexuality. It didn't really mean homosexuality Although the terms are clearly there and stuff like have y'all heard this? Alright, so it's out there and i'm telling i'm bringing it up because every single time I evangelize I promise you on any campus that i've ever been on That thing comes up and you're like, what are you talking about? And then you look into it and you realize it was this fabricated thing that came up in like the 1990s by some bogus academics and they Spent some nonsense and people started but you know what's amazing is that the the the quickness with which people want to grab this thing and say Okay, you know what I don't believe that 1st Corinthians 6 was in the bible Well, why don't they want to believe that because 1st Corinthians 6 Look what it says Is like a battering ram against all of the the practices that we have in our culture He says this Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of god? Do not be deceived and isn't it amazing? He even says that right like don't don't let anyone trick you on this Don't be deceived. Don't be hoodweaked You know it's almost like paul's light like in 2000 years from the time i'm writing this There's going to be somebody that comes out with some weird video from two pseudo-academics and they're going to say that this is it don't be deceived Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkers nor vialers nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of god Well, I don't like that Right, I don't like that because I see myself in that So what do we got to say? Well, we're just gonna say well, that's not god's word. That's not that wasn't in there Followed in it really mean that my point in saying this is that have y'all heard of the jesus seminar That's another good one. The jesus seminar That's the classic man. The jesus seminars when they're going through the bible the dude Especially the gospels and this seminar is going through there and they're saying okay What are the things that jesus probably said one of the things that jesus Likely said one of the things that jesus probably did not say and one of the things that jesus most definitely did not say That's called the jesus seminar and all of that's been developed But back in like 20 years ago, that's very popular Maybe longer than that, you know people are like, wow, this is so ingenious. Yes. Now. We know for a fact Okay, then what did jesus so you go through the gospels? You're like, okay. Well, look here. It says jesus says i'm a father All things are possible for you. They're looking at it and they're saying well He probably said that yeah, let's give them that one. All right, and then they look at the next sentence Take this cup away from that problem. I mean come on jesus saying that he probably does say that And they mark it down, but people are so quick to jump on this and my point in saying all of this is that every single generation tries to discredit jesus That's the point feel like what he taught. What's the point of all of this? That is the point Every single generation wants to make jesus into something that he's not and that's going on 2000 years ago when jesus is before this anhedron where they're saying this guy he's claiming this but he's not this He's claiming this but that's why we got to put him to death. That's why this stuff has got to be outlawed We're not putting up with this stuff and knowing this as christian. This is the idea of counting the cost You know the whole idea of life before you come into christ before you follow christ No, this is what you're getting into. This is something That is going to up end change radically transform everything about your reality if you follow jesus Are you ready for that? Because when we're saying this what are we what's the ultimate claim of christ? He is king is it not when we say he's king. Does that mean politically? Well, that means he has He has authority over all the politicians you bet it does he has authority over all the nations you bet it does That's what that means. He's has authority over the entire universe. He's king over everything It's not like well, he's king over you because you're a christian. No, and he's also king over you because you're his Creation you he was you were made by him You're breathing today because he allows you breath to breathe. You're using oxygen in your lungs that he has provided you He is the king whether you want him to be king or not But people don't like authority I don't like authority. I'm one of the guys man. I tell you that that's a definitely weakness. I'm not I've never liked authority Authority is hard. We don't want people to have authority over us And especially when it comes to basic, you know, not basically everything Everything Christ has authority over everything if Christ is king that means you are not king That means I'm not king. That means Christ. That means reality is defined by him Morality is defined by him right and wrong is defined by him How we live how we act as husbands how we act as fathers how we how you act as mothers How you act as single people out whoever you are that means that god Is king over everything you do every decision you make everything But people want to live without authority, right? That's what we want. I mean, that's our fallen condition Yeah, that's our default position. That's what Adam's problem was Adam's like, well Yeah, man. I mean, I see what you're saying serpent. I guess at that point he Yeah, yeah, god does it. Yeah, what's up with god? He don't want me to be like him. Give me that apple Wouldn't an apple That's a right back check what kind of fruit what fruit was in the garden Pomegranate that's right Eric. It's exactly right That's what I think too because you have pomegranates in the temple fabric, you know Poise back to eat anyway, but that's the point right whether it's a human government human governments don't want god over though Christ because if there's if there's a god over the human government guess what that means about government They're not god. If you eradicate god, what does that make them? Well, if there is no god above government guess who is god now government's god You see that same thing with fathers or same thing with the head of your home We don't want people god to be over us because if there's a god over us, that means we're no longer God of our home And then lastly as we look at this now look 57 through 59 he's talking here about destroying this temple. This is what the accusation Some rose up in boar false witness against him say we heard him say I will destroy this temple made with hands And within three days I will build another made without hands, but not even then did their testimony agree Which is interesting. That's a very serious charge because the temple was the center of jewish worship It was also the seat of san edron power. It was the symbol of the essence and hope of israel And this guy jesus is now claiming that the temple is made with what hands you know what that tells them It's man made it's not from god That's quite the charge that's quite a claim It also implies idolatry because it means that you are worshiping in something that is made by hand You're offering false worship to god and it also implies that a new temple this new temple is going to be made without hands That's what he says right What does that mean? Well, the temple that jesus is ushering in is divide is from god and the temple that you guys are worshiping in is not from god It's man made it's idolatry. It's blasphemy And he does actually in john chapter 2 18 through 22. He does say something like that in reference to his resurrected body His body is now the new temple his body is the new sanctuary god's presence That's why we say what is jesus say to the woman at the well He says there's a day coming when you we'll neither worship in Jerusalem nor over here We're going to worship in spirit and truth. Which implies what well god god's temple is that god's presence is no longer confined to a building Or a structure like that. That's why we we we we in fact that we are the temple of god paul says That's why we have that aspect. It's like the the whole idea is The corporate gathering we gather together corporately god's presence comes into our midst god comes and resides amongst us God is in us. He's he's around so it's no longer confined to a physical location all of this points to this Because because there's a fight you could say a battle Between spiritual darkness and spiritual light and we being in the west are very good rationalists You know, we're very good at at at explaining things away rationalistically You know the light switch comes down and you're like, oh, it's just the light switch coming down No, it is the light switch sometimes it just comes down, but what happens What time tosh and i when we first were in college station We had an air bnb and we rented this air bnb and in the middle of the night And we even walked in there tosh is like this place is kind of weird and it wasn't i mean we didn't see any like Boudu or anything or Ouija boards, but yeah, yeah, i i i i i there's some stuff and i thought yeah It's all right. Well, we go to sleep that night and like four a.m The light switch really the light switch goes up. It's one of those things that go up and down, you know Well, the light switch the light suddenly comes on And we're all awake and we're like, okay. What is this? I go to the wall and the light switch was one of those that you if you want to turn it on you got to pull it up And that thing was up. We went to bed. It was down. It's now up And our lamp next to us. There's a lamp on this bed and it's it's kind of wobbly. It's no joke And so, you know, I tried to just not even think about it turn the light off And i'm thinking i'll figure out What's going on in the morning and i went to bed, but you know the first thing is like no i'm going to explain this away Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Why am i doing that right? And i'm not saying you got to look for a devil under every nook and cranny But the point is it says when you're looking at what's going on here number one We find that judas jesus says to judas that the the scripture tell us that the devil enters into judas judas then goes to the high priest The high priest we know this is a region. This is a place that is infested with demons Spirit to not talking here 2,000 years ago Right spiritual warfare is a reality and when you read things like Ephesians chapter two verse one where it says and you were dead in the trespasses and sins And which you once walked Right following the course of this world following the prince of the power there You see how it's following my point is is when you're looking at why this why is there such a resistance to jesus Why is there such a resistance to you as a christian? Why is it that g that christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world right now? Why is that? Why because it's the truth And you know what hates the truth is darkness darkness hates light darkness hates the truth falsehood hates truth, okay When you see this type of stuff in our culture today that you see this stuff is not natural so this is not normal stuff You're celebrating lgbtq stuff. You're slicing off genitals so that you can change genders You're you're you're promoting the butchering of children here. That's not normal stuff Right. That's not normal sin Most cultures for the last 2000 years are like yeah, that's that's that's too extreme even for us This is not normal and not only is it like sin but now it's not only accepted but it's paraded in our culture Right it's promoted in our culture and if you don't follow it you're on the wrong side. They say My point is is that's demonic That's evil. That's wicked. That's like super. That's on another level That's what's going on with Jesus. How can you have the son of god standing before the sanhedra council and they're trying to kill this guy It's demonic. It's not to explain it It's not to justify what they're doing because they're acting according to their own free will and that's what we have any features too They are walking they are following they are doing exactly what the prince of the power of the air The course of this world is driving them to do they are acting in accordance with their evil natures But don't think for a second that there is not an an element here because paul even says The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience the spirit what spirit the wicked evil Demonic dark spirit is now at work in the sons of disobedience And that's why if you're a christian you're going to be maligned you're going to be attacked You're going to be falsely accused and you are going to come against up against severe spiritual warfare And there's nothing that we need to fear Because christ has power over all of that he who is in use greater than he who is in the world You don't have to fear this stuff Take the approach of luther who you know laugh and throw things at the devil Mock the devil The point though is don't be surprised by it. That's what we see here. I mean christ is going through all of this But he has defeat ultimately what's christ going to do? They throw everything out in the kitchen sink everything and he's still overcome. He still defeats death. He still defeats sin He still squashes the devil So phrase be the god. What else do we say? I mean, what else what else is there? This is the way things have been This is what the gospel leads to And this is what the gospel has done. It leads to victory over all of that And The next week we'll pick up on jesus climb. All right, and we'll see the high priest rip his hair out and go crazy All right, let's pray By the way, he prays you that you have given us a christ who's victorious a christ who was steadfast a christ who was a stalwart a pillar Well, we know that in our own life, it's so easy to waver it's so easy to Be defeated whenever we ourselves are maligned or falsely accused or attacked But lord, would you thank you that that our victory is not in ourself our victory is not due to how strong or Smart or sophisticated we are but it's it's through what christ has already done for us and through The grace that christ is working in us presently lord And we do praise you that despite this culture that we live in that is wicked and evil and monstrous and demonic lord We thank you that as your gospel goes forth and as your people go forth in their homes and in their neighborhoods and in their places of work and as we Catacives our children praying for them, but we know that you are going to Use your church in this land as a as a beacon and as a as a force to go forth into to bring Victorious light into this wicked dark culture and we do thank you for even now the strides that are being made in this culture As the curse is pushed back as darknesses Overturn we thank you. Oh god that there is much reason to be hopeful much reason to be optimistic Well, we thank you that your churches are are being planted and growing and your people are growing and and there's a thirst And there there there does seem to be a sincere desire and thirst and hunger in your land for truth Lord, we know it's not universal But lord, we do know it's there And lord, we we see that you've turned the world upside down through a handful of disciples lord, how much more can you do so with Millions of disciples in this country so lord bless bless your people here will give us grace to To hang in there as christ does see as our example and he goes forth Conquering into conquer lord. Let us have hope in him. Let us turn our eyes to him in jesus name. Amen [BLANK_AUDIO]
