Sermon: The Supreme Court of Heaven (Mark 14:53-72)

The Supreme Court of Heaven
Sunday, August 11^th, 2024
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Mark 14:53-72

⁵³And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes.

⁵⁴And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.

⁵⁵And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none.

⁵⁶For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.

⁵⁷And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying,

⁵⁸We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.

⁵⁹But neither so did their witness agree together.

⁶⁰And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

⁶¹But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

⁶²And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

⁶³Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?

⁶⁴Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

⁶⁵And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.

⁶⁶And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest:

⁶⁷And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.

⁶⁸But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew.

⁶⁹And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.

⁷⁰And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto.

⁷¹But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.

⁷²And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for the perfect and holy silence of Jesus, who held his peace before false accusations, and then was unashamed confess the truth, that He was and is ever shall be the great I AM. Grant us that same peace and courage as we bear witness to You in this hostile world. We ask this in Christ’s name, Amen.

Introduction

This morning, we come to the first of two trial scenes that will ultimately result in Christ’s crucifixion.

• Here in our text Jesus is first tried and condemned by the highest Jewish authorities.
• And then next week we will see Jesus tried and condemned by the highest Roman authorities.
  • And so the theme of this section in Mark is the contrast between justice and injustice, truth and falsity. And in Mark’s classic style, there is irony all the way through.
• Last week we studied the contrast between the flesh and the spirit, and here that contrast continues as we see Jesus (full of the spirit) silent before his accusers, and then there is Peter (minding his flesh) who is loud and vehement in his denials of Christ.
  • So Mark tells this story in such a way as to contrast Jesus who stands firm before the highest earthly authorities, and Peter who wavers and cowers and hides before even the lowest servants, a young servant girl.
    • It says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” And here we see those two distinct spirits at work.
    • The carnal spirit of fear in Peter makes him afraid to lose his life.
    • Whereas in Christ, we behold the spirit of power and love and serenity in his face.
• So that is the contrast Mark is drawing our attention to here. So let us walk through this text together and see how God might teach us to live unashamed of Christ and His Word.

Outline of the Text

There are three basic sections to our text:

• 1. In verses 53-59, Jesus is falsely accused.
• 2. In verses 60-65, Jesus speaks the truth and is condemned.
• 3. In verses 66-72, Peter denies knowing the Lord.

Verse 53

⁵³And they led Jesus away to the high priest: and with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes.

• Recall that Judas has just betrayed our Lord, and now they are escorting him from the garden of Gethsemane to the house of the high priest.
  • The high priest was Caiaphas, and we learn from John’s gospel that before going to Caiaphas’ house, they stop at Annas’ house, who was Caiaphas’ father-in-law.
  • It says in John 18:12-14, “Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.”
  • So whatever judicial proceedings may follow, the high priest as judge has already predetermined the verdict. Jesus is guilty. Jesus must die, and it’s just a matter of finding a charge that will stick.

Verse 54

⁵⁴And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest: and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.

• So Mark toggles back to Peter, and again we learn from John’s gospel that John himself (who personally knew Caiaphas) tells the maiden at the door to let Peter into the courtyard (John 18:16-17).
• And where do we find Peter? Trying to blend in. Warming himself at the fire of the ungodly.
• This is the hour of darkness, when the light of the world is going to be snuffed out, and instead of joining the true light, the true God, as he goes to the cross, Peter opts for the warmth and fellowship and fire of the wicked.
  • Bad company ruins good morals, and it is this fellowship with the world that too often precedes apostasy.
• Returning now to the trial…

Verses 55-59

⁵⁵And the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none.

⁵⁶For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.

⁵⁷And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying,

⁵⁸We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.

⁵⁹But neither so did their witness agree together.

• So in spite of the council’s plans to manufacture a guilty verdict, they are unable to find two witnesses who can agree.
• And this is typical of the self-righteous Pharisaic mindset, to attend closely to procedural details and the appearance of justice (having two witnesses), while at the same time ignoring the actual justice of the law.
  • This is the bureaucratic nanny state that we have made for ourselves in America. Suffocating and unjust laws, but all in the name of justice.
• At the same time, because evil is ultimately unintelligible and irrational, it’s not surprising that these men who are plotting an unjust death sentence, are struggling to find witnesses that can agree.
  • It says in Proverbs 14:22, “Do not they err that devise evil?”
  • And in Proverbs 14:16-17, “the fool rageth, and is confident. He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly…”
  • So the Bible teaches that those who plan and devise evil make mistakes along the way. Even Satan, the ultimately criminal mastermind, destroyed his own kingdom by crucifying Christ.
    • This is why criminals get caught and thieves are fools. Because envy and anger blind the mind from thinking clearly. And so even the cleverest of the wicked is ultimately found out. Indeed “they err that devise evil.”
• The closest they can come is to twisting the words of Jesus, where he says in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They reinterpret what Jesus said of “the temple of his body” (John 2:21), and they apply it to their literal sanctuary.
• But despite being united in their evil intentions, this council is unable to make anything stick. Whatever charge they send to Pontius Pilate needs to stand up to Roman law, not just Jewish law, and they know that.
  • Remember, the Jews did not have authority to carry out the death penalty themselves. This was a power Rome reserved for itself, and so it was one thing to condemn Jesus to die for sabbath breaking, or heresy, or some religious law, but if Rome was going to execute Jesus, it had to be for something more serious like treason or sedition or the destruction of the sanctuary.
• How then do you convict a perfect man? All you can really do is lie. You have to make stuff up. Except here even their lies don’t agree. And in this instance, Rome is keeping them honest. The fact that there is a higher power above them, forces Caiaphas to confront Jesus directly.

Verses 60-61a

⁶⁰And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

⁶¹But he held his peace, and answered nothing.

• Why does Jesus hold his peace? For at least two reasons:
  • 1. Because Jesus knows what time it is.
    • It says in Ecclesiastes 3, “There is a time to be born, and a time to die…A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”
    • And in this instance, Jesus is the wise man who knows Proverbs 23:9 which says, “Speak not in the ears of a fool: For he will despise the wisdom of thy words.”
    • And Proverbs 26:4 which says, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou also be like unto him.”
    • What could Jesus even say to these fools? Their mind is already made up, they already know what they want to believe, they don’t have ears to hear, and therefore anything he says can and will be used against him.
    • False accusations that don’t agree are their own refutation. What more can be said?
    • There are times when silence is perfect wisdom, and Jesus knows the time for silence and suffering has come. He is the sheep silent before his shearers as Isaiah prophesied.
  • 2. Jesus holds his peace to teach us to do the same.
    • It says in Proverbs 13:3, “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.”
      • So we, like Jesus, must learn when to argue our case, when to defend ourselves, and when doing so would make us companions to fools. But how do you which situation is which?
      • As we said last week, these kinds of judgments cannot be made soberly if you are living according to the flesh, if you are governed by emotions and ego and carnal passions.
        • Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15, “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things…”
    • So to walk in the spirit is to imitate Christ, and there were times when Jesus had no problem starting arguments, ending arguments, offending his interlocutors, and refuting his opponents.
      • Jesus who is perfect love incarnate hurt people’s feelings for their good. There are times when giving offense is the best medicine. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
      • And then there are other times when you should take a different course.
        • It says in Proverbs 11:17, “He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own Is like one who takes a dog by the ears.”
        • Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:23, “foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do generate strifes.”
    • Summary: There is a time for teaching and arguing and defending oneself (a soft word turns away wrath), but then there is a timefor silence, and avoiding foolish controversies, and for patient endurance as you wait for God to vindicate you.
  • Jesus was facing a situation that is described well by Psalm 11:3 which asks,“If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do?”
    • In other words, when the courts of human opinion and the foundations of earthly civil justice are filled with fools and criminals, what is there to say?
      • The answer is given in the next verses of the psalm: “The Lord is in His holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind Shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.”
    • This is how Jesus and the saints live when the foundations are destroyed: They look to the supreme court of heaven, to the LORD who sits in his holy temple, and who promises to stand up and vindicate the righteous.
  • This is what allowed Jesus to remain silent in this instance: it was the knowledge that Truth and that Justice would win out in the end.
  • And this is the same reason why we don’t take vengeance into our own hands. Because God sees all, and God shall judge. And so while silent before our adversaries, before false accusations and persecution, our hearts cry out to God for vindication. And God promises to hear those cries.
  • So outward silence for the saints means fervent prayer on the inside.
  • When earthly courts are stacked against us, we appeal to God’s throne on high, to the supreme court of heaven that one day shall overturn every false opinion and false judgment ever rendered.
• Returning to our text, Jesus finally breaks his silence. And what does he break his silence to do? To reveal his true identity as Son of God and Son of Man.

Verses 61b-64

Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

⁶²And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

⁶³Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?

⁶⁴Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.

• Here is the charge that will incriminate Jesus not only before the Jews but before Rome as well: Jesus claims to be king. Jesus claims to be God. Jesus is LORD. He is the great I AM.
  • That is the truth that gets Jesus crucified, because according to the laws of men, the very existence of such a person is both blasphemy and treason.
  • And in this sense, the Jews and Romans understood better than most American Christians the political implications of who Jesus is.
    • If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not.
    • If Jesus is God, then our laws must conform to His.
    • If Jesus is King and Creator, then we are his subjects whether we like it or not.
    • That is the claim that gets Jesus crucified, and it is that same claim that will continue to get us Christians in trouble with every wicked regime.
• So how does the high priest respond to such a claim?
  • Verse 63 says, “the high priest rent his clothes,”
  • It’s interesting that Mark includes this detail because it says explicitly in Leviticus 21:10 that unlike the other priests, the high priest “shall not rend his clothes.”
  • And further, what does the rending of one’s garments signify?
    • For the king, to cut his garment was to cut up the kingdom.
    • For the priest, to tear his clothes was to tear up the priesthood.
    • Tearing of the clothes is a tearing of one’s office, station, and person.
    • And so what has the high-priest done? Unwittingly, he has spoken the truth that his office is going to be torn from him, just like the temple veil would be torn in two.
      • The high priests’ garments were like wearable version of the temple veil. God intended that the high-priest embody in himself the people of Israel in their priestly service before God’s throne.
      • And so this whole trial in the high priest’s house is a radical inversion of the Levitical priesthood.
      • The high priest was there to serve the Lord in the Lord’s house. And here the Lord incarnate is put on trial and accused of blasphemy in the high priest’s house.
      • So it is fitting that he tear his garments, for very soon his priesthood shall be deposed.
• Continuing in verse 65 we see how the rest of the council treats him.

Verse 65

⁶⁵And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.

• Here is another one of those great ironies in Mark’s account.
  • Jesus is mocked and spit upon and told to prophesy, when this is very thing he prophesied earlier in the book.
  • It says in Mark 8:31, “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
• This is also a fulfillment of various Old Testament prophecies which foretold the suffering of the Messiah.
  • It says in Lamentations 3:28-30, “He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.”
  • And then in Isaiah 50:6-7 says, “I gave my back to the smiters, And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me; Therefore shall I not be confounded: Therefore have I set my face like a flint, And I know that I shall not be ashamed.”
• So while these men mock Christ and tell him to prophesy, they are by those very actions fulfilling multiple prophesies from Christ and the old testament.
• Finally in verses 66-72, we have Peter’s denial.

Verses 66-72

⁶⁶And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest:

⁶⁷And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.

⁶⁸But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew.

⁶⁹And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.

⁷⁰And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto.

⁷¹But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.

⁷²And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.

• So while Christ stands firm, Peter fails to live up to his name. And the reason he falters is because he still does not believe the words of Jesus. That he must die and rise again.
  • Before Peter ever denied knowing Christ, he first denied the truth that Christ had spoken. And this is how most of our fears and denials of Jesus before men come about.
    • We either forget or neglect or fail to believe the Word of God.
    • It is one thing to sing the words of Psalm 27, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” and it is another thing to not be afraid when an actual army encamps around you.
    • It was one thing to sing and pray Psalm 3:6, “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, That have set themselves against me round about,” and another thing to live it.
• C.S. Lewis once said that “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
  • Courage/Fortitude is the resolve to persist in doing good when it is difficult. And it is that latter part, the difficulty, that makes our faith courageous.

Conclusion

How then can we grow in our courage and fortitude for Christ? How can we live more unashamed of Jesus and his words?

• Well let me give you just one place to start.
• 1. Before anything else, you have to die to this world. And that means not caring what sinners think of you, and caring infinitely more about what God thinks of you.
  • Or to put it another way, you have to live as if heaven is watching, as if God is present in the room, because He is.
  • What did Jesus say to Caiaphas that made him tear his clothes? “Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
  • That was a prophesy to Caiaphas and to the whole world, that after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, all would know the power and divinity of Jesus by his power at work in the saints.
    • What are the clouds upon which Christ comes? It is the church triumphant, alive and full of joy.
    • If you want to enter the hall of faith, if you want to become as Hebrews 11 describes, “of whom the world was not worthy” well then you have die to this world and live for the next.
    • You have to live as it says a few verse later in Hebrews 12:1, as “seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
  • Courage and fortitude is hard when you are alone. But when you can see by faith, the power of Christ in this cloud of witnesses, in the lives of the saints gone ahead, and the saints next to you, then courage becomes a little bit easier. Because there is holy and heavenly peer pressure not to give in.
  • God is watching. Heaven is watching. Myriads of angels are watching and rooting for you. So do not be ashamed of God and His Word. For what did Jesus tell his disciples in Mark 8:38?
    • “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
• So die to the world, and live for God. That is where courage is born and nourished. May that spirit be given in greater measure unto all of us. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.