chapter 22, Luke chapter 22, we're not going to start there, we'll land there eventually.
It's interesting to me when I look at scripture that it was not the pagans that went after
Jesus, it was the church folks.
They didn't like the way that he would shake things up, they didn't like what he had to
say, sometimes they still don't.
I'm not talking about us, I'm talking about other people out there, you know, not us.
They were peering behind bushes, they were leaning against the back wall, they were stepping
forward sometimes to ask questions, they had expectations and he didn't exactly match their
expectations and so therefore they had questions.
They had a list of questions, they were just trying to figure out how to ask them.
And all of that culminates with his arrest in the garden and the midnight and the all-night
trial that took place afterwards.
And I'll just tell you, it's a mess.
It was an absolute mess.
They were rushing it because there couldn't be anybody hanging on a cross at 6 p.m. on Friday,
that's when Passover starts.
So we had to get this done.
And so they work all night to try to get improperly accused.
And no, not one account of the gospel has the whole story in itself.
You have to peruse through the gospels to pick up on everything that happened that night,
to combine them, to harmonize the gospels, to see it all.
And briefly, I want to do that this morning.
I want you to come and see the kangaroo court chaos that made up the trial of Jesus.
Because the established church leaders, the chief priests and the Sanhedrin,
had looked for a way to pin him.
He had, they felt like that he had blasphemed God.
And so they wanted to go after that.
But they knew they needed Roman authority to do what they wanted to do to him.
And somehow they had to impress the Roman authorities that he had done something to them.
And so therefore, they tried treason.
Because maybe he had spoken against Caesar.
So after the Pharisees had finally had Jesus abducted without having to fight a fleet of his flock.
And that's why they waited until that midnight arrest in the midst of the garden.
Because they knew that he would have, they'd have a fight on their hands with his followers and those type things.
They took him to a man named Annas.
Annas was the old political boss of Jerusalem among the church folk.
He's kind of like the church godfather of sorts.
Now y'all don't know what I'm talking about when I say that.
So I'll explain.
He had been high priest for 20 years earlier.
Since that time, four of his sons had held that same position.
And now his son-in-law, poor thing, was now holding the position.
He is, it is understood that Annas had been pulling the strings of the puppet high priest for decades.
Before the Roman Empire came into power, a high priest would serve for a long time.
But after the Romans took over that area, the high priest position became one that was much more volatile.
And it really went to the highest bidder.
And Annas was very rich.
He was rich enough to let his family control the priesthood.
And that's what he had done since he had given it up.
But now, they come to him.
Not because he holds office, but because he holds power.
And they bring him to Annas.
And Annas didn't like Jesus.
But it wasn't because of why they brought him.
He didn't like Jesus because Jesus had turned the tables in the temple.
And when he turned the tables in the temple,
he messed up the commerce that went along with temple practices.
And the old political boss had his tentacles in that.
He had his hands in that.
He had to affect him economically.
And because of that, he didn't like Jesus.
And so, Annas asked him two questions.
One, he asked him about his disciples.
And the other, he asked him about his teaching.
And Jesus responded to him recognizing the foolishness of the questions that he asked.
John records it in John chapter 18, verse 20 and 21.
And he says this,
Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world.
I've always taught in synagogues and in the temple where all the Jews came together.
I've said nothing in secret.
Well, why do you ask me?
Ask those who've heard me what I had to say.
They know what I said.
So, Jesus had spoken openly, especially in the last days.
And what he had said, what he hadn't said openly earlier in his ministry was just mainly to have time to train up the disciples to start and found the church like we see in the book of Acts.
So, he had held off some things, but not in the latter days.
No, he had shared all of those things very openly.
And now the time had come.
He knew what was coming.
He had nothing to hide.
And he told folks that.
So, Annas sent him to Caiaphas.
Caiaphas was the high priest.
And he was also Annas' son-in-law.
And the heresy committee of the Sanhedrin was there as well.
Their witness, Judas, was not there.
He was not to be found.
So, they had to find others.
And the first witness that came gave a false account.
Mark records that.
Mark 14, 58 and 59.
It says this,
We heard him say, I'll destroy this temple that's made with hands.
And in three days, I'll build another.
Not made with hands.
Yet, even about this, their testimony did not agree.
You see, it took two witnesses.
Two witnesses were necessary for a charge to hold.
And they didn't have two witnesses.
So, Jesus needed no defense.
So, he just stood there in silence.
They had hoped to get him for possibly a terrorism threat of sorts.
And in reality, when Jesus said in John 2, 19, destroy this temple and I'll rebuild it in three days.
He wasn't talking about him destroying it.
He was talking about his body.
Tear me down if you want to.
But I'll rebuild it in three days.
In other words, I'll arise in three days.
It was a prophecy they didn't pick up on.
They had then hoped to get him for Sabbath violations.
And they had haunted him for months with that.
But yet, they didn't have witnesses for that either.
The rebuilding of the temple complaint was also too flimsy.
In response, Caiaphas finally commanded Christ to tell him if he was the Christ.
And I want you to notice what his responses were.
Matthew records it in Matthew chapter 26, 63 through 64.
It says, but Jesus remained silent and the high priest said to him, I adhere to you by the living God.
Tell us if you're the Christ, the Son of God.
And Jesus said to him, you've said so.
But I tell you, from now on you'll see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.
Well, that didn't go over well.
Caiaphas overreacts to that statement.
He needed no more witnesses.
And in response to that, they arrest him.
They beat him.
They mock him.
And then they jail him for a few hours.
And about the time the sun comes up, early in the morning, he went before the Sanhedrin.
We get to our passage in Luke chapter 22, beginning in verse 66.
And it says this, when day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together both chief priests and scribes.
And they led him away to their council.
And they said, if you are the Christ, tell us.
But he said, if I tell you, you will not believe.
And if I ask you, you will not answer.
But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.
So they all said, are you the Son of God then?
And he said, you say that I am.
And then they said, what further testimony do we need?
We've heard it ourselves from his own lips.
And they condemned him to die.
Now, to get Roman approval to actually kill him, they sent him to Pilate.
And they had expected Pilate to simply endorse their decision.
But Pilate wanted nothing to do with it.
Because Pilate was normally in a popularity contest.
He wanted to know what people wanted him to do.
He was a people pleaser.
They accused him of treason.
They claimed to be king.
Pilate just didn't want to make a decision.
And in Luke chapter 23, you know, Luke's the physician.
He gives us more details than any other gospel writer about matters.
And in Luke chapter 23, verse 1, it says this.
Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate.
And they began to accuse him, saying, we found this man misleading our nation
and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar.
And saying that he himself is Christ the king.
And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews?
And he answered them, you've said so.
Then Pilate said to the chief priests in the crowds, I find no guilt in this man.
But they were urgent, saying, he stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea,
from Galilee, even to this place.
When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean.
And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod,
who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
Now, I want you to understand, they arrested him about midnight.
He was hanging on the cross at 9 a.m.
It's a rush job.
They're passing him around, trying to somehow work out the details.
And they used a loophole of jurisdiction to move Jesus on to Herod.
Luke continues to say, when Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad,
for he had long desired to see him because he had heard about him.
And he was hoping to see some sign done by him, so he questioned him at some length,
but he made no answer.
The chief priest and the scribe stood by, vehemently accusing him.
And Herod, with his soldiers, treated him with content and mocked him.
Then arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate.
Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day.
Before this, they had been in enmity with each other.
Herod was a vulgar and coarse person.
He's the same Herod that imprisoned John the Baptist,
and due to the commands of his own wife,
because John had prophetically spoken against their adulterous relationship,
when Herod's stepdaughter did a lustful dance at a gathering among his friends,
he told his stepdaughter he'd give her everything, anything that she wanted,
up to half of his kingdom, which is just a drunken embellishment, quite honestly.
But what she asked for was John the Baptist's head,
on her mother's behalf, because he had talked about her mother's adultery.
And because she asked for it in front of a drunken Herod in front of all his friends,
he had to impress him, and so he did just that.
He decapitated John and brought his head into the gathering.
It was a setup.
Same man that Jesus now stands before, and he's amazed at Jesus,
and he wants to see miracles.
He's heard about Jesus.
He wants to see miracles.
And when he did meet Christ, he mocked him and made a decision.
And it made no decision, but sent him back to Pilate.
Now remember, Pilate wants everybody happy, including Herod.
So once back to Pilate, Pilate tried to blame the decision on other people.
Washing his hands of the innocent blood of Jesus,
he tried to wash his own sins away.
But that's not possible, folks.
That's not possible.
You can't wash your sins away.
What can wash away my sin?
What can make me whole again?
Listen to what I sing.
For my pardon this I see.
Nothing can for sin atone.
Not of good that I have done.
Sing it together.
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know.
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Try your best to wash your hands of all your sins as much as you can and you can't do it.
Now I'll just tell you.
I sing that this morning because as I studied this and I got to that point in the office, I got up.
And I started singing nothing but the blood of Jesus.
They will tell you that sometimes there's a gaither concert going on in my office because I get fired up.
The manipulated crowd jumped on the bandwagon of the ever influencing Sanhedrin and Pilate handed Christ over.
And now he was to be tortured and crucified.
And we'll talk about that next week.
What a sad, sad state of circumstances.
An innocent man is driven to his death by people's sinful hearts.
The same hearts that he would die for.
I said all that to say, I just think that we have to make sure that we're not still putting Jesus on trial.
He did all that for us and yet sometimes in too many lives, Jesus is still on trial.
And so I want to ask some questions in light of the trial of Jesus.
That we have followed today.
Don't panic, they're quick.
Five life-altering questions that I want you to ask yourself.
Number one, do I blame others for my decisions?
Pilate tried to act like he had made the decision, but he hadn't.
And that's not new.
In the garden, where it all first began, Adam blamed his sin on Eve and Eve blamed the snake.
And ever since then, we've been blaming other people for the sin in our life.
We blame our decisions, our lack of decision on something.
Maybe something that we don't like in the church.
Or maybe somebody we don't like in the church.
There's hypocrites down there, you know.
Maybe we blame it on our parents.
Or maybe we blame it on our background.
We blame our lack of decision for Christ on some matter, sometimes, for some reason.
But the reality is, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 says,
It is appointed for man to die once and after that comes the judgment.
Nobody's going to answer for your life except you.
You.
No one will be judged for your actions but you.
And thank God if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
But blaming others is not a confession.
And forgiveness and repentance does not come unless we admit, God, this is on me.
Maybe I've had some things against me.
Maybe it's not been easy.
But the reality is, in my own will, I've sinned against you.
And my life needs to be one that honors you.
And I need to carry that out daily.
And I can point fingers at anybody I want to, but the reality is, that's my responsibility.
So the first question I think we have to ask is, do I blame my decisions on other people?
Because it's common.
Second question is this.
Do I question God's actions?
We've talked about pompous church leaders that have watched Jesus from a distance, never accepting him, just criticizing him.
And that's exactly what the person without Christ does when they see the love of God, when they hear of the love of God, and reject that.
That's what the Christian does when we are mere spectators in the work of God that we choose not to participate in.
We just choose to observe.
Let me tell you something, friend.
If you've given your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ, don't try to take it back.
No, no, no.
You've surrendered your life to life.
Your life is no longer yours.
You gave it to Christ for the good and in the bad.
God loves you dearly, and he wants to work and move in your life, but he will not force himself.
He's a gentleman.
He will give you a choice.
And be careful that you don't let the devil sweet nothings in your ear rob you of the joy that God would have for you.
Quit questioning God and serve him.
But you've got to ask, do I question God's actions?
Third question is this.
Do I really get Christ?
Jesus was misunderstood by the majority of people that he came in contact with, and he still is.
He still is.
They thought he was about miracles.
They thought he was about power.
They thought he was about physical healing.
All of those things were simply signs of the greater miracle.
Thank God by the power in his blood of the real healing that comes to life.
And sadly, it's the same today.
Jesus and what he thinks of things is sometimes thrown around in our society like a beach ball.
Does Jesus judge this as wrong?
Does Jesus judge that as wrong?
Or what does Jesus say about that?
People have been messing with Jesus just by not getting him for 2,000 years.
And do you know what happens?
People miss out.
Because they just simply don't surrender and accept him for who he is.
And not try to put him in some of their own boxes.
I want you to be clear this morning.
Jesus did not come to make us rich.
As a matter of fact, Scripture shows us that it's often a hindrance from folks coming to Christ.
Jesus didn't come to make us healthy.
Because this is only temporary.
Friend, if the Lord tarries, there ain't but one way out of here.
Okay?
So, you know, we can live healthy until we don't.
But that's not what he came to do.
And he did not come to give us all of our desires.
He didn't.
Because we would never be satisfied with all of our desires if we didn't have him.
He has made us for himself.
He has made us for relationship with him.
And he came to save us and to use us to reach the world for Jesus Christ.
That is his agenda.
That is his message.
And that's his plan.
Don't make that hard.
Get that.
This ain't about us.
It's about him.
And he's made us for him.
Jesus came to seek and to save.
That which was lost.
And when we surrender our lives to him, it's his.
Do you really get Jesus?
Fourth is, do I follow Christ?
Do I really follow Christ?
Christ was tussled back and forth in these trials.
No one wanted to make a decision.
Sometimes people still don't want to make a decision.
Don't be so dumb.
I want you to understand that Pilate's no decision was a fatal decision.
And when we don't make a decision about Christ in our lives, we decide not to respond to Christ.
I want you to understand something today.
If the Spirit of God convicts you and speaks to your heart and life about making a decision for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Whether it means you've never accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior.
You've never surrendered your life to him.
And the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and tells you in a voice that is not audible but louder than that in your life.
That you need to surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you choose not to make a decision about that today.
You have made a decision.
And if you are walking outside of faith in the Lord.
I'm talking about if you know the Lord but you're not walking instead with him.
You're doing your own thing.
You're harboring sin in your life and you're enjoying it and you don't want to give it up.
And you're not obeying God and it's hindering your walk with God.
And you feel conviction this morning and a need to respond to that.
And you swallow that down and think if I can just get out of this song, I'll get out of here.
Never be fooled to think you didn't make a decision.
Because you have.
Each one of us today in some form or fashion will make a decision.
Some public.
Most private.
But all of us will make some type of decision.
What God has shown us through his word.
And to put it off is actually making a decision.
Why put off?
The greatest decision in this world you could ever make.
Why put that off?
And friend, I'm talking about the savior of the world.
Wanting to impact your life.
You say, preacher, man, you hit that a lot.
You hit that a lot.
Let me tell you why.
Because I did a few months between colleges selling cars.
In the started world of selling cars.
And I learned.
And I got friends that sell cars.
And they helped me with this too.
That if you let somebody leave the lot.
You have less than a 50% chance that they'll come back.
And so the reason why they want you to drive the vehicle.
And the reason why they want you to sit at their desk for way too long.
Is because when you obligate that kind of time to it.
You commit yourself to it.
And you got a better chance of signing on the dotted line.
That's why they do what they do.
And so they hit you hard.
Because they don't know if they'll ever have another chance.
Folks.
You want to know.
Why I press this matter.
Because it's life and death.
And I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
And I don't know what's going to happen today.
God may take me home today.
If he does.
Praise God.
I hope it's not being drugged behind a truck before I die.
But I want you to know the opportunity that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I promise you.
Today's the day of salvation.
He'll save your life.
He'll change your life.
And if you're not committed to him.
And you need to be.
And the spirit of God is speaking to you.
Today's the day of obedience.
Today's the day to respond to that.
Do you follow Christ?
Last question.
Is Jesus on trial in my life?
The saddest reality of all of this.
That we've looked at today.
And there's a lot sad about it.
But the reality is.
In too many lives.
Jesus is still on trial.
Because every time we sin.
It's like we're nailing him back up to the cross again.
And the reason why I say that is.
Because he died for every one of our sins.
And every time we consider a temptation.
A trial is reborn.
In our lives.
What are we going to do?
With the power that Jesus has given us the opportunity for.
And the temptation the devil has thrown before us.
The sad truth is that after everything he has done.
There are still hearts unsettled.
And the reality is.
Jesus is still on trial today.
And we can't do everything about everything in the world.
I'll tell you what we can do something about.
Ourselves.
I don't care if you're a member of this church.
You've never been here before.
If there's never been a time in your life.
When you've surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want you to know he'll save you today.
You surrender your life to him.
We'll stand and sing.
And as we stand and sing.
You say preacher.
I want to give my heart and life to the Lord Jesus.
And I'll be happy to have you led.
In what that means.
Maybe you're here today.
And the reality is.
You are a Christian.
And you know you're a Christian.
But you know that there's trials in your life.
That shouldn't be there.
You're putting Jesus on trial.
And you need to submit that to God.
Maybe you need to come to this altar.
And lay it down before him.
You can do it where you are.
You need to just obey God.
That's all I ever want you to do.
Is obey God.
Maybe God's drawing you to be a part of this fellowship.
You know you're going to be a part of this church.
You know that God's going to.
Work and move in your life.
When you obey him and follow him.
And you do that.
And then there may be some who've made.
Private decisions for God this morning.
But you've never made that public.
I encourage you to come.
Be baptized as a believer.
And acknowledge that publicly.
What Christ has done.
For you.
I'll never ask.
You to do more than what God.
Asked you to do.
And I hope you'll never be satisfied.
With doing anything less.
Lord Jesus I love you.
And I thank you dear God.
For what you've shown us.
Through the trial of Jesus dear God.
I pray that you'll help us.
To not put Christ on trial today.
In our own lives.
In Jesus precious name.
Amen.