The Trial Of Jesus Before The Spiritual And Government Authorities Series

"For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth. Aristotle was regarded as the greatest thinker of all time, and surely he would not be wrong. Anyone, of course, could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height to see whether or not the heavier object landed first. But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle's death. In 1589 Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten- pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed at the same instant. The power of belief was so strong, however, that the professors denied their eyesight. They continued to say Aristotle was right." -Bits & Pieces, January 9, 1992, pp. 22-23.

And, "Astronaut David Scott performed a version of the experiment on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, dropping a feather and a hammer from his hands. Because of the negligible lunar atmosphere, there was no drag on the feather, which reached the lunar surface at the same time as the hammer.[16]”

What’s the point? The point is sometimes we can be so convinced of something inside that even if we see something right in front of us that contradicts the truth, we won’t believe it.

The same was true for Galileo when he disproved Aristotle, those present literally refused to believe their own eyes.

Similarly, many refuse to believe we ever went to the moon despite the evidence to the contrary.

Similarly today, the leaders of Israel, the governors of the Roman province, they had seen Jesus, heard his words, many had seen his miracles, and yet their refused to believe that he was the one true messiah.

If someone can make us believe a lie, then we find ourselves in great danger. The enemy of our souls, the Satan, the devil, the adversary, is always attempting to get us to believe a lie.

If the enemy can get us to believe a lie, like, for example, there is no god, or that god is bad or god is mean, or god doesn’t really love us, well, then the enemy can destroy us. The enemy can drag us to hell with him, which is where he is going.

So when we consider the responses of three groups of people today, to the Lord Jesus, we should search our own hearts, and consider our beliefs, and how to respond to the claims of Jesus.

We’ll see how three groups respond to Jesus: the spiritual leaders of the nation, the followers of Jesus themselves, and governmental authorities.

It says this in Mark 14:53-54: “They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law came together. Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.”

Jesus has just been arrested, and he’s taken in the middle of the night to the high priest of the nation, the chief religious representative of the nation, along with all the priests, elders, and teachers. They are all gathered in the middle of the night to stop Jesus.

At the same time Peter is following from a distance.

Next, “The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.

Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands.’” Yet even then their testimony did not agree.”

Fly by night trial is now in session. You have people perjuring themselves, giving false testimony in court.

You have different stories coming up, some say one thing, some say another. It’s a false trial. It’s a fraud and a scam.

The high priest can tell this is getting them nowhere.

In verses 60-61, “Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.”

Often this scripture is cited to say in the case of a false trial or false charges you should simply refuse to answer against any of the charges. That may be good advice sometimes to stay silent.

But in the next verse two verses we see Jesus did respond. In 61 and 62, “Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”