Caiaphas

Good morning, church. Man, you really piped down on the last note. That was good.

Today is part 13 of our current series, Conversations Jesus Had.

Today's conversation is the conversation between Jesus and Caiaphas.

Before we get to that, I wanted to remind you of something that I said way back

in the day, September 15th to be exact, nine weeks ago.

Not that any of you need to remember. I'm sure you remember it,

you haven't forgotten at all.

But just in case you have, or maybe you missed a week, or maybe you've started

attending since then, the plan is, God willing, to finish this 17-part series.

And once we complete it, the plan is to have a quiz for you over the entire...

You remember that? Nah, now you remember, right? I was thinking about that.

Like for some of you, this will be 20, 30, 40, 50 years since you've taken a quiz.

Oh, high schoolers, college folks are like, yeah, yeah, another quiz,

bring it on. I got it, it's good. But for everyone else, isn't this fantastic to take another quiz?

Partly. All right, some. I'll have to build it in. Throughout this series,

there has been plenty of learning throughout the series. I think that is a safe thing to say.

So for those of you who want to see how well you would do on a quiz,

that opportunity is coming to you, God willing, at the end of this series.

And the timing of this is nearly perfect.

I was looking at it, like, you know how the school schedule winds down the fall

semester and then it's Christmas break?

Our quiz would come about at the same time. So we can treat this like a final

exam. It's really good, right? So it's coming.

Pay attention to it there. Most of you, you ace that baby four-question quiz.

Remember that one? Oh, yeah, I got it. You got 100 in the book already. That's good.

This one will be three times that size. So it's coming. Stay tuned.

And in the meantime, be a good student and start studying your notes.

It'll be good, all right? So that's enough about the schoolwork and quizzes.

Let's talk about this conversation that we have because with all this learning

that goes on, there's also been a lot of applying.

Learning is good. Learning is great when it comes with application to our lives.

And that's the goal again for us this morning. We wanna do that.

If you were here last week, you heard Mario, our senior pastor,

he mentioned the name of Caiaphas.

It was part of the Lazarus story that we covered last week. And I think last

week, given a quick recap of that, will serve as a great lead-in for today,

the setting, and as we look at this conversation.

So I wanted to do that. If you remember, Lazarus was sick, and then he died. Remember that part?

Lots of people were sad, really a lot of people, including Martha and Mary, his sisters.

And Jesus, like on purpose, Lazarus was alive, and on purpose, he delayed in coming.

He waited four days before he came. He wanted Lazarus to be dead,

dead, all the way dead. So he had a purpose of doing this.

If you remember, Mario referenced the classic King James Version when he instructed

to move the stone away from the opening of the grave.

And Martha came up with that classic example, classic line, Lord, he stinketh.

And so that's the setting that he has. But he did that because his intention

was to have this great miracle happen of having many people believe that he

was Jesus Christ, Lord Messiah.

That was the goal. And that's what he did. And that's what happened.

When he did that, it also had another effect.

There was an incredible upheaval, a backlash from the Jewish leaders.

And Caiaphas was one of those leaders.

Caiaphas probably, I think one of his most famous lines in the Bible is probably John 11, 50.

And when he said this, remember this from last week,

You're not considering that it is to your advantage that one man should die

for the people rather than the whole nation perish.

In that one sentence, Caiaphas, though unintentionally, he uncovers the entire gospel message.

Isn't that incredible? A non-believer telling the gospel, doesn't know he's

doing it. One man dies for many.

The innocent dies for the guilty. The just dying for the unjust.

The son of God takes the place of guilty sinners.

And he had no idea that he was sharing that gospel. His real intent,

along with many of the other leaders, was to increase their attempts to arrest

him and to ultimately kill him.

And that's what happens according to John 11, 53.

After Lazarus is brought back to life, it says, so from that day on,

they plotted to kill him.

So who is this Caiaphas guy?

Caiaphas was a Sadducee. If you study that enough, you'll find out that Sadducees,

they were often very wealthy men, and they had high positions of authority.

Their purpose, it seemed like their purpose in life was to appease the Roman

government a lot. They were very much into politics.

Maybe they liked living in America the last two or three weeks here,

right? Those kind of people.

They held a majority seat in what was called the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin was a council team of like 70 people, equivalent to what we would

say like is the Supreme Court. It was their Supreme Court of the day.

And Caiaphas there, he was the head of all of that. He was the high priest during the time of Jesus.

Caiaphas had that role for 18 years, a whopping 18 years.

And I say whopping because people didn't hold the office that long, but he did.

So long, long time of nobody outranking Caiaphas.

You need to keep Keep this in mind as we read about this conversation between Jesus and Caiaphas.

Jesus is speaking to a person who intends to kill him.

That's the conversation that we're gonna look at today. Caiaphas was 100% opposed

to Jesus and his ministry. And that might be an understatement.

Caiaphas, like the chief priests, like the Pharisees, they were scared to death

that Jesus was going to cause big time problems from them that would lead to

big time trouble from the Roman empire.

And because of that, they had this deep seated fear of the Roman government

And Caiaphas and all these other religious leaders, they thought it was best

to eliminate Jesus and the problems that he brings.

So from the time that Lazarus was brought back to life until this conversation,

I'm not sure anyone really knows how much time passed.

I don't think it was very long at all. I will just say this,

that when Jesus did that,

raising Lazarus from the dead, it absolutely absolutely move the let's kill

Jesus needle to a heightened level. No doubt about that.

But we do know for sure that this conversation, it takes place after the Lord's

Supper, which we're going to observe here again today.

It takes place during the Passover festival.

It takes place after Judas betrayed Jesus in the garden and he was arrested.

And so I think if we really boil it all down. There's a very good case that

this conversation takes place on the last day that Jesus lived before his crucifixion

in the very early, early hours.

And I'll tell you a little bit more about that as we come up here.

All four of the gospels, they mention this conversation in the book of John.

John just mentions that he went to see Caiaphas, doesn't give any details.

Luke, in Luke's book, he does mention it. He gives a shorter abbreviated version

of what happened in that. And then you have Matthew and Mark.

Those two books almost exactly mirror one another.

It's uncanny how close they are. So this morning, I am going to read from Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

There's the exact same account in Mark 14, both nearly as exact as they're going

to be. So you have options here.

Like I'm gonna read from Matthew 26. It's gonna be on the screens behind me.

But if you wanna flip over and look at Mark 14, you're gonna hear the same story, basically.

Few minor details in between it. So options you have, you can flip back and

forth between the two if you want, whatever.

Float your duck. You can do it, okay? That's it. I'm reading from Matthew 26. Here it goes.

So we've got Jesus just recently arrested. He had been given the kiss of betrayal by Judas.

And now we read this in verse 57.

Those who had arrested Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest,

where the scribes and the elders had convened.

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

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

The chief priest and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false testimony against

Jesus so they could put him to death.

But they could not find any. Even though many false witnesses came forward,

finally, two who came forward is stated, this man said, I can demolish God's

sanctuary and rebuild it in three days. So let me stop right here and quickly

just point out a few things of this.

You've got the Peter following along at a distance. Maybe you are familiar with

one of the most famous Bible verses in the Bible, that this is where the three

denials is going to start happening for Peter.

Matthew doesn't say much about them. The other gospel writers do.

So that happens here in that section. You see that.

The idea of the whole Sanhedrin was looking for reason to kill Jesus.

Again, I told you it was 70 people in it. If you count the high priest, 71.

There are differing opinions as to what this whole assembly looked like.

By law, by Jewish law, they had to have 23 people present to make the quorum

to do these kinds of things. but I'm going to show you here shortly that.

The Sanhedrin, they broke all of their own laws in pulling this off.

They didn't follow the rules at all. So I'm not sure how many were there.

If this trial took place, it's kind of estimated that it happened at somewhere of midnight to 3 a.m.

Like how many are getting out of bed and going? I don't know.

But they really hated Jesus.

So, ooh, I'll be there. I won't miss that meeting. So I'm not sure what the

mentality there was of that. But it's happening here, okay?

And the third thing I wanna point out from these verses that we read,

Jesus really did say that he could destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.

And while everyone in the room, or the people who heard that,

they were completely confused by that.

They thought, oh, he's gonna break down the actual physical temple that was

there. He was really referring to what?

His body, right? He was talking about his own resurrection there. That was for sure.

And then the fourth thing that I wanna say, and probably the most important

for our focus today, with this conversation is this, that this going to Caiaphas'

house at night and during a festival season, it was Passover,

to put Jesus on trial, it was 100% illegal.

It wasn't allowed at all. According to Jewish law.

Only decisions made in the official meeting place were valid.

But conducting a trial at Caiaphas' house in his courtyard there, not allowed.

Like, not allowed, can't do it.

According to Jewish law, criminal cases could not be tried during the Passover

season. This took place during the Passover.

So again, it is not allowed.

According to Jewish law, only an acquittal could be issued on the day of a trial.

Guilty verdicts had to wait one night. It was as if they understood like,

oh, let's just sleep on it tonight and see if we still hold that.

That did not happen as well. We don't read that here, but if we kept reading,

you would see that that did not happen at all.

According to Jewish law, all the evidence had to be guaranteed by two witnesses.

And these witnesses, they were separated and then asked the questions and examined.

And they couldn't have contact with each other. And here we're reading that

everyone's just jumping up together saying all these different things.

Mark, in his telling of this story, he says that the two witnesses couldn't agree.

Mark 14, 59, yet their testimony did not even agree on this.

So again, there's a big, this is not allowed.

And on top of that, the penalty for being a false witness in this type of a

courtroom setting, the punishment, death.

We don't read anything in the text that, oh, these bunch of guys proven to be a bunch of liars.

Let's go out and kill them. It doesn't look that way. It almost looked like it was a railroading.

Bring in these false witnesses. Let's get a quick conviction.

Let's get Jesus to death row.

It was a complete sham. Jesus was being railroaded.

This is governmental corruption, abuse, sabotage at its worst.

However it wasn't going so well which caused Caiaphas to react the way he did in verse 62,

the high priest then stood up and said to him don't you have an answer to what

these men are testifying against you and I wonder if Jesus was thinking silently

are you kidding me no one can agree on anything.

What am I, what are you talking about? Give an answer. But verse 63, Jesus kept silent.

Then the high priest said to him, by the living God, I place you under oath.

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.

Can you get a little mental picture of what this makeshift illegal courtroom

at Caiaphas' house might have looked like?

You got the temple police outside in the courtyard.

Amazingly, I think it's kind of amazing that in these early wee hours,

there were other people who are gathered waiting to see what the outcome is

going to be, while inside there's maybe 70 Sanhedrin members just grilling Jesus

question after question,

looking for a mistake in his testimony, looking for something they can pounce on.

Then there's this pandemonium of all these so-called witnesses as they're trying

to get their stories to align. That's sort of what I picture.

And then there's Caiaphas. What's he doing? Is he sitting on like some elevated

chair, some throne-like chair, just sitting there?

If he had a gavel, is it just rolling in his little sweaty palm? Guilty!

He was anxious to get to that. It's kind of what I see happening in all of these things.

And when it doesn't happen, Caiaphas stands up and maybe for the first time ever in his life.

Talks to the Son of God, Jesus.

And again, we're left to build in our own, what was his tone when he asked this question?

Disgraceful?

Degrading? Don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?

And Jesus doesn't say a word.

But oh, he could have. He could have given a perfect, flawless defense.

Imagine the witnesses that he could have called the dead not living the blind

now seeing the healed folks he could have even called demons we saw that from our series,

but he says nothing and by saying nothing Jesus fulfills a prophecy given by

Isaiah in Isaiah 53, seven.

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.

The most powerful, perfect human being, God in the flesh,

with complete humility, self-control, sits silently.

And when he did not speak, Caiaphas commands Jesus in verse 63,

by the living God, I place you under oath.

Tell us if you are the Messiah, the son of God.

How ironic that Caiaphas puts Jesus under the oath of Jesus because Jesus is the living God.

And now Jesus answers, you have said it.

Jesus confirms what he has been declaring for his entire ministry.

Here, when he is asked, are you the Messiah, the Son of God?

Jesus plainly answers, I am.

Just earlier in this chapter, there was a time when they came to arrest Jesus,

and they asked, are you the Son of God?

And Jesus answered, I am.

And when he said that, the people fell backward to the ground.

I was kind of thinking, it's going to happen again.

It doesn't say it here in this text. But when he says this, this is a claim

that Jesus shares total authority with God in heaven.

Those present, all the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas bunch, those present,

they may have thought that they were his judges.

But in fact, the very reverse is true.

Jesus is their judge. And this is a powerful statement given right to Caiaphas.

He warned them that though they sat in judgment of him now, he would one day sit in judgment of them.

And that judgment will be by far a much more binding judgment.

And Caiaphas completely misses the warning. Verse 65, then the high priest tore

his robes and said, he has blasphemed.

Why do we still need witnesses?

Look, now you've heard the blasphemy. What is your decision?

And they answered, he deserves death. Then they spit in his face, beat him.

Others slapped him and said, prophesy to us, Messiah. who hit you?

And that's the final scene of the conversation between Caiaphas and Jesus.

Caiaphas is in a full rage, full anger.

Jesus is being falsely accused.

Any of us would be guilty. That would be blasphemous, but not Jesus.

And it goes on. He's getting beat and slapped and ridiculed, mocked.

And so we're left with, okay, that's a conversation. What do we do with this?

And I have three things that I think are helpful for us to note.

The first one starts with a reminder. And it's a reminder of what Jesus had

to say about himself in John 10, 18.

He said this, no one takes it from me, referring to his life,

but I lay it down on my own.

I have the right to lay it down and I have the right to take it up again and

I have received this command from my Father.

So despite all the horrible circumstances, it is important to remember that

Jesus is in complete control despite it appearing to be otherwise.

And that is really good news to anyone and everyone who is trusting in Jesus.

Take great comfort in knowing that nothing happens to Jesus unless Jesus allows it to happen to Jesus.

And it extends further than that. It extends to all of his followers.

Nothing happens to any of his followers unless Jesus allows it to happen to his followers.

Jesus is perfect at being able to sympathize with us.

Look what he faced. Look what we face, our troubles.

I'm telling you, if you are a person who is a follower of Jesus Christ,

nothing happens to you unless God allows it to happen to you.

And I will make it very personal this morning because it has been a week.

Nothing happens to me unless God, Jesus, allows it to happen to me.

That's the first thing.

Second, we can make the conclusion that not all religious people are followers of Jesus.

Some religious people are really Christians, but not all religious people are

Christians, including spiritual leaders. That is seen in these verses.

Caiaphas, he lived a stupendous outward life.

He'd be in the running for religious person of the year if they had such a thing.

I mean, from the outside, it looked as if he had it all figured out,

including with wealth and power, prestige, influence, a godly guy full of morality and religion.

But the one thing that matters and the one thing that was missing from his life,

saving faith in Jesus Christ.

And this story of Caiaphas, it needs to stand as a solemn warning,

especially to every religious person who reads these verses.

I kind of put everyone who goes to church into this group has to take this seriously.

Stand here and know that being religious does not guarantee being spiritually enlightened.

And the very hard preaching of this morning is take this to heart.

A third conclusion this conversation reveals is this, that the story of Caiaphas is a tragic story.

Caiaphas knew who Jesus was. He knew the reality of Jesus and yet he denied the truth of Jesus.

Think about this. Literally, the truth, capital T, stood in front of Caiaphas.

He was so close to the truth, so close, but not close enough.

As a religious leader, who ought to have known that everything in the Old Testament

pointed to Christ Jesus, the Messiah, and still Caiaphas, he rejects the truth.

That makes it a tragic story.

And the same can be said of people today there

are many people they know jesus they know who he is they know the reality of

jesus they know that he is god's son who came to take away the consequences

of this earth to anyone who believes and still despite all that truth they reject

jesus and And that's tragic.

And so I will plainly say, and I say it, I want to say it, I say it in love

and compassion and almost pleading with anyone here today.

If you are like Caiaphas and reject Jesus, your life will end in tragedy.

We must take the same warning Jesus gave to Caiaphas. Let me show it to you

again. It's in Matthew 26, 64.

Jesus said to Caiaphas, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at

the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

We had better believe that. Believe that he is going to judge.

Believe that every person is going to be judged. And this judgment,

it comes with eternal implications, forever implications.

Which leaves us with this as an ending.

What Caiaphas asked to his Sanhedrin people and those that are around, we also need to ask.

Matthew 26, 66.

Caiaphas asked, what is your decision?

When it comes to Jesus, what is your decision?

Let's pray.

Father, your word is strong, it's bold, it's powerful, it's perfect.

So as I close us in prayer, I want to praise you and thank you that you are

in total control of all things, not only of your own life.

Nothing happens to you unless you want it to be that way.

We see that in this story so clearly. We see it all through your time.

Your word repeats it over and over again. And it is also true that that just

trickles right down to everything.

There's nothing that you do not control. And for the believers,

followers of Jesus Christ, Lord, I ask that this would be super encouraging,

that they would be able to stand firm on this promise that not only are you

able to understand and just be able to equate with the troubles that we have,

like you went through them, went through them more harshly than us,

but you're sovereign over these.

This is under your authority of our lives.

And certainly this text, we have to acknowledge the tragic ending that appears

to be the case for Caiaphas.

And Father, by your grace, your mercy, and your love,

let it be that all who hear this warning take it to heart and put their trust in Jesus Christ.

Declare that they are sinner, unworthy, huge problem, that they can't take care of their own.

And let them see and be so thankful and grateful that Jesus has taken all of

this, bared our sin, put it on the cross,

so that we can have a relationship with you in eternal life.

Kind of a sweet way to go into the Lord's Supper.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.