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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > With faith behold your Saviour at his preliminary hearing | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Hymn 5 Psalm 86:1,2,4 (after the law of God) Psalm 110:1,4 Hymn 38 Psalm 91:1,2,5 Scripture reading: Hebrews 7 Text: John 18:12-14 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
I hope this never happens to you, but if you were charged with a criminal offence, and you went to court, you might go through what’s called a preliminary hearing or proceeding. This is held to determine the strength of the evidence against you. If the evidence is strong enough and if you were pleading not guilty, then the case proceeds to trial.
We see a similar kind of procedure happening with Christ in our passage from John this morning. We’re at the beginning of his legal proceedings. Before he gets sent to the Jewish religious court and before he appears before the Roman governor, he first has a preliminary hearing. What leads up to this preliminary hearing, as well as the hearing itself, forms more steps downwards into his humiliation and suffering.
The Holy Spirit tells this story of what happened to Jesus for the same reason he’s told us all the stories about Jesus so far in the book of John. It’s so that we would behold him, love him, and look upon him in faith as our Saviour. The Holy Spirit wants us to be impressed with Jesus and place our trust in him. So I preach to you God’s Word:
With faith behold your Saviour at his preliminary hearing
We’ll consider:
- His bondage and humiliation
- Our freedom and salvation
Verse 12 reminds us that it wasn’t an insignificant group that took Jesus into custody. There was a detachment of Roman soldiers and their commander. There were the “officers of the Jews,” some of their muscle and influence. Earlier verse 3 told us that they came “with lanterns and torches and weapons.” They came prepared for trouble, as if they were expecting to apprehend an evil armed criminal.
We’re told they arrested Jesus and “bound him.” It’s easy to overlook that last part, but it needs a closer look. First of all, what does it mean that they “bound him”? These days if you get arrested, you’d probably get told to put your hands behind your back and then the police officer will put some handcuffs on you. Handcuffs have a long history. The ancient Greeks probably invented them. They were certainly used by the Romans and archaeology has dug up many examples. Jesus could have been bound with ropes, but given the presence of the Roman soldiers, it’s more likely he was handcuffed.
And what was that saying about Jesus? There are countries where it is illegal for the media to show a suspect in handcuffs. The reason is that handcuffs are associated with criminals and with guilt. A person seen in handcuffs is going to have a difficult time getting a fair trial. Here Jesus is handcuffed. If people were to see him, they could very well assume he was a criminal, he was guilty. After all, you don’t put handcuffs on innocent law-abiding citizens.
But there’s more here. Today’s handcuffs are smooth and made of stainless steel. If they’re applied tightly, they can still be uncomfortable and even a bit painful. But they’re nothing compared to the handcuffs the Romans used. They were one-size fits all and, naturally, it had to be a small size. Moreover, these handcuffs were made of iron. They were rough and had jagged edges that would cut into your wrists. When Jesus had these handcuffs put on, that was the first physical pain he experienced on his way to the cross.
What was painful for his body was also humiliating for him in his soul. When Jesus was bound, that was saying to everyone around that you can’t trust him. He’s dangerous. We have to put handcuffs on him to make sure he doesn’t hurt or kill anyone. Jesus is a threat and we have to deal with him very cautiously, because you never know what he might do. Of course, the reality is quite different. The reality is that he never gave any reason for anyone to think that he would be violent or dangerous. In fact, in every account of his arrest, he goes willingly. There was no need for the handcuffs, but he has them anyway as part of his humiliation. And he’s going to keep having them. Verse 24 tells us that he was bound before being sent over to Caiaphas. And Matthew 27:2 says Christ was bound before being handed over to Pilate. Every step of the way, they wanted to make clear their view that Jesus was a dangerous man you can’t trust. Ironically, it’s exactly because he willingly goes this way out of love for us that we can and we should trust him as our Saviour.
His humiliation continued as they brought him to his first destination. He was led to a man named Annas, whom we’re told was the father-in-law of Caiaphas the high priest. We need to spend a moment getting to know this Annas and his backstory. He was an important figure amongst the Jews.
Annas had been high priest when Jesus was just a boy. He had served as high priest from AD 6 to AD 15. According to Numbers 25, the high priest was supposed to serve for life. But the Roman prefect Valerius Gratus deposed Annas in AD 15. In his place, the Romans appointed several of his sons in succession and eventually his son-in-law Joseph Caiaphas. But Annas continued to have the respect of the Jewish people. He was wealthy and highly influential. Even though he was no longer the high priest, many people still referred to him as such. You could compare him to an emeritus minister. He was an emeritus high priest and he still had the honour and respect of the high priestly office. The Jewish religious leaders valued his wisdom and it’s for that reason they brought Jesus to him first.
Now Jesus is standing before the old emeritus high priest for a preliminary hearing. We don’t actually read about the trial itself before the Sanhedrin in John’s gospel. It’s in the other gospels though. If you look ahead to verses 19-24, all of that is part of the preliminary hearing with Annas before Jesus went to Caiaphas. John’s focus is on Annas because of his history and background and his influence. Annas would serve to make things go smoother with the Sanhedrin. They’d always be able to appeal back to his authority. His word carried great weight with the Jews.
But we have to look at this scene in a deeper way. We have to take into account who these two men are facing each other. Annas was a high priest from the tribe of Levi. Specifically he was descended from Aaron. But he’d been humiliated by having the Roman prefect strip his office from him. But Jesus also was and is a high priest. Hebrews 7 draws on Psalm 110 and tells us Jesus is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
We read about Melchizedek in Genesis 14. He was the King of Salem, which was the former name of Jerusalem. Genesis 14:18 says he was also “priest of God Most High.” Sometimes we think that the only believers in Bible times were the ones we read about in the Bible. But here we find that even though God had a special relationship with Abram, he also had relationships with other believers. Melchizedek was one of those; he was even a priest. And when Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the other kings, Melchizedek greeted him with bread and wine and blessed him. Then Abram gave him a tenth of the spoil.
Hebrews 7 then puts this all into perspective by relating it to the great High Priest Jesus Christ. Christ wasn’t from the tribe of Levi, not descended from Aaron. He was from the tribe of Judah. Yet he is a high priest, a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. This is because, as the Son of God, he is eternal. With Melchizedek, it was as if he was eternal. We read nothing of his birth and nothing of his death. He’s just there. It seems as if he is eternal – although of course we know he was only a man and therefore mortal. But the one to whom he pointed is truly eternal. And the author of Hebrews then makes this interesting observation that the priests of the tribe of Levi, because they’re also descended from Abraham, they paid the tithe through Abraham to Melchizedek. Therefore Melchizedek is the greater high priest – and Jesus is the greatest high priest of all, the ultimate high priest.
Now the one from the order of Levi is facing down the one from the order of Melchizedek. What should happen here is that Annas should defer to Christ, the ultimate High Priest. He should respect him. Having once been stripped of the office himself, he should understand and seek to have Christ honoured as the ultimate and true High Priest. He should ask Christ the ultimate High Priest to bless him, just like Melchizedek blessed Abram. He should offer a tithe to Christ the ultimate High Priest, just like Abram his father offered a tithe to Melchizedek. But none of that is happening and it’s utter humiliation for Jesus. How can he lift his hands in blessing when they’re in these horrible iron handcuffs? How can he receive the tithe with his hands bound like this? As the ultimate High Priest, he is the one who is really suffering the greatest loss and the greatest humiliation.
Loved ones, we have to see that he endured all of this for us. He did it in your place. He did it out of his great love for you, so you could be free and you could be saved.
I love that section of our Lord’s Supper Form where we have all these exchanges between Christ and us. It’s in the section entitled “Remembrance of Christ.” It begins with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, where our sins pressed out of him sweat like drops of blood. Then it says, “There he was bound that he might free us from our sins.” That’s a reference to our passage here from John 18.
Scripture elsewhere describes our relationship to sin in terms of bondage. Just as a big picture, the Exodus from Egypt in the Old Testament was a picture of God’s deliverance from bondage. In the Old Testament it was bondage to the Egyptians. The Israelites were their slaves. In New Testament terms, through Christ, God has delivered us from bondage to sin, from sin’s slavery. In Romans 8:2, it says Christians have been set free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Why is our relationship to sin portrayed as if we’re the ones being handcuffed and held in custody? When you’re handcuffed and have been arrested, you’re compelled to go where your captor tells you to go. You have to do what he tells you to do. You don’t have a choice. When you’re in bondage to sin, sin is in control of your life. This is bad for a couple of reasons. One reason it’s bad is that it’s going to result in a difficult life. When you don’t follow God’s commandments, life doesn’t go well. Another reason it’s bad is that it’s a situation that’s under God’s judgment. It leads you to his wrath forever in hell. When you rebel against an infinite majesty, the only suitable punishment is his infinite, eternal wrath. Being in bondage to sin is terrible. I hope you can see that.
But even though it’s so terrible, we still like it. Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? It’s when someone who’s been kidnapped or held hostage by a criminal starts to develop an emotional attachment to them. That’s exactly what sin does to all of us. It enslaves us, it threatens to kill us, and then we become attached to it. We may defend it, rationalize it, and even love it. If we could see things rationally, we’d see that what enslaves us will later kill us. If we could see things the way they really are, we’d see how we need deliverance.
Moreover, the world tells us lies to keep us from seeing things the way they really are. The world tells us our captor is loving and kind, looking out for our best interests. The world tells us our captivity is not a problem, in fact, there is no captivity. Bondage is freedom.
But Christ has come to set us free. He did that by allowing himself to be bound in our place. That should have been you and me with those rough iron handcuffs on. Those should have been my wrists that the sharp iron bits were biting into. I deserve that for my sin and more. But Christ said, “I’ll do it for you. I’ll be your substitute. I’ll take the punishment you deserve and then you can be free. I’ll not only do it with the handcuffs, I’ll do it all the way to the cross.”
Through his work, we’re set free from the curse of sin. God hates sin and he curses it with eternal death. Those who commit sin therefore deserve eternal death. But when we look to Christ in faith, we’re totally set free from that curse. He took the curse in our place. Now we’re left with blessing. God looks on us with favour.
And through Christ, we’re also being set free from the power of sin. Remember what I mentioned a moment ago about the way sin compels. It drives you. When you’re not born again, you can’t not sin. Every choice you make as an unbeliever is going to involve sin. But being born again by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ changes the equation. Now he is setting us free from the power of sin too. Because Christians have the Holy Spirit living in them, they can and they must say “no” to sin. It’s still hard to do, it doesn’t come easy to us, but the possibility is there. Because of Christ, we’re no longer enslaved to sin. We can choose to obey God. And as we grow in the Christian life, we grow in doing that more and more. Not because of ourselves, but because of Christ in us with his Holy Spirit.
Now if we go back to our passage and look at verse 14, we see another reminder of what we have in our Saviour. Back in John 11, the plot to kill Jesus was developing. There were discussions about how to go about it in the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious council. Caiaphas was the one who convinced the Sanhedrin to move ahead with killing Jesus. His argument was simple. It was better for Jesus to die, even if it had to be engineered, than for all the people to perish because they would follow false teaching. So what he was saying in his own way was that Christ should perish instead of the people. But John tells us in John 11 that he didn’t say that from himself. Instead, God led him to prophesy this. Ironically, he spoke more truth than he realized.
Now John brings this up again, just as Jesus is about to meet Caiaphas and just as he’s about to actually die. So we’re reminded again of a vital spiritual truth related to our salvation. One man is going to die in the place of many. This is what we call substitutionary atonement. It’s a sacrifice where someone has taken the place of someone else.
The Bible doesn’t teach that Jesus died for each and every person who’s ever existed. Instead, in John 10 Christ said that he would die for the sheep. The sheep are those whom the Father has chosen before creation. The sheep are those the Father has given into the hand of the Son. So when Jesus is suffering, he is suffering for them. When Jesus endures hell during the three hours of darkness, it’s for the sheep. He’s doing it in their place.
How can you know whether you’re one of those sheep, one of those people for whom he suffered and died? How can you know whether you’ve been set free and saved? It’s not that complicated. It comes down to a simple question: do you place your trust in him? Do you believe that he suffered and died for you? You’re called to. He calls you to do that. He wants you to do that. If you rest from your own efforts at measuring up for God and just fully lean on Jesus Christ for your salvation, then you can know for sure that you’re one of those sheep for whom he died. You’re one of his people too. You’ve been set free from sin’s curse and power. You’ve been saved from the eternal death you deserve. Praise God!
Loved ones, the more time you spend with a friend, the better you get to know that friend and the more you love him or her. This morning we’ve spent some time again with the greatest Friend we could ever hope to have. We’ve seen what he did for us out of his love for us. He allowed himself to be humiliated with those handcuffs, humiliated before Annas. Before long, as we keep going through John, we’ll see him do the ultimate act of love, laying down his life for his friends. Don’t let any of this leave you untouched. Instead, see what he does for you, love him, trust him, and follow him with your whole heart. AMEN.
PRAYER
Our beloved Lord Jesus,
We praise you for willingly enduring the suffering we deserve for our sins. We’re so grateful that you were bound that we might be free from our sins. Lord, you took those terrible iron handcuffs so we could be set free from the curse and the power of sin. We thank you and we love you. You were humiliated in front of Annas. You did that on your way to the cross in our place, as our great High Priest. For that we adore you and lift up your name. Help us to realize the extent of what you did in our place in your suffering and death. Please help us with your Holy Spirit to be filled with ever more love, trust, and commitment to you.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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