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[0:00] Jesus on trial. Can you imagine?

[0:14] What is it that we see here? We see the holy, heavenly high priest standing before Caiaphas, the evil, earthly priest for judgment.

[0:31] The Son of God subjecting Himself to the opinions of men. It's remarkable. The just before the unjust.

[0:44] The true mediator between God and man before the false mediator. The one who humbled Himself by taking flesh standing before the one who only seeks to promote Himself.

[1:01] How can this be? As we reflect on this, what are we to understand? Why would the Son of God endure these men?

[1:20] In Mark 14, we have seen Jesus at the Last Supper as He talks about His body and His blood. He establishes a new covenant.

[1:32] We've seen Jesus suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane where He is agonizing in His soul, where He is disturbed of soul in great sorrow, praying through this next step that He must take.

[1:49] Father, take this cup, yet not my will. Thine be done. We saw last week the Lord Jesus being arrested into the hands of sinners, betrayed by Judas, one of His own, and His most faithful men deserting Him.

[2:08] Now, we see Him on trial for being who He is. Which is interesting, because God is on trial every day for being who He is.

[2:24] Jesus' arrest is not surprising. There has been, from the very beginning of His ministry, a growing tension and hostility toward Him.

[2:40] We go all the way back to chapter 2 of Mark. We're at the very beginning. We saw this right up front. Jesus heals a man who could not walk, but first remember His friends had lowered Him through the roof and put Him before Jesus.

[2:59] And remember what Jesus did before He healed Him. He said, your sins are forgiven. Now, the Pharisees there, the elders there, saw that and said, that's blasphemy.

[3:12] No one can forgive sins but God alone. So right off the bat, He's already making enemies. He's already crossing lines. Later, in Mark 2, He's eating with sinners, Matthew and His friends.

[3:33] And so they criticize Him and condemn Him for eating with sinners. Later, they criticize Him and condemn Him for not fasting. They criticize and condemn Him for breaking the Sabbath, according to their understanding.

[3:47] allowing His disciples on the Sabbath day to walk through the grain field, to take the grain and to rub it together, which under the pharisaical rule, that is work.

[4:03] Manipulating it. Then, Jesus, they began to look out for Jesus as He came into the synagogue in Mark chapter 3, and there was there a man with a withered hand.

[4:19] And so, Mark tells us that these same men, these same Pharisees, these same leaders, were watching Jesus to see if He might heal on the Sabbath day, because that would be breaking the Sabbath again.

[4:35] And of course, Jesus looked right at them and said, what's better to do on the Sabbath to save a life or to kill a life? And He healed and broke the Sabbath again.

[4:51] And then we see, by the end of chapter 2, they understand Jesus' power to cast out demons as Jesus being under the control of Satan himself.

[5:06] They condemn Jesus as a satanic worker. He casts out demons by the power of Beelzebul, Lord of Flies, a derogatory name for Satan.

[5:22] And of course, Jesus defended it, saying that makes no sense. Why would Satan divide his own house? And then we come, so that was early on, and there was already hostility.

[5:36] They are already seeking to accuse Him. They're already against Him. And then I fast forward four years to a week before our present text, where Jesus is entering into Jerusalem before the Passover.

[5:52] and He doesn't walk in like the normal pilgrim. No. Instead, He finds a donkey, a colt. And He sits on the colt and comes into Jerusalem with the praises of the people reciting Psalm 118, with Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9.

[6:21] He proclaims Himself King by this act. He doesn't come on a war horse. He comes on a donkey. A term of peace, not war.

[6:33] He doesn't come as the Messiah to conquer. He comes as the Messiah who has conquered. Promises peace. So He declares Himself King.

[6:46] He throws a gauntlet down. The chief priests and the elders of the people make no mistake about what Jesus is intending. And then if that's even missed, the very next day, what does Jesus do?

[6:59] He comes into the temple itself and He begins to clear it out. He begins to take the tables of the money changers and turn them over. He begins to take all the buyers and the sellers and He kicks them out of the temple precincts.

[7:12] And then He makes a statement and He looks at the Pharisees and the chief priests and the elders and He says, you are a den of robbers. This is a house of prayer.

[7:25] You've made it a den of robbers. You're the robbers. So if they didn't hate Him before, they hate Him intensely now. He has publicly disgraced them and confronted them.

[7:40] And so we're told at the end of chapter 11 of Mark 11, verse 18, they now are seeking to destroy Him.

[7:53] So it's coming to a head. Chapter 12, He tells the parable of the wicked tenants. Remember the ones that the owner of the land, the owner of the vineyard had sent workers to come and get the proceeds from the fruit of the vineyard and they turn them away or beat them up or kill them.

[8:16] Finally, the owner sends his son to the vineyard to get the harvest and they kill the son. And it says, Mark says in chapter 12, verse 12, that they understood Jesus told this parable about them.

[8:36] That He's the son and they're the killers. They're the wicked tenants. So they seek now to arrest Him. And we come then to chapter 14, verse 1, where we're told they were looking and plotting and trying to figure out a way to arrest Him by stealth and kill Him because they were afraid of the crowds who were enjoying Jesus.

[9:01] So they get together with Judas and arrange this sign and the arrest late at night in the garden under the cover of darkness.

[9:15] Clearly not an open way of dealing with things. So there's been a building controversy of growing hostility toward Jesus.

[9:27] So we, as readers of the Gospel of Mark, we're not really surprised we've seen these folks before. We know they've been enemies of Jesus from the beginning. And then as Jesus turns up the heat in chapter 11 and 12 and 14, it's, it's a foregone conclusion that there will be a climax to this.

[9:51] And so the day before Passover, remember Jesus had already had His last supper, but it was the day before the real Passover. Because the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus was sacrificed on the cross at the same time that the lambs were sacrificed between the eaves.

[10:12] So Jesus had eaten and because there was so great crowds, remember, that there was no way for everyone to do the Passover on the same time. There was no way for the priests to kill all the lambs at the same time.

[10:24] So they spread it out. They made accommodations. They weren't trying to disobey the law. They were simply saying it's just feasibly impossible to do.

[10:36] So Jesus, being a Galilean and not as strict about the laws or customs, had the Passover the day before. So, this is, remember, the night following Jesus' last supper and His Passover meal, but the day before the Judean and technical day of the Lord, Passover day.

[10:59] So these scribes and Pharisees want to call a hasty assembly because they don't want to do this on Passover. They want to have all the dirty work done because on the Passover they can only travel so far, they can only do so much.

[11:13] So they want to get it all done before nightfall, before morning. And so this all happens at night. And it results in a biased condemnation.

[11:27] So I ask the question again, what are we to understand from this unjust trial that Jesus endures? What are we supposed to see? Especially if we've grown up in the church, we know the story, we've heard this.

[11:42] I grew up in a church where they were, it was done in drama and makeup and I got to be one of the guys, you know, sitting at the table and all that stuff. And so it kind of becomes a little bit more impersonal when we've kind of heard it over and over again.

[11:59] So I want us today to kind of really think, what is this? What's really going on here? Let's just simplify it and strip it down to what it was. Jesus standing in the middle of a circle of men who seek to kill him.

[12:14] The wolves are circling. What are we to understand? Well, I think we see two things. One, we see something about these men who are condemning him and secondly, we see something about Jesus himself.

[12:30] So first of all, we see the true nature of sinful unbelief. We see in these men who are seeking to kill Jesus, we see the true nature of sinful unbelief.

[12:45] Notice their prejudice. verse 53, we find out who they are. Verse 53 says, they led Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.

[12:58] Who is this group? He describes three groups. Priests, elders, scribes. Well, those are the very groups that make up what was called the Sanhedrin.

[13:09] what we might consider the Supreme Court. These are the official representatives of Judaism. And they will, by their act in this night, reject their Messiah on behalf of all Israel.

[13:29] And then they will stir up the crowd the next day to crucify Jesus. The crowd that had cheered him now will turn on him.

[13:43] So, the official group of the Sanhedrin was technically 70 members plus the high priest who resided over them. They get the number 70 from way back in Exodus where, remember, Moses was leading all of Israel and there were just too many people for him to deal with.

[14:01] And his father-in-law said, Moses, what you're doing is not good. Choose 70 elders among you to help you govern the people. So, that's where the 70 comes from.

[14:13] The elders of Israel to help govern and make judgments of the people. This is where they came from. This is what they still did. They made judgments. They made decisions.

[14:27] Notice that their purpose in verse 55, Mark tells us, he says, the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put him to death.

[14:40] So, notice, what's their purpose? What's their agenda? It's not to have a fair trial. It's not to kind of see, weigh this and see who he really is.

[14:52] It's to find witnesses! It's to find witnesses against him so that we might charge him worthy of death. But you notice that, remember, this Sanhedrin does not have ultimate authority.

[15:08] They're not like the authority under Moses that had ultimate authority. These are men who are under other authority. The Romans are in charge. And so, the Jews did not have authority to put somebody to death.

[15:20] They had authority over all their own religious activities. The Romans didn't care what they did with their religion. But they could not put a person to death. So, these guys had to come up with a charge that Pilate will accept in order to put him to death.

[15:36] They had to come up. So, they are trying to find witnesses. But notice, they're seeking to kill him and they need an official charge to go before Rome. But how is it that they seek their proof?

[15:47] Verse 56. They were seeking testimony. Verse 55 to put him to death. But they found none. For many bore false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.

[16:00] Their plan fails. They're trying to find witnesses against Jesus. The problem is, here's the legal issue. For a capital case, you can't go on one witness.

[16:11] It must be at least two to three witnesses that verify and are consistent and agree to put a man to death. They can't find them. They can't find of the many, we don't know how many, but of the many witnesses they have that are slandering Jesus, falsely accusing him, telling stories that didn't happen, or twisting the stories.

[16:32] Whatever they're doing, none of them can match the other guys. So they're all wrong. So there's no legal evidence to kill Jesus. No witnesses agree.

[16:45] They came up with one serious charge they were really hoping for, we're told. Verse 57. Some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, 58, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands.

[16:59] Even about this their testimony did not agree. So they had a serious charge, destroying the temple, that's a serious charge. Even Pilate would listen to that because that would be destruction of a sacred property.

[17:14] That would be something that Pilate would care about. But still there's no consistent testimony. Why? Because they twisted what Jesus said and they didn't get it right.

[17:26] We read in John 2 when Jesus first said that four years prior, the first time he came to Jerusalem and cleansed the temple, he said it back then. He said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

[17:37] That's all he said. And he was talking about himself. He didn't say, I will destroy it and I will raise it. He said, destroy this temple in three days and I will raise it up. He didn't say, I will build it.

[17:48] He didn't say, I will destroy it. They got that wrong. Then they added, which often happens, right? They added, oh, I'm not made with hands and made with hands. Well, that's not what he said. He simply said, destroy this temple in three days and I will raise it up.

[18:02] They couldn't get that right. So we come to verse 60 and the high priest is exasperated. The high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have you no answer to make?

[18:15] What is it that these men tested? Won't you defend yourself? See, we see in verse 61 Jesus remained silent. The verb there means he continually was silent.

[18:28] You ask him again and again and again and he remained silent. Would not answer. would not answer. Would not answer. See, if Jesus hadn't confessed who he was, he would have been crucified.

[18:44] They had no evidence against him until the high priest asked him the next question. And if Jesus hadn't responded to this next question, they had nothing to bring him before Pilate.

[18:57] Jesus self incriminates himself. And yet it wasn't an incrimination, it was a truth. So the pronouncement, he asked the question, Jesus confesses, finally the pronouncement, we see in verse 21, after verse 61, a high priest asks him, are you the Christ?

[19:20] And technically, actually, he didn't ask him as a question, it was a statement implied as a question. You are the Christ. Right?

[19:31] You are the son of the blessed one. They're being careful not to say the name of God, they say the blessed one. You are. And again, the Greek is, he kept saying it, he kept saying it, he kept saying it, he kept saying it, until Jesus confesses.

[19:47] You are the Christ, right? Yeah, he's the Christ, I'm the Christ, you're the Christ, right? You're the son of the blessed one, aren't you? you are the son of the blessing of man. Once Jesus says yes, well, we'll get to his answer in a moment.

[20:02] What does the high priest do? Verse 63, he tears his robes, a picture of grief, of mourning, a picture of something of great magnitude has happened.

[20:15] What further witnesses do we need? You've heard his blasphemy. How is what Jesus said blasphemy? Blasphemy is something that is an insult or a slander.

[20:27] And blasphemy toward God would be an insult of God or a slander of God in some way. What has Jesus said that was slanderous to God? Nothing. Technically, he had not committed blasphemy.

[20:40] But what did he mean by what he said? You are the Christ, the son of the blessed. You are the son of God. Yes. By that, he implies he's equal to God.

[20:51] They consider it blasphemy for a man to consider himself equal with God. Way back in John 8, when Jesus had made the statement, I am, and before Abraham was, I am.

[21:03] And they're talking, you're not even 40 years old. How have you seen Abraham before Abraham existed? I am. And they took up stones to kill him because he considered himself equal with God. An eternal being.

[21:13] He also had added things like, I am the father of one. Worth saying. So this is what they're understanding and they consider that blasphemy.

[21:25] And they condemn him. They all condemn him as deserving death. They do not condemn him to death because they don't have that authority. They condemn him as worthy of death.

[21:37] So now they have a charge that they can bring to the Roman governor. And by the way, when they bring it before the Roman governor the next day, how did they put it? They didn't put it this way.

[21:49] Because he wouldn't care what they thought about their religion. He would not care. Not his problem. How did they put it to the governor who would listen as a civil authority?

[22:02] He says he's gay. We Jews say there's no king but Caesar. Yeah, because we want to keep peace. But he's an insurrectionist. He's a rabble. He's going to try to stir up social problems.

[22:14] That's how they later got Paul too, right? Paul was a troublemaker stirring up the crowds. Not really, but that's how they got him. Because the civil magistrates, they don't care about religious issues.

[22:26] That person, not the Christian view. But they care about peace and Pax Romana, peace of Rome. So, this is what they'll do.

[22:41] What we see is in their bias, obviously they're prejudiced. They're seeking false witnesses. They finally catch him as he admits. In their bias, we see the true nature of unbelief.

[22:52] What is it about these men? Why did these men do this? Why could they not see the signs of Jesus? Why could they not hear the words of Jesus? As so many have. Why do people not believe in Jesus?

[23:07] And deeper still, with these men, these are leaders of Israel. If this is their Messiah, don't they want to embrace him? What is it that's motivating these men? What mattered to them?

[23:17] What was their priority? What's important to them? What's really behind these guys? They've heard the teaching of Jesus. They have confronted him, or condemned him, or criticized him.

[23:28] They're unable to refute his teaching. They try to examine him and question him. They can't deal with it. They can't debate him. They've seen his miracles.

[23:40] Yet they still regard him as false, as satanic, as anything but their Christ. So what's going on with these men?

[23:52] John tells us in John chapter 11, just a week before, and this was a meeting of the Sanhedrin right after Lazarus had been raised. Remember, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11.

[24:05] The impact of that was profound. There were many coming to see Lazarus. There were many that heard about this resurrection, and they see the proof of it. And so many were more popular.

[24:17] Jesus had become more and more popular. Well, John 11, 47 describes the response after Lazarus had been raised. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council to send Abraham, the 70 guys, and said, what are we to do?

[24:29] For this man, Jesus, performs many signs. They don't deny his miracles. They say he's doing this. And if we let him go on like this, watch this now. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him.

[24:46] And then what? And then the Romans. Then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. It's over, God. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, you know nothing at all, nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people and not that the whole people should perish.

[25:10] He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation. Oops. And not for the nation only, but also to gather and to warn the children of God who were scattered abroad.

[25:23] So from that day, they, the Sanhedrin, made plans to put him to death. This is before the triumphal entry. This is before the cleansing of the temple. They're already set out to murder him.

[25:35] This is the hard truth. We see the true nature of unbelief. What is it? Why don't people believe? Because they can't see. They cannot hear.

[25:46] The truth is right in front of them. They cannot see it. The signs are done right in front of them. They cannot see it. They see it, but they don't. They don't accept it.

[25:58] They're hard-hearted. They do not accept Jesus' word. And on another phase, we see these men are men who think they're okay. Jesus is preaching a gospel for the sick, for the sinner.

[26:11] Well, that's not them. They're not the sinner. They're not the sinner. They're righteous. They don't need this man. And Jesus said, you're right. My good news is not for you. I didn't come for the righteous who came for the sinner.

[26:22] I didn't come for the healthy who came for the saint. So I've got no good news for you. And they didn't want to hear it. They didn't think they needed it. They're not sinners. They're not broken. They think they're able to keep God's law.

[26:36] And all who do not believe in Jesus are in this same condition. They think they're okay. They do not see Christ as someone they can trust. Is this you?

[26:49] Do you hear yet not trust? Do you think you're okay? The first insight we see is we see the true nature of sinful unbelief.

[27:03] But secondly, we see something about Jesus. We see the true nature of our suffering Savior. Here is one who endures unjust and hostile men.

[27:14] He endures false accusations and slander and misrepresentation and lies. He endures all of this for us. Notice his response.

[27:25] Verse 61. All the false claims. What does he do? He remains silent and made no answer. He does not answer. He does not correct them. He does not argue with them. How hard is that, by the way?

[27:37] Have you ever been falsely accused? You probably have. You've been around long. Isn't it not the hardest thing not to respond? I want to correct them. That's not true.

[27:47] I want to argue with that. It's slander. It's not true. That's one side. That's not the whole. Whatever. Jesus did not say a word. As they're spewing false after false after false after false he allows it.

[28:05] 1 Peter 2 says when reviled Jesus did not revile in return. When he suffered he honored no threats but kept entrusting himself to the Father. Jesus was fulfilling Isaiah 53.7 He was oppressed he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like sheep before the shears is silent so he opened not his mouth.

[28:28] This is Jesus. But then came the moment when he broke his silence. The high priest asked him a direct question and Jesus breaks his silence and confesses gives his self-acknowledgement.

[28:40] Up to now remember in the gospel of Mark up to now Jesus has kept it secret. Whenever they asked or discovered he was the Messiah Jesus said don't tell me that. I don't want this spread around.

[28:52] Remember we saw this concealment this mystery this secret about who his real identity was was because they would misunderstand and take it the wrong way. They're expecting a Messiah that's a King David. They're expecting a Messiah who's a physical king to sit on a physical throne in a physical kingdom on earth and he has not that intention.

[29:12] So he's kept his secret. he veils himself in the phrase son of man. Well that was not a phrase that was easily recognizable as a title of the Messiah.

[29:25] But it clearly is as we'll see in a moment. Now he gives the full confession. The time of concealment of concealing it is over. Notice the powerful words Jesus says.

[29:35] Are you the Christ the son of the blessed? Jesus said I am. And then he impacts what he means by that which is interesting. He doesn't just say yeah I am the Christ whatever you think that means.

[29:47] He says yes I am the Christ the son the blessed one. Here's what it means. You will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven at which point the high priest rips his robes and says there's blasphemy.

[30:01] What does Jesus say? How will they see him? He says you will see the son of man coming with clouds of heaven and seated at the right hand of power.

[30:16] How will they see that? Is he talking about his return when he comes back and sets up an earthly kingdom? Will they see that? That's not what he's talking about. He's taking the phrase two phrases from two distinct Old Testament predictions about the Messiah.

[30:34] He's taking it from Daniel 7 and from Psalm 110. Both of them have nothing to do with the return of Jesus Christ. Both of them have to do with the ascension of Jesus Christ. Both of them have to do with his receiving a kingdom and sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven and beginning his rule which he is doing now.

[30:57] By the way when Jesus acknowledges who he is he says yes I am the Christ I am the son of the blessed. Make no mistake about how you can understand who Jesus is.

[31:11] He has claimed to be the son of God. He cannot be a good prophet. He cannot be a good man. If he's not the son of God then he is a liar or he's a lunatic.

[31:26] C.S. Lewis has made that clear to us in his book Mere Christianity. There's only one way Jesus allows us to understand who he is. We can't say oh he's a good prophet. No he's not. If he claims to be God but he says other nice things then he's a liar if he's not the son of God.

[31:43] Or he's a how does Lewis put it something like a hard boiled egg or something I forget how that's some British way of describing crazy. So when other folks want to say yeah I see I think Jesus is a good teacher a good moral teacher a good man say no you can't say that.

[32:03] He doesn't allow you to have that. He is that but he's much much more he claimed much much more and if he's not what he claimed to be then he's not a good man. So I just want to make that clear.

[32:17] So what does all this result in? He gives his self knowledge and he confesses to who he is what happens then? Then they condemn him they spit on him which is an expression of contempt and dishonor they truly despised him and had no esteem for him began to strike him with a fist this was his first beating of the night they blindfolded him and mock him as they strike him blindfolded they mock him to prophesy who hit me who hit you who hit you and of course Jesus could have done that but did not here he is the lamb led to slaughter laid down his life as I mentioned there were two Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah that Jesus quotes from he quotes from Daniel 7 and notice where this quote comes from comes from Daniel 7 and I want you to understand the context in which it comes in where he clarifies his identity as the son of man this is the only Old Testament text that identifies that phrase son of man it's clearly a reference to the Messiah and clearly to a kind of Messiah listen to

[33:21] Daniel's description Daniel 7 13 Daniel says I saw in the night visions and behold here's the words with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man son of man coming with the clouds of heaven exactly what Jesus said and so here's the question how did he come where did he come is he coming to earth where is he coming behold one with the clouds of heaven and he came one like a son of man and he came what to the ancient of days to God the father not to earth he's coming to the father and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed when did Jesus get this kingdom is this at the end of days when is Jesus right now anybody any guesses he's sitting at the right hand of the father he is already ruling he is on his throne and he received that kingdom when he ascended into heaven remember acts 1

[34:35] Jesus said his final words to his disciples and then he began to ascend into what clouds and Daniel is picking up from there with the clouds came one like a son of man who came to the father and the father gives him a kingdom and then psalm 110 says the lord says to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool this is about Jesus' enthroning and Jesus says you will see this kindness chief priests elders scribes all people condemning Jesus to death Jesus says you will see and when he says you will see it's not the word for literal seeing it's the word that means you will see with understanding you're going to get it you're going to see the significance because you're going to know that the tomb will be empty and you're going to hear from more than 500 people who saw me raised from the dead and then you're going to hear testimony of how

[35:36] I ascended into heaven and then you will see they may not visually see that they may not be witnesses of that but they will come to see they will come to recognize and understand the significance which in the book of Acts many of the priests became obedient to the faith because they saw it they didn't see it in heaven but they got it got it like we get it when we hear the gospel and God opens our eyes and opens our ears and we finally get it and actually we get it before that don't we because we know it's true though we're unbelieving and though we're still rebellious we still know it's true we understand conviction you know we try to suppress it and all that it's just like we know God's a creator not not an evolutionist the Bible tells us we all know that nobody can deny that but we can try to suppress it and come up with foolish speculations and sound really good but everybody knows it sounds a lie why read this thing uh

[36:39] Stephen Wright's theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted I thought that was funny sorry I just thought that was funny um Jesus is reigning he's controlling all events he's putting enemies under his feet Mark Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that Jesus is reigning in heaven right now and he's reigning until he puts the last enemy under his feet and the last enemy is death at which point when he will put death under his feet he will raise us up to the father and then Jesus will take the kingdom and give it back to the father right now he is reigning and the situation we've been talking about this last week and today this morning nothing's more appropriate to understand that he's in control he's in absolute control he's not allowing it he intends it for his purposes we must not try to lower God's sovereignty into words that sound acceptable to us oh he's allowing this bad thing God doesn't allow anything

[37:42] God intends he's sovereign he takes the initiative he does things does that mean that he intends evil yeah he intends evil men to do their things to serve his purposes he does that to Satan have you seen my servant Job those words started a whole thing let God be God let's not be afraid of God being God we don't have to defend him why would he allow that why would he let this evil stuff go on for why he's not allowing it he's intending it because he has a good purpose does that sound confusing does that sound alright that's the biblical truth when you're going through hard stuff he intends it ok I'm getting on a different soapbox let's finish it how do we respond to all of this you know I was thinking about this and just picturing here's the holy son of God standing before this man who is corrupt and self promoting and just wants to get rid of Jesus because he's a political power and what what what an amazing scene

[39:00] God being judged by this man how do we respond to that well I think as believers we worship we worship we treasure what he did because he did it for us he's laying down his life he's enduring the suffering for us the mockery the injustice the slander for us we wonder and so I want us to close today singing what wondrous love is this 177 let me read some of the words here what wondrous love is this now watch it's addressed to ourselves it's addressed to our soul what wondrous love is this oh my soul are you listening are you seeing this my soul oh my soul what wondrous love is this oh my soul what wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse my soul to bear the dreadful curse for my soul this is not a song where the writer was kind of lost for words and just kind of oh I'm just going to put oh my soul oh my soul oh my soul oh my soul

[40:17]  I'm going to keep repeating that because I don't know what else to write no that's not this is well written this is intentional to grab the affection of our soul soul soul pay attention to this how wondrous this is have you considered it lately so that's what I want us to do I want us to sing this sing it with our soul talk it's to ourselves remind ourselves ask ourselves have we thought about this so worship team will come