Please turn now in your Bible to Mark Chapter 14. Mark Chapter 14. I'm going to read from verse 53 on to verse 65. Mark Chapter 14, reading from 53 to 65. Please give your attention to the Word of God. We pick up with Jesus newly arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Let me read this. And they led Jesus to the high priest. And all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together. And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he was sitting with the guards and warming himself at the fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. For many bore a false witness against him, But their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands. But even about this, their testimony did not agree. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But he remained silent. and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest tore his garment, and said, What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision? And they all condemned him as deserving death. And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to strike him, saying to him, Prophesy! And the guards received him. It glows. We see here injustice. The just suffering injustice. And you often see that. What is comforting in this one is we know exactly why. Here the just suffers injustice so that you might receive mercy. Here's the justice. He does not deserve this, humanly speaking. He suffers these injustices so that you might receive mercy. So marvel at God's mercy, and know how to win. As we begin, we see that the priests are hurrying into trial, but they're unprepared. And that's because they don't really have a lawsuit issue with him. They have a political issue with him. They feel threatened by him, and so they want him dead. Now, what we normally call that is war, when you want someone dead. But they were not able simply to nice him quietly because of a number of factors. One, Although they kind of ruled the Jewish nation, the high priest was kind of in charge, but he was answerable to the Romans. The Romans had army garrisons right there next to the temple. So the Romans are really in charge, and if you want to conquer a place and control it, you better control who dies. So the Romans would say, yeah, you can do something under your law. You can mete out beatings and maybe imprisonment, but you can't put anyone to death. And Jesus was much too well-known by now to be quietly murdered. There would be a question about him. So they know that they're going to have to take him to the Romans and say, would you please kill this guy for us? So they want him dead. That's warfare, but they're going to have to walk their way through some legal and political steps to get him dead. Not only that, but of course he has enough of a following that they haven't just arrested him openly. And so they may feel the political need to answer to their own people to say, well, we did everything by the book. In fact, they may have the need in their own self-respect to feel like they didn't just kill somebody, but that they went through some necessary steps. So they want him dead. This is warfare. But they have to do legal steps. And as they come to trial, they are doing it in a big rush because they're afraid of It's great support that Jesus has among many of the crowd. They're trying to do it quickly away from the crowd. They hurry off to trial, and although they all know what they want to do, now that they have to step through a legal form, they don't have their balls in a row. They need to have some witnesses who can agree on what was said and maybe the circumstances of when they heard it. And so as they're going through, it's just not working out. False witness and witness and saying this and that and this and that, but when they start to ask where were you and so on, it's not adding up. And then even a promising line of attack fails. Here's the promising line of attack. Some stand up and say, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands. and build another not made with hands. Now, the reason I call that promising is because in John chapter 2, around verse 17, we discover Jesus saying something close to that. Jesus had said to them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But if you're listening closely, he didn't say, I will destroy this temple. He said, destroy this temple. It's rather important who it is who's going to be doing it. Furthermore, notes in John chapter 2 that he was actually referring to his own body, and not to the building around him. And that had seemed to be a couple of years before, so even as they think they have something inflammatory, of course, you might say, wait a minute, God had destroyed an earlier temple, and he had sent the prophet Jeremiah to say it was going to be destroyed, so even if you're saying the temple's going to be destroyed, that shouldn't be a capital crime. God's already done it once, God can do it again. But anyway, they think that This is a blasphemous thing, the phrase made with hands. Actually, in the Greek Old Testament, that's used as a synonym for idols. That's sort of inflammatory. He called our temple made with hands. Close to saying he called our temple an idol. They have this inflammatory remembrance of what was said, but again, it doesn't add up. That's all their testimony. And as we can see, looking at John 2, it wasn't quite correct either, although it was close. And the trial's not going well. So the high priest decides it's time for another attack. And so you have a clash of priests. It's worth remembering who this high priest is symbolically. He is, you could say, the mediator, in a formal way, between God and his people Israel. This is the individual who should go into the Holy of Holies with the blood of a goat on Yom Kippur for the sins of the people. This is the person who has to go through an offering sacrifice for himself and for the sins of his people, his family, before he goes in. And yet we know the psychiatrist is both from the Bible and from a historian named Thucydides. And it doesn't come off well in either place. He and his father-in-law and a bunch of his brothers and brothers-in-law were a whole bunch of high priests. And they were a rather corrupt bunch. And again, since the Romans kind of viewed the high priest as kind of in charge of his community, he had sort of a cross political and religious role to play. And that can put you in some difficult circumstances. In fact, in John, chapter 11, we see him saying, it would be better for Jesus to die than for our nation to perish. He's afraid that Jesus is upsetting things so much that the Romans will get upset with him, and just remove them, the high priests, and just the whole way that it's set up. So you have this very politically-minded high priest. He's supposed to represent God to the people, and the people to God. But he's a political operative, concerned for his own position, concerned to keep things reasonably in place, because they work well for him and his friends. And then you have Jesus, and while I'm calling him High Priest, I'll get back to you later. Caiaphas prompts him, don't you hear all the stuff being said about Jesus? Don't you have a defense to make? And at first he says nothing. He says nothing because he knows very well that they're not interested in listening to any valid defense he might have. He knows that the point is to kill him, not to listen to what he has to say. Secondly, he doesn't answer. because he's not trying to be acquitted. He knows that in God's plan, he is there to die. So why fight it? And thirdly, he doesn't answer that he has a prophecy to fulfill. Isaiah 53. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opens and knocks his mouth. If you read that whole chapter, it's all about, I mean, actually, know a man who read it and said, anybody at the cross could have written that. And then he was converted when he was shown that, yeah, it was from Isaiah. It was written hundreds of years before the cross. The whole chapter is about Jesus at the cross, written miraculously ahead of time. Jesus knows he is to be found. But there are some questions you are supposed to answer, even if it leads to your death. For you, that question would be, are you a Christian? And for you, that answer is to be, yes. Even if you're in a circumstance that leads to your humiliation, your firing, your imprisonment, your flight, or your death. That's an answer that you are supposed to give. It's not a question to be obscure about. It's a question to give glory to God in an open testimony. Are you a Christian? Yes. And for Jesus, the equivalent question is, are you the Christ? Are you the Saviour we have been waiting for? Are you the one that God told us to be looking for, because God was going to send us a Redeemer? Are you that one? Because Jesus, knowing perfectly well what's going to happen, says, I am. And the I am itself already has a little hint of divinity, as in, I am who I am. Or in Isaiah, I am he, I am he, says the Lord. Jesus says, I am, and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Now that is an astounding thing to say. If anyone else said that, you may hear it. I'm going to be coming on the clouds of heaven? This is not how most people talk, for very good reasons. The thing about Jesus is, he had already raised three people from the dead. He had already walked on water and instilled the storm. He had already cast out demons, not with great prayers for God to do it, but just because he said the demon had to go. He had already demonstrated that he had authority on earth to forgive sins, which the Pharisees correctly thought was only for God to do. When Jesus says this, you have to pay attention. And when he rises from the dead three days later, you have to consider it authorized, vindicated, and proved. So Jesus says this astounding thing, and as we have tried to show you today, he doesn't make up these words. Instead, he splices two parts of the Old Testament. He splices together Daniel 7 and Psalm 110. That's why we read Daniel 7, and that's why we're going to sing Psalm 110. It's a slight break there. In Psalm 110, we have the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. That's Psalm 110. So we have that seated at the right hand of power. He adheres to the Jewish custom of not coming straight out with the name of God. So if the high priest and Jesus do that, they call God the blessed or power. They agree on that point. But he says, I swear I'm going to be sitting. I will be sitting at the right hand of, and he means, God. Psalm 110. And he embeds that Psalm 110 claim inside of the Daniel 7 claim, where Daniel saw one, like a son of man, coming on the clouds of heaven. to the Ancient of Days, that is, God the Father Almighty, and receiving an eternal kingdom. Jesus claims those two passages for Himself. And as He does that, He suddenly makes it really, really clear what He had meant the whole time when He called Himself the Son of Man. Because in the Old Testament, you get Son of Man used in three ways. Psalm 8 is just a human. I'm 144, so it's a human. Why are you mindful of man? Why do you think about the Son of Man? That's a parallel. The Son of Man is a human being. But then in Ezekiel, a step up, God called the prophet Ezekiel, Son of Man. Which is to say, yes, human, but also Ezekiel the prophet. So the Son of Man, perhaps, could be a prophet. And then in Daniel 7, of course, Daniel sees one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven. And that's a much more divine picture, because you can't ride on the clouds. Thanks to an airplane, you can fly through them, but you still can't ride on them. It's a divine picture of one coming on the clouds of heaven. So Jesus suddenly makes it really clear, when I have been saying, Son of Man, I didn't simply mean that I am human, although I am and I mean that. I don't simply mean that I'm a prophet, although I am and I mean that. I mean I am the fulfillment of that vision. I am the one who will go to God and receive an eternal kingdom. And, by the way, I am the one who will sit at God's right hand and have my enemies under my feet. It's an astounding claim. It would be absurd in any mouth but Jesus. But Jesus here, He unveils who He is. He declares His mission. He's on trial. It's going to cost Him His life. But there's some questions you have to answer. Are you the Christ? I am. And for us, are you a Christian? I am. And the high priest got what he wanted. The high priest makes sure that nobody pauses. High priests make sure that nobody says, now hang on a second, the Scriptures are there to be fulfilled, and who better to fulfill them than this guy, who's been doing miracles? I mean, when you wanted somebody healed, you did go to him. At the moment where you could pause, but the high priest makes sure that they do not pause. He tears his robe. And remember, he's dressed a lot more impressively than Jesus, so this is a much more dramatic act, because it's a better outfit. in terms of what the high priest was not supposed to do. The high priest was not supposed to mourn for his own family member who died. So he carries his robe to say, this is the worst. And he calls it blasphemy. And he says, what is your decision about this blasphemy? And it's in his own palace. And you'd be a very brave council member to say, well, hang on, I think we need to None of them is so brave. Maybe none of them thought about it. In any case, this is very well set up by the high priest. And of course, they say he is deserving of death. And the group's feeling weeps on without considering who it is who went for scriptures that are there and that are supposed to be fulfilled. I remember a good chunk of them were Sadducees. Sadducees thought only the first five books of the Old Testament are really God's Word anyway. Only the Pharisees that you would hope would want it to slow down. But they're not really in control when they don't. Now, how are you to respond to this scene, to this event? As you read this scripture, what are your responses supposed to be? I ask because some years ago, Nikki and I went to see Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, because it's great music. And I had heard that some people think it's anti-Semitic, so I was paying attention. And I go in, and I'm thinking it's going to be Handel's Messiah, all scripture, but it wasn't. In Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, you go through some of this kind of scripture. They beat him, they spat on him, they scourged him, they crucified him. And then, interspersed with scripture, are bursts of outrage from one of the singers. Oh my Jesus, how could they be doing that to you? I wish I was there. I wouldn't do that to you. And then you go back to the scripture, and this interplay of what happened to Jesus, and then outrage. And I said, huh, this is not what I was expecting. That is one reaction, if you read this passage. You could say, wow, those are some vicious, nasty, horrible political people. I'm glad I'm not like them. And it's tempting, because they do injustice here. Humanly speaking, they're in the wrong. And it's an outrage. But if that's where you camp out, in outrage, well, that does not prepare you for his advent. That is, his arrival. Jesus has a past advent, when he first came to earth, and he will have a second advent, when he comes again in glory. Where do we need to be? How should we respond? I'm going to give you an application from the 4th century, the 16th century, and from our century, which would just be the Bible actually, the 1st century. The great preacher John Chrysostom, in his sermon on this passage, he says, you're not to seek victory, notice the quote, you're not to seek victory at all costs. Jesus here could try to seek victory in his court case, but he does not. He could try to seek victory by calling on his Father for legions of angels. That's what he says in the Garden of Gethsemane. He does not. He could seek victory by doing wrong. Instead, he won victory by suffering wrong. And those who would follow Jesus have to slow down and consider that, in our moments of conflict, our moments of war, our moments of being wrong. We want to get back, the words of my teacher I once had, we have that temptation to say, I don't get mad, I get even. Is that what the follower of Christ says? I don't get mad, I get used to it. Jesus told us in an argument to turn the other cheek. He told us when somebody yanks us out from what we're doing and makes us work for them, to carry a burden one mile, to go a second mile. And if Jesus is your teacher and your savior, and he is to you your example of patience, Do you know how to win? What I mean is, do you understand what the stakes actually are in your fights, in your arguments, in your difficult marriages, in whatever it may be? Do you know what the game is? It's not a game. It's more serious than that. Do you know what the rules are and what winning looks like? Winning is when you follow Jesus. Winning is when you are not derailed from seeking first the Kingdom of God. Winning is when you cannot be intimidated or beaten out of following Jesus. That's winning. That's why in the book of Revelation there's a refrain, to the one who conquers, winning. But you read the letter, he doesn't mean to the one who conquers by managing to go knife the other guy. That's not what he means. It means that the one who endures to the end, I will give a crown. And the one who conquers, I will give eternal life. Remember that we are surrounded, Scripture says, by a cloud of witnesses. Remember that the Holy Spirit dwells in you. And know how to win, like a Christian. Know how to win in some petty argument by being more nasty, or more ruthless, or more brutal. Jesus won by suffering wrong, not by doing it. Now from the 16th century, Calvin says, do you see him being spit on? Being disfigured? And he's represented on Isaiah 53. He was so marred, there was nothing beautiful to attract him. Do you see him being disfigured? Well understand the point. He was disfigured so that you might be re-figured into the image of God. His humanity is being marred so that your humanity can be restored. So that you can become, once again, a clear image of God in the world, reflecting His holiness and righteousness and justice. When you think about Him being spit on and beaten and so on, remember, He suffered the injustice so that we might receive mercy. He suffered disfigurement so that we might be refigured. that we might be polished, that we might be restored after the image of God. And from the 21st century, you might go back to the first point and say, now wait a minute, wait a minute, you're telling me that I don't get to try to win by being brutal and nasty and responding in kind when people are brutal and nasty to me, how then can I survive in a brutal tooth and claw world? We have to know in whom to believe. Jesus here proclaims, in the face of his enemies, that his enemies will be under his feet. And as I tried to understand what he meant here, when he says, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power, I took a moment, I started to make a little chart. I said, well, if Caiaphas has to see it, I think that this is fulfilled when Stephen testified in front of these same guys, I see the son of man standing at the right hand of the father. They don't get to see it, but they get to see and hear a man who does see it. But I said, if it doesn't have to be Caiaphas, maybe it can be the next Thai priest or successor, and they see their temple destroyed by their enemies, and the priesthood done away with, and the Sadducee movement gone, and Judaism forever changed. And then of course, when we talk about Jesus on the clouds, we think of his second coming. But the trouble with that is he says, you will see. And I'm trying to understand it, I said, I know where else I can read this. He turns to Matthew chapter 26, he turns to Luke chapter 23, he turns to John, and in Matthew it says, from now on you will see. I said, oh, from now on you will see. In other words, we're not looking for one event, we're looking for a series of events, because you're seeing it from now on, and it needs to start with something the Caiaphas would have seen, and not that council would have seen, which fits what Jesus said earlier in Mark 13, this generation will not pass away until these things happen. So if you want to know when did this happen, he's telling them, you're going to kill me, and I'm going to rise, and then you will see that you can't win because I am reigning. You will see my apostles, who are currently running away and about to deny me, you'll see them filled with the Holy Spirit proclaiming my resurrection. And you get that from Acts 2-5. You will see my witness Stephen tell you that he is seeing, literally seeing, me in heaven. And you'll stone him, but that won't change where I am. And then you'll see from Acts 8-12, you'll see that you cannot stop this church from growing among the Jewish people. And even your number one persecutor, I'm going to flip. And then you'll see from Acts 13-28, meaning Acts 13-28 shows us that it happens, you will see that you can't stop this gospel from spreading throughout the world. From now on, you will see things spin out of your control. Why? Because I am reigning in heaven. You will see the effects of me in heaven. And you'll get pretty close to seeing me when you see Stephen testify to me. From now on, you will see that the Church will grow beyond all your ability to stop. And that will happen because I am sitting at the right hand of power and my enemies are being put under my feet. For then, at the end of this generation, you will see the Temple destroyed. Not the old ones, but the young ones. And at the end of time, we will all see Him and we will mourn. So to come back to our question, how can I survive at my high school if I'm not as nasty as the people are being to me? How can I survive at my job if I'm being slandered and I can't fight back by slandering back? How can I survive in a cruel world without being cruel? Know in whom you believe. Know that Jesus is the victor. Have a bigger picture in your mind than just the events in front of you. And understand that Jesus will come and he will destroy his enemies. And that the great question for you is whether you are one of his or whether you have turned your back on him to act like the world. That's how you win. When the world mocks you, you reflect that God gave his own son to you. And how will he not, along with his son, really give us all sin? The just suffered injustice, so that you might receive mercy and the love of God, which neither death nor life can separate you from. Neither angels nor powers can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ. Neither height nor depth or anything in creation can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, help us to see our Lord, your Son, mocked and beaten on our behalf. And Lord, help us, help us to see how it is that we are to respond, how we are to live, how we are to follow, how we are to trust, how we are to be patient in longsuffering. Father, we confess that we have often, usually, failed in many ways in this. Lord, we thank you that with you there is forgiveness. And we thank you for your Holy Spirit. by whom your apostles were transformed, and by whom you transform us. Fulfill us with the Spirit of your Son, so that we may walk like the Son, and we may follow him through all the course of this life, faithfully reflecting your image and the fruit of your Spirit. We pray this in Christ's name.