Our Father and our God, we pause before we read your word to ask for your assistance, your help. Lord, your word is powerful and mighty, but Lord, we are weak. And Lord, we need you to do what only you can do, which is to open our ears that we can hear spiritual truth and our hearts that we can receive it and plant it. And Lord, our minds that we can understand what we have before us today. as we look at the trial of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name I pray, amen. Both of the divisions that I mentioned, sort of the ecclesiastical or the trial before the Jews and also the trial before Rome and what Jesus went through that led him to the cross, both of those two can be divided into thirds. And we'll look at that today. You'll look at the second half that we'll hopefully, God willing, get to next week, where we see him before Pilate, and then sent to Herod, and then back to Pilate. Today we see him brought to Annas, the high priest, and then to the Sanhedrin. And then there's a second meeting of the Sanhedrin. So that's what we're going to focus on today. So we begin with Jesus, after his arrest, being brought to Annas. So this is John 18, beginning in verse 12. I'll read it to verse 14. It says, then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. And they led him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. So who's Annas? We don't really see him come up in scripture, and all of a sudden he's being brought to Annas. Annas was the high priest from 6 AD till 15 AD. He was removed from that office by Pilate's predecessor. So under Mosaic law, the office of high priest was a lifetime appointment. So he held some power still. Probably many of the Jewish leaders still looked at Annas as a legitimate high priest, even though his son-in-law was now officially, at least to Rome, the high priest. So we'll see both of these men involved in the trial of Jesus. Annas, some say, was the patriarch of a high priestly family. He had five of his sons and his son-in-law at one point acting as high priest. So this is sort of a family affair, if you will, and Annas actually One of the writers called Annas sort of like the godfather of the high priestly line. Caiaphas plays a role here as we move forward in fulfilling his own prophecy. Because John takes the moment to insert in verse 14, he says, now it was Caiaphas, because he just mentioned Caiaphas, who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. Now John had already recorded that for us back in chapter 11. He just uses, under the prompting of the Holy Ghost, an opportunity to remind us of what Caiaphas had said. And let me read that just back in chapter 11. This is John 11 verse 49. where it says, and one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it's expedient for us that one man should die for the people and not that the whole nation should perish. And the Bible tells us that Caiaphas didn't even know it, but his high priest, he had actually prophesied. He was actually used of the Lord to bring this prophecy forward, that in some sense, even though Caiaphas didn't understand it, that Jesus was to die as a substitute. And here he mentions the nation. That certainly wasn't what he intended to get across, but God, who superintends all prophecy, has us to see that he said that. So the interrogation here, it begins in verse 19. So let me go there, John 18, 19. And it says, the high priest then asked Jesus, let me pause there and say this, this is not Caiaphas, this is Annas that we're calling high priest here. Even though Rome wouldn't recognize that he was high priest, that's what the scripture is saying. The high priest then asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. And Jesus answered him. I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always meet. And in secret, I have said nothing. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Indeed, they know what I said. And when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest like that? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why do you strike me? Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest." Now, Annas asks him two things, if you noticed that. He wants to know about his disciples, maybe who they are, who's your inner circle, but he wants to know about the disciples, and he wants to know about Jesus' doctrine. Now, Jesus will not respond about the disciples. He's already, if you remember, under his arrest, he said, let these go. And so he is protecting his disciples. That was his intention, that they would survive, they would be scattered, and they would not be persecuted as he was. At least, not yet. Of course, you know, the martyrs of the church future, but here he's protecting them. He won't mention that, but his doctrine he talks about. And Jesus, if you kind of, this is how I read it, he exposes the absurdity of the question. Jesus was not a backroom teacher somewhere. He exposited his teaching out in the open. Everybody knew what Jesus had taught. And Jesus is basically saying, you can ask anybody. Everybody knows what I've said. This isn't why you brought me here. And so Jesus is really exposing what they're really up to. They just simply want to put them to death. And this angers those that are in the room, and of course they strike him. And Jesus wisely says, and this is supposed to be some kind of a holy crowd where justice is being done, and he says, did I say something that was evil? And he didn't. And he says, if I haven't spoke evil, if what I said was just good, it was just truth, why did you hit me? And that's a provoking question, because why did he get hit? Because they had already planted murderous thoughts in their minds. They had already set themselves to put Jesus to death. Jesus was a threat to their power, to their establishment. His teaching, which is absolute truth, went against their tradition. And they wanted him dead. And Jesus exposes this. I referred to this. statement, but the Holman New Testament commentary says that Annas is the godfather and power behind the high priestly throne. And it almost reads more like a mafia story than it does about a group of civilized men who are seeking truth and justice. And Jesus is no cowering wimp in all of this. He takes them head on and he still exposes their sin and his truthfulness and his righteousness. And you'll see that as we move through the entirety of the trial. So Annas is done with them. He sends them to Caiaphas. And now he's going to be before the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews. And before I read the text, now we're going to go to Mark chapter 14, pick up where we left off in our study of Mark. But before I read this, it helps to remember that Israel, the Jews, were a conquered people. They were able to live with some self-rule, but it was limited. So when Rome would conquer a people, they let them have some self-rule, but they were the ultimate authority over that region. And we see that play out as we read the rest of the story. And they were allowed to still meet as the Sanhedrin. They were permitted to do that. And they were permitted also to make a lot of decisions. no matter where they went and conquered, they also did not forbid the local people from worshiping whatever deity they happened to worship. So to the Romans, Yahweh was just another local deity that these Jews worshiped. And they said, well, as long as it keeps the people calm and spreads the peace, then yeah, you can worship your Yahweh. So they didn't forbid them from doing that. But there was limits. And one of the limits, and we'll see, is that they were limited in their rule and decision making and their judgments that they were not allowed to carry out capital punishment. They had told the Jews, hey, you can self-rule to a certain limit, but if you think someone's deserving of death, you have to bring them before Roman court. We'll decide capital punishment. So you'll see that play out as these trials unfold. So let me read the text. It's a little lengthy. It's Mark 14, beginning in verse 53, and I'll take it down to 65. And they led Jesus away to the high priest, and with him were assembled all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes. But Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and all the council sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death. but found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimonies did not agree. Then some rose up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another temple 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 these men testify against you? But he kept silent and answered nothing. Again, the high priest asked him, saying to him, are you the Christ, the son of the blessed? Jesus said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they all condemned him to be deserving of death. Then some began to spit on him and to blindfold him and to beat him and to say to him, prophesy. And the officers struck him with the palms of their hands. So it's pretty obvious from the gospel witnesses that this is not a fact-finding mission that the Sanhedrin is conducting here. This is a witch hunt. If you look at verse 55, the whole interrogation begins with the statement, now the chief priests and all the council, that's the Sanhedrin, sought testimony against Jesus to put him to death. In other words, we're looking for somebody to say something that we can incriminate this guy and kill him and not have blood on our hands. That's what they're doing here. And the accusers can't agree. Now remember, under Jewish law, you couldn't just have somebody bring something up and say, well, you know, I saw so-and-so do this. And you convict him of that crime. It had to be collaborated with another witness. And the witnesses had to be interviewed separately. And those witnesses had to say the same thing. and they couldn't get their stories together. So every time somebody had something they thought they could pin on him, somebody else would say it a little bit different, it wouldn't be quite right, and it couldn't be collaborated. Therefore, it wasn't a valid witness against Jesus. And you can see that the whole trial is beginning to turn into utter frustration for Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. It's not going the way they want it to go. And you see that start to mount and the pressure build. And Jesus, all along, refuses to defend himself. Did you notice that? They keep bringing up these things and Caiaphas is trying to get him to say something. Well, you hear what they're saying? What do you got to say about that? And Jesus is like, I'm not saying anything. He didn't even say that. He just stood silent. For Jesus to speak to what they were doing in this mock trial would be somehow to legitimize what they were doing. And this was not a legitimate legal hearing at all. As a matter of fact, I could go through a whole list of why the whole thing was illegal. They're meeting in the night. There's nobody representing Jesus. They convict him based on his own testimony. There are all kinds of problems with the trial, even under Jewish law. But Jesus will not validate this by saying anything. As a matter of fact, it's a fulfillment of Isaiah 53.7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." Why did he finally speak? Well, there's a couple of reasons. But one of them is Caiaphas saw that this was going nowhere. And Caiaphas pulled out the one trick he had, if I could call it that, his trump card, one of the commentators will say, and he called Jesus to an oath before the living God. And Matthew helps us with that. If I could read a verse out of Matthew's telling this story. Matthew 26, 63, it says, But Jesus kept silent, and the high priest answered and said to him, I put you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Now I'll read you a little bit of it, a commentary, Holman's commentary. that says, when Jesus refused to answer and the attempts of the chief priests failed to convict Jesus, Caiaphas took the lead. I charge you under oath by the living God, was the priest's trump card. According to Jewish law, the priest had the authority to force a person to testify. If Jesus remained silent, he would violate the law. His decision to answer showed his respect for civil law and authority. His answer also showed that the time was right in his sovereign plan to speak. And so move one more step closer to the cross. It was time. And so Jesus answers. And I want to spend a little time looking at Jesus' answer here. It's remarkable, quite honestly. Jesus answers that question by saying, I am. It's as you say, you could say. And, I mean, that's all he had to say was, I am, but he gives us more. And he says, and you, now he's, I don't know, he's pointing, but I'm pointing at the Sanhedrin. And you, Sanhedrin leaders, and you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power. That's another word for God, just respecting the name of God, the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. I don't have time to preach all of Daniel chapter 7 to you, but I want to give you the highlights of that chapter. In the Old Testament, the prophecy of Daniel. Daniel gets a vision, and in the vision in chapter 7, he sees four beasts in this vision. He sees a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a dreadful beast. And in those prophecies, I think it's pretty well agreed upon through the commentators, that he's speaking of four empires that will rise and fall and rise and fall throughout history. So you have the lion, with other descriptions for the lion, who represents the Babylonian empire that would rise and fall. And you have the bear that represents the Medo-Persian empire that would rise and fall. And each of these empires would be overtaken by the next empire. And we've seen that throughout world history. The leopard represents the Greek empire that would rise, but eventually would fall, be divided into the four generals, if you know a little bit of that history. And then lastly, the dreadful beast that had 10 horns, which represents Rome. There's some possible eschatology in all this. I won't go down that path at all. Some would say that the Roman Empire really never totally faded away. And so the next thing that comes on the scene is the little horn. The man of sin who is blasphemous. And so we see this unfold in Daniel, this incredible prophecy of the rising of nations and the falling of nations, the rising of nations, the falling of nations, perhaps the little horn even being representative of the Antichrist who's to come. And in this shocking prophecy and vision, All of a sudden, we're lifted out of this study of the rise of power of empires, and the fall of the power of empires, and the power of man, and we're taken to the throne room of God. And the Ancient of Days is what? He's seated in the seat of judgment. He's going to judge all these nations that rose and fell. We think of that ourselves even today. Russia invading Ukraine. We think these men are so powerful. We'll all stand naked before God one day. We'll all take off our uniforms. The milkman will take off his milkman hat. I'll lay down my insurance work pad, and we'll all stand naked before God to answer to Him." And that's what Daniel was saying. Now let me read you this, because it says in Daniel 7, 9, "...I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued, and it came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him. Ten thousand times ten thousands stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. Do you get the picture? Do you see how pregnant that is with the expectation that the Ancient of Days, God Almighty is about to render judgment upon mankind? Who would dare to come before the Ancient of Days as flames are shooting out from His judgment throne? But the very next thing you read is about the Son of Man. A man. A man walks into the midst of the Ancient of Days and says in verse 13, I was watching in the night vision And behold, one like the Son of Man." Have we heard that as we're going through the Gospel of Mark? One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before Him. And you're thinking, what kind of judgment is going to fall on this man? Well, it's no ordinary man in the sense that it's the God-man. It's our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So what happens? He comes to the Ancient of Days and it says in verse 14, Then to Him, meaning then to the Son of Man, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. It's not like these nations that rise and fall and rise and fall. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. They ask Jesus, Caiaphas asks Jesus a two-fold question. Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah? The uniquely anointed one of God that we were expecting to come? Are you the Christ? And are you the son of the beloved? The son of the, he didn't use the word beloved, but Matthew just says the son of God. That's what he's asking. Are you the son of God? Those are the two questions. Are you the Christ? Are you the son of God? And Jesus plainly says, I am. And you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. He's clearly telling them. Everybody in that room knew what he was saying. He was saying, are you familiar with Daniel chapter 7? And they all were. And he says, that's me. That's who I am. And you will see me in the seat of judgment at the right hand of the Father. You. There's a trial going on here. It's a mockery. This isn't the last trial. And you will see me sitting as judge. Because all judgment has been given to the Son. Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And that day is yet to come, that final judgment. And now rage fills Caiaphas. At least that's how R.C. Sproul describes it, the rage of Caiaphas. It says, then the high priest, he knew exactly what Jesus was saying, he tore his clothes and said, what further need do we have of witnesses? He just committed blasphemy, is what he's saying. What need do we have? He tears his clothes. R.T. France, the commentator, says, by placing himself, Jesus, by placing himself at God's right hand, he had overstepped the boundary of what might properly be claimed by any human, however exalted, let alone a Galilean village preacher of questionable orthodoxy. That's what Caiaphas was thinking, but what does this young upstart think he's saying? This is blasphemous. But it was true. What Jesus was saying was absolute truth. He tears his clothes. That's strange. We don't do that. We don't tend to do that. Somebody dies. It's a symbol or a gesture when somebody is in deep mourning over the death of somebody, or some deep mournful thing has happened, and the tearing of the clothes. It's very common in the Jewish culture. But did you know that the law forbade the high priest from tearing his clothes in mourning? It did. Leviticus 21 says, He who is the high priest among his brethren, on whose head the anointing oil was poured, and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor tear his clothes, nor shall he go near any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or mother. In other words, what it's saying is even if some close relationship, his own mother dies, he's not to tear the clothes to show as a sign of his mourning. The common people could do it, but not the high priest. But the Mishnah, when we look at the Mishnah, which is the handed down tradition and the interpretation of the rabbis, it was written around 200 AD, but these things were already orally practiced. I mean, they knew these things and it was passed down orally, but the Mishnah put it together in writing, so we actually know what they taught. And the Mishnah Sanhedrin, 7 verse 5 says, They remove all the people. Now, this is if somebody is accused of blasphemy, which would be cursing God. If somebody was accused of that, it says they remove all the people who are not required to be there from the court so that the curse is not heard publicly. And the judges interrogate the oldest of the witnesses and say to him, say what you heard explicitly. And he says exactly what he heard. And the judges stand on their feet and make a tear in their garments as an act of mourning for the desecration of the honor of God. So it was so horrific to have somebody curse God that for a witness to say, let me tell you exactly what this individual said. They made the room, empty the room of anybody that doesn't need to be here. Anybody that doesn't have to hear this to hear this. And then they would hear it, and then they would collaborate it. And then they would pass judgment on it. But the tearing of the clothes, because the name of God had been defiled. That's what Caiaphas is doing here. He believes that Jesus, who is God in flesh, telling the truth, has defiled the name of God. In what he just said, taking upon himself the personage of the individual who's recorded for us in Daniel chapter 7. And at this point, the charade is over. The mockery of a trial, the charade, the putting up the front of, this is all law and justice, we're just trying to defend God and God's name. That charade is gone. Because the very next thing it says, that some people began to spit on him, and to blindfold him, and to beat him, and to say to him, prophesy. And the officers struck him with the palm of their hands. Matthew tells us, they said, prophesy to us, Christ, who's the one who struck you? What kind of legal system is that? The masks are off. You can see the evil intent of their hearts. Isaiah 50 verse 6, I gave my back to those who struck me in my cheeks, to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spinning. So Jesus is taken to Annas. That's the first part. He's interrogated. He's sent to Caiaphas. He's before the Sanhedrin, like a night court. It's really not a legal assembly. So what do they have to do? Now they've convicted him. What do they have to do? They have to have a legal proceeding in the daytime. So when you get to Mark 15.1, it says immediately in the morning, The chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus, led him away, and delivered him to Pilate." What did they have to decide there? They already passed a verdict. What was the charge? Blasphemy. What's the problem with that charge? One, they agreed he was deserving of death. They didn't have the power to put him to death. Rome forbade that. They weren't allowed to do that. They had to take him to Rome. And Rome is not going to put somebody to death for blaspheming this local god, they would have said, Yahweh, this local god for the Jews. Pilate will say that when we get there. This is your deal. This is your laws. This has nothing to do with civil justice. They have to come up with a different charge. Now is that legal? We convicted him of blasphemy. Let's come up with something else so we can tell Pilate he did something else that's actually possibly deserving of death in Rome's eyes. And so when you get to the point where Pilate interviews Jesus, Jesus, he doesn't say, did you commit blasphemy? No, Pilate's going to say, are you the king of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews? Insurrection will get you killed before Rome. And so they changed the charge. They plotted it out. They're very cunning. Satan's behind all of this. Providentially, God's sovereign over all of it. And they send them off to Pilate. It reminds me of Psalm 2. which says, Why do the nations rage, and the people plot in a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds and pieces, and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. And that psalm ends with, Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. Well, with all of this going on, as you probably saw if you have your Bible open, woven within this and then to follow this is Peter's descent towards denial. We saw a little hint of it in verse 54. I just kind of read it and went right past it, where it says, And Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. One commentator pointed out and saw there two things that was leading him to a dangerous place where he would succumb to the temptation to deny our Lord. And it was that he followed at a distance, safety. It's good to follow Jesus, but when it seems like it's a little unsafe, we want to pull back a little bit, maybe not witness so boldly, but a little distance. So he follows at a distance for safety, and he warms himself at the fire for comfort. And there's times, I think, that we are tempted ourselves to not mention the Lord, to not be a witness for the Lord, if it means losing our comfort and possibly losing our safety. Warren Wearsby observed this. He says, as you watch Peter, you see him gradually moving into the place of temptation and sin. And his actions parallel the description of Psalm 1.1. First Peter walked in the council of the ungodly when he followed Jesus and went into the high priest's courtyard. Peter should have followed the counsel of Jesus, gotten out of there in a hurry. Then Peter stood with the enemy by the fire, John 18.16, and before long he sat with the enemy, Luke 22.55. It was now too late, and within a short time he would deny his Lord. three times. And let me just read that. It's 66 to 72. In Mark 14, it says, Now as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came. And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, You also were with Jesus of Nazareth. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying. And he went out on the porch, and a rooster crowed. And the servant girl saw him again, and began to say to those who stood by, This is one of them. But he denied it again. And a little later, Those who stood by said to Peter again, Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it. Then he began to curse and swear, I do not know this man of whom you speak. A second time the rooster crowed. And then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. And when he thought about it, he wept. So three denials, a three-fold denial. Denial one, he says, I don't know what you're talking about. He just kind of brushes it aside. We say that sometimes when we don't want to get into a conversation with somebody. I don't even know what you're talking about. The second time he says pointedly, I do not know the man. I do not know the man. And he did it with an oath, the Bible says. He said that with an oath. Matthew tells us that little piece. In other words, I swear. Maybe he said more than that. But he did it with an oath. I do not know the man. And then the third denial, I do not know this man of whom you speak. In the Bible, my new King James says that he began to curse and swear. Now he's not acting like a sailor. That's not what it's talking about. He was calling down curses upon himself, anathemizing himself, if he was lying. And then he lied. So he swore to lie, and he called down curses upon himself. If I'm lying, may God strike me dead. That kind of a thing. And he calls this down upon himself. Lessons for us. I can read this, and we see this, but beloved, we have to learn from Peter's fall here. A couple things I jotted down. One, we need to consider our own weakness. Our own weakness. Peter was Jesus's choice as the leader of the pack, right? One person said Peter was Jesus's earthly best friend. I mean, he really did pull him into the inner three, but Peter was kind of his go-to. What do you think, Peter? And when he rises from the dead, you know, the angel's going to say, well, go tell the brethren, go tell, and Peter, that he rose just like he said he would. Peter was special to Jesus, but he failed miserably. The same Peter is the one who had said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And now, out of those same lips, those same vocal cords, he says, I do not know the man. I do not know the man. Peter was overconfident. If you go back and read what precedes this, Peter had said, literally, I'll never be made to stumble. Everybody else might stumble. I will never be made to stumble. Beloved, never say that. Never say that. What we say is, by the grace of God, you know, by the grace of God, may He keep me from stumbling. But beloved, if we were left to ourselves, we would stumble all over the place. It's the keeping power of our God that we have to have full confidence in, not our ability. I'll never be made to stumble. Peter was not prayed up. Jesus told him specifically, watch and pray. And Jesus went in the Garden of Gethsemane a little farther to pray himself. And Peter slept. And we understand the weakness of the flesh. And you think, we can't expect people to stay up all night praying. It's like, well, if Jesus tells you to, and says, you need to be praying, that you might not fall into temptation, Jesus said. That was our Lord instructing him, you need to be prayed up. He wasn't. He was overconfident. He wasn't prayed up. He slept instead. And now Peter is going to experience the pain of his failure. J.I. Packer said, The secret of soul-fatting Bible study is to ask not the question, what does this verse say to me? But to ask, rather, what does this passage teach me about my God? That's a good direction to go in. Luke 22, 61. At this very moment of Peter's denial, his failure, his fall, his turning his back on his best friend, Jesus, when Jesus needed people, he wasn't there for him. And it says, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." The Lord looked at Peter. Are you like me? Do you wish you could see what was on Jesus's face when he looked at Peter? Was he angry? Was he sad? Surely he was bruised. You could tell he had been beaten. And he looks at Peter. I think he looked at Peter with eyes of love. And I want to read you, and I'll close with this quote by B.B. Warfield, who says, Our Savior, as He stood giving account in His trial, working for the saving of the world, had time to turn a meaningful glance to His failing disciple. And so save Him in the saving of the world, because the Lord Jesus was not going to let go of Peter. though Peter had let go of him. That's the God we serve. I'll leave that with you. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. Thank you for your truth. Forgive us, Lord, for times when we in fear don't speak, and we for comfort's sake don't witness. Lord, empower us by your Holy Spirit to be a chaste bride. And Lord, we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen.