Wednesday, June 19, 2024

PT-4 "Intro to Matt. 26:57-68"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/19/2024 9:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-4 “Intro to Matthew 26:57-68”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:57-68

 

            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. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. 60 They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward, 61 and said, "This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.’" 62 The high priest stood up and said to Him, "Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; 66 what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!" 67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?’”

 

            I have to say again that there is a lot of introduction to these verses in this 16th chapter of John MacArthur’s commentary, actually the 4th commentary on the book of Matthew, something that I have been studying for over five years.  Someone could just preach through this book of Matthew and not go into the things like we are looking at in this introduction, but they would miss out on looking at all the laws that were in place for the nation of Israel which God gave them when they first came out of Egypt, laws that in the United States were used by the founding fathers to put into place, which as of the days we are living in are not followed, and in the cause of our former President, Donald J. Trump, the left is doing similar things to him that were done to Christ in this sham trial.  One can see in both cases that Satan is behind what was going on then and what is going on in our country at this time.  It is hard to understand in our human minds that what went on in Jesus’ sham trial was exactly what was planned to happen even before the world is made in eternity past. The second person of the godhead, Jesus Christ knew that this would happen to Him, and to best understand this we must understand that Jesus Christ was the One in control of all that was going on to Him.  I now want to continue to quote from MacArthur’s commentary as we continue to look at the many laws that were broken during His sham trial.

 

            “The governing principle in capital cases was: ‘The Sanhedrin is to save, not destroy, life.’  In addition to the above provisions, the president of the council was required to remind prospective witness of the preciousness of human life and to admonish them to be certain their testimony was both true and complete.  No criminal trial could be begun during or continued into the night; the property of an executed criminal could not be confiscated but was passed on to his heirs, and voting was done from the youngest member to the oldest in order that the former would not be influenced by the latter.  And if a council voted unanimously for conviction, the accused was set free, because the necessary element of mercy was presumed to be lacking.

 

            “It is obvious that, when properly administered, the Jewish system of justice was not only eminently fair but merciful.  It is just as obvious that the system did not operate either fairly or mercifully in Jesus’ trial, because the Sanhedrin violated virtually every principle of its own system of jurisprudence.  Jesus was illegally tried without first having been charged with a crime.  He was tried at night and in private, no defense was permitted Him, and the witnesses against Him had been bribed to falsify their testimony.  He was executed on the same day He was sentenced, and consequently, the judges could not have fasted on the intervening day that should have transpired and had no opportunity to reconsider their verdict.  The only procedure that was properly followed was the offering of the stupefying drink, but that was done by Roman soldiers, not by representatives of the Sanhedrin (Mark. 15:23).

 

            “As clear from the gospel accounts, Jesus had two major trials, one Jewish and religious and the other Roman and secular.  Because Rome reserved the right of execution to its own courts and administrators, the Sanhedrin was not allowed to dispense capital punishment (John 18:31).  The fact that it did so on several occasions, as with the stoning of Stephen (Acts 6:12-14; 7:54-60), does not prove the legibility of it.  It is likely, however, that many illegal executions by the Sanhedrin were simply overlooked by Roman authorities for the sake of political expediency.  For them, the loss of a single life was a small price to pay to keep order and peace.  The only blanket exception that Rome granted was for the summary execution of a Gentile who trespassed a restricted area of the Temple.

 

            “It is also significant that both the Jewish religious and Roman secular trials of Jesus had three phases, meaning that, within about twelve hours, Jesus faced legal proceedings on six separate occasions before His crucifixion.  The Jewish trial began with His being taken before the former high priest Annas in the middle of the night.  Annas then sent Him to the presiding high priest, Caiaphas, who had quickly convened the Sanhedrin at his own house.  Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin met a second time after daylight on Friday morning.

 

            “After the Jewish religious leaders had concluded their sham hearings, they took Jesus to the Roman procurator, Pilate, first of all because they could not carry out a death sentence with his permission.  But they also went to him because a Roman crucifixion would help obscure their own nefarious involvement in what they knew were totally unjust proceedings and condemnation.

 

            “When Pilate discovered Jesus was a Galilean, he sent Him to Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, who was in Jerusalem for the Passover.  After being questioned and treated with contempt by Herod and his soldiers, Jesus was sent back to Pilate, who reluctantly consented to His crucifixion. 

 

            “Matthew 26:57-68 reveals at least five aspects of that illegal and unjust treatment of our Lord: the convening of the Sanhedrin (57-58), the conspiracy to convict Jesus without evidence (vv. 59-61), the confrontation to induce His self-incrimination (vv. 62-64), the condemnation based on false charges and testimony (vv. 65-66), and the conduct of the court in the physical and verbal abuse of Jesus (vv. 67-68).”

 

            With that we conclude the introduction to these verses in Matthew chapter 26:57-68 and I look forward to continue to look at what was going to happen to my Lord and Savior in order for Him to pay for my sins upon the cross, for which I am eternally thankful.

 

6/19/2024 10:02 AM

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