Saturday, June 22, 2024

PT-3 "The Illegal and Unjust Convening of the Sanhedrin"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2024 11:17 AM

 

My Worship Time                  Focus:  PT-3 “The Illegal and Unjust Convening of the Sanhedrin”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 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.”

 

            As I begin looking at the end of this section it may be that this SD will be a bit shorter than the other ones on these verses.  The first thing that I want to do is to look forward to Acts 23:1-5 “1 Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day." 2 The high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?" 4 But the bystanders said, "Do you revile God’s high priest?" 5 And Paul said, "I was not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT SPEAK EVIL OF A RULER OF YOUR PEOPLE.’"  Like Jesus Paul was in a trial with the Sanhedrin and was struck in the face, but Paul became angry and vehemently rebuked the presiding officer for his illegal treatment as seen in these verses.  It was only when he learned that he was addressing the high priest did he apologized as seen in verse five.

 

            Jesus did not lose His composure, accepting His abuse with perfect calmness.  Jesus simply said to the officer who struck Him, “If I have spoken wrongly bear witness of the wrong; but if rightly, who do you strike Me? “John 18:23)

 

            MacArthur writes “In complete exasperation and having no other recourse, ‘Annas therefore sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest’ (24).  It was the middle of the night, perhaps shortly after midnight, because cock crowing, which normally began about 3:00 A.M., had not yet started (see Matt. 26:74).

 

            “Jesus was then brought before Caiaphas, the high priest, at whose house the scribes and the elders were illegally gathered together as the supreme Jewish Council (see v. 59).  Contrary to expectations, however, no charge had yet been brought against Him.  The high court of Judaism had been illegally convened at night to illegally try a man who had not even been indicted.

 

            “Though not as clever as his father-in-law; Caiaphas was equally devious and corrupt.  He, too, despised Jesus’ truthfulness and righteousness because they were a judgment on his own wretched ungodliness.

 

            “During the time, Peter also was following Jesus at a distance, first to the house of Annas and then as far as the courtyard of the high priest Caiaphas. Out of a conflicting mixture of cowardice and commitment, Peter tried to be as near his Lord as prudence permitted without being discovered, and he sat down with the officers to see the outcome.

 

            “The fact that Peter and others were sitting in the courtyard of the high priest reveals still another infraction of Jewish legal protocol.  As previously noted, the Sanhedrin was permitted to hold a trial involving capital punishment only in the Temple and only in public.  The private meeting at Caiaphas’s house clearly violated both stipulations.”

 

6/22/2024 11:47 AM   

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