FBCWest 682 | Jeus’s Arrest and First Trial
Recorded On: 10/19/2025
Bulletin
Hymn # 424 “Jesus Is All the World to Me”
SCRIPTURE READING – Luke 9:24 - 25
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“In the House”
“Who You Say I Am”
“Egypt”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Jeus’s Arrest and First Trial”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Way Maker”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
Mark 14:43 – 45 Judas betrays Jesus
Mark 14:46 – 50 Jesus arrested; someone tries to stop the arrest, but Jesus intervenes, then Hiss disciples fled
Mark 14:51 & 52 A young man wearing only a linen sheet flees naked
Mark 14:53 Jesus taken to the High Priest and Council
Mark 14:54 Peter follows at a distance
Mark 14:55 – 60 During the first trial only false and inconsistent testimony is given
Mark 61 & 62 Jesus thus far remains silent and if He remained so He would have to be released. So Chief Priest asks Jesus why He does not respond and if He is the Christ. Jesus responds “I am”
Mark 14:63 – 66 High Priest acts as if he is mourning. The Council condemns Jesus as worthy of death due to blasphemy and begin to mistreat Him
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
What if you were intensely and desperately praying for something, and within a couple of hours, all you had to do is remain silent, and you would get what you prayed for? What would you do? We're going to take a look at this very same situation when it came to Jesus's ministry, and we will see what Jesus did. If you're not thrilled by the freedom that Christ has given you, then you've forgotten how desperate sin and the slavery that you were encountering. And so he has brought me into freedom.
There are a couple of common Christian phrases that really bother me. One of them I've kind of told you before, and that is the power of prayer. That bugs me because prayer has no power. Prayer is a mechanism to communicate with God. It is the power of God who answers the prayer. And I am jealous that he is not receiving the glory due his name. And so when I hear the power of prayer, it angers me because we should be glorifying God, not the mechanism. The second one that that bugs me, and it's kind of related to today's message, is when God closes the door, he opens the window. The implication of that saying is that God will let you go out a different direction. That's kind of a dumb statement. The purpose of a door is to enter and exit a building, ingress and egress. The purpose of a window is to let light in, to have you have a view, to maybe cool or warm the room because of whether the temperature inside or outside, or maybe so that the room doesn't feel so claustrophobic because there's something that more than just the four walls.
But there's a sense of, well, if God says no to this thing, then he'll give you an opportunity to do something else. If God closes a door, then he meant you to stay there. And if he opens a window, then he wants you to see something. He doesn't want you to crawl out the window. And so it just doesn't make any sense in its contrary. And so you may think, where's Pastor going with this? You'll see in just a moment. So if you have your Bibles, and you should, turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, and we're going to start with verse 43. Now, the context of this is Jesus has been praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and his other 11 disciples and others were there. He was encouraged them to pray for him and for themselves, but because of the weakness of their flesh, were unable to do so. And so he has now concluded his prayer time and has told them, that they need to be going.
And it says this, and immediately while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the 12, came up accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who were from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. So this group, this band of people who had swords and clubs were being sent by and accompanied by these religious elders and chief priests. Now, he who was betraying him had given them a single saying, whomever I kiss, he is the one, seize him and lead him away under guard. Now, it is perhaps comprehensible But the sense of that you would betray someone, that you've just, set aside the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, set aside the fact that he is the Son of God. You have been with him for 3 1/2 years and you're going to betray him.
And the way you're going to betray him and the way you come up with signaling, this is the guy, is you're going to give him a kiss. I mean, how incredibly evil is this person? I mean, if I were going, God, I hope, I never, but I would think if you're going to betray Jesus, you say, that's the guy, that guy over there. Or I'm going to tell you what he's wearing, and then I'm going to whisper to you so that he does, so I can pretend he doesn't know that I'm doing it. But he walks over as a precondition, and the same was saying, this is the guy. I'm going to kiss him on the cheek. And after coming, Judas immediately went to him, saying, Rabbi, teacher, He's acknowledging that there's this relationship between Judas and Jesus, and that Jesus was Judas's teacher, his spiritual leader.
So he's saying, Rabbi. And then he kisses him, pretending that they have the same personal relationship that they've always had while he's in the midst of betraying him, to an angry crowd with weapons. And they laid hands on him and seized him. So they arrest him. But one of those who stood by drew his lord and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Now, Mark doesn't tell us who this is, but everybody believes that it's Peter. And probably because it's Peter, because Jesus said, you're going to die me. And Peter goes, I'm willing to die for you. And so he's trying to lash out and prove his faithfulness to the Lord by doing this. So he struck the ear. And Jesus said to them, have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against the robber? He said, are you doing it this time and in this way? because I have some criminal background that you would do it. And he goes on to say, and every day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But this has taken place to fulfill the scripture. Jesus keeps reminding them that it's to fulfill the scripture, that he would be alone in his trial and tribulation, because of the scripture, that he was being arrested according to the scripture, which you would think would cause the people doing the deeds to take account of the scripture, but they don't. But hopefully we do. Now, one of the other gospels tells us that Jesus heals the slave and restores here, so that the only one being harmed will be Jesus. And they all left him and fled, just as the scriptures would say. Just as Jesus had told them, even though they were so firm in their commitment, that they would die with him.
And now what's going to happen next is what you would normally call almost like a comedic relief. If you've been, if you've watched movies, whether it may be a horror show or a intense drama, that there will be this intense scene. And then right afterwards, they'll do something a little funny, kind of to break the tension. If this wasn't so serious and tragic, This would almost be a comedic relief. But it's not. This is a young man was following him wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body. Which is interesting. Why would you have a linen sheet? Not a clothing. So did he get out of bed? And why was he naked? Why didn't he have They had a particular type of underwear that they would wear. And the only explanation I can give is I know in the law you're not supposed to mix fabrics. So because he was put on a linen sheet, he didn't want to have a cotton underwear. And so whatever. But he just had a linen sheet on.
And they also seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked. So he's running off naked in the garden. Now it is believed that the person that we're speaking of is the one who's writing this particular gospel. It was John Mark. This is the only gospel that includes this incident. If it was Mark, and I tend to believe that it was, I'd have probably left it out. Just saying. Now, the other three did. I'd probably go to this and say, hey, guys, thanks a lot for not including that I ran away naked, but he did. But at least he wasn't naked. And for those of you who want to know the difference between naked and naked, I'll tell you if you ask me. I've told other people.
And they've led Jesus away to the high priests and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes gathered together. Now, this is a council. This is the Sanhedrin. This is the one, if you will, the Sanhedrin was established when Moses told God, I can't carry these people. They're a problem and it's too much. And God told them, okay, I want you to gather 70 elders that I'm going to place my spirit on and they're going to help you. And that's where this council was developed. And so this council has gone from the time that they were wandering in the wilderness until now. The sad thing is they are far away from being wise when it comes to the scriptures.
And instead, they're there to condemn Jesus. And so they gather together. Now, here's a problem. Under the law, You were not to have a trial at night. They gathered at night. So the process was illegal, but that doesn't matter because their goals aren't legal either, but that's okay. So they've gathered together at night. And Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest, and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself as a fire. Now the chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put him to death and that they were not finding any. You see, they were trying to get, because under the law, in order to convict somebody of a crime, they had to find two or three witnesses who were consistent in their testimony.
And if you could not find two or three witnesses who were consistent in their testimony, you were not guilty. And so they're attempting to attain this testimony, but they couldn't find any. For many were giving false testimony against him, but their testimony was not consistent. So They're having this difficulty. They're trying to convict Jesus. Now, they don't have the power of death over him, but if they can convict him, then they can go and take that conviction to the Roman governor and try to get him to do what it is they want to do. And so they're having this difficulty in this council realm. Now, this is not the last hearing. Jesus went to the high priest initially. He has the counsel, he goes to Herod, goes back. There's a number of trials that happen.
Even Pilate has more than one hearing with Jesus. And so there's multiple trials. hearings and trials taking place to try to get Jesus convicted and nobody can come up with consistent testimony and nobody can have the committee to convict him. So it says, so some stood up and began to give false testimony against him saying, we heard him say, now in this, in our form of trials, that would be inadmissible because it's hearsay. He says, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days, we'll build it another made without hands. Now, if you've been reading this particular gospel and the others, Jesus never says this exactly the way they say it. He simply says that this temple is going to be destroyed. He also, he talked about the temple. He also talked about this temple, his temple, being destroyed and raising it up in three days. He didn't say without hands on, but they're trying to say, well, Jesus said something like this, but it's not true testimony. They are taking one incident about the temple and another incident about his body and trying to conflate the two. And that's why they can't get it to be consistent.
And not even in this respect was their testimony consistent. They couldn't even come up with a good matching statement. So if things don't change, their plans are going to go awry because Jesus will be found not guilty and released. But the high priest knew that it was going bad. So he says this, so the high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus saying, do you not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against you? He's trying to get Jesus to give testimony against himself. Our law and their law, you weren't required to do that. They had to come up with two witnesses. two to three witnesses. You didn't have to talk about yourself. And so Jesus could remain silent. And he did. But he kept silent and did not answer. Again, the high priest was questioning him and saying to him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? So now the chief priest asked a particular question. The other questions where Jesus said, that's not what I said, if he said in.
But now he's coming to the crux of who Jesus is. Are you the Christ? Are you the Messiah? Are you the one that God has sent in his name to deliver his people? Are you the son of the blessed one? He doesn't want to say the Son of God because you're not supposed to say God in there. So are you the Son of God? Which is true. Now, Jesus could have again remained silent. And that's why I want my second statement. If Jesus remained silent, he would have to be released. And if he were released, then his prayer request to the Father, not necessarily delivered by God, but the result would be, its cup passes from me. So Jesus could have said, well, God closed the door.
But he opened a window. So if I remain silent, I escape the cross. I shape the pain, the suffering, and the shame that is a part of that if I remain silent. So God must be opening a window. But Jesus has already confirmed that God has already said no. So He does not remain silent because what the chief priest says is accurate. And Jesus said, I am. He not only said, you're right, he said, I am. Jesus has said, I am the resurrection. I am the life. When Moses asked God, who do I tell the people your name so that I can say, well, God told me, God said, my name is I am. So Jesus not only says you're accurate, you're right. He goes, I am. And you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Not only you're right, but you don't know how right you are. Because there is written in the scriptures about how the Son of Man is seated against the Ancient of Days and all the various scriptures about how the Messiah will come and place his foot on the Mount of Olives. Jesus is saying, you just don't know exactly how right you are. Jesus doesn't remain silent, and by confirming who he is, he authorizes them to convict him, not of the truth, but because they have determined his answer is not accurate. And Tarion is closed as the chief priest. The high priest said, What further need do we have of witnesses? He's confessed. He's blasphemed. He has claimed to be the Son of God, except he is the Son of God, so he has him blasphemed.
So their judgment of guilt is wrong because he did not blaspheme. He spoke the truth. But the high priest wanted to be dramatic and talk about how upset he was. Well, he's not upset because he got Jesus to do exactly what it is he thought he wanted Jesus to do, to get convicted so that they can get rid of him. So instead of tearing his clothes, in reality, he should have been throwing a party because that's what he wanted. You have heard the blasphemy. How does it seem to you? And they all condemned him. to be deserving of death. The problem is they don't have the authority to do it. Under the law, if someone were convicted of blasphemy, they could stone that person. But they can't do that because Rome is in charge. And only Rome can issue the death penalty. And Rome doesn't do it by stoning. They do it by crucifixion. The next passage I want to deal with a little bit. And some began to spit at him and to blindfold him and to beat him with their fists and to say to him, prophesy. And the officer received him with slaps in the face. We dwell on the crucifixion. And rightfully so in the sense of, how could our Savior, our Lord, come and do that for you and me? But we seem to quickly jump to the crucifixion. Our Lord, our Savior, the Son of the living God, did not deserve this. Quite frankly, even in our quote unquote civilized society, when we condemn someone to death for having committed a capital offense, they've murdered several people. We don't slap them. We don't spit on them. We give them a last meal. We send a pastor to them. We do all these refined, civilized things.
And then we don't even, we try to make it as painless as possible. But they spat on him, showing contempt for him, and to blindfold him so that when they slapped him and beat him, he said, well, tell us who did it. And the officers received him with slaps in the face. If that's the only suffering that Jesus would suffer, that was still too much for me. I don't deserve that much of his mockery for my salvation. But he underwent that because he knew the scriptures because he wrote them. And he saw all that we would do. And he saw all that I would do after having confessed him as my Lord and my Savior, and then being faithful to him several times. And he still consented to being mocked and slapped and beaten with fists and spit upon, ridiculed. for me and for you. See, it just wasn't a few hours on a cross. It was hours upon hours of abuse and ridicule, mockery, and we're going to see flogging and crucifixion. And in return, it gets me. If this is all that he had to endure, if every single person who ever lived and who will ever live until he returns confessed their sins and calls him Savior, it would still be a price too high because he is of infinite worth. So now you understand why I am jealous of God's glory. I don't want people to say how wonderful prayer is. I want them to say how wonderful our God is.
Because He made a way for me and He made a way for you. Because He is love. And He loved me not because what I could do for Him, but because He loved me. And He loves you not because of what you can do for Him, but because He loves you. We will have an opportunity in heaven to sing about the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, whose nail-scarred hands and feet are still there. And every time we will see that, We will come to remembrance. I am there in the presence of God because what he did for us.
And all God's people said.
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