Accused for Me

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Jesus in his trial was identifying with every single one of us that has ever had to undergo injustice.

Every one of us who has ever been betrayed, overlooked, abused, discriminated against, or mistreated. He knows what that experience is like and what this shows us is that he entered into it to show us that he stood with us in it and that he was promising one day to redeem us from it. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor and author J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. We are marching toward the cross in our teaching series titled Instead of Me. Our prayer during this series specifically is that you will see these days that led up to Jesus's death with fresh eyes.

Feel the weight of the resurrection so that you can make Jesus the center of everything in your life. As a quick reminder, today is the final day to give toward our goal of supporting our brothers and sisters in Ukraine right now. The needs are great and we can be a part of providing for them in Jesus name.

You can make a donation at jdgreer.com or by calling us at 866-335-5220. Now let's join pastor J.D. as he takes us through the trial of Jesus in a message he titled Accused for Me.

We pick up in Matthew 26 57 where we left off. Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, who was the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. The chief priest and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.

But they didn't find any, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally, two came forward and declared. This fellow said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. He had, of course, made very clear that he was talking about the temple as his own body, and they knew that. But verse 62, 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? But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, I charge you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God. You have said so, Jesus replied. But I say to all of you from now on, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven, a reference to a prophecy in the book of Daniel that indicates the deity of the Messiah riding on the clouds of heaven as a Jewish metaphor, an image for deity. So then the high priest tore his clothes and said, he has spoken blasphemy.

Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. Then they spit in his face, and they struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, prophesy to us, Messiah, who is it that hits you? Chapter 27, verse one, when daybreak came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death, and tying him up, they led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor. Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. Have sinned by betraying innocent blood, he said. What is that to us, they responded?

See to it yourself. So he threw the silver into the temple and departed. Then he went and hanged himself. Verse 11, now Jesus stood before the governor. Are you the king of the Jews, the governor? Pilate asked him. Jesus answered, you say so? While he was being accused by the chief priests and the elders, he didn't answer. Then Pilate said to him, don't you hear how much they're testifying against you?

But he didn't answer him on even one charge, that the governor was quite amazed. At the festival, the governor's custom was to release to the crowd a prisoner they wanted. At that time, they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas, and when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, who is it that you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who was called Christ, one who was a murderer or one who taught you to love your enemies and raise little children from the dead? Because he knew, he knew it was because of envy that they'd handed him over.

While he was sitting on the judge's bench, his wife sent word to him saying, have nothing to do with this righteous man, for today I have suffered terribly in a dream because of him. The chief priests and the elders, however, persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to execute Jesus. The governor asked them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, they answered. Pilate asked them, what then should I do with Jesus who was called the Christ? And they all answered, crucify him. Then he said, why?

Why, what wrong has he done? But they kept shouting all the more, crucify him, crucify him. When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that a riot was starting instead, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. And he said, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves, all the people answered, his blood be on us and on our children.

Then he released Barabbas to them, and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified. Father, again, we have a sense, I have a sense, God, that these are overwhelming things. But not only was I not worthy for you to go through these things for me, but God, I think of how casually I treat these things. God, I think of how our community neglects and ignore these things.

God, that is a reason in itself to be condemned a thousand times over. So God, have the mercy on us to give us eyes to see and ears to hear and to feel the weight of these eternal things. God, may we be filled with holy fear and an overwhelming sense of your mercy and your love that we would see, that there is a love that goes beyond even our sin. It goes beyond our despair and goes beyond the grave.

It's a love that saves and a love that redeems. Give us eyes to see. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Our driving idea in this series has been that the events that surrounded the trial of Jesus are recorded to show us that we are actually the ones who are on trial here. I've told you that in these stories, we really ought to see ourselves, and these stories should make us consider how we are responding to Jesus. The first week, if you recall, we saw that we are Judas. Judas meaning that we use Jesus as a means to an end for something else that we want to get from Him. And secondarily, we are willing to sell Jesus out for a price. The second week, we saw that we are also Peter. We're convinced that we're one of the good guys, and not so bad that Jesus would actually have to die to save us.

We're convinced, like Peter was, that with a little good intention and a little good effort, then we could probably save ourselves. This weekend, I want to show you how the four primary characters that are involved in the trial of Jesus itself represent us and show us four ways that people today respond to Jesus. But first, what I want to do is I want to show you how Matthew tells the events of the trial in such a way to try to show us that this whole thing is a sham. Matthew, who was writing for a Jewish audience, indicates at least six ways that I counted. Six ways the trial of Jesus was unjust, even by Jewish standards at the time. If you were a Jewish reader back in the first century, you would have immediately picked all these things up. By the way, just so you know, this is not the only time that Jesus has been put on trial.

I found that in history. I found that in history that there's actually been a couple of times in American history where Jesus was put on trial, or at least attempted to, for example. In 1970, Arizona lawyer Russell Tansy filed a suit against Jesus to the tune of $100,000 for damages done to his secretary's house when lightning struck it, because insurance had refused to pay on the claim, deeming it an act of God. And so, Tansy said, well, then I'll just sue Jesus. He said in this article that I was reading that he thought he had a strong chance of winning because he was pretty sure, quote, the defendant would fail to appear in court. But eventually and wisely, I would say the case was thrown out.

I'm pretty sure that is the kind of case you don't want to win. In fact, I'm pretty sure you don't want to find yourself on the opposite side of a courtroom from Jesus, because I've heard the cross-examination can be pretty brutal during that case. But believe it or not, believe it or not, the trial that we're going to look at today is the biggest sham of all of them, of all of them, one that actually took place, the six injustices of Jesus' trial.

Number one, the timing was unjust. Jesus' trial, it tells us, took place in the middle of the night with the first phrase occurring in Caiaphas' house, Caiaphas, of course, being a high priest, sometime around midnight. Well, Jewish law said that trials could only occur during the day, officially, between morning worship and the evening meal. And the reason was so that the trials could be public and therefore open to scrutiny. Furthermore, trials were not allowed to take place on feast days, because people during feast days, just like holidays today, are traveling, and they're distracted.

And Jesus' occurs in the middle of the Passover. In our day, this would be like Jesus being arrested late Christmas Eve night, and then Jesus' trial being held that same night unannounced privately at about 2 a.m. You would know something sinister was afoot if that is how it went down. Number two, the due process experience was unjust. The Jewish Sanhedrin, which was the council of the highest-ranking Jewish officials of the day, they were like Israel's Supreme Court. They were supposed to be impartial judges in capital cases. They would listen to the accusations.

They would listen to the defense. They would weigh evidence on both sides and try to make a fair decision. What you see in Jesus' case, however, is that the Sanhedrin is the one that's making the charges.

You can see how that's a problem, right? I mean, imagine you were in a courtroom where the judge came down off his bench and led the prosecution, then goes back up to sit in his chair and make the decision. You would doubt, and rightfully so, that that judge would be able to be impartial in the sentencing. Furthermore, official charges were never actually brought against Jesus.

From the very moment he's brought in, he's just blasted with questions, and then when he doesn't answer the right way, they punch him in the face. Number three, their use of witnesses was unjust. You see, according to Jewish law, all the witnesses had to agree on the particular details of the crime.

And if not, then the whole case would be thrown out. And, by the way, I found out that if the witnesses were discovered to be lying, then the witnesses would receive the punishment that the accused would have received had he or she been convicted of guilty, which definitely raised the stakes a little bit. Well, in Jesus' trial, the Sanhedrin keeps looking for witnesses, which is, of course, inappropriate, since they're supposed to be the judges, not the prosecutors.

And they can't really find Denny. Then Matthew says the two that they did find keep contradicting each other, which means that their testimony really should have been thrown out. Furthermore, Jesus is never given an opportunity to bring counterwitnesses to his own defense, because, again, this whole thing was done ad hoc in the middle of the night. Even the assembled mob who shouts crucify when given the choice between Jesus and Barabbas is a staged mob. I know in Sunday school, probably like you, I was always taught that these were the exact same people who had shouted hosanna and waved palm branches and laid them down in front of the donkey when Jesus came in earlier that week. And they all changed their minds by the time of this trial, and it just shows how fickle human nature is. I know that's what Sister Ethel taught in our Sunday school classes.

I heard it also, but that is most likely not true. Several things in the Gospels indicate that this was a contrived mob. It was a staged mob. The Jewish leaders have pulled together this mob and manipulated them to shout crucify, really before the majority of everybody else even knew what was going on.

It was early in the morning. That's why they did that. They didn't want the crowd to come in and mess everything up. Now, you don't have to go home and email Sister Ethel and tell her I said that, because the point she was making was still true, that we are fickle.

But at least know that this whole thing is a setup. Number four, the conviction process was unjust. The conviction was supposed to take place by vote. Their practice, their tradition was the youngest member of the Sanhedrin would vote first, and then they would go all the way up to the oldest.

And the reason for that is they didn't want the youngest to be pressured by what the oldest thought that they should do. To carry out an execution, the sentence had to be unanimous. Well, in the case of Jesus, no such vote ever takes place. And we know that some of the Sanhedrin, like Nicodemus, actually objected. It wasn't unanimous.

Furthermore, we see Pilate twice give a verdict of innocence, which both times was ignored. You're listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer in a message titled Accused for Me. I just wanted to remind you that today is the final day that your giving will be directly used to help meet humanitarian needs emerging from the Ukrainian war with Russia. Fifty percent of your generous gift will go directly to our partners in the gospel on the ground in Lviv. Give us a call at 866-335-5220 to make your donation. God is in their midst, too, and his people are stepping up to the plate to be his hands and feet. Be a part of something bigger and join with us today. Now let's return to our teaching.

Here's Pastor J.D. Number five, the sentencing is unjust. Jewish law required that a sentence of death be carried out by stoning, and the stoning was to be done by the accusers. Because if you thought that somebody was worthy to die, then you had to show that you thought they were worthy to die by being the ones who actually killed them, which again would raise the stakes a little bit.

Do I actually believe it that much? Furthermore, the judgment had to sit on the table for three days during which the Sanhedrin was supposed to fast and pray and make sure that they had made the right decision. They were supposed to give three days for any other witnesses who hadn't had time to come forward if they had exculpatory evidence that would give them time to identify themselves. Then after three days, if no witnesses had come forward, they would bring the man to the place where they were going to stone him. They would read out his name. They would articulate his crime. They would read the verdict, the sentencing. Then they would read all the witnesses' names, and then one more time they would call for any witnesses that might have exonerating evidence to step forward. Only then, only then if none came forward would they carry out the stoning. Jewish legal procedures, by the way, were actually very advanced for their time, tilted decidedly toward the innocent in order to avoid unjust incrimination.

So much so, in fact, I read that many of our own judicial procedures today are based on ancient Jewish practices. That was number five. Number six, Pilate's final consent was unjust. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent, but he was unwilling to act on it. He knows he's being manipulated by the Jewish leaders.

So at first, we know that because he comes up with a pretty ingenious solution, he thinks, to unravel this thing. He appeals to a Jewish custom whereby they would release one political prisoner at Passover, kind of like one special gift that you give at Christmas time. But the crowd, the whole plan backfires because the crowd chooses Barabbas. So 2724 says that in order to avoid a riot, not because he was convinced Jesus was guilty, but in order to avoid a riot, Pilate consented. You see, historically, we know that at this moment, Pilate was on very thin ice as a governor because Pilate had made some truly boneheaded decisions. He hadn't been governor in Judea that long, but just as a few examples, when he first came into office, Pilate wanted to do so with a bang. So he marched through Jerusalem with this huge parade with these large banners that bore the image of Tiberius Caesar, his boss. And then after he established himself in the capital, he had all those images of Caesar displayed at the temple, which if you know anything about Jewish custom, they're not supposed to have any images in the temple, much less that of a pagan ruler. And so that was blasphemy to them, so they were enraged. So Pilate agrees to meet with them in the amphitheater to discuss their concerns. Once they all get there, he surrounds them with soldiers, and he threatens to kill them. Well, the Jews there call us bluff.

Many of them, it says they laid down on the ground, and they bared their necks and said, you go ahead and kill us. And so Pilate caves, takes down the images. Shortly after that, Pilate needs some money for a new aqueduct, so he extorts a huge amount of money from the temple treasury. So he, as a Roman, raids the temple to pay for one of his pet projects. Well, again, this ticks the Jews off, so they stage a protest. So Pilate sends Roman soldiers, dressed as normal citizens, dressed as Jews, into the crowd.

And then on the signal that he gave, this time he said, I'm not going to lose this one. They beat many of the Jewish protesters to death. So the bottom line is, by this point, the Jews hate Pilate, and they're looking for an excuse to riot. And the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who was Pilate's boss, was so annoyed with Pilate that he had officially put him on probation. And he told him if there was one more flare up in Jerusalem, then he was going to be fired.

He would announce it on Twitter or whatever, that he was out of there. All this to say, Pilate consents to the execution of Jesus, not because he believes Jesus is guilty. He does it to save his own skin. 2725 says he was so convinced of Jesus's innocence that he tries to absolve himself of guilt by washing his hands. By the way, that was a Jewish symbol, not a Roman one, because he was communicating to the Jews that he knew Jesus was innocent. Of course, we know Pilate can't really absolve himself that easily.

In his Inferno, Dante depicts Pilate in the seventh circle of hell, still trying to wash his hands. But the bottom line, as we read through this, is this whole trial process is unjust. Why go to such pains to show us that?

Well, there are two reasons, really. Number one, because God was demonstrating to us in no uncertain terms, listen, that Jesus's death was not brought about by his own sin. Jesus was dying because of somebody else's. He was not supposed to be the one that was on trial. That was my trial. That was your trial, that he was standing in our place. He was tried instead of me.

I was tried and found wanting. Jesus was accused of guilt. Number two, because Jesus in his trial was identifying with every single one of us that has ever had to undergo injustice, every one of us who has ever been betrayed, overlooked, abused, discriminated against, or mistreated. He knows what that experience is like, and what this shows us is that he entered into it to show us that he stood with us in it and that he was promising one day to redeem us from it, which leads to these four kinds of people I want to show you that get exposed by this trial. We're the ones that are on trial, and you see four different kinds of people here. Number one, or letter A, let's look first at the Sanhedrin.

We're going to call them the Threatened, the Threatened, 2718. They knew. He knew it was because of envy that they had given him over. This verse tells us that the Sanhedrin hated Jesus because they were envious of his popularity and authority.

In other words, he occupied a position that they desperately wanted to have, and Jesus's presence meant that they couldn't have it their way, so they just got rid of it. Now, of course, it's really easy for you and I to just shake our heads now, and we say, well, I would never have done that. That's terrible, but what if you just ask, think of it this way. Maybe that's because you and I simply have never been pushed to a point where we actually have to choose between Jesus and ourselves as Lord. You see, I can stand in here all day long and tell you that Jesus demands control over your life, and what can you do?

You can leave here. You can turn it off, and you can just not think about it. You can even pat me on the shoulder on the way out and say, wow, nice message, pastor.

That was great. It's not like I can force you to actually choose. You can leave Jesus at church, so to speak, and then deal with him on the terms that you want to deal with him.

You can lay out for several weeks and come back, and you can kind of dull your conscience to it. You never really have to choose, out of sight, out of mind, but what if? What if you actually were pushed to the point that Jesus's control and your control of your life could not coexist? One had to give way. If that really were the choice, which one would you choose?

Here's another dimension. The Sanhedrin likes to think of themselves as the good guys, and Jesus keeps insisting that they aren't, that they were really no better than anybody else, and they needed to be saved like every other criminal or prostitute in the Roman Empire. Jesus's presence meant that they couldn't hold on to their position of pride.

They couldn't hold on to this idea that they were better than other people, so rather than deal with that, rather than deal with the fact that they were as bad as the worst criminals out there, they killed him. Again, you can hear the same message, and you can just leave here. You can just say, I don't want to deal with how desperate he is telling me that I am for God's grace, and you can just not deal with it, but what if Jesus's presence meant you had to abandon all pretense of pride and own before everyone that you were utterly desperate for God's grace, and that unless Jesus died for you, you would rightfully be condemned alongside the worst criminals in history? You see, what if we were pushed to the place that they were pushed? Then you might rethink how they're responding, and you might not be able to say, well, I never would have done that, because I can promise you, listen, you will never step foot in heaven if Jesus Christ is not the Lord of your life, and that's not a decision you make there.

That's a decision you make here. You will never step foot in heaven if you do not understand that there is no goodness that separates you from somebody else, that you really have no reason at all to boast, and your only hope is the grace of God. When I was growing up, it was always explained to me this way since I dissed on Sister Ethel a minute ago.

Let me give her some props here. In every heart, there's a throne and a cross. If self is on the throne, Jesus must be on the cross. If Jesus is on the throne, self must be on the cross. In every single one of your hearts, there is a throne and there is a cross. Somebody's got to be on the throne, and somebody's got to be on the cross. Now, I know what we prefer is kind of us on the throne, and Jesus is sort of in the co-pilot seat, but there's really only two slots.

There's throne and cross. If Jesus is going to be on the throne, then you're going to be on the cross, and what that means is that you have died to control of your life because you've given it all to him, and you've also died to any supposition that you are good enough to be able to earn his favor or earn your way to heaven. You can only be in one of two postures in relationship to Jesus Christ right now. You're either totally surrendered to him, or you're in rebellion. You're either on your knees in worship or with your fist raised in the air saying, crucify him.

Which of those two best describes you? It might be helpful to point out that those who were opposed to Jesus were primarily the religious people, people who follow the rules and don't want to let Jesus have control, who don't want to own their desperate need for God's grace. A challenging message from Pastor J.D. Greer on Summit Life. As you know, for this week only, we have committed to 50% of every dollar given to the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary in Lviv, Ukraine. Pastor J.D. was recently able to speak with the seminary president, Yaroslav Piš, and prayed for him. Father, we pray for a miracle.

God, you're stronger than armies and you hold them all in the palm of your hand. I pray that Russians would see that there is a God in Jesus who is stronger than all of their military might. And we pray, God, that you would move them to repentance. God, we pray for the miracle of deliverance. Save, God, the lives of these men and women. God, we pray for the resources that are necessary, whether they come from within the church there or here in the United States. And I pray that they have to be like Moses, where they just put up their hands and say, Enough, enough. There's enough to do the work of the ministry. I pray that that the Ukrainian church would fulfill Revelation 12 11, that Jesus said would be true of the church in the final days, that they overcame the devil by the word of their testimony and by the blood of the land because they loved not their lives to the death. I pray, God, that you would preserve the purity and the Christ's likeness of your church through this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for spending your week with us. We'll see you back here next week on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.