He is Good | Jesus on Trial | Mark 14:53-65 | Coleton Segars

Many of you know we're in a series uh titled He is Good going through the Gospel of Mark.

This particular text is about Jesus and one of his trials before his execution.

And um so we'll be reading that text today from Mark 14, verses 53 through 65.

Mark 14:53–65

And this is what Mark writes.

They took Jesus to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the teachers of the law came together.

Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest.

There he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.

The chief priest and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any.

Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.

Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him.

We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with human hands, and in three days will build another, not made with hands.

Yet even then their testimony did not agree.

Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, Are you not going to answer?

What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?

But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

Again the high priest asked him, Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?

I am, said Jesus.

And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven.

The high priest tore his clothes.

Why do we need any more witnesses?

he asked.

You have heard the blasphemy.

What do you think?

And they all condemned him as worthy of death.

Then some began to spit at him, they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, Prophesy.

And the guards took him and they beat him.

This is the word of the Lord.

I had a birthday yesterday.

Really, really thankful for the birthday.

Appreciate that.

Just any reason to get people to clap for me.

No, uh, we Ray and I were talking about it, and she was like, Are you, you know, you're turning, I turned 39.

She's like, Do you feel like getting older is is bad?

And I was like, no, I actually I would love to be like, be turning 49 or something like that.

Because like every year that I get a little closer to old age, I feel like the I I'm I get to teach the Bible from a space of like more authority because I have more life.

And I feel like sometimes I'm uh encouraging or demanding of like 60 and 70-year-olds to do stuff, and that feels weird as a 30-year-old to do that.

And so actually, if I was 49, I would feel like, okay, now you have to listen to me.

Um but I only I only say that because in this text, like I'm going to talk about things that um 10 years from now, I will probably have, I mean, Lord willing, I'll have more wisdom on and be able to break these things into more uh applicable things in your life.

Um because there's some things in here that I want to address and some some ways that I want to push you.

That again, as a 39-year-old, feels a little like, hey, why is that 39-year-old guy pushing me?

Versus like, if I'm 59, it's like, well, of course he's 59.

Old people just start backing out of the driveway without looking, like it doesn't even matter anymore.

I've earned this, and I just want to say, I have not earned this, but I'm gonna teach this text.

And so the he Jesus has earned it, they wrote it down, he wrote it down for me to actually preach, and so I'm gonna try and preach it well.

But I do want to say, I'm not coming at this as like you need to.

It's this is me too.

Like these are the things that I feel like we we need to address in and of ourselves.

Okay.

That was a long intro, just to say.

I want to give you three things today that I want to point out, just three separate things that I want to point out from this text, and then what they can mean for us.

The first of those things will primarily be to unbelievers or just a skeptic or somebody that's not completely sure what they believe about Jesus.

The second will primarily be for believers who are followers of Jesus and are just on that journey with him.

And then the third is honestly just for everybody.

And so something for everybody in the midst of it.

Okay, the first thing that I want to point out is I want to point out the lack of evidence, the lack of evidence that the Sanhedrin finds against Jesus.

And so it says this in verse 55 through 59.

They're looking for evidence against Jesus so that they can put him to death.

Not any evidence, they're looking for specific evidence.

It has an agenda behind their evidence.

I just want some evidence so that we can kill this man.

And it says that they cannot find any.

Then they have people testify against him falsely, but you have to have in Jewish court, you have to have two people.

The witnesses have to be saying the same thing, otherwise, those things are dismissible in a court of law.

And so they had false witnesses prepped to say false things, but they couldn't get their story straight because it's hard to get a lie straight.

And so they were saying different things about Jesus, and every single time someone tried to double down and second someone else's false testimony, they messed it up, and so they were sending them out of the court and going, Well, we can't use that one.

You only have one witness, not two.

And then it happens again.

He said this, and then we had to dismiss that one because they only had one witness and not two.

And so you see in this court case, this trial that Jesus is going through, they just cannot find any evidence against him.

And so this is a rigged trial held by people who hate Jesus.

None of his friends are invited to this meeting.

None of them are like, please come, you give your side of the story about Jesus as well.

None of them are invited.

The witnesses have been prepped to show up in the middle of the night.

So they were told, we need some false witnesses.

Don't show up to the courts like where we normally sit, we're not gonna have the trial there.

You need to show up to the high priest's house in the middle of the night.

And so they they bring these witnesses in, they tell them what to say, and they get these things in there.

All of those things, the sole purpose of the trial is to get evidence to kill Jesus.

And with all of those things, rigged trial, everything they tried to do in order to like rig this thing up so that Jesus ultimately is condemned to his death.

They cannot find any evidence against him.

As hard as they worked, they cannot find a single piece of evidence against him.

And not only that, these men are eyewitnesses of Jesus.

They've heard his teaching, they've watched him, they've seen his miracles, they've literally followed this man around negatively, but they have followed him around consistently trying to see him, and so they are eyewitnesses, and yet, even though they're eyewitnesses, they cannot find evidence proving that Jesus is not the Messiah.

No evidence to prove that he's not the Messiah and that he is deserving of death.

And I say all that because when I have conversations with people, and they're kind conversations most of the time, but I have these conversations with people that say something along the lines, maybe they don't use these words, but something along the lines of like, I have evidence of why I don't believe Jesus is who he says he is.

I just, when I hear that, I hear their story, and I want to hear it, I want to build the relationship.

But when I hear them saying, I have evidence that leads me to believe that Jesus isn't who he says he is, I just try and humbly submit that you do not have more evidence 2,000 years later than the eyewitnesses that actually watched him live.

There's no if if the people, the eyewitnesses who saw him living and saw him doing those things and heard what he said, if they cannot find evidence, humbly, I would just suggest you don't have more evidence than they do.

In a court hearing, they would listen to the eyewitnesses' account as more dependable and more credible than yours.

If you showed up 2,000 years later, and like I read a thing one time about their eyewitness accounts, they would listen to the literal people who saw those things and saw that stuff the most.

They would listen to their evidence, and what you find is they don't have any.

They don't have any evidence to prove, to disprove that Jesus is who he says he is.

They don't have any of that.

And so it's important for us to see that even the eyewitnesses in a rigged trial cannot condemn Jesus, cannot get there because they can't find evidence to disprove him.

Now, they still do it, but they didn't do it because they found anything valid.

They just did it because they had already decided to do it.

But they don't find any evidence.

And so it leads me to the question to ask you if if that's if that's someone in your life or if that's you right right now, going, Yeah, I feel like I have some evidence.

If you don't believe that Jesus is who he says he is, what evidence are you hanging your hat on not to believe that?

Like, what what evidence do you have that the eyewitnesses couldn't find?

Because they should have reached out to you.

They should have been like, oh my gosh, that person has it.

I we didn't have any evidence, but lo and behold, this guy that lived 2,026 years later, he had some stuff.

We should have asked him.

Like they can't find anything.

And so my question is like, if if you think like I have reason to believe that he's not who he says he is, but the people who lived during his time could not find anything, even though they're they hated him and they're trying to, what evidence are you pointing to to determine and to hold your space and like I don't believe Jesus is who he says he is because, and then give me that line, because they can't seem to find it.

I would suggest that 2,000 years later or more, we have more evidence to consider the truthfulness of Jesus' claims, not more evidence to disprove him.

We have more evidence to actually prove that everything that he said and who he was exists, not more evidence to go see he's not who he says he was.

Dr.

James Alan Francis writes this about Jesus' unbelievable impact on mankind, and I think it's a really incredible story, uh, just a take on Jesus' life.

But he says this.

He says he was born, Jesus was born in an obscure village as the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another obscure village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30, and then for three years was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book, he never held an office, he never owned a home, he never had a family, he never went to college, he never put his foot inside a big city, he never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born.

He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of popular opinion turned against him.

His friends ran away, one of them denied him, another betrayed him, he was turned over to his enemies, he went through the mockery of a trial, he was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

While he was dying, his executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth, and that was his coat.

When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

And then he says this Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of mankind upon the earth as powerfully as this one solitary life.

And his point is like, this isn't Caesar Augustus, like he's not the ruler of Rome or the ruler of nations.

Like, how is it that we're still talking about a carpenter from Nazareth?

How is it that all of our birthdays are dated around the year of his birth?

And it's like every time I have a birthday, or every time you have a birthday, or what, like you're going, you are aged in a certain way, and it's like, why are you aged that way?

Like I was born in 1987 years, 1987, I was born 1987 years after the birth of Jesus, or somewhere around there.

And like, why is it that everybody, like, why is it that my birthday is built around this random carpenter from Nazareth who did some cool stuff and preached a lot?

Like, what is that?

And he's just saying to them, to the people who are actually putting him on trial, they didn't have any of that information.

They didn't know any of that about Jesus.

I mean, they knew some of it, but like they didn't know that 2,000 years from this particular moment, like, he's gonna be the central figure in all of history.

They probably, the Sanhedrin probably thought of Jesus like there are tons of Messiah figures that pop up, all of them claiming to be Messiah.

Here's what happens to them you kill them, and then their movement dies too.

They die, their movement dies.

And so they're just thinking, Jesus did a lot of really weird stuff.

He said a lot of really weird stuff, but honestly, if we put him to death, everything that he stood for will die too.

They do not have, they did not know that 2,000 years later, his influence would expand, not shrink.

His movement would grow, not actually diminish.

It didn't die, it came to life.

Jesus said it, that's the reason is because it's a seed.

As soon as the seed dies, something sprouts and grows, and you cannot control the growth.

And so we have that.

Today we know his movement did not end in his death.

It actually continued to expand.

And so we have more evidence to believe in him, not to disprove him or not to not believe him.

And so my point is like they can't find this evidence.

What evidence are you holding on to that you think you can hold on to?

Or are you not giving him a fair trial the way that they're not giving him a fair trial?

Because the evidence points, we can't find any evidence to kill him, the evidence then points to actually enthrone him, but they don't do that.

The evidence only works if you actually look at it and actually look at it honestly.

And they weren't willing to do that.

And so are you willing to look at evidence honestly?

Or you're like, honestly, any evidence that I get, I have unconditional negative regard for Jesus.

I anything that I see about Jesus, anything I hear that may make me think that maybe he is, I dismiss it immediately.

And to me, if that's you, you don't look at the evidence and you're not actually allowing it to shape you, if you don't look at the people who hate him that can't find evidence, if you don't see that, then you wind up in a space where you're not actually giving him a fair trial, and it doesn't matter what they say because you've already decided what you're gonna do with him.

That's the first.

Second, I want to look at the injustice.

The injustice that you see in this thing.

The first was the lack of evidence, the second is the injustice.

I've mentioned that the trial is rigged, right?

This is a rigged trial, um, but there's also like a number of laws that are being broken during this particular trial as well.

I have a lot of slides up here.

This is from the preacher's commentary.

I try to convince them, but just so you know, I'm just gonna give you a handful of things where you see like all of the injustice, all the laws that are being broken from the Sanhedrin themselves.

Like they have governing laws to govern how they put someone to trial and actually condemn someone to death.

They have all these laws and they're breaking all these different things.

And so the first injustice that you see is that the arrest in the garden was illegal.

It was illegal because Jesus was arrested without formal charges.

There's actually the trial itself is to come up with a charge against him, and they don't have one yet.

And so you're not supposed to arrest someone until that point.

And so he's been convicted of nothing to this point, so the arrest is illegal according to their rules.

Second, the Sanhedrin cannot consider the case of capital offense on a feast day according to its own rules, yet it meets during Passover, with the one intention in mind to convince convict Jesus of a capital offense.

Third, by the same rules, the council cannot make final judgments if it meets at night or outside its sacred chambers in the temple, but they gather at Caiaphas's house at night to finalize the condemnation of Jesus.

Fourth, the condemnation of Jesus requires the unanimous testimony of at least two witnesses.

On no account can they actually get their witnesses to agree.

Fifth, after Jesus confesses his claim to be the Messiah in answer to Caiaphas's question, there's no test of the claim that follows.

Caiaphas just leaps to a verdict of blasphemy.

They're supposed to test it.

You claim to be the Messiah, let's see it.

He doesn't do any of that.

He just jumps immediately to blaspheme.

Sixth, in direct violation of its principle, the Sanhedrin does not wait 24 hours before the hearing and the sentence in Jesus' case.

The Sanhedrin arrests, arraigns, tries, convicts, and sentences Jesus within the matter of an hour or two.

The point is, is like what we need to see is like there's so much injustice, there's so much evil, there's so much wickedness that's taking place in this space.

There's so much wrongdoing that's happening in this space.

And even with all that wrongdoing, God's plan continues to move forward exactly the way it was supposed to.

Everything that was going to happen is still like wickedness, evil, and justice does not hinder what God has planned to do throughout history.

It will not do that.

And so you look at our nation, you look at what's going on in your life, you look at all the different things that are happening.

Will something hinder what God is planning to do?

No, nothing can hinder what God is actually.

I've decided to do this, nothing can get in the way of that.

I will absolutely accomplish what I set out to accomplish.

And it wickedness can increase on the earth, and it will not hinder.

I will actually use it and bend it to accomplish the plan that I have.

He actually says this, you see this in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53, Isaiah the the book at least, was written 330 to however many years, 330 years or more before any of this happens.

But it's already prophesied like God is going to take in justice and he's going to take these things and he's going to use them as stepping stones to get to where he actually wants to go.

Look at what Isaiah writes, and he's writing about the Messiah.

It says, He, the Messiah, was oppressed and afflicted, yet, like Jesus, he did not open his mouth.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep before its shears is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

From arrest and judgment he was taken away, yet who of his generation protested?

Nobody protested.

They all left and fled and abandoned him.

For he was cut off from the land of the living, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet this was the Lord's will.

It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and through his life to make an offering for sin.

And so you see like all of these different things, you see all of this injustice happening, and you see all this stuff falling on Jesus, and it's going, Is this hindering God's plan?

It's like this, he is using this.

Not that what they're doing is right, because what they're doing is wrong.

What they're doing is sinful, but he is using even their wicked, sinful, evil decisions.

He is bending those things in order to accomplish good things in the world and through Jesus' life to make an offering for sin.

I love the way that James Stewart said it many years ago.

He says that the very triumphs, the victories of his foes, he used, God used for their defeat.

He compelled their dark achievements to serve his end, not theirs.

They nailed him to the tree, not knowing that by that very act they were bringing the very world to his feet.

They gave him a cross, not guessing that he would make it a throne.

They thought to root out his doctrines, not understanding that they were implanting forever in the hearts of men the very name that they intended to destroy.

They thought they had defeated God with his back to the wall, penned and helpless and defeated.

They did not know that it was God Himself who had tracked them down.

He did not conquer in spite of evil.

He conquered by using it.

Just a power there that we don't have.

We experience evil in our lives, we experience wickedness in our lives, or just things not going well.

And we immediately begin thinking, like, is everything ruined now?

Like, is will my life move into the direction it's supposed to go?

Because things have happened to me.

Things have happened in the nation.

People have treated me unkindly.

My parents didn't give me the best start that I needed.

Like, I the job, the boss that I had, like all of these things, like, can those things get in the way?

Have they disrupted somehow the thing that God wants to do in my life?

Is it like was my life supposed to be here, but because of how like that person broke up with me or that thing kind of happened in my life?

Am I supposed to be in God's plan here, but somebody got in there with their wickedness?

Somebody got in there and just worn up, they just didn't play their part in my life.

My life would be here, but that person, that thing, whatever that is, they didn't do what they were supposed to do.

And so now my life can't reach that, or I'm not in that particular place because of whatever wickedness, whatever evil, whatever disappointing thing that we experience, it just broke where I actually should be.

And the answer to that is like, that is a lie.

They cannot hinder what God has planned to do in your life.

They can't do that.

I'm not saying that it might not hurt, but they cannot hinder it.

God is, if he has decided to bless you, blessing is what you will experience.

You still may experience people cursing you or experiencing hardship and evil and things like that.

But if he has decided to bless you, those things will be, again, stepping stones moving you towards the direction that he actually wants you to go.

David, before he was king, God said, he decided, David, you are going to be king.

And then King Saul was like, I will do anything in my power.

I will kill people, I will, I will murder you and everyone else.

I will do any evil to make sure that you're not king.

And every single decision that Saul makes, trying to keep David from the throne, only extends the ascension to the throne that David has.

Every decision, every piece of wickedness that he decides to do ends up leading David more and more to the throne, not actually hindering him from it.

It's a slow journey, but it is true.

Look at the thing.

Saul's like, I will never allow God's plan to take place.

And God just scoffs and laughs.

It's like, that's do your worst.

Honestly, I will use the evil that you do, I will bend it and use it for my good in order to accomplish my plan.

And the same is true for you.

God has decided.

That's why David says, I will remain confident of this.

I will I will experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

I will remain confident of this.

I will experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

He's like, I've just I've just seen it.

I've just watched it happen.

I've just seen people try to be cruel to me, and I just know, like, well, that hurts, and I hate that you're acting that way, and it really does.

It is a hardship and it is a burden and it is suffering.

But I know that he will bend it.

He has decided to bless me, and so I'm just waiting to experience it.

He will use even evil in order to actually accomplish the plan that he has for you.

When I was uh a kid, my parents divorced, uh, but God decided to bless me.

And uh I did not like my parents' divorce.

Everybody, everybody's good now.

Um, but if I could have.

Gone back for so many years, I would have changed it if I could, and that kind of thing.

It actually made me really mad at God that those things happened.

But he decided to bless me.

And so my mom wound up uh kind of moving around and found herself in Memphis, and God had decided to bless me.

And so one time I'm here and I visit here and then come to live here, and that's where I meet Rainey.

And it's like, I God need I need to get Colton to Memphis, Tennessee.

And it's like, well, is it through a bunch of righteous decisions that are really good that everybody really agrees with?

Like, no, I can I can use those and I can also use bad ones.

I can do that too.

And so it was through this thing that I would have preferred didn't happen, but he used something that I actually did not love, and he used it to actually lead me into a space where I met my wife, and now I'm here and doing all this stuff.

And I'm like, I'm so thankful for that.

I couldn't have written that story if I wanted to.

But if he has decided to do something in your life, there's nothing that anybody else can do to hinder it.

Even Peter, like it was his own sin.

Like it's my own sin.

Like, can my own sin derail what God's planned for me?

And in that, I would say, like, yeah, if you just choose to reject God's plan for you, he's not gonna force it on you.

But Peter eventually, like, he's gonna deny Jesus, right?

In a couple of texts here.

He's gonna deny Jesus.

But in that sin, he eventually brings that to Jesus.

Jesus restores him, forgives him, brings him back.

Peter is very repentant of his sin.

Has this ruined your plan for my life to use me to extend the church?

Has this ruined the plan that uh of like me being a pillar in the life of the church and actually extending the gospel into Jerusalem and at the ends of the earth?

Didn't did my sin ruin the plan that you had for me?

And Jesus is like, You you repented of that.

Now you're not gonna be defined by your sin, and so let's just move forward.

And then Peter steps out into the world, and one, I think it's in Acts 4, he gets to a space where he's standing before the Sanhedrin, like Jesus was.

And once again, he's kind of facing this question of like, are you going to deny Jesus?

Are you gonna do that thing?

Because they're asking him questions, and he is very bold.

The sin that he experienced of denying Jesus now has been used for good in his life, because now he's like, I'll never do that, Jack.

I'm never gonna do that again.

I will never deny him again.

And so he says, I just want, before everybody, I just want you to know the person that I'm doing this stuff in, the name that I'm doing this stuff in, the people I'm healing, the name that it's happening in, it's the name of Jesus, the Christ, the one that you crucified, the one that you killed.

I just want to set that out in front of everybody.

And it's almost like you can feel the you know, the weeks before, the years before, where he was like, I just I want the opportunity to not deny him again.

And he finally gets one and he's like, hold up, everyone, I have a I got something to say.

And he's like, I need to let you know.

But it was like that sin, did it derail the plan for his life?

Like, no, God took it, he he repented of it, God used it and twisted it and transformed it into something where now it's like, I know what I used to be, and I'm not gonna do that anymore.

He took something that was something that was very shameful, and he used it as a testimony to transform Peter.

And so what God has planned to do and purposed for you in your life cannot be thwarted by the people in your life that treat you evil or the people that just don't play their part the right way, and even your own sin if you will just give it to him.

Now, if you reject him completely, again, he's not gonna force his life on you.

But there's life that he has for you that nothing can stop, regardless of how the world around you is functioning.

The world can be falling down, and he can use that to actually establish something for you, because nothing can stop him.

And so you see the injustice here, and yet you see in the midst of injustice God's plan going forward.

That is also true for our lives as well.

Last.

I want to look at the answer that Jesus gives.

The answer that Jesus gives.

So the high priest, they're talking to him and asked him, Are you not gonna answer what testimony these men are bringing before you?

Are you gonna do any of that stuff?

And it says that Jesus remained silent and gave no answer.

And it says again, the high priest asked him, Are you the Messiah?

The son of the blessed one.

This is not the first time that they've asked him, Are you the Messiah?

Um they've asked him this before in previous areas of his ministry.

It says, I am.

Jesus answers, I am.

And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest tears his clothes, says, Why do we need more witnesses?

You've heard this blasphemy, calls it blasphemy immediately, and then they all condemn him as worthy of death.

What I want to point out in this answer that Jesus gives is that Jesus had kind of avoided this question in the past.

Like they've they've asked him a handful of times, like, why don't you just go out and just tell us plainly that you're the Messiah?

And he's like, I've already told you.

But he doesn't say, I am.

He doesn't, he doesn't, he's not saying those words that directly and that clearly.

Um, even like demons are saying, You are the son of God, and he's like, Be quiet, don't say that out loud.

Like he is avoiding this.

He's avoiding this moment here.

He's avoiding telling anyone that he actually is.

He's he's avoiding saying it this outright throughout the gospels.

And then going through this trial, they can't find any evidence.

We talked about that, they can't find any evidence against him to condemn him.

And so for Jesus, realistically, all he has to do is stay silent, and they will probably just beat him up and let him go.

Because they won't have any charges against him.

They can't call him a blasphemer, he hasn't said anything yet.

If he just stays there silent, all Jesus has to do is like, I'll just continue to be silent, and then they will be forced to actually release me.

They'll be forced to let me go.

And so often, like, you've avoided this question, you you you've told people to be quiet about it, like you've you you just haven't done this.

Like, if you're just silent, all of a sudden you're not condemned to death.

Why did you speak?

Like, why did you do that?

But he gives them exactly what they need in order to ensure that he is condemned to death.

And so instead of being silent, he gives them the exact thing that they need to pin him on and to say this thing.

And to me, as you look at this, he's in this court case and he's doing all this stuff, he's he's being judged by wicked people, he's being judged by sinful people.

But Jesus gives them exactly what they need, he says exactly what they need in order to kill him, and he does that, he ensures that he is condemned, even though he's not guilty of sin, he ensures that he will be condemned to death.

And the reason that he does that is because one day we will stand in a court case.

You and I will stand in the trial before God, and we will be guilty of sin.

But here, the innocent one is condemned to death.

And he does that so that when we stand before God guilty of sin, that we will actually not be condemned to death, but we will be exonerated, that we will actually be freed of that thing.

And so what Jesus is doing is not like, ah, now's a good time, I'll say it now.

He is in a court case that will that is very similar to the one that we will face one day.

But here the world is judging God, and eventually God will judge the world.

And here the world condemns the innocent to death, and God will actually forgive the guilty one day.

Those who are in Jesus, like that is what's what's true of him.

And so he is doing this on purpose and winding up in a space to make sure the world will declare the innocent guilty so that one day God will declare the guilty innocent.

That's what he wants to do.

And so that's why he's saying that thing.

It's out of love for you, it's out of love for me that he's doing that.

He's like, no one can stand before God and be innocent unless the innocent is condemned today.

I have to be condemned today.

I have to be condemned to death.

I have to transform my place in theirs, I have to take their spot, I have to substitute my space for theirs.

And so he is saying this, even though if he stayed silent, he could walk away free.

He all he has to do is be quiet.

Say nothing and they'll release you.

And he's like, I cannot do that, because if I say nothing and they release me, you will be held accountable to your sin.

You will be guilty before God, and now no one will experience the life that I actually have for them.

So I will be condemned even though I'm innocent, so that you will be declared innocent even though you should be condemned.

That is what he's doing in this space.

Isaiah 53 talks about this.

Again, Isaiah 53 is really just all about what Jesus is experiencing right now.

And it says it was the Lord's will to crush him, to cause him to suffer.

The Lord makes his life an offering for sin.

By his, the the servant, the Messiah's knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

He poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors, for he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

He chooses death on your behalf so that you can experience life.

He chooses death so that you can experience life.

It's this really beautiful thing that he's done, this interchange, this substitution thing that he's doing.

It's like he can see into this space in this great white throne judgment that's coming, and he's like, I just want many sons and daughters to enter into the kingdom of God.

And it's like, well, then what should I do?

I was like, I have to make sure they condemn me as guilty so that I can make sure we forgive them even though they're guilty.

We have to do that thing, and that's what he chooses to do.

I read this quote a lot because I love it, but I think it speaks so much to Jesus' love for us.

But he says, despite our sin, our creator thinks that we are worth experiencing a hellish death for.

In fact, it was for the joy of spending eternity with us that Jesus endured the cross.

In other words, the cross reveals our unsurpassable worth and significance to God.

And at the core of our being, this is what we long for.

The core of our being is like, I just want to matter to somebody.

I just want somebody to protect me.

I want somebody to love me this much.

And Jesus is like, I am literally standing in a spot where I could just go free, but I am choosing to stay here, making sure I'm condemned, making sure I will die.

They can't, like, they can't find a reason to kill me.

I'm gonna give them one so that you won't actually have to experience that.

I love you that much.

I'm about to leave and go free, but I want to make sure that I protect you.

And at the core of our being, that's what we long for.

Because of what Jesus has accomplished here and what he chooses to move forward and do.

If you struggle with sin, and you're like, man, I just struggle with sin.

I can't believe that God still loves me in the midst of just struggling with so much sin.

Because of what Jesus has done for you, God will never say to you about your sin, you are going to pay for that.

Like, oh, you sinned once, that's not that bad, but honestly, you keep coming to me with the same sin over and over and over again.

You keep struggling with the same thing over and over and over again.

Do you think that I'm gonna continue to forgive you over and over and over again?

And the answer is yes, because Jesus was condemned for all sin.

And he made many justified, and he made many cleansed.

And so he will never say to you, God's never gonna look at you and say, That sin you have to pay for.

He's gonna say, That sin has been paid for.

Jesus paid for it.

And so I think we struggle with this thing.

It's like, I just, it's easy to believe that God can forgive that person or that person or like me at the beginning of my life when I hadn't struggled with so much or I didn't know so much, but now that I kind of know God and that kind of stuff, I still struggle with all these sins.

It's easy to believe that in these moments that like I just feel I have to struggle that God's mad at me and angry at me, and He's not gonna forgive me anymore.

And the answer to that is like, that is not true.

Jesus has purchased for you a status that now you are righteous before God.

My son, I love him.

And the older he gets, the more his personality just rubs you the wrong way sometimes, right?

Love him so much.

When he was three and four, he had this cuteness about him that even if his personality rubs you the wrong way, it's like, but he's so freaking cute, right?

Now he's 10 and smells bad sometimes, and like you just like it's not as cute anymore.

But he does these things, I mean, he sins, right?

He he makes mistakes, he does stuff, he sins.

But when he does something terribly bad and he does it over and over and over again, does it ever change his status as my son?

Like if he killed somebody, please, you know, don't do that.

But if he killed somebody, like, would I then go like I don't know who you are, I would say, my son killed somebody.

His sin cannot change his status in my life.

Your sin cannot change the status that God has given you.

It might affect your flesh and it might affect your life, but it cannot change your status.

If you are his son, if you are his daughter, your status is secure.

Now you may be sinning like crazy, but your status is secure.

And he might look at you and be like, all of my kids sin, but that guy sins a lot.

But but it's not out of shame or condemnation.

It's like the status hasn't changed.

You are still his son, you're still his daughter, you're still righteous before his eyes because your status cannot be changed.

Your status is based on what Jesus has done for you.

And if Jesus had chosen not that, if he chose not to enter into this moment, then we wouldn't have a status.

But he did in time choose to step into this space.

And so our status as righteous, our status as son and daughter is secure and cannot be shaken by our sin.

You can never outsen his grace.

You can never outsin your status.

It cannot happen.

Grace will always abound and cover those things.

And so it needs to be this thing for us that we live in that.

Like, why do like does he love me?

He chose to suffer for you.

He had the ability to go free and he chose to step in so that you can actually live in the freedom of knowing, I am covered by him, I am loved by him.

He is for me and not against me.

We have to live inside that reality.

Otherwise, we will live our lives constantly wondering, is God out to get me?

Every bad thing that happens in our lives, it'll be like, oh, that was probably because of my sin.

He's punishing me because of my sin.

Like, no, Jesus chose to be punished for your sin.

There is no more punishment for your sin to give.

He has poured it out.

He poured his life out unto death.

Everything has been poured out on Jesus.

Now, if you I would mess up my relationship with Rainey, not that there's not consequences to your sin, but if I went around sleeping with a bunch of women, like that would mess up my relationship with Rainey.

There's consequences, but if I'm like, God, why are you doing this to me?

He's like, I didn't do any of that, you did that.

Like that's a consequence of sin.

And so there are consequences, but punishment has been poured out on him.

He took it so you wouldn't have to.

He took it so that one day you could stand before him.

And in this fear of like all the stuff, you know, everything that you've ever done in your entire life, or maybe some of it, not all of it, but you will stand there one day before God and been like, please don't judge me.

And he is like, Why would I judge you?

Someone's already been judged on your behalf.

Come on, move in.

Let's go.

We got stuff to do.

Let's do this thing.

Like, it is not gonna be, eh, well, I guess I'll let you in.

It's like what he has accomplished for you is far greater than anything that you could ever do that's bad or sinful.

We need to live in that reality.

Our life is covered by Jesus, and it's such a gift.

And it's because he chose to actually step into this thing.

Live inside that thing, go to him, depend on him, trust that he loves you, that he's for you and not against you.

Love you guys, let me pray.