Jesus Before Pilate, Part 1

Father we thank you for today. We thank you for a chance to to be in your word and study it once again To realize the greatness of your character the beauty of your holiness is seen in the trials of Jesus And we look forward to what you're going to teach us today in your name. Amen Luke chapter 23 is where we're at Luke chapter 23 just two chapters left in this great gospel About the greatness of Jesus Christ our Lord and we come to Luke chapter 23 to the second trial of Jesus We told you there are two trials One before the religious leaders and one before the political leaders and each trial has three phases three phases We saw that Jesus was bound in Gethsemane taken to the house of Annas tried there by Annas Taken from there to the house of Caiaphas Which is right across the courtyard and was tried at that time and sometime between the hours of 1 and 3 those two phases of trial one took place Between the hours of 3 and 5 Jesus was held Until 5 a.m.

In the morning when the Sun began to rise because some way somehow The religious establishment had to make this a legal trial because you could not try anybody at night and yet that's what they did with Jesus and they came to the conclusion that he had blasphemed the name of God and that's what the third phase was about as we looked at Luke chapter 22 last week and He was asked by Caiaphas.

Are you the Christ the Son of God and Jesus responded by saying I am And he also responded by telling him that he will one day see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of glory So Jesus proclaimed the truth that yes, he is the Christ the Messiah. Yes. He is the Son of God Yes He is the Son of Man because that equates him with God according to Daniel 7 13 to 14 and he is the great I am And so Caiaphas would tear his robes Cried for blasphemy and they would have what they believed was their convicting sentence against him They've always wanted to kill him we saw last week began in John chapter 5 at the pool of Bethesda They wanted him dead and we went through John's gospel to show you the different times that they had tried to kill Jesus And when you come to John chapter 11, they take counsel on how they're going to put him to death They think they can do this They think that they're in charge and they could run the show and they can kill Jesus little do they know that they're not in charge, but Jesus is For Jesus will only die when it's time to die and the remarkable thing about all of this is that we have spent weeks looking at this last week of our Lord's life and we Are forgetting that on Monday everybody praised his name Hosanna To the king they saw him as the king Thousands upon thousands of people would praise him as their king and they would go to the temple and hear him teach on Tuesday and on Wednesday and they would show up on Thursday, although he wasn't there.

They would show up on Thursday now it's early in the morning on Friday and by Early or later that morning. They will scream for him to be crucified an amazing change of events amazing change of emotion They could go from Monday and Tuesday and windy Wednesday So excited about this Messiah this this Christ who would come in and heal and proclaim The truth that on Friday they would scream for his death Because all things were under the power of Almighty God He was going to die on Friday When all sacrificial lambs are crucified because he was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world So they wanted him dead They had done all they could to orchestrate the events thinking that they were in charge and now they want to take him to Pilate Now they have to somehow come with up with a with a verdict that pilot would agree with and they're going to do that and between the hours of three and Five they have thought about this and by the time day breaks and they accuse him of blasphemy in a very short moment they will then take him to pilot and they will have what they believe is A way to convince pilot that they should kill or that he should kill Jesus You say well, why don't they just take him out and stone him?

I mean they did that to Stephen, right? They took him out and stone him but that was mob violence Remember, this is a Sanhedrin They they do what they do behind closed doors in the hypocrisy of their lives in in front of people They have to maintain the facade of holiness They just can't take Jesus out and and drag him out of the city and stone him Outside the fact that the Rome has taken away the power of execution from the leadership of Israel To do that would would would go against everything they wanted to make the people of Israel believe they are plus Jesus has already predicted in Matthew chapter 20 That he would be turned over to the Gentiles and that he would be crucified Okay, so Jesus has already predicted that so they couldn't stone him because the prediction was that he would be crucified based on Psalm 22 a prophecy about the crucifixion of the Messiah and so Jesus was fulfilling only a divine timetable, but fulfilling the prophecies of Scripture and So the only way he could die Was that the hands of the Gentiles?

According to Matthew 20 and that he would be Crucified and so the whole body comes together That's we are Luke chapter 23 verse number one Then the whole body of them arose and brought him before Pilate they began to accuse him saying we found this man misleading our nation and Forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ a King the whole body of them the whole body Mark says the same thing the whole body the Sanhedrin all 70 of them Now listen careful in the brief amount of time between when Jesus is Condemned falsely accused and condemned unjustly condemned by the religious establishment They conjure up a plan that will convince Pilate that he's an insurrectionist and that he's going to lead the nation in a rebellion against Rome and Pilate can't afford to let that happen And this is the way they're going to get Pilate to agree to crucify him to kill him It has to be political in nature And so they come up with this Accusation that's not true but they come up with it to convince Pilate that this man truly is going to lead a rebellion against Rome and There's going to be problems.

So you need to get rid of them now Having said that we've told you That if there's a unanimous verdict by the Sanhedrin the verdict has to be thrown out Because it would show them as unmerciful Yet The whole body Accused him On top of that we've told you this is all documented that they had to remain in their chambers for one entire day After the verdict was pronounced and before there could be an execution They had to remain in their chambers for an entire day just in case somebody would show up and Proclaim the innocence of that individual They didn't do that They didn't do that And so they violated their own protocol.

They violated their own Jewish law that everybody knew and yet this is important because Believe it or not. There is somebody who shows up and proclaims the innocence of Jesus There's actually somebody who shows up and says he is an innocent man Who's that Judas Judas shows up and proclaims the innocence of Jesus So you see that in Luke chapter 22 or 20? Yeah, 22 when they end the third phase of trial number one The whole body brings Jesus bound to Pilate from the house of Caiaphas If or from the judgment hall, okay and yet Matthew fills in the blanks as to what happens between the final verdict in the Judgment Hall with the Jewish nation the Jewish leaders Before they get to Pilate.

So turn to Matthew chapter 27 Matthew chapter 27 Says the verse number one now when morning had come all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus To put him to death.

We read about that in Luke chapter 22 verses 66 to the end and They bound him and led him away and delivered him up to Pilate the governor Okay Now Matthew what he does is he fills in the blanks between what happens after the first trial before the second trial here it is Then when Judas who had betrayed him saw that he had been condemned How did Judas see that he had been condemned?

Was Judas there during the night? We don't know But he had to have been there During the daylight hours in the early mornings around 5 a.m In the morning when the Sun came up because Luke tells us that when the Sun came up they had to legalize everything They had to go to the Judgment Hall. They had to make this a legal trial Judas had to have been there because he saw that Jesus had been condemned he saw that and he felt remorse and We turned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying I have sinned by betraying innocent blood This is very powerful Because according to Jewish law The Sanhedrin had to sit in the Judgment Hall for an entire day for someone to come and defend the guilty party and somebody does and It's the prime witness who does Judas it's the betrayer who does Judas comes Because he knows Jewish protocol he knows the law and So he comes to the Judgment Hall to proclaim the innocence of the one that he has betrayed This is a powerful testimony to the innocence of Jesus This is a powerful testimony to the purity of the Son of God Judas of all people shows up and proclaims the innocence of Jesus Wow didn't listen Because they don't care They want Jesus dead Bible tells us these words he felt Remorse Now if you have a New America Standard They got it, right If you have a different translation that says he repented you got it wrong Because the word used there is not met him an L which means to repent but Met a melamine which means to feel remorse or regret That's what Judas felt Judas Felt the guilt of his wickedness His wretchedness He did not repent of a sin and we're going to show you how we know that But he did feel the regret and Was remorseful over what had taken place?

Maybe in Judas's mind None of us knows this for sure, but maybe in Judas's mind. He was thinking you know what I've seen the miraculous power of Jesus And I know that in a crowd he can disappear at will I've seen it I've seen what happens when they want to take him by force and make him king and John 6 he disappears So maybe if I turn him over to them and I get my money my 30 pieces of silver that somehow Jesus is going to Do this disappearing act that he's always done And he'll escape or maybe he'll demonstrate some of the power that he is Demonstrated over the three years the ministry that I've been with him and overcome them and after all Genesis Or in John chapter 18 when he said I am they all fell over backwards So maybe he's gonna do something like that in the house of Caiaphas and then escape Maybe he thought that Jesus was going to be able to escape all of this trial nonsense Come to realize that Jesus is not escaping and Jesus is being spit upon and being beaten and Now sees him falsely condemned His conscience takes over and he is guilt-ridden We forget about the power of conscience You know, one of the God-given gifts to mankind is his conscience Because no matter how depraved you might come become or how wretched you might be None of that can overrule the conscience of a sinner Placed there by God because it is God's warning system to man You have a physical warning system, it's called pain When pain happens, there's a warning sign that goes off danger danger danger danger trouble ahead, right?

Well in the spiritual realm there is conscience and That conscience tells you danger danger danger ahead it's part of the character in nature of man made in the image of God and Satan in the depths of your sin cannot override the power of a man's conscience it cannot and this man Judas is a wicked vile avarice greedy man prideful man in spite of all that he could not squelch the guilt that came upon him when he Saw what took place? with Jesus He is called the devil by Jesus Yes he is called the son of perdition and he was But none of that would overrule the conscience placed in him by God because that conscience is a determining factor between what is right and what is wrong and Judas had that like you had that and When Judas was to observing all that was taking place He had this horrible inner Guilty feeling that what he had done was so wrong It doesn't mean he repented But he did feel remorse How do we know he didn't repent Notice he says I have sinned I have sinned says By betraying innocent blood There's a difference between between confessing the fact that I have sinned and Confessing the fact that I am a sinner Big difference Big difference huge difference He is he is Guilt-ridden over the fact that he knows That he's done wrong Because he knows the law of God that says in Deuteronomy 27 that a bribe is punishable by death and He was a part of that bribe So he knows And so this man came and was concerned about the Consequences of his sin, but he was not concerned over the condition That he's a sinner that's a big difference between the consequences of sin and the condition of the sinner Also, we know he didn't repent because there was no confession to God The confession was only to the priests in the Sanhedrin There was no confession to Jesus.

He I'm sure he could have approached Jesus at any time There was no confession to Christ. There was no confession to God saying Lord. I I have sinned against you I have I have sinned against your law. No, there was none of that and Judas never changed his mind About who Jesus was and is He could have gone to the courtroom and said hey I got a problem here because what Jesus said is true. He is the Son of God How do I know that? Let me tell you how he is the Son of Man.

How do I know that? Let me tell you how he is the Lord. He is the Messiah of Israel He is the great I am that would be a true confession because he would have changed his mind About the identity and character of Jesus Christ our Lord. He did not say that could have He didn't say it because he didn't believe it at the heart of Judas. He was a materialist. He was an atheist Even though he was with Jesus for three years and even though everybody believed that he was one of them But there was no confession to the identity of Christ and the supremacy of his life Yes, Jesus was innocent.

He did nothing. He'd done nothing wrong He had not sinned. He had not blasphemed And Judas knows that what he did Set in motion a series of events Oh by the way It was set in motion by the predetermined plan and four lines of God the Father because everything was Prophesied that this is the way it was going to be And of course some will say well, wait a minute It was prophesied this way that was going to be what choice did Judas have Oh stay with me Stay with me We'll clear all that up for you But remember what 2nd Corinthians 7 verse number 10 says 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse number 10 Paul says For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without Regret, okay What's the difference between Peter's Remorse and Judas's remorse Well 2nd Corinthians 7 verse number 10 tells us there is a repentance without regret In other words when you repent there are no regrets when you repent there's no man You know, I should have never done this.

This is ridiculous. I can't believe I decided to follow Jesus This is ludicrous, what am I doing? True repentance has no regrets Because he is the desire of the nation's How I got kept between worse number seven for that last week But he also is the one that says he who believes in me will never be disappointed There are no regrets for those who truly repent So he says to God is sorrow that produces a repentance without regret leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death The sorrow of the world produces death why because the wages of sin is death and Judas would go out and he would hang himself But note this for behold What earnestness this very thing this godly sorrow?

Godly sorrow brings about an earnestness for that which is right an earnestness for for righteousness a Hungry and thirst for righteousness what vindication of your selves a Vindication of willing to to clear the air to clear all the stigma This is the way you once were you no longer want to be known that way because you're no longer that way You're a new creation There's a vindication that takes place Because you have repented of your sin and now you want to vindicate yourself by saying look I was once that way I am no longer that way.

I'm going to live the life that honors and glorifies the name of Christ then it says What indignation? What's that people who repent have an indignation they hate sin They hate sin they hate evil and They want to rid themselves of sin and rid themselves of evil. Yes, they will sin and yes They will do evil things, but at the base of their hearts. They do not want to do those things because they are a new creation This is true repentance What fear? What fear yeah fear of God Judas had no fear. He didn't fear God nor did he fear man He didn't care what the Sanhedrin thought about him.

He didn't care what God thought about him But there's this great fear that takes place. There is forgiveness with these Psalm 130 that thou mayest be feared Only the believer fears God the unbeliever has no fear of God What longing Longing for what a longing for Relationships to be restored for things to be made, right? What zeal zeal for what a zeal for holiness a zeal for purity and what avenging of wrong? To make sure that everything was done Properly to go back and make restitution to go back and make things, right There's that longing there.

That's repentance That's the godly sorrow that leads to repentance Judas did not evidence that There was no change of heart about the identity of Christ the Messiah There was no confession of sin to God and turning from sin because he hated evil and wanted to follow the Lord He was a greedy man to the very end So wait a minute. He took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the Treasury. He threw them into the holy place The Bible tells us he did out of spite out of anger, but the Bible tells us the Bible tells us that Judas knowing Jewish protocol Went and he did do the right thing by proclaiming the innocence of Jesus The eyewitness testimony Was Judas And he is the most powerful testimony to the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Because he says I Betrayed this man This man certainly is innocent and they respond go back to Matthew chapter 27 They respond What is that to us?

See to that Yourself, what do we care? What do you care? What do you care? Matthew just called for the impeachment of the Sanhedrin. He writes 30 years after the events And he exposes Their cover-up he exposes their lie What is that to us What do we care remember? The mantra of the Sanhedrin was to save life and never to destroy life But here their main purpose was to destroy a life and Matthew exposes them in his writings What is that to us? What do we care? We don't care We don't care. So what does Judas do says?

And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and Departed they asked is the word it's the holy place in other words, he threw it in a place that only the chief priests could go and Retrieve it. No one else could It's in the Holy of Holies That's right through it despite them To avenge them he went away and hanged himself Worldly sorrow produces death God is sorrow produces life In Acts chapter 1 this is referred to Acts chapter 1 Peter recounts it for he was counted among us and received his portion in this ministry Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness Falling headlong.

He burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out Hanging himself Maybe didn't do the rope right? Maybe didn't have a sturdy enough branch. I don't know But anyway, he fell in his bowels gushed out at verse 25 says and Judas turned aside to go to his own place What was Judas's own place? It's the place where all those who reject God want to be because they don't believe in God They go to their own place the place they want to be away from God Where's that? It's called hell And that's where Judas went you see Judas He went Because his conscience Was absolutely Destroyed with guilt He recognized that what he had done was wrong and it was In his own way he wanted to make restitution He wanted to set things, right?

He wanted to somehow pacify his guilty conscience Taking the money and throwing it back. Maybe that would pacify but it didn't Somehow taking the burden off of his shoulders over what he had done somehow to relieve the the pain of his soul But nothing the world does can relieve the pain and the guilt of your soul that's why the psalmist said in Psalm 32 thou hast forgiven the guilt of my soul and And Judas had no forgiveness of the guilt of his soul And Judas knowing that because he had presented false testimony According to the law of God, he would be worthy of death He'd be cursed and Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree And so maybe he felt like this would be the way he could relieve himself of all of his pain Not knowing that in his efforts to relieve himself of his guilty conscience would only Accentuate his pain and his guilt for all eternity Because he heard the words of Jesus That hell is a place of outer darkness I Think it was Jude or maybe it was Peter and second Peter said it's called blackness of darkness.

It's not enough to be black It's not enough to be dark. It's called the blackness of darkness It's not a place where you can't even see the hand in front of your face. It's so black. It's so dark Christ said that that hell was a place of of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why is there weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell? It's because you will remember Every opportunity you had to give your life to Christ and every opportunity you spurned and you scorned And you turned away from Christ and you will remember Everything that was ever said to you forever and ever and ever and you will gnash your teeth and you will be inwardly angered forever never able to relieve that weeping and gnashing of teeth because You did not respond to the gospel It's a place where the worm never dies.

Jesus says The worm never dies it's the constant gnawing of pain and yes, there is eternal torment and yes, there is fire That's called blackness of darkness But there's an eternal fire that burns forever and ever in the soul and the body of man Judas thinking he was getting relief only accentuated his eternal pain Because he did not repent see wait a minute If it was all predetermined and all prophesied, how could he repent?

It doesn't seem to make any sense. He had no chance. Oh, yes. He had a chance Everybody has a chance Hit opportunity after opportunity after opportunity And so we must come to grips with that How do you reconcile? How do you reconcile? The fact that Judas's treachery was prophesied Predetermined with the fact that Judas acted on his own volition How do you reconcile that How do you reason in your mind How do you reason in your mind that that which was prophesied and predetermined by God? Judas is still held accountable to before the throne of God.

How do you reason that? How do you reconcile that? Let me read to you what Charles Spurgeon said Spurgeon said if I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is foreordained that is True, would you not agree?

If I read in the Bible that everything that happens has been foreordained by the sovereignty of an almighty God That is a true fact. We know that and if I find in another scripture that man is responsible for all his actions That too is true. Is it not? If God says man is responsible for his actions that that is true If God says everything is foreordained preordained by the sovereignty of Almighty God that too is true for Jesus said Unless you believe Unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins That's man's volition.

That's man's responsibility Unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins So if the Bible says that God preordained foreordained everything to come to pass that's true if God says that man is absolutely Responsible for the decision that he makes that too is true that Spurgeon says this He says and it is only my folly That leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever Contradict each other.

He says it's only my folly It's only my problem I Do not believe They can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in Eternity There are two lines that are so nearly parallel that the human mind which pursues them Farthest will never discover that they converge but they do converge and they will meet somewhere in eternity Close to the throne of God whence all truth doth spring. Oh, I couldn't said it any better myself That was amazing That was absolutely amazing.

Here is the point Will you trust your reason or will you trust the revelation of God? That's the only choice you have and for you to trust the reason is to say my finite mind is More knowledgeable than the infinite mind of God my finite mind Supersedes the infinite mind of an almighty sovereign just merciful loving God who rules over all I Am God, that's what you say. If you say that you say I am God. I'm smarter than God. I'm wiser than God I can't reason it if I can't reason it in my mind. God must be wrong because my mind has said something else Instead of subjecting your mind and Your soul in your thought process to the revelation of God's true word It's all matters Who cares whether or not you can reason for not we're educated beyond our intelligence anyway Who cares whether or not you can make all things come together or not?

You're not to do that, but it all comes together to throw God in eternity Where God has orchestrated the events of all things That's why the Bible says very clearly in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 these words first number 7 When the Lord Jesus shall reveal from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Retribution comes upon those who do not know God and who do not obey The gospel of the Lord Jesus they refuse to follow the gospel They refuse to obey what God says they refuse to know God.

That's where retribution comes upon those people and these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and to be marveled at among all who have Believed the Bible says very clearly if you believe in Jesus It's because you have been elected and pre-ordained from eternity past to believe in him If you do not believe the Bible very clearly states You don't believe because you will not believe and therefore you do not know God and you will not obey the gospel of God That is what the Bible says and That is a revelation of the truth Which we must adhere to as believers in the Lord Jesus Having said all that Let me review Something I said to you many years ago about Judas Iscariot Because it's important It's very important Jesus is going to stand accused before Pilate All the while Judas goes out and hangs himself Falls to his death and is eternally separated from the Living God Judas Iscariot Is the one person who enjoyed the singular and Sacred responsibility of an apostle of Christ a Disciple of Christ Judas enjoyed the singular and sacred responsibility He was chosen by God to be a part of the 12th and That singular responsibility was the most sacred responsibility because he was involved in the preaching and the teaching of Jesus No other person who's ever lived Has enjoyed that responsibility like Judas Except the other 11 Number two Judas experienced the faithfulness and forbearance of deity like anyone else He experienced the faithfulness and the forbearance of deity More so than anyone else nobody else would have put up with Judas, but Jesus did Because Jesus knew he was a son of perdition Jesus knew that he was a devil Jesus knew he was a betrayer But Jesus was faithful and Jesus was forbearing Toward Judas he reached out to Judas with love and affection And he constantly warned Judas in every sermon he preached Because Judas was there and how does someone become so cold and callous to that truth?

It's simple When you hear it And you don't respond that thin layer of coldness glosses over the heart Every time you don't respond to the truth And you come again you hear the Word of God and another cold layer covers the heart and Judas for three years Allowed the coldness of those layers to cover his heart so he became harder and harder and harder to the things of God and yet he experienced the faithfulness and forbearance of deity He enjoyed the singular and sacred responsibility he exemplified more than anybody else scorned and squandered opportunity There is nobody ever alive who squandered and scorned the opportunity before then than Judas Because it was always there Jesus loved him as He loved all John 13 tells us Jesus would wash Judas's feet As well as he washed everyone else's feet Jesus would allow him to watch and observe all the miracles for three years 11 believed in one did not 11 believed in one did not That's because he loved money Loved it He loved it so much He was willing to betray the Son of God For the price of a slave 30 pieces of silver He was filled with avarice filled with greed He loved the world He could not let go of the world It was the lure of popularity.

It was the lure of power It was the lure of everything the world had to offer him. That's what he wanted more than he wanted Jesus He scorned and squandered every opportunity that came his way this man. He looted The love and longing of Jesus's mercy He alluded it The love and longing of Jesus's mercy. Oh, he was still merciful to Judas He would sit him at the seat of honor on Thursday night around the table. He would seat him to his left He would be the person of honor on that night He alluded that love He would walk from that love he would turn away from that Even when granted the opportunity to realize that when he told John But the person that I dipped the sock and give it to first, that's my betrayer He would tell Judas go and do what you've been designed to do Just had every opportunity.

I say no No, this is too real. This is too true. You are truly the Son of God. You are truly the great I am you are truly my master But all the love And all the longing he alluded and Judas Embodied the deceitfulness and the destiny of iniquity He embodies the deceitfulness and the destiny of iniquity How he could be so swept into self-deception So swept into believing that he was a disciple of Jesus That he would experience the destiny of iniquity which is he went to his own Place the place where all those go who will not submit to the authority of Jesus Christ in their lives He becomes the supreme Warning to every person in the church who somehow Wants to elude as Judas did the love and the longing of Jesus's mercy Who wants to squander and scorn every opportunity that comes your way who sits and listens?

But does not respond who sits and hears but will not obey Who says I'll put it off another day I'll come back at another time and that's why there are warnings throughout the scriptures The author of Hebrews says it this way for in the case of those who have been Enlightened Judas was enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gifts Did not eat the heavenly gift but Tasted of the heavenly gift Judas did Had been there then made partakers of the Holy Spirit not a possessor of the Holy Spirit But a partaker of the Holy Spirit a different word a different meaning And I've tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come Judas did Did he did all that?

and then Have fallen away It is Impossible to renew them again to repentance it's impossible It can't happen It will not happen It's impossible to renew them to repentance It's impossible for Judas to repent because he had been a partaker of the Holy Spirit He had tasted the good work of the Lord God. He had been enlightened and totally and completely spurned everything that Jesus said It's impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again Crucify themselves The Son of God and put him to open shame Whenever you join the ranks of those like Judas you have crucified Again, the Son of God to open shame.

In other words, you have joined with the Sanhedrin You have joined with Judas you have joined with Pilate in Caiaphas in Annas You have joined with them in the crucifixion of Jesus by saying What he did and who he is is not good enough That's why Pilate asked the infamous question He said what shall I do With Jesus Who you call the Messiah What should I do with him That's the question every one of us must ask What should I do with Jesus the Messiah What have you done with Jesus How do you see Jesus Do you see him for who he is in Scripture?

As a sinless spotless son of man son of God the Messiah of Israel who came to die for your sins That you would not have to pay the penalty he paid it for you He is your substitute Do you recognize who he is and what he's done He made it very clear. This is who I am. I Am the Son of God. I Am the Son of Man. I Am the great I am I am the Messiah That's who I am And Judas did not believe that The Sanhedrin did not believe that And they all thought that they were putting Jesus on trial. But instead They were on trial For one day Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess That Jesus Christ is Lord of all Let's pray Father we thank you Lord for today a chance to be in your word a chance to study your word a chance to begin to grasp the the magnitude of all that took place in a very short brief period of time of trials How rapidly things went through the night into the day and yet there's so much to uncover concerning the truth That we might come to grips with the reality of Christ And we pray Lord that none here would leave Not believing in Jesus Christ our Lord not having confessed him as the Lord God of Israel the Son of God and Son of Man Having confessed their sins repented and turned to follow Christ For those of us who know you May we continually proclaim Christ as Lord you pray in Jesus name