Blasphemy or Truth: What do you think?
Matthew 26:47-75
Harry Stoliker
August 22, 2010 EBC
Blasphemy or Truth: What do you think?
The Scriptures love to give us the inside story, the divine perspective
on events. What men of the world see looks one way, but we see things
from the divine perspective. This especially applies
to the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today's passage of Scripture has
3 clear divisions. The first is The Arrest of Jesus (V.47-56);
the second is The All Night Informal Trial before the Sanhedrin (V.57-68);
the third is The Denial of Peter (V.69-75). Although from
the human eye, Jesus looks like he is weak and manhandled
by his enemies. Yet, we see upon closer examination that He is in
control of all that takes place and that His time in Gethsemane has thoroughly
prepared Him to embrace all the events leading to his crucifixion.
The Arrest of Jesus (V.47-56)
A. V.47 The mob or posse arrives with Judas leading the way.
The disciples are barely awake and Jesus moves out to encounter his enemies. It's
a large crowd of heavily armed men and perhaps even a few women,
who would later identify Peter as one of the disciples.
V.48-49 It was dark so Judas had arranged a signal
to let them know exactly which one was Jesus. Friends greeted friends
with a holy kiss in those days, as some do today. Judas was treacherous;
he acted like a friend but was a betrayer. He thought he could hide his motives
from Jesus, but our Lord knew his heart. Proverbs 27:6 "Faithful
are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy." Enemies
try to camouflage this evil intent and betrayal with what appears
to be friendship. This makes them so much more treacherous. A true
friend has your best interest at heart so he will be frank,
clear and up front when he confronts you.
B. V.50 Jesus calls him "friend." This Gk. word simply
means "acquaintance" or "associate." He tells Judas
to do what he came for, the worst possible thing in life to
do: exchange the glory of Jesus Christ for some selfish gain.
C. V.51 Then another deep lesson kicks in. The men grab Jesus
to arrest him; Peter grabs a sword and starts swinging it, cutting
off the servant's ear. He may have been aiming for his head, knowing
Peter! I don't imagine Peter thought an ear was enough
in this situation, do you?
D. V.52 "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will
die by the sword." He was saying: "If you live a violent life, violence will
eventually kill you." Violence begets violence. We see
that in the Middle East all the time, don't we!
E. Here is the lesson: The world embraces the "power-paradigm"
and Jesus embraces the "meekness-paradigm." The world love brute
force, bloodshed, coercion by overpowering
strength. People of the world love to manipulate, control and dominate
people to get what they want. Jesus wants His people to be meek,
not in love with the power-paradigm. Meekness means you
are trusting God to accomplish His will for your life, rather than
trying to "muscle" life your way. Meekness means you give up trying
to dominate people with your physical or intellectual
strength.
Notice that the mob came armed with clubs and swords, expecting
a fight from the disciples. Peter started one but the Lord squelched it
quickly. Jesus instructs Peter that meekness doesn't mean weakness
but trust in the Father. V.53 "Do you think I cannot call on my Father,
and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?"
A Roman legion had 6,000 soldiers in it. Jesus said he could call
down more than 72,000 angels if he wanted! Jesus wasn't weak by any
means. Yet, he harnessed his supreme, unmatched power for God's
greater purposes.
F. We see what the purpose of His meekness was in V.54 "But how
then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
Jesus controlling concern was all that had been prophesied about
Messiah. God's word cannot be broken! O if we would live
our lives in such submission to God's Word! The controlling passion
of our entire lives should be to honor the word of God, to meekly submit
to the work of God as he brings about His plan in our lives.
G. Brothers/sisters don't live by the human power-paradigm. Don't try
to force your will and your desires on people or situations.
Be meek. Trust the sovereign plan of God for your lives.
You will find contentment, rest and happiness if you live this.
The Hearing Before the Sanhedrin – V.57-68
A. I have called this a "hearing" before the Sanhedrin because it wasn't actually
a real, legitimate trial. It was a "hastily convened preliminary
hearing" to find some excuse to execute Jesus. It violated
numerous standards that supposedly the Sanhedrin was ruled by when
it came to judging criminals. (1) Trials could not be held at night,
only during the day; (2) they must take place in one of three specified
courtrooms, not in the high priest's house; (3) they must begin
by hearing the case for the defense; (4) must not reach a conviction
on the same day as the trial began; (5) must not be held on the eve of
a festival or of the Sabbath. These rules were codified in the 2nd
century, so it's hard to know if they were in effect when Jesus
stood before Caiaphas.
B. V.59 "The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence
against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though
many false witnesses came forward." They weren't looking for the truth
about who Jesus was because they had already made up their minds.
Their unbelief had blinded their reason. Someone quipped to me this
week: "Sin is stupid!" There will always be plenty of
people who step up with false "evidence" against Jesus Christ. Never
a shortage, don't be surprised.
C. V.60 "Finally two came forward and declared, "This fellow said "I am able
to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days." Even this is
a clear distortion and misunderstanding about what Jesus said. In
Jn. 2:19 Jesus was talking about His own body and His own resurrection
from the dead. When "they" destroyed His body, He raised it up again.
Yet this was a very serious charge that evoked a great amount of
emotion from the Sanhedrin.
D. V.62-63 "Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going
to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?"
63But Jesus remained silent." Caiaphas thought
Jesus would be driven by the impulse of self-preservation like everyone
else is. The charge that he threatened to destroy the Temple was a
capital offense! It was considered treasonous, a certain
death penalty! Yet Jesus remained silent! Why? Jesus remained
silent in fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7 "He was oppressed, and
he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to
the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened
not his mouth." Jesus would not let his humanness get in the
way of fulfilling his Messianic mission!
E. Jesus remained silent because He knew that His silence would advance
the redemptive plan of His Father. He did the same before Pilate in
27:14. One commentator says: "His silence was a sovereign
silence!" (Hagner)
F. Then the drama reaches its highest point at the end of V.63
"The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us
if you are the Christ, the Son of God." My guess is that the high priest
was screaming at him in anger when he said this. Would Jesus still
remain silent at this most critical moment?? No!
G. V.64 "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In
the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One
and coming on the clouds of heaven." Jesus comes out with a crystal clear
response: Yes! It is as you say! Mk. 14:62
"I am!" Make no mistake about it! "I am the Messiah
and I am the Son of God!" "I am the Son of Man spoken about in Dan.7 who receives
dominion and glory and an everlasting kingdom from the Ancient of Days!"
Jesus claims all authority over the nations and equal authority
and majesty with God.
H. That is why they scream: "He has spoken blasphemy!" Jesus hadn't
used the name of God in vain. That was one definition
of blasphemy. Rather, Jesus was claiming equal authority with God,
equality with God! That they considered blasphemy because
they thought he was a mere man.
I. I remember vividly a time when I had just become a Christian in
my high school days. I was bold in my witnessing at that high school.
One day in an English class, I was somehow put on the spot by my
very skeptical English teacher, who challenged me to show the entire
class one single passage where Jesus explicitly claimed to be the
Son of God. I didn't know the Word of God well then so I was defeated
and lost that golden opportunity to bring out this passage! Never again!
That's what happens when you don't know the Word thoroughly.
J. Here they were standing in judgment of Jesus Christ, but He says
to them that a day is coming when they will face Him as the Undisputed,
Ultimate and Final King and Judge! "You will see the Son of Man…"
They thought they had control over him and had his life in their hands.
How wrong they were.
Peter Disowns Jesus – V.69-75
A. Let this last section on Peter's 3 denials be our application this
morning. Peter was sort of on trial too, wasn't he? Jesus succeeded
and Peter failed. Yes there are way too many times when
we fail to live courageously for Christ. They are bitter times of
shame, aren't they? When we fear men's opinions of us
more than we believe Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God, we will end
up weeping bitterly over our own cowardice. We should weep bitterly
when we cowardly deny the one who sacrificed His life
for us! It will bring us face to face with our need to live by the
grace and power of God rather than our own strength.
B. Yet, the Great Shepherd is tender with us and restores us, just
as He did for Peter. Oh, what a Savior we have! Leave here today with your eyes
focused on Him, rejoicing in His glory, amazed at His love
for His people!
Let's pray.