Closing In On The Cross Of Jesus Christ - Part 6: When Ungodly Men Judged God Series

Closing in on the Cross of Jesus Christ

Part 6: When Ungodly Men Judged God

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 26:57-68

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared April 19, 2023)

BACKGROUND:

*Today in Matthew 26, we are getting ever closer to the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus and His disciples shared their last Passover meal together, and the very first Lord's Supper. Then Jesus went through an agonizing time of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, but His troubled disciples could not stay awake to pray.

*As the Lord finished praying, an army of soldiers and police entered the garden to arrest Jesus. William Barclay explained that "there is something astonishing about the force that came out to arrest Jesus. John 18:3 tells us that there were soldiers along with officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. The officers were from two branches of the Jewish police force, but "a band of men" or "a detachment of troops" was also there. In the original language that word meant a force of at least 200 men, and usually up to 1,000 soldiers. That's who came to arrest Jesus. And what a testimony of the Lord's power. When the authorities decided to arrest Him, they sent an army to do it." (1)

*The armed force had been directed to the garden by Judas the betrayer. John 18:12-14 says:

12. Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him.

13. And they led Him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year.

14. Now it was Caiaphas who gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

*Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Matthew left out that first stop after the arrest of Jesus. So today's Scripture actually covers the second part of the Lord's trial before the wicked Jewish rulers. And as we read Matthew 26:57-68, please think about what happened when ungodly men judged God.

MESSAGE:

1. WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THESE UNGODLY MEN JUDGED THE LORD JESUS CHRIST? FIRST, THERE WAS TREACHERY.

*There was the worst kind of treachery from these judges. The trial was a total mockery of justice. It was conducted by the Sanhedrin, which was the highest court in Israel. The Sanhedrin was made up of 70 men, plus the high priest. And vs. 57 says, "Those who had laid hold of Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled."

*Some of these men were Pharisees, but the majority were Sadducees, and all of them were as evil as they could be. In Matthew 3:7 John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, and John rightly called them out by saying, "Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"

*For the most part, both groups were a horrible brood of snakes. And it's hard to overstate how evil these religious leaders were. For over 3 years, Jesus had worked countless miracles to prove that He was the promised Messiah, yet these Pharisees and Sadducees totally rejected Him with murderous hatred.

*In Jesus' day there were only a few thousand Pharisees, but for over a hundred years, they had held power far greater than their numbers. They had added hundreds of ridiculous rules to God's Law, and they ruthlessly enforced them all. By Matthew 12, the Pharisees were stalking Jesus, looking for any opportunity to accuse Him of breaking their man-made laws. There, Jesus went into a synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand. But it was on the Sabbath day, and that was against the Pharisees' laws. Luke 6:11 tells us that they were filled with rage, and Mark 3:6 says they "went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him." By today's Scripture, they had been plotting the Lord's death for months. (2)

*The Sadducees were a group of wealthy aristocrats, who were happy to cooperate with their Roman conquerors. These upper-class crooks were normally bitter enemies of the Pharisees, because the Sadducees rejected the Pharisees' rules. But the Sadducees were worse than the Pharisees, because the Sadducees also rejected most of God's Word. They denied the existence of angels and demons. They denied God’s involvement in everyday life. They denied the resurrection of the dead. They also denied the afterlife, believing that souls perished at death.

*In short, the Sadducees didn't believe God's Word at all. Instead, they used the Old Testament books of Moses to enrich themselves. For example, they loved to price-gouge Passover pilgrims by exchanging their money and selling doves to them in the temple. That's why in Matthew 21:12, "Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves." The Sadducees also used God's Word as a tool to control other people. But worst of all, the Sadducees had also been plotting Jesus' murder for months, and now they were about to condemn our innocent Lord to death. (3)