The MESSAGE for July 2, 2023 [PASTOR HILL WILL BE PREACHING LIVE SUNDAY MORNING at 10:30 a.m.]

Analysis of A Courtroom Fiasco

John 18:11-14; 19-24; 28-37

Live Broadcast

Greater Concord Missionary Baptist Church

As I stand here this morning, only God is the cause of me being alive today. On April 1st , 2023, as I was struck from behind and sent spiraling across 96 West, and landed on the wall with my car Facing East, and hit head on. Put in the hospital for five days; fractured sternum, and other places, but here I stand, the first Sunday in July, not completely healed, but enough to say a word for the Lord! Continue to pray for me.

 

I want to lift up the text from John 18:12-14. Once the commander of the temple guard had Jesus bound, they took Him down the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley and straight to the home of Annas. He was no longer high priest but was still very powerful and influential. He remained the head of a vast empire of organized corruption in Jerusalem. He and his family were proverbial for organized crime and greed.

 

From the time Jesus came into this world, the leaders had a problem with Him. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, yet they had a problem with Him. Who is this man? The leaders resented His public and relentless criticism of their religiousity. They jealously clung to their political power and popular influence. Jesus was too popular to assassinate. So they hatched a plan to discredit Him as a blaspheming kook and have Him publicly executed in the most shameful manner possible.

 

The leaders signed on for a nighttime arrest of Jesus for thirty silver coins. Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against a robber? “While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on me, but this hour and the power of darkness are yours” (Luke 22:52-53). They all knew what they had chosen to do was wrong or they would have done it by day and in full view of the multitudes. Nevertheless, Jesus understood His mission and that truth has its consequences. He never wavered. Looking at Peter, He said, “The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11)

 

The nighttime capture at Gethsemane initiated a series of six trials; three before the Jewish religious authorities and three before the civil authorities of Rome. All were illegal. Taking Jesus before Annas was illegal. He had no authority to question Jesus.

 

 

The soldiers positioned Jesus before an empty chair in the great hall of Annas’s house and then stood a pace away on either side. Annas entered, fully dressed, even though it was a little after midnight. He took his seat and arranged his robes before raising his eyes to find Jesus looking straight into them. Te high priest then questioned Jesus about His disciples, and about His teaching. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in temples, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret. Why do you question me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.”

 

The trial took place at night, during Passover; behind closed doors, and away from the temple. Annas was acting as if he still had Authority as a high priest. After Jesus said what he said to Annas, one of the commanding officers said, “Is that the way you answer the high priest?” Jesus said, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike me?” Jesus pointed to the fact that no one had testified against Him and that He was guilty of nothing.

 

Annas made a fool of himself, so Jesus refused to cooperate with the mockery they were making of Jewish law. Without another word, Annas sent Jesus bound to Caiaphas. (John 18:24)

 

The procession marched toward the temple and the home of Caiaphas, who had assembled a majority of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the Supreme governing body of Israel. They created laws and other rules of conduct. They managed the day-to-day operation of the temple. No one could be put to death for any crime unless convicted by a Roman official, and only for a crime against the empire. The council failed again because it did not abide by its own rules. The trial was held at night, in secret, and in the high priest’s palace.

 

Analyzing this courtroom saga and fiasco of Jesus was the worst trial in history. He stood before priests that were dethroned, in night court, religious authorities and governmental authorities, carried from house to house, judgment hall to judgment hall, night after night. These trials were nothing other than the machinations of corrupt men, jealously guarding their power. To make matters worse, they draped their outrageous behavior in the august robes of religious purity. How pathetic they must have appeared through the eyes of deity.

 

As I analyze these courtroom fiascos, the religious authorities successfully cast Jesus in the role of villain, and had the nerve to accept applause - even admiration – of the unwary public. They successfully covered their tracks so that no one saw their improprieties, their lust for power, and their shameful conspiracy to destroy an innocent individual. Very few situations in life are more frustrating than suffering injustice alone and unnoticed. Feelings of outrage demand justice. Bitterness demands revenge. Hopelessness begs heaven for relief. Loneliness screams to be heard as a watching world stands aloof.

 

During those dark, painful, lonely times, the silence from heaven can be deafening. If this is your present experience you are not alone. The Lord does see your suffering; He will not allow it to go unanswered; He will see justice done. Perhaps not at the time or in the manner you would prefer, but the agony you suffer, though it feels overwhelming, will not go to waste. This experience could be the means by which God brings you His greatest blessings.

 

Ask the great ones of the past what has been the spot of their prosperity, they will say; “It was the Cold Ground on which I once was lying.” Ask Joseph; he will direct you to his dungeon, reject not the robbing room for royalty. Ask Abraham; he will point you to sacrifice on Moriah. Ask Moses; he will tell you the date of his fortune from his danger in the Nile. Ask Ruth; she will bid you build her monument in the field of her toil. Ask David; he will tell you that his songs came from the night. Ask Job; he will remind you that God answered him out of the whirlwind. Ask Peter; he will extol his submersion in the sea. Ask John; he will give the palm to Patmos. Ask Paul; he will attribute his inspiration to the light which struck him blind.

 

Ask one more, The Son of Man. Ask Him whence has came His rule over the world. He will answer, “From the cold ground on which I was lying - the Gethsemane ground; I received my sceptre there”. O praise the Lord, praise His Holy Name! He did not look to the courts for justice or to the approval of the people for affirmation. He submitted Himself to the will of the Father. The courtrooms were fiascos.

 

Pastor, Rev. Dr. Cullian W. Hill