Thursday, June 20, 2024

PT-1 "The Illegal and Unjust Convening of the Sanhedrin" (Matt. 26:57-58)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 06-20-2024

 

My Worship Time                  Focus:  PT-1 "The Illegal and Unjust Convening of the Sanhedrin"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:57-58

 

            Message of the verses:  57 Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. 58 But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome.”

 

            Now instead of looking at these verses today I want to quote from John MacArthur’s sermon, his second sermon on verses 26:57-68, and in this quote he goes over what we have been looking at in the past four Spiritual Diaries.  I think that this is important even though it is kind of a review of what we have been looking at over the past four days.  It is good for us to understand that this was a sham trial that is going on as it is not going on in the way that the Law stated trials should go.  We must also understand that it is not really Jesus who is on trial here but the Sanhedrin who is on trial.  We must also understand that Jesus is the one who is in charge, and not the Sanhedrin or even the Romans.  And finally we must understand that the main issue is the redemption of sins which Jesus accomplished here as He hung on the cross dying for those who will receive this free gift of salvation.

 

            “I told you, didn’t I, last time, that the Jewish people had a very wonderful system of jurisprudence and justice?  That their supreme court was the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council that met in Jerusalem, made up of 70 leading elders, priests and so forth, and then the high priest making it 71 so they would always have an odd man in the voting.  And that that great group of men was the supreme court of Israel, and it was their decision to deal with Jesus.  And we saw, didn’t we, that the supreme court of Israel was built on the premise that everyone in a trial is entitled to three things.  One is a public trial, two is an opportunity for defense, and three, no conviction without the conformation of at least two or three witnesses.  So the Sanhedrin guaranteed public trial, the right of defense and two or three witnesses before any conviction.  We also said that it was built into their laws that any false witness would pay the same penalty he sought for the one he witnessed against.  That they could not prosecute, they could only try, so that they couldn’t be a kangaroo court. 

            “They built into their safeguard system also that no court could convene at night, or in any other place than the Judgment Hall itself.  That no courts could convene even in the late afternoon, lest justice be hurried up, to get over before the day was ended.  That no one could be executed the same day in which he was tried.  That no trial for execution could be held on a feast day, or the day before a feast day, that there always had to be a day intervening.  That all the votes had to be carefully counted; that no one could incriminate himself by giving testimony against himself, which testimony could stand alone against him.  All those were built-in safeguards.  They violated every single one of them – every single one of them.

            “They, for one thing, did not give Jesus a public trial.  They held it privately.  They did not give Him any defense.  They brought no witnesses to speak on His behalf.  They could not find two or more witnesses to convict Him of anything.  They actually bribed false witnesses, contrary to their own system of punishing false witnesses.  They were not allowed to prosecute, they did that.  There was no prior prosecution.  There was no arraignment.  There was no indictment.  There was no crime.  They met in the middle of the night.  They sentenced Him one day, executed Him the same day, and it was a day before a feast day – actually, on a feast day.  They met outside the Hall of Judgment, and never bothered to count the votes.  Every way you look at it, they violated their own laws.  I told you last time, this trial of Jesus has six parts.  Three of them were before the Jewish tribunal, three of them were before the Romans.  In the Jewish religious trial, first Jesus went to Annas, then He went to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and then a third time to Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, so three phases.  In the Roman secular civil trial, it was Pilate, then to Herod, then back to Pilate.  All six of those sum up the whole mock trial of Jesus in which justice was violated at every turn.

            I truly hope that this SD will continue to bring new incites to those who read it, and that most of all that it will bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.

6/20/2024 9:40 AM

 

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