Jesus on Trial

Legal trials are fascinating, at least I think they are, and today we're going to consider a trial, a trial which occurs in the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin. And beyond a shadow of a doubt, the prisoner, the accused, is 100% innocent. Now, most people who appear before a court, charged with a crime, maintain that they're innocent, but this prisoner, this accused, is 100% innocent. His Roman judge, Pilate, said, I find no guilt in this man. His executioner, the Roman centurion, said, certainly this man was innocent. A thief who died beside him said, this man has done nothing wrong. Powerful testimony to those who were intimately involved with the trial, and yet, the prisoner, Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, is condemned to death.

Here is injustice breathtaking in its magnitude. God's innocent son, yes. The God-man is condemned to die. Now, Jesus went through two trials, a religious trial before the Jews, and then a secular trial before the Romans, where Pilate was the judge. In the Jewish trial, the issue was blasphemy. In the Roman trial, the issue was treason. Today, we're focusing on the Jewish trial. So, I ask you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 26.

We're going to look from verses 57 through 68 in our continuing study of Matthew. And as you're turning there, let me ask you, have you ever been wrongly accused? Have you ever been unfairly criticized? Have you ever been dealt with in an unjust way? Have you ever been misunderstood?

Have you ever suffered and you've done no wrong? Let's see our Savior and learn from him today. Matthew 26 verse 57, Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. And Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none. Though many false witnesses came forward, at last two came forward and said, this man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said, have you no answer to make?

What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God. Jesus said to him, you've said so, but I tell you from now on you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, he's uttered blasphemy.

What further witnesses do we need? You've now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment? They answered, he deserves death. Then they spit in his face and struck him.

And some slapped him saying, prophesy to us you Christ, who is it that struck you? Let's look at this trial. First of all, I want to say that the trial of Jesus Christ here had biased judges. The trial was before the Sanhedrin. Now, these verses that we've read may not describe so much a formal trial as a kind of preliminary hearing to decide if the case should be remitted to the Roman judge. But even if this technically were not a trial, more of a pretrial, surely the rules of fairness still apply. The Sanhedrin, after all, was the Jewish Supreme Court.

It consisted of 71 men, the high priest Caiaphas, and 70 others. Now, obviously, for an accused to receive a fair trial, judges must be impartial and unbiased. That's what you expect, isn't it? When you go to a court, you expect the judges to be fair, to be just, to be biased. In Deuteronomy 16, under the Mosaic law, it was very, very clear that judges were to impart justice. They were there to further justice. They were not to be bribed.

They were not to be biased. The Mosaic law made that very, very clear. But these judges, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, were clearly biased against Jesus.

Look back at verses three and four of Matthew 26. Verse three, the chief priests and elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, notice this, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. No, these men weren't concerned with the evidence. Their minds were made up. The verdict of guilt was predetermined. For three years, they had plotted to put this man to death. They were like the kind of vigilantes saying, of course, we'll give this man a fair trial before we hang him.

It was that kind of approach, wasn't it? And did you notice, facing his religious accusers, yes, his religious accusers, Jesus stands alone. Some of you have been involved in litigation. Some of you may have been in a criminal trial. And it's good to have friends sitting in the court with you, isn't it?

It's good to have some support. It's good to have a good attorney. Jesus stands alone. These judges were determined to find Jesus guilty, not only of an offense, of a capital offense, but did you notice, as you read it, a clear charge was not levied against Jesus at the beginning. The indictment wasn't clear, but the verdict was guilty. In verse 59, did you notice the bias of the judges? The false testimony is presented against Jesus.

Judges are meant to be objective, to listen to all of the evidence for and against the accused, as it were, and then make a just determination. But here, they've determined his guilt. Look down at chapter 27, verse 1. When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. The trial of Jesus had biased judges. Secondly, the trial of Jesus had false witnesses. Did you notice that in verse 59? Here they have Jesus in front of them.

And what are they doing? They're seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none. They bring the witnesses, but there's no false, there's no evidence against Jesus.

And then at last, they get these two witnesses who come and say, well, we heard him say that within three days he would destroy the temple of God, which of course was a complete misunderstanding of the teaching of Jesus. And so the Sinhedrin, they arrange for people to testify against Jesus. But they weren't meant to be the prosecution. They were the judge.

They were the jury. But they've set up these witnesses, these false witnesses, to testify against Jesus. But the witnesses are false. They're contradictory.

They're inconsistent. And false testimony was, I remind you, a violation of the ninth commandment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Did you hear that, by the way? False witness. You ever accuse someone wrongly? You ever lie by someone? Do you ever put the blame on someone?

Do you ever blame someone else to get you out of a difficult situation? Have you ever testified in a court and committed perjury? Very serious offense, isn't it? And very, very serious before the Lord. False testimony. And the penalty for false testimony in the Mosaic law was very serious. You can read it in Deuteronomy 19, verses 16 through 19. Furthermore, Jewish law very, very wisely required corroboration. Deuteronomy 19. Now, unfortunately, we don't have this in American law, as far as I know, in a country that I'll visit in a week or two.

I'm not going to mention its name. But we have corroboration. That is, an individual cannot be convicted of a crime on the testimony of one person.

However reliable that person is, however truthworthy they are, corroboration is required. Deuteronomy 19, verse 15, a single witness shall not suffice against the person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two or three witnesses shall a charge be established. A rule of evidence in the court, under the law. One witness is not enough.

You need two or three so that there is corroboration. That did not happen. There was no clear, corroborated evidence here. The testimony should have been rejected.

The case should have been dismissed. These men, after all, had had plenty of time to prepare their case. For three years, they had scrutinized our Lord Jesus Christ. They had put him under a microscope. They had watched every move he made.

They'd listened to every word. They tried to trap him. They tried to get him to say the wrong thing. And Jesus said on one occasion, could anyone convict me of sin? Could any of us stand up and say that today?

I don't think so. He is a sinless Christ. The trial of Jesus then had by his judges false witnesses. Third, the trial of Jesus had illegal and improper procedures.

The Sanhedrin was not permitted to meet at night or on feast days. Now, one of the difficulties is trying to establish the legal procedures, the rules as it were, of evidence in place at the time of the trial. But certainly by AD 200, under one of the Jewish writings of Mishnah, capital trials were to take place during the day, must not be held on the eve of a festival, must be held in one of three specified courtrooms, which did not include the high priest's house, must begin by hearing the case for the defense, and must not reach a conviction on the same day the trial began, according to a New Testament scholar, Arti France. In this case, the trial took place on the Passover. Also, it was night.

The Sanhedrin normally met north of the temple sanctuary rather than in the courtyard of the high priest. The sentence had not to be passed during the same day as the trial. Now, perhaps in order to overcome some of these irregularities, the verdict was ratified, as I read, the next day. But why the rush to put Jesus on trial?

Why the departure from normal procedure? Also, an accused should not be forced to incriminate himself. We have here in the United States what's called the Fifth Amendment. And that is, you don't need to speak. So, when you're arrested by that police officer, if you're smart, you don't say too much, particularly if you're guilty.

You keep your mouth closed. And when you go to trial, you are not required to give evidence. No, the burden of proof is on the prosecution. It is for the prosecution to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

You don't need to say anything. They've brought you to court. It's for them to prove their case. And surely, in any fair trial, the accused is entitled to have the prosecution frame the charge and then prove the case. In this trial, the high priest is asking Jesus to frame the charge and testify against himself, as we read in verses 33 and 64. Not to answer the question was taken as an admission of guilt. And so, the high priest moves from being the judge to the prosecutor.

The giving of evidence by the accused is usually one of the most dramatic parts of a trial. And do you notice when Jesus speaks, He says, I tell you from now on, I tell you from now on, you picture it with these evil men around Him, 71 of them in the Sanhedrin. Our Lord Jesus Christ is standing alone. He said, I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

What's He doing? He's quoting from Psalm 110 and Daniel 7, scriptures that these men knew very, very well. And He's confirming that He is the Christ, that He's vindicated by His Father, that He's going to be seated at the Father's right hand and will return as a judge.

Yes, the high priest got it right. Here is a testimony of deity. Jesus is the Messiah. He's the Son of God.

He is the Son of Man, as prophesied by one of the Old Testament prophets in Daniel 7, who refers to the Father handing over the kingdom to the Son of Man. And when Jesus came, as we've seen repeatedly in Matthew's gospel, that He comes saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The King has come and this glorious kingdom is going to come. It has come in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ with the power and the glory of that kingdom is largely veiled, but there will come a day, Jesus is saying, when I will return. He prophesied that in Matthew chapter 24. He's going to come with power and great glory and no one will stand up to Him.

He will return on the clouds of heaven, He says in Matthew 24, verse 30, with great power and great glory. No, the real judge is not the Sanhedrin. It's not the high priest, but it's Jesus Christ Himself and He will judge that Sanhedrin when He returns. And the evil high priest acts with hypocrisy and tears his garments. By claiming to be the Son of God, Jesus is committing blasphemy and the verdict for blasphemy is death.

Did you notice during the trial a strange omission? They called their witnesses, but there seemed to be no opportunity for Jesus to call His witnesses. Think of some of the witnesses Jesus could have called. Think of the leper He had healed. Think of the man in John 9 who was blind from birth and Jesus cured him. He didn't understand it all, but one thing he did know once he was blind, but now he could see since he had met Jesus. Think of the bridal party from the from Cana of Galilee where he turned the water into wine.

Wouldn't they be pretty good witnesses? Think of Jairus and his 12-year-old daughter, this little girl who'd been died and Jesus had gently raised her from the dead. Think of the woman we read about in Matthew 9, a woman who had a problem, a humiliating problem for 12 years and she came and she merely touched the hem of his garment and she was cured. Had gone to doctors for 12 years.

It's getting worse and worse, one touch and she's cured. Being a good witness, wouldn't it? Think of those who'd sat on the hillside and Jesus had taken the bread and the fish and had broken it and had fed more than 5,000. Think of a few of them saying this is what happened. And think of Lazarus, a man who had been dead in a tomb wrapped up for four days and Jesus stands and says, Lazarus, come forth. And the man comes forth still in his grave clothes. The greatest witness, of course, would have been the voice of his father.

That wonderful day when Jesus is baptized and the heavens open and the dove descends and there's a voice from heaven and God the Father speaks and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Think of the evidence, think of the witnesses that there were during the life of our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. They ignored all of that and you notice in their frustration they spit in his face.

That's enough a way to treat any prisoner but certainly an innocent one. They mock him. They hate him. They don't consider the truth of his statement even although he had demonstrated his messiahship. The imprisoned messiah stands deserted. When Pilate, the Roman judge, is later going to ask the charge, the Jewish religious leaders say as recorded in John 18 verse 30, if this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.

That's a bad one, isn't it? It's like police saying, well, if the man wasn't guilty, he wouldn't be here. But we're saying, what's he guilty of? What's the charge? What did the individual do? They're saying, listen, Pilate, if this man weren't evil, we wouldn't have delivered him to you. That's begging the question, isn't it?

What is the charge? Where is the evidence? No, the Sinhedrin have made up their mind. They don't have the right to pronounce the death penalty. There's no proper charge against the accused. The witnesses are false and contradictory. The accused is forced to speak.

There have been improper procedures. This is a mockery of a trial. It's a horrendous miscarriage of justice. An innocent man is condemned to die.

What an amazing scene. In the midst of the injustice and the evil, our wonderful, matchless, innocent Savior allows wicked men to condemn him to death. The Almighty God, the innocent is declared guilty. The just is treated unjustly. The great high priest is condemned by a corrupt high priest. God incarnate is declared to be a blasphemer. The Creator is shamefully treated by His creation.

The resurrection and the life is sentenced to death. What do you think? I have three I have three points as I conclude, three responses. First of all, as we read this and think of it, first of all, there's a decision to be made. What's your verdict? On the central person of human history, this is the key question. What do you think of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God?

There can be no neutrality. It's not just the Sanhedrin who want to decide. We know their decision, death. But what's your decision on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world?

Every person who rejects Jesus Christ is guilty of blasphemy against a God who in love sends His Son for our purpose to save us. I'm the good shepherd who gives my life for the sheep. We call here at Calvary the radio program the verdict. And at the conclusion, I always say the verdict is yours.

What is your verdict? Some of you have come and in a sense you may admire Jesus Christ. You may have enjoyed the singing.

You may have really appreciated all of the children up here. But the central question is, what do you think of Jesus the Christ? Can you honestly say He is my Savior? He's my God. I'm trusting Him. I've received Him as my Savior.

To delay is to reject Him. So first, there's a decision to be made. Secondly, there is a Savior to worship and love and serve and loyally follow. We've been looking at Jesus. We've looked at Jesus as we've studied Matthew, some amazing scenes, His teaching, His miracles.

But here's another scene. Here's a Savior who spat at, who slapped, who's mocked, who's condemned. John the Baptist had said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

If you profess to be an authentic follower of Jesus Christ, I want you to look at your Savior. You see, it's essential that the sinlessness of our Savior is demonstrated. It's essential that there is no true accusation against God's Son.

As I've said, these skimming evil men had had three years to prepare their case against Jesus the Christ, and their case totally falls apart. The witnesses can make no truthful corroborated testimony against the sinless Son of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Apostle Peter, the man of action, looks at Jesus and says he did no sin. Paul, the great intellectual, said of Jesus he knew no sin. John the Apostle of love says, in Him there is no sin. The penetrating scrutiny of his most severe critic can find no blemish in our matchless Lord Jesus Christ. Here is an awesome Savior.

In every aspect of his life, he's flawless. He's the altogether lovely one, all fair without, all pure within our blessed Lord, comes into the world in a unique way conceived by the Virgin. Sinless. Never had a thought, a deed, an action, an attitude which was sinless.

Always 100% did his Father's will. You say, John, why is that so important? Only a sinless Savior can be your substitute. I can't die on the cross for you even if I wanted to. I can't take away your sin. I'm a sinful person myself. All of us without exception are sinful. As the first man Adam, since then all have sinned apart from the second man, the Lord of glory, the sinless Christ who comes from heaven into this world, the Word becoming flesh and becoming like us, sin apart. And only a perfect Savior can pay the price of sin for you. Only He is worthy of our praise.

There is none like Him, nor will there ever, ever be anyone like Him. What do we do? We are to receive Him as our Savior. We're to bow and worship Him as we're doing. We are to follow Him, whatever the odds against us, whatever the persecution, whatever the difficulties we are each day to keep our eyes on this wonderful, peerless, unique person, the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy. And we bow, don't we? And worship and praise.

Do you love this one? Are you really following Him? So, the more you follow Him, the closer you'll be to Him and the more you'll love Him. And the closer you are to Him, the less likely you're going to fall into sin. Every day, get your eye on Christ, looking into Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. So, there's a decision to be made. There's a Savior to worship, love, serve, and loyally follow.

But here's the third one, the final one. There is an example to follow. You say, well, He's sinless.

I'm sinful. Yes, but He is still our example. And in His suffering, there are lessons for us to learn, hard, difficult lessons. His silence is remarkable, isn't it? Verse 62, Jesus remained silent. You and I would have been shouting our innocence.

We'd been shouting for these witnesses. But of course, this is in fulfillment of Isaiah. Isaiah 53, verse 7, we looked at it last week.

Listen again to the wonderful messianic prediction by the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53, verse 7, He, the Messiah, 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 it shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. You and I live in a world of suffering, a world of injustice. Some of you have experienced that slightly.

Some of you have experienced it deeply. You know what it is to suffer? Think of the suffering of these parents in Texas. Parents, can you try to imagine it? To be told that your 10-year-old little girl has been mowed down at school and it's gone. Imagine the suffering.

Imagine the suffering going on in Ukraine as we see these pictures of people's home disappearing, people dying, women being assaulted, little children being abused in our world, in our city. And that suffering impacts us. Being a follower of Jesus does not exempt you from suffering.

You say, how do you know that? First of all, look at the Savior. Luther said, no man suffered like Him. Think of His suffering, and He provides a wonderful example to us as we suffer.

How do we respond to suffering? I've asked a friend to come and share how he has responded to his suffering. This is a friend of mine, United States Army Major retired William Austin. He's a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where he was awarded two Bronze Star medals. He served for 12 years on active duty as a JAG attorney to include combat deployments with the 10th Mountain Division Light Infantry, the 7th Special Forces Group Airborne, and the Navy SEAL Team 5.

Will was medically retired on September 11, 2019 due to a service-connected illness acquired during his deployment to Afghanistan. He's grateful for the caring treatment provided by medical professionals in the U.S. Special Operations Warrior Care Program. And I thought it was very fitting on this memorial weekend as we deal with suffering and as we look to Christ to hear an example of one who experienced suffering. Let's welcome Bill to the platform.

Oh please, please, please don't stand. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Whoever developed that slideshow with the pictures, that panoply of pictures, and the musicians playing Battle Hymn of the Republic, I'll never forget that moment. So just really thank you so much.

I was actually like not literally in those pictures, but that was me up there in a lot of those scenes. I've lived that. So I share with you my testimony today of suffering in honor of the fallen, my brothers and sisters. Hopefully I'll get through this.

So the title of my testimony is Suffering is Never for Nothing. As Dr. Monroe mentioned, I deployed to Afghanistan 2012-2013 with the Special Operations Task Force. I was their JAG, Legal Advisor, Rules of Engagement, International Law of Armed Conflict. I was embedded right in the midst of combat operations with them. And I was exposed to something doctors call an environmental toxin, maybe from the burn pits, maybe from bad goat stew at Asura that we had with tribal leaders.

They don't know. But I came back in 2013 and I was not the man that I used to be. And my body just started to deteriorate. All kinds of symptoms that we'll go through, but it kind of culminated in 2018 when I broke out in leprous-like sores all over my body in the most sensitive parts of my body. They thought that I had AIDS.

They weren't sure what was going on. So I was supposed to deploy again, but instead they sent me to the Walter Reed Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in DC area to get the best medical treatment that the military could provide for me, because I've been in for over a decade at that point. And when I went to get treatment, instead of getting up to a year of treatment, a medical bureaucrat enrolled me in the medical separation process illegally, unjustly. And when I met with her and pointed out her mistake, she admitted she made a mistake, but then I said, great, please disenroll me. And she said, I'm not going to do that. And I said, why not, ma'am? And this is exactly what she said.

She goes, because I say so, you're just a number to me. And see, what had happened is at the beginning of 2018, January 1st, a new bureaucratic agency created by Congress called Defense Health Agency had come online, and they now managed for the first time in 240 years of military tradition, they managed, a civilian-led bureaucracy managed active duty wounded warriors, not military commanders anymore. I was diagnosed with my illness on January 2nd of 2018, so I was literally the tip of the spear from this new process. And they were just trying to get us out. All right, so an injustice. What have I learned from these injustices and my suffering? I've learned the following three lessons. First, suffering reorders our loves. It reveals we love things too much or love God too little in proportion to those things.

When God uses suffering to reorder the loves in our heart, then our purpose comes into alignment when we are backed up by the power of his spirit. I had the opportunity, even though I'm a lawyer, I think sometimes my commanders wanted to mess with me because I'm a lawyer because nobody likes lawyers, right? Let's just be honest. It's okay.

It's okay. And so they would send me to these like really difficult schools like pre-ranger, ranger school, seer training with Green Berets. So it was actually great for me because I learned how to not only be an outstanding attorney, but also a soldier. And so when you're at some of these schools like ranger school, seer school, this is your best friend, your compass.

All right. And if your compass is not properly calibrated, then even if you are the best trained land navigator in the history of the United States army, if this compass is not properly calibrated, you will not be able to shoot what's called a proper azimuth and you will get lost after a couple hundred meters. And that's what suffering does for us. It realigns the calibration of our hearts.

It reorders our loves. Secondly, trials and suffering are like a fiery furnace. First Peter one, six through nine says, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The promise for us, beloved, is not that we won't go through fiery trials. The promise is that when we go through it, he will be with us.

Isaiah 43 two says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, there it is, fire again, you will not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. Third, the worst suffering imaginable cannot separate us from the love of Christ. I believe that this is the most important truth that we must remind ourselves when we're suffering. Romans 8 35 through 39 says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? So tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Verse 37, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And this is the most important thing beloved that we have to remind ourselves of because when the days get dark and the suffering gets intense, that is when and it's easy, it's natural, it's human to doubt the love of God and this is when we must take captive those thoughts in our mind and make them obedient to Christ and we must control our internal dialogue and say I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is good, he is for me and my circumstances do not dictate what the word of God says.

And I'll close with this. So the Lord, he has been amazing. Sometimes we don't get to see the purpose of our suffering until the very end of our life or maybe until we get to heaven we get to see the full purpose but he's already shown me that these nine years of suffering is not just for me it's for other people because not only have I represented 54 clients pro bono, other Wounded Warriors like me who have gone through this unjust process, I've also been able to establish something called the Wounded Warrior Bill of Rights which is bipartisan landmark legislation that is hopefully Lord willing going to be passed by the United States Congress by the end of this year. So God is using and in closing God is using my suffering to not only set my heart free to worship him more fully in spirit and truth but he is using it to set a generation of Wounded Warriors free. Major Dick Winters, a band of brothers fame, when asked by his granddaughter if he was a hero answered no but I serve in the company of heroes. On this memorial day may we always remember and never forget that we are in the company of heroes as we stay on mission for Christ to advance his kingdom on earth. Thank you for allowing me to share my testimony. Suffering is never for nothing. God bless you. Please be seated.

Thank you. We'll close with this reading from Scripture. Peter 21, for this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you.

Context is suffering. Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. We look at Christ. That's why we're reading his Scriptures. That's why we dealt with the trial.

He provides us an example so that we would follow in his steps. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled he did not revile in return.

Do you hear that? When he suffered he did not threaten but committed but continued entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. We reaffirm as Will has said our faith in our living God. He our savior himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

For you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Peter says our savior dealt with sin. He bore it on the cross. He dealt with our sickness. By his wounds were healed. He deals with our strength. He brings us to the shepherd and the overseer of our souls.

I ask you again, what is your verdict? Follow Jesus Christ. Some of you have never yet surrendered to Christ.

Would you do that? Will and I are going to be standing at the front. We can interact with you, pray with you in any way. I know some of you are suffering.

You know deeply how it is. May, as we bow and pray, commit our lives as our savior did to the one who judges righteously and love and serve him. Bow at his feet. As we're going to sing, he is worthy of all. Father, we thank you for the perfect example of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sin-bearer and as He bears our sin, He provides us a wonderful example. May we, when we suffer, look to our savior, that we will not threaten, that we will not revile people, but rather we will continue to trust you with all of our hearts. Help us to follow our savior, to love him more loyally. And again, we thank you, Father, for this opportunity we have as a people of God to come and bow as the shepherds did, as people did through the life of Jesus Christ. We come now and bow at His feet and say, worthy is He of all. In Christ's name, amen.