<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Muskegon SDA Church

Crisis at the Close

Jason Sliger

Crisis at the Close: The Trials - Part 1

Crisis at the Close: The Trials - Part 2

Crisis at the Close: The Trials - Part 3

Crisis at the Close: The Cross

Crisis at the Close: The Triumph

Father in heaven, we thank you that you are a God who hears and answers our prayers.

And this morning, Lord, we ask that you would chase away the distractions of life of this past week and the week coming up, That we would be able to sit here in silence and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts.

Father, we pray that you would help us to see the character of Jesus more fully.

And as we behold it, may we become like it, we ask.

Our theme Bible passage in our study together has been Revelation chapter 14 and verse 4, where the Bible gives 1 of the characteristics of the 144, 000, those who are alive on earth before Jesus comes back.

There are many characteristics of these people, but the Bible tells us specifically that they are people who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

It doesn't matter where the Lamb ends up, if it's in times of peace and prosperity, if it's in times of challenges and difficulty, the 144, 000 are close behind the Lamb as they follow him wherever he leads.

Now, as we've been studying together, we have all made the decision that we want to be part of this group, amen?

And the Bible, or the spirit of prophecy tells us in the Review and Herald, April 12, 1898, we need not wait till we are translated to follow Christ.

We shall follow the Lamb of God in the courts above only if we follow him here.

It is our privilege as God's children to be able to follow the Lamb here on this earth in this time of earth's history.

And indeed, if we want to follow him in the courts of heaven above, we must do so here below first.

And the question is, am I willing to follow the Lamb wherever He may lead me?' In our last study together, we concluded by looking at 1 thing that sustained Jesus as He went through this dark hour in his life.

We looked at how Jesus went through the Garden of Gethsemane.

We found that as Jesus went into the garden, he went in depressed, as he went in with great anxiety, he went in struggling, he went in resisting what the Father's will was in a sense, praying that the Father's will would be for the cup to pass.

And as he went through that time of prayer, surrendering his will to the will of the Father, he went into the garden depressed and challenged.

He came out of the garden with that depression lifted and calm and serene and ready to meet the devil's fury.

In a sense, everything turned in that prayer in the garden and I'm so thankful that Jesus stopped and had that prayer before that trial began.

As we concluded our study together in our last study 2 weeks ago, we found that 1 of the things that sustained Jesus during that dark hour was that he knew his father.

He had 33 years of walking and talking with his heavenly father.

He knew his father so well, and he knew his father's will so well that although all of this terrible stuff was happening in his life, although the storm of opposition had broken upon him, even though he was being cruelly treated by the mob, even though he was betrayed by 1 of his closest friends, even though religious leaders were mistreating him, all of this stuff was taking place.

He knew his father so well that it did not drive him to let go of his hold on his father's hand.

In fact, we read in the Bible together in the Gospel of John, John chapter 17, verse 3, where the Bible says, and this is life eternal that they might know thee.

And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God.

We read in Daniel chapter 11 how the Bible tells us that those who went through the hour of great trial, religious persecution during the 1, 260 years of papal persecution, that those people had power because they knew God.

What was it that sustained Jesus during that time of his great trial?

What was it that sustained the great saints of the Reformation that sustained them during their time of trial as well?

What was it that sustained these great men and women and Christ himself was that they had an intimate knowledge of their heavenly Father.

And it's the same thing that will take place in the crisis at the close.

Those who will stand during this time of great trial will know their heavenly Father intimately.

It's not a knowledge that you will acquire in the time of trial.

It's not a knowledge that you will gain once you are in the crisis, but it's a knowledge that we must gain now and develop now so that it sustains us when that hour of crisis comes.

But for some of us, we're too busy with the cares of life to invest in a knowledge that will see us through to the kingdom of heaven.

It's time for us to reorganize our priorities because life eternal is in knowing our heavenly father.

We also discussed how God allows these trials and difficulties to come upon us because he allows it to happen for a demonstration to the world that there are people in the world who are faithful to God no matter what.

There are people in the world who are faithful to God no matter what.

There are people in the world who are faithful like Job was faithful to God, though he slay me, yet shall I trust him.

That there will be people in this world who will go contrary to the devil's accusations in the great controversy, that they will stand in the midst of trial telling the world that God is just and willing, or rather that he should be served, even though the devil is saying something quite the opposite.

Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 9 that we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men.

As I'm made a spectacle, I want the spectacle to be that others see Jesus in me.

It's an important concept to get into our mind because when that hour of trial and difficulty comes, we need to know why God allows these things to take place.

Otherwise, we may be tempted to let go of our Father's hand.

We're in the midst of 6 trials that are taking place in the life of Jesus.

Those 3 trials, the verdict was all guilty.

There were 3 trials that were civil under the Roman government, and the verdict of all 3 of those trials was innocent.

We've looked at 2 trials already, 2 religious trials, and in both of those trials, the verdict was guilty.

This morning, we will look at the third trial, same verdict, and the first of the civil trials as Jesus stands before Pilate for the first time.

In our last study, we've seen how Jesus stood before Annas, the ex-high priest, a great man who was respected by the religious community, but was unable to secure what was needed for the condemnation of Jesus.

He was then hurried off to stand before Caiaphas, and as Jesus stood before Caiaphas, as Jesus stood before the promiscuous crowd that was in Caiaphas's palace.

All of them were compelled that this man was the Son of God.

They were convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit, but they pushed that conviction to the side and condemned Jesus as a common criminal.

This morning we will look at the story of Jesus standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin.

Go with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.

Luke, the 22nd chapter, we will pick up the story in the 66th verse.

Luke, chapter 22, we're going to pick it up in verse 66.

Now while you are turning there, let me give you a little bit of history.

This, at this point in Jesus's trials or in the last few hours of his life, it is early in the morning, Friday morning.

Thursday, Jesus had instituted the Last Supper, and then he went into the Garden of Gethsemane.

He spent great hours there praying to his heavenly Father.

Then the mob dragged him in the darkness of the night to stand before Annas and then Caiaphas.

Then they held him for some certain time before the hours of sunrise happened.

At this point, the sun is beginning to peek its head over the horizon as they bring Jesus in now to stand before the Jewish Sanhedrin.

Well, Jesus stood before Caiaphas just moments or hours before.

Caiaphas said, don't turn there, but in Matthew 26, verse 65, he has spoken blasphemy, What further need have we of witness behold now we have heard his blasphemy what think ye they answered and said?

He is guilty of Death you may find this interesting But under the Jewish system of law the members of the Sanhedrin were to have a secret ballot or a secret poll that would take place to find what the verdict was in a criminal trial.

The reason for this was because They did not want men of higher influence to influence men of lower influence.

And so they had a secret polling that would take place or a ballot that would happen where they would poll the people of the Sanhedrin and then finally compile the verdict.

Caiaphas threw this to the wind, and he used his influence to sway the people that were there in his palace to make this verdict of guilty.

There are many laws that govern the Jewish Sanhedrin that were not followed in the trials of Jesus.

And I will share a few of them with you this morning.

Also in this system of law, prisoners could not be legally condemned under the cover of darkness.

But as Jesus said when he stood before Caiaphas, he said his teachings were always done in the light, out in the open, everybody could hear what he had to say, but for the religious leaders, they had to work under the cover of darkness because what they were doing was contrary to the law of the Jews.

That's why Jesus had to stand before the Sanhedrin.

And this is where we pick it up in verse 63.

Luke 22 in verse 63, the Bible says this.

And the men that held Jesus mocked him and smote him.

And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him saying, prophesy, who is it that smote thee?

And many other things blasphemously spake they against him.

Now as I've already mentioned, this is happening, verses 63 through 65, before the sun has risen.

Jesus has not been officially condemned by the Sanhedrin as guilty of death, yet they are treating him as a common criminal.

They covered him with a cloth and hit him in the face.

And Eloi tells us that when they removed that cloth, some poor wretched man spat in the face of the Son of God.

And he hadn't even stood before the Sanhedrin yet.

Demonic hatred filled these people as they mistreated the Son of God.

Series

Crisis at the Close

Crisis at the Close: The Trials - Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Crisis At the Close: The Mob

47m

Chad Kreuzer Weekend 2022

Healing the Helpless

47m

Meeting the Master Gardener

The Sower & the Seed

55m

The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 5

37m

Creation- Genesis as the Foundation

53m

Misc

Entrepreneurship: Why & How?

52m

The Parables

The Rich Man and Lazarus

43m

The Cross and the Sanctuary

The Cross and The Sanctuary- Part 1

34m

ECYC 2011 Seminar: Undefiled

Undivided Soul

41m

GYC SE 2012 Seminar: Lessons in Warfare

Special Forces

51m

Crisis at the Close

Crisis at the Close: The Trials - Part 1

52m

Flip the Script

02 How Bible “Buts” Change Trials Into Triumph

53m

Sound Doctrine