Matthew 26:57-68 - The Silent Lamb

Turn to Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Pastor Doug and Royal are away visiting their family in England.

We're going to continue on in the Gospel of Matthew.

We've been studying this gospel for uh quite a while now.

We're coming towards the end of the gospel, but Matthew chapter 26, and we'll be looking at verse 57 down through verse 68.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

If you are using our Pew Bible and not sure where that is, it's page 883.

Matthew 26, verses 57 down through verse 68.

Matthew 26:57

This is what Holy Scripture says.

Those who had arrested Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the High Priest, where the scribes and the elders had convened.

Peter was following him at a distance, right to the high priest's courtyard.

He went in and was sitting with the servants to see the outcome.

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they could not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward.

Finally, two who came forward stated, This man said, I can destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.

The high priest stood up and said to him, Don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?

But Jesus kept silent.

The high priest said to him, I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.

You have said it, Jesus told him.

But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest tore his robes and said, He has blasphemed.

Why do we still need witnesses?

See, now you've heard the blasphemy.

What is your decision?

They answered, He deserves death.

Then they spat in his face and beat him.

Others slapped him and said, Prophesy to us, Messiah.

Who was it that hit you?

Let's look to God once more.

Lord, we have the prophetic word made more certain, to which we do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day rises and that morning star rises in our own hearts.

Lord, again shine on us this morning.

We ask this that your glory might be seen, that Christ might be known and marveled at.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Have you ever been accused of something?

Is your first impulse just to remain quiet?

I think for most of us, the answer is probably not.

We are ready to launch in and defend ourselves.

You can see this especially in children.

Children, we're glad you're here in the service.

We are delighted that you're able to hear the word of God.

But children have a special knack for defending themselves.

Johnny hit me.

No, I didn't.

I was just stretching.

Well, well, I did hit him, but it's because he was teasing me.

Now, are adults really that much better?

We control ourselves a little bit more, but if you ever go on X, it was formerly Twitter, not that much has changed.

We are ready to activate our inner lawyer, as Paul Tripp says.

But notice in our passage in verse 63, Jesus kept silent.

It wasn't an absolute or permanent silence.

He does finally speak in our passage.

But right at the crux of false accusation, he remains silent.

And then at the end of the passage, they're taunting him, they're beating him, they're asking him to prophesy.

They want him to speak, but we don't find him here in Matthew saying anything.

Isaiah 53, verse 7, Ethan read this earlier.

Isaiah 53:7

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep, silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.

We found fulfillment again and again in the Gospel of Matthew, and we're seeing it here today.

Matthew is showing us under inspiration of God that Jesus is the silent lamb that Isaiah spoke about.

You've probably thought about the glory of the suffering lamb.

Have you pondered the glory of the silent lamb?

That's what God is calling us to do today, to ponder the glory of the silent lamb.

Jesus had every opportunity to defend himself.

If ever anyone deserved to defend himself, if ever anyone was truly innocent of the accusations, it was Christ.

And yet, unlike all the self-justifiers of the world, this one who actually had the ability to justify himself chooses to remain silent.

The glory of this silent lamb is all the more remarkable when we consider more and more who it was that remained silent.

Sometimes Christians speak of the three offices of Christ.

They don't mean like his home office and his work office, his remote office.

They don't mean he was governor or mayor.

This is language that's borrowed in part from the Westminster Catechism question 23.

What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?

And here's the answer: Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king.

So they're roles that Christ fulfills to bring salvation.

And those roles of prophet, priest, and king very wonderfully encapsulate so much Bible truth.

There were many great prophets in the Old Testament.

Jesus comes as the greatest prophet.

There were many priests in the Old Testament.

Jesus comes as the final priest.

There were kings, even kings as great as David and Solomon, but Jesus is the greatest of all kings.

So we're going to use those offices of Christ, prophet and priest and king, as a lens this morning to consider just how amazing it is that this Savior, this Lamb, would remain silent.

First, the silent lamb is the silent prophet.

The silent lamb is the silent prophet.

Now already we have attention.

Prophets aren't people who are quiet.

The nature of their job is that they speak.

Look again at verse 67.

They spat in his face and beat him.

Others slapped him and said, Prophesy to us, Messiah.

Who was it that hit you?

They're asking him to prove himself a prophet, to be a prophet.

They're not treating him like a prophet, although they are treating him like the prophets of old, wrongly.

But he doesn't do it.

Luke tells us they had blindfolded Jesus, so that's part of why that they're slapping him.

Whose hand was it that hit you?

They understand something of what a prophet is, that a prophet often has supernatural insight from God, but they're taunting him, even though he knows who's hitting him.

It's no mystery to him.

His eyes, Revelation 1.14, are like a fiery flame.

He can see right through a blindfold.

He knew Jesus would, Judas would betray him, Matthew 26, 25.

He knows people's thoughts.

Mark 2, 8.

He knows all things.

John 16, verse 30.

John 16:30

So why doesn't he just meet their challenge and tell them?

Why doesn't he reveal the name of every hand that slapped him?

Why doesn't he reveal the names of their children, of intimate details of their lives that no one else knows?

He chooses to remain silent.

Christ the Lord is on a mission from God.

Completing that eternal mission is more important than satisfying himself in the moment before his accusers.

He knows that he's fulfilling all scripture.

And notice also that Matthew clearly shows us Jesus really is a prophet.

In verse 64, Jesus predicts what will happen.

I tell you, Jesus says, in the future, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

So as a prophet, he is able to speak God's word and here to speak into what is to come.

He's not merely a lamb who was slain, he's the great prophet of God.

But even though he speaks about the future, he doesn't open his mouth to defend himself in the present.

He's still this silent prophet.

There's another compelling contrast.

Throughout this passage, false witnesses are raging against the true prophet.

In verse 59, you see leaders looking for false testimony.

In verse 60, many false witnesses come forward.

Then finally two are selected.

Verse 65, the leaders conclude we don't need any more witnesses.

Prophets are supposed to be witnesses.

Not all witnesses are prophets, but all prophets are witnesses.

So here are these false witnesses, and Matthew's bringing out a subtle but genuine contrast.

Jesus Christ is the faithful and true witness.

He's the one about whom it was said in Deuteronomy 18 that God would raise up a prophet like Moses.

In Matthew chapter 17, verse 5, we already heard the voice of God thunder from heaven.

Matthew 17:5

Behold, my beloved son, listen to him.

He's been identified as a prophet in Matthew, but the true witness, the true prophet, verse 63, keeps silent in the face of these false witnesses.

Who ever heard of a silent prophet?

Jesus often speaks when he does speak, his mouth pours forth beautiful words.

He's taught again and again in Matthew.

But he stuns us in this passage with a prophet who is able to refrain from speaking.

That's the glory of the silent lamb, who is a silent prophet.

Second, the silent lamb is the silent priest.

In our passage, Jesus has a lot of interaction with priests.

Look at verse 57.

He's led away to the high priest.

In verse 58, Peter follows to the high priest's courtyard.

In verse 59, the chief priests are trying to make Jesus look guilty.

In verse 62, the high priest questions Jesus.

In verse 63, the same high priest exhorts Jesus.

In verse 65, the high priest tears his robes.

So Matthew emphasizes over and over again, Jesus is dealing with priests.

Jesus is dealing with priests.

But who is Jesus himself?

Hebrews 3.1, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession.

Hebrews 2, 17, he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God to make atonement for the sins of the people.

We sing about this truth sometimes.

Jesus, my great high priest, offered his blood and died.

My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside.

His powerful blood did once atone, and now it pleads before the throne.

The one who could do what they never could do.

They were condemning the one who can set us free from condemnation.

They wanted to kill the very priest who was willing to sacrifice his life so that his people might live forever.

Do you see that that contrast there as it is filled out in Matthew's gospel and scripture?

And then in verse 62, it's the high priest who says, Don't you have anything to say?

Jesus kept silent.

He could have rebuked all of them.

He could have said, You fools, don't you see who's before you?

Don't you see that you yourselve need a priest?

You yourself need a mediator?

This trial that they put him under is going to lead to his death.

Verse 66, they actually call for his death.

But it's the very death of Christ that is part of his work as the great high priest.

Because he's the priest who was also the Lamb.

He's the priest who offered himself up as the final sacrifice, the atonement that's the only hope of sinners everywhere.

What they sought to do with wicked hands was something that Christ knew was necessary for salvation.

And he's willing to submit to it.

Peter says it this way in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.

Read again this afternoon, Isaiah 53.

By his wounds we are healed.

Where do priests serve?

They serve in the temple.

Now, before we expand on that, I'm going to draw out an application.

What's the significance of the two witnesses here?

They're looking for witnesses, they disagree with each other, then finally two come forward.

Deuteronomy 19, verse 15.

Deuteronomy 19:15

You need two or three witnesses to make a case.

So they're going by the book.

They have malice in their hearts towards the very Son of God, but they got to make sure they do everything right.

If we need two witnesses, let's get two witnesses.

What's the point of application here?

It's not, well, just ignore God's word, as long as you have a pure heart, it's all good.

No, it's it's good to follow God's word, but you can be so intent on pursuing the right things to do that you miss Jesus Christ, that you miss the Savior.

Friends, don't miss the Savior today.

Back to what they say.

Verse 61.

If you're good Bible readers, you might say, Well, wait a minute, destroy this temple.

Wait a minute.

Didn't Jesus say something like that?

I mean, that they're not false witnesses, they're they're telling the truth.

Well, not precisely.

In John 2, 19, Jesus doesn't say that he would destroy the temple.

He says if the temple is destroyed, he would raise it in three days.

So if Jesus ever said that he himself would destroy the temple, that's not recorded for us in Scripture.

And yet, and this is an important and yet, Jesus does have the prerogative to change the place of worship.

If he would have said he was going to destroy that temple, he had every right to do that as the Lord of glory, as the Lord of heaven.

He does tell the woman at the well in John 4, an hour is coming and now is when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

True worshipers worship in spirit and in truth.

It's not limited to one physical place now that Christ has come.

So when Matthew calls them false witnesses, those are those are Matthew's words, obviously not the chief priest's words.

When he calls them false witnesses, he's not emphasizing so much exactly what they said.

Matthew calls them false witnesses because they want to put Jesus' words and actions in the worst possible light.

They wanted to portray him as a rebel against God rather than a servant of God.

Carson says it this way: their witness had some element of truth, but was evilly motivated and disregarded what Jesus meant.

Let's insert another application.

When you speak about others, do you go out of your way to portray what they said in the worst possible light?

That's false witness.

Well, that that's what they said.

Well, what did they mean?

What were they intending?

Well, I don't know.

Then keep silent and sila for a little while.

So often when we publicly, and if you have a concern with what someone said or even their motivations, it's okay to go to them.

But isn't it true that so often when we publicly paint that spouse or that VBS worker or that co-worker in the worst possible light, it's because we have bitterness in our heart toward them.

Consider your words.

Love believes all things, love hopes all things.

Now back to the testimony here.

If the priests who are putting Jesus on trial here, if they would have listened carefully to what Jesus said, if these witnesses who came forward would have listened carefully to what Jesus said in light of all that he was doing, they would have understood that Jesus is indeed the fulfillment of all that the temple was intended to be.

They were so in love with their temple, their place of worship, but that was a gift to God to symbolize and picture a necessary meeting place between God and man.

And Jesus is the one who came and tabernacled among humanity.

He was the meeting place of God and man, and in a greater and permanent way that no mere building could ever achieve.

The priests that were offering the sacrifices there in that temple, they were meant to be temporary, pointing the way forward to this priest who was to come.

As he says in John's gospel, destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up.

And then John tells us, and those who have eyes to see could understand he was speaking about the temple of his body.

The words on the lips of the false witnesses contained what they needed.

Here's the righteous priest.

He's offered himself up for you.

Turn and repent and hear and believe and trust.

What might have been going through Jesus' mind when they gave that testimony intending to overthrow him?

Perhaps he thought, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

How often I would have gathered you as a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.

Whatever was in his mind, he remained silent.

And even that very silence points us to his mediatorial work.

That just means his work as a substitute for sinful people.

He's our substitute in his suffering and his death.

And he's our substitute in his life.

His life of constant, perfect, righteous response and trust in God.

The scripture tells us to put our whole trust in God.

Often, not always, but often.

Often when we jump in to defend ourselves, we're not trusting in God.

We're concerned that we need to defend our reputation or make an excuse about ourselves.

And we're not thinking about God at all or submitting ourselves to Him.

Jesus trusts God entirely with his whole being all of the time.

And in this particular case, he offers up the righteous response of silence.

And he's doing that, even that, on our behalf.

Do you see?

So don't convince yourselves that from now on you'll always respond with perfect trust in God.

First come to Jesus and receive his righteousness.

The silent lamb is the silent prophet, the silent lamb is the silent priest.

Finally, this morning, the silent lamb is the silent king.

Now, under this heading, I am using silent in a little different sense, because it is actually the words of Jesus in our passage that point us to this reality.

Verse 64, he does finally speak after the high priest puts him under oath before God.

And he says, You have said it, he is indeed the Messiah.

And then he goes on to say, I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.

So he verbalizes his regal character, but when I say he's still the silent king, he doesn't enact that kingly authority right then and there.

He doesn't choose to judge them and slaughter them right then and there.

And we've seen, haven't we, in Matthew's gospel, even in these surrounding verses, how often Jesus allows himself to be killed rather than publicly showcasing his kingly authority by overthrowing all of those who would come against him.

The Garden of Gethsemane, Peter draws his sword.

Peter's ready, the fisherman is ready to become a heroic knight.

And Jesus says, Not now, put your sword away.

He gives himself over to the soldiers, he gives himself over to the kangaroo court.

He gives himself over to walk the road of the cross and be hung in shame.

He could have called 12 legions of angels, but he doesn't.

He's a silent king who bends his head to the executioner's table.

Think about Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia.

He's so powerful, but in that particular moment, he even shows the power by allowing himself to be killed.

But we do need to mark his words in verse 64.

You'll see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power.

There's regal language.

We have this phrase, the Son of Man, and once again, it's not merely to indicate that Jesus is truly human, it's showing us he is the promised Messiah.

This phrase comes from Daniel 7.

Listen to verses 13 and 14 of Daniel 7.

I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven.

Do you hear, son of man?

Clouds of heaven, same as our passage.

He approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him.

He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away.

His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.

So in Daniel 7, we have the Son of Man ascending in the clouds of heaven, escorted into the throne room, and receiving a kingdom.

God's Messiah is on par with God.

That's why the high priest tears his robes and says he's blaspheming, he's calling himself God.

He was.

And we see the vision of Daniel 7 beautifully fulfilled in Acts 1, when Jesus teaches them about the kingdom of God, and then it says a cloud received him up to heaven itself.

Now, here in our passage in Matthew 26, as I understand it, Jesus is warning his rulers that his reign as king will culminate in judgment.

We've seen this in Matthew.

Matthew 24, verse 30.

Matthew 24:30

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky.

All the peoples of the earth will mourn.

They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Revelation 1, 7, look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him, so it is to be.

Revelation 14, verse 14, I looked, and there was a white cloud, and one like the Son of Man was seated on the cloud, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

Revelation 14:14

That image we have, the cartoon image of the grim reaper, that's a cartoon.

The son of man is the one in scripture who is coming with the sickle, and we do need to fear him.

So please make no mistake about it.

Jesus is never passive.

He intentionally chooses not to execute his kingly authority in immediate judgment.

He's not passive, but he is patient.

Friends, if any of you haven't bowed the knee to King Jesus, wouldn't you do that today?

Embrace him while there is time, because the Lamb is also the lion.

And he will roar in his fury, he will speak in his wrath, but he still invites us.

Come to me now.

All you that are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.

You hear that sometimes?

If God is real, why do he let me get cancer?

If God is real, why do babies die?

If Jesus rose from the dead, why doesn't he appear to me?

Why doesn't he talk to me?

And I understand there are real questions to be addressed, but it never goes well for people who put Jesus on trial.

Here in Matthew, Jesus has already spoken openly, clearly, plainly, time and time again, and they just don't want to listen.

God has spoken in the created order, his power and divine glory.

He's spoken through his word.

Listen to him.

Listen.

Isaiah 53, 7.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep silent before her shears, he did not open his mouth.

There is a unique glory here to Jesus.

He is fulfilling a mission from God to bring salvation.

And none of us can fulfill that mission.

So there's a large and unique element about the way he acts here in this passage.

But there is an element of his glory that we are called to mirror if we belong to him.

Peter understood this.

Pastor Doug brought this out last week, but Peter's learning his lesson here as he follows Christ.

Matthew tells us that Peter was following along in a distance.

And that same Peter who watched Christ, and he's going to actually deny Christ, but listen to what Peter will write later on.

Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

Peter says, Christ left us an example.

When he was insulted, he did not insult in return.

When he suffered, he didn't threaten, but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

So resist the urge to quickly and always activate that inner lawyer.

If you're just trying to give someone the silent treatment, that's not what Jesus is doing here.

He's not trying to let them know I'm above speaking to you because you've got a lot of problems and I'm doing pretty good over here.

That's not what's happening.

Jesus is giving his heart and his soul over to God.

He's so entirely captured with trust in God and an embrace and understanding of God's purpose in his life that when his reputation is attacked, he can leave it aside and trust in God.

When he's physically assaulted, he can trust in God.

I mean we we face all kinds of opposition.

Sometimes it's mockery, like he experiences here.

For some of us, at different points, maybe in the future, maybe some of you have in the past.

Who knows?

Maybe there's a physical threat to you.

But are we willing to entrust our souls to God?

So, Mike, you're saying we're just supposed to lay down and let people run us over?

Sometimes, yes.

Because Jesus left us an example.

Particularly when it's it's the cause of Christ that's at stake.

That we should be eager to see Christ glorified.

It's not about us and needing to see ourselves justified.

So, particularly when we're persecuted for Christ's sake, we can leave it to the Lord.

But wait a minute, Micah, okay, I I want to hear what you're saying.

But even Peter said we have to be ready to give a reason for the hope we have.

And Peter does say that.

But listen to the context of all that Peter says there.

He says, In your hearts, regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's in you.

Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.

Peter's point is not that we all have to be on a crusade all the time to defend our own rights, or else, who knows what could happen?

It's sanctify the Lord in your heart.

Be ready to give a reason when they ask for the hope you have in the gospel.

That should be the thing that is first and foremost on our minds.

Could it be, let me just ask the question.

Could it be that sometimes the reason we're so easily personally offended is because we think so highly of ourselves.

Not because we want to be such bold champions for Christ.

And there's a place and a time to speak.

Certainly, Paul appealed to his own rights as a Roman citizen at different times.

But but what's controlling our heart?

Where is our worship flowing?

Is it flowing to the Lamb or is it flowing to how can they think of me like that?

When's the last time we were content to be quiet and trust in God?

Now, for all of us, what we need most is to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Listen to Isaiah 50, verses 4 to 7.

Isaiah 50:4–7

The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are instructed to know how to sustain the weary with the word.

And listen as we put these words even on Christ the prophet, he awakens me each morning.

He awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.

I did not turn back.

I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard.

I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.

The Lord our God will help us.

The Lord our God will help me, the Messiah says there in Isaiah.

What a marvelous Savior He is.

You know what He's doing right now as our King?

He's upholding all things by the word of His power.

He's ordering everything in the universe for his glory and for our good.

You know what he's doing right now as our great high priest?

He ever lives to intercede for us.

What is he doing right now as our prophet?

He's speaking to us through his word.

Let's keep listening to him this day and this week.

Let's pray.

Oh Father, oh Lord God, how we thank you that we see glory in Christ time and time again, a glory that astounds us because it's it seems impossible for us to imagine our own ability to be silent in the face of accusation, even though we're often rightly accused.

And yet here the Lord of glory could be the silent lamb, the lion who roared did not roar here at this time.

Oh, how we adore this one, how we claim his righteousness for us, his work for us, his suffering, the wrath of God for us, his righteous response of an open ear and a listening heart and a trust in God.

We want to claim that all as our own today by faith.

So we ask, Lord, that you would receive our prayers this week and that we too would listen, that we too would listen in quietness and trust and find salvation, find a contentment that abounds in a way that the world cannot see and understand, that they might ask about the hope we have, that we might have reason to speak with gentleness and respect of Christ our King.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.