The Trial Of Jesus
Introduction
I. The subject for discussion is "The Trial of Jesus".
A. I am going especially to talk about the trial from the standpoint of a lawyer.
1. Actually, the work of preaching the gospel is very closely related
to the work of a practicing attorney.
2. It is the duty of an attorney to go into court and argue the law.
a. It is not his duty to hand down a decision - that is the duty of the Judge.
b. Not duty to extend mercy - that again is within the province of the Judge.
3. It is the duty of the attorney though to argue the law and to point out
what relation the evidence may have to the law.
4. Now the work of a preacher of the gospel is very much like that.
a. It is our duty to argue....
b. God is on His throne in heaven.
c. He has given us his word or law - Bible.
d. Each preacher of the gospel is simply an attorney presenting
the word of God, arguing the law; simply to point out what God
has said for us to do and to avoid.
II. Lawsuits and trials are interesting to most people.
A. "Peoples Court" (TV program of the 80's-90's) has become quite popular.
B. Many programs and movies have been based upon the excitement of
events that have to do with the courts and law. (Perry Mason,
Mattlock, LA Law).
III. If you have studied history or kept up with the news in recent years,
you probably can recall some famous trials.
A. Socrates in Athens tried for Heresy (he contended that the world was round).
B. More recently, the O.J. Simpson trial....
C. Of all the trials in history of world none are comparable in importance to
the trial of Jesus of Nazareth, the Galileeian peasant, who was accused of
blasphemy and of attempting to set up a kingdom here on earth.
IV. Our Lord was accused before the Jewish Sanhedrin, then He was accused
before the court of the Roman Empire.
A. At various times the Jewish Sanhedrin, consisting of 71 members, was
reputed to have been the finest and fairest court in all the world.
B. The Roman Empire ruled most of the world at this time.
1. The laws of this empire allowed the Jews to keep their system but
with certain restrictions (death penalty).
2. The Lord was taken before the Jewish court, convicted and then
brought to the court of Pilate, the Roman Gov.
V. You are acquainted with events which took place on the last night of our
Lord's life.
A. Evidently, about 11:00 at night, having finished the passover supper
with His disciples and having instituted the communion service, our
Lord walked with the disciples in the cool of the night out of the
city of Jerusalem and on toward the Garden of Gethsemane.
1. While waking with them, he preached one of the most famous sermons
in the history of the world.
2. He arrived at the garden and prayed that famous prayer recorded in
the 17th ch. of John.
3. Approx. at midnight, Jesus was arrested by various officers and a
mob of people with sticks and staves led by Judas Iscariot, the
traitor, who betrayed our Lord with a kiss.
4. Our Lord was then taken before Annas, the ex-high priest and
father-in-law of Caiaphas who was at that time the high priest.
a. Annas was a crook and a scoundrel who controlled the office of
the high priest by political methods, who had put five of his
sons in the office, who had grown so corrupt himself was forced out.
b. All his sons were forced out and then he put his son-in-law in the office.
Body
I. Preview
A. By 2:00 in the morning, the Jewish San. had assembled and Jesus was
taken before them where Caiaphas condemned Him to death for blasphemy.
B. About daylight the Jewish San. assembled again to decide what ought
to be done because they were not allowed to put anyone to death
without permission from the Roman Govt.
1. So approximately at daylight they sent Jesus to Pilate.
2. Pilate heard the case and said, "I find no fault in him", but learned that Jesus
was a Galilean and knowing that Herod, the gov. of Gal., was in town and
seeking to humor him, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod.
a. Herod made sport of our Lord for a short time and sent Him back
to Pilate where he was condemned to death.
b. These are the facts of the trial of our Lord.
c. These are the facts connected with the most pathetic of all the
trials in the history of the world.
II. I want to call attention, from a legal standpoint, to the unfair treatment which
our Lord received at every stage of his trial, to the persecution which was
heaped upon Him by the Jewish people and Roman govt.
A. In the first place, the arrest of Jesus was illegal.
1. Jewish law forbade any man to be arrested at night unless he was
in the very act of committing a crime and the arrest was made to
stop him, but if a man were nit in the act of committing a crime
the law of the Jews forbade that man to be arrested at night.
2. Furthermore, the arrest of Jesus was illegal because the Jewish
law forbade an accomplice or traitor being used in arresting anybody.
a. In our country, it is possible for a man to turn what is called
"states evidence" and some reliability will be placed in his
testimony, but in Jewish law a man could not turn State's
evidence at all.
b. His evidence would not be accepted.
c. A man who was equally guilty could not inform on the man who
had participated in the crime with him.
1) If Jesus was guilty, Judas Iscariot was also guilty.
2) He had been with the Lord.
3) He had helped with the work and then he turned traitor.
4) Jewish law forbade the San. to pay any attention whatever to
the testimony of a traitor.
3. The arrest of Jesus was illegal because no court had issued a
warrant of arrest, no court properly convened and issued an indictment.
4. On these three counts it was contrary to Jewish law for that mob and those
officers to go over to the garden of Gethsemane and arrest our Lord.
B. In the second place, when our Lord was arrested he was taken before Annas
the former high priest and there Annas questioned Him in an attempt to trap
Him and to get him to say something which could be used against him.
1. This exam before Annas was illegal.
2. The Jewish law forbade an exam of any kind at night.
3. The Jewish law forbade one man to sit as a sole judge and forbade
anybody to conduct a preliminary exam.
a. They had no preliminary exam.
b. A man had to be brought before the whole court and tried.
4. That exam before Annas was illegal and contrary to Jewish law.
C. Then Jesus was taken before the Sanhedrin (San), but the indictment was illegal.
1. In the first place, the indictment against the Lord was vague and indefinite.
a. It did not state the particular crime with which he was charged.
b. The law specifically stated that when a man was indicted and
charged, his crime must be specifically stated in the warrant
of arrest, so that he would know just exactly of what he was
accused and go into court prepared to defend himself.
2. This indictment was so vague and so indefinite that no officer who
received the indictment knew what it was about and they had to
question the mob and question the Lord and try to find out why he
had been arrested.
D. It was contrary to Jewish law for the San. to institute proceedings against anybody.
1. The San. sat as an impartial court to hear the evidence.
2. It did not originate charges and send out officers to bring in criminals.
E. The whole proceedings of the San. was illegal.
1. Every point of the trial before the San. was contrary to their law.
a. It was illegal for the San. to assemble on any day unless first
the members of the court offered the morning sacrifice.
1) Those sacrifices had to be offered between day break and
sunrise and the members of the court had to offer the
sacrifices before the court convened.
b. This court convening before 2 or 3:00 in the morning could
hardly offer the morning sacrifice between daybreak and sun-up
and thus qualify to hear the case which was to be brought
before it at that time.
F. Furthermore, the Jewish law forbade the San. to hold any kind of
session on the day before the Sabbath day.
1. Many of the trials could not be completed in one day - no capital
case could be completed in one day.
2. It was illegal to conduct a trial on the first day of the feast of
unleavened bread.
3. Also, this day was the eve of the passover and Jewish law forbade
any trial to be conducted on the eve of the passover.
4. Thus, the Jewish court had no right to be meeting on that day at all.
5. It was contrary to law on three different counts for this court to
assemble to hear any kind of case at that time.
G. The Jewish law stated that if a man came before the court and was
tried and found innocent, he could be acquitted on the same day, but
if a man was tried and found guilty, he could not be sentenced on that day.
1. The court had to meet on another day and the sentence was given.
2. That prevented any man being railroaded through court, tried and
convicted and executed without a proper defense.
a. He could be tried one day but if found guilty he had to be
sentenced on another day.
b. They tried our Lord, convicted Him, and sentenced Him to death
all in one day.
H. The conviction of Jesus was illegal because it was founded upon His
own confession.
1. In our courts a man may confess to a crime but in the Jewish
courts a man was not allowed to confess to a crime.
2. If he did confess, his confession was stricken from the record and
could not be accepted, yet the Jewish San. convicted our Lord on
His own confession that he claimed to be the Son of God.
I. The trial of the Lord before the Jewish court was illegal because the
verdict was unanimous.
1. All the members of the court who were present voted for Jesus to
be put to death, but the Jewish Supreme Court always had to
appoint one member of the court to defend the criminal.
a. They did not appoint anybody to defend Jesus.
b. The man who defended the criminal always voted for his
acquittal so that he might not stand without a friend in court.
2. Even the worst of criminals who came into the court had an
attorney to defend him and he had one man to vote for his acquittal.
a. That was always true when the Jewish San. met, but when the
court met on this day they not only appointed nobody to defend
Jesus but He had not one to vote for his acquittal.
b. This made the whole proceeding illegal.
J. The Jewish law forbade the San. to hand down a death penalty anywhere
except in its reg. meeting place.
1. The San. was not in its reg. place.
2. It had assembled under the cover of darkness over at the house of
Caiaphas and was not in its reg. meeting place at all.
K. The balloting was illegal when they attempted to determine the guilt of Jesus.
1. The Jewish law was that when a decision was reached on any case
they must start with the youngest member of the court and ask him
to vote guilty or not guilty.
2. They would come on up to the oldest member of the court and,
finally, the high priest - the chairman of the court - would vote last.
a. That was to keep the older members of the court from intimidating
the younger members in voting their honest sentiments.
b. But in this case, instead of conducting the balloting in the
regular way the high priest voted first.
1) He said, "He is guilty of blasphemy. He ought to be put to death."
2) It was hardly to be expected that the younger members of the
court would speak up contrary to the judgment of the high
priest which had already been given.
L. In the O.T., for a man to tear his clothing was considered a sign of great sorrow,
anguish, or anger, but the high priest was forbidden to tear his clothing.
1. He was the high priest, the representative, the mouth piece of God
and even though other people might rend their clothing, the high
priest was allowed only to sit as an impartial, dignified judge.
2. He was forbidden to tear his clothing and, yet, when Jesus
declared Himself to be the Son of God the high priest rent his
clothing and said, "He is guilty of blasphemy."
3. That within itself should have caused the case to be thrown out of court.
M. The Jewish San. was not competent and qualified to hear the case.
1. They were not competent and qualified for some of the members of
the court had not been elected in a fair election.
a. They had been put on the court by trickery and bribery of old
Caiaphas, Annas and others.
b. That disqualified them.
c. It was not a competent court at that time.
2. In the second place, this court was prejudiced.
a. Prejudice means to prejudge, to judge a case before you hear the evidence.
b. This court was a prejudiced court.
c. Instead of being a fair and openminded court ready to hear the
evidence before rendering any kind of decision, this court was
prejudiced against Jesus even before He was brought to court.
d. In our day, if a judge is prejudice in a case, and that case
comes up in his court, he will excuse himself.
e. The San. was prejudice against the Lord and, therefore, not
competent to judge His case.
N. It has always been true that when a case comes up in any court, and the defense
makes his statement, that he is allowed to prove the truthfulness of his statements.
1. Jesus declared Himself to be the Son of God but this court gave
Him no chance to prove whether or not this statement was true.
2. They said, "It is false, He is not the Son of God. He ought to be
put to death" and so, they condemned our Lord and gave Him no
chance to prove His claim that He was innocent of the charges...
III. They had no case against Jesus.
A. They knew they didn't, so got two men to testify against him - to
twist what He had said.
1. One said, "We heard Him threatening to tear down the temple."
a. You remember our Lord said, "Destroy this temple and I will
rebuild it in three days" - taking about His body, meaning,
"Kill me and this body will be rebuilt in three days."
b. They said, "We heard him say, "Tear down this temple and I will
rebuild it in three days." The High priest said, "He is guilty of
blasphemy. What further evidence do we need" and sentenced him to death.
1) But the Roman govt. knew that the Jewish people had a habit
of sentencing to death anybody that they did not like, so
they had taken away from the Jewish court the right to kill a man.
2. The San. found Him guilty of blasphemy.
3. They waited until about daylight, assembled again and tried to
figure out just what to do.
B. They sent the Lord to Pilate with trumpted charges.
1. First, they said, "He is perverting the nation."
a. That was so false that even Pilate did not pay attention to it.
2. Second, they said, He is forbidding people to pay their taxes.
a. That was false.
b. Everybody knew that the Lord paid His taxes.
3. The third charge: they said, "This man is claiming to be a king."
a. Now that is the only charge that Pilate paid any attention to.
b. Pilate said, "Art thou a king?"
1) Jesus said, Do you ask this of yourself or on account of another?
2) That is, Are you asking this question as a Roman, or as a Jew?
3) As a Roman, from a temporal standpoint, Christ was not a
king and hence, If you are asking as a Roman the answer is
no, but if you are asking from the Jewish standpoint, from
the spiritual standpoint, I am a king.
4) Pilate said, "I am not a Jew. I am not speaking from the
Jewish standpoint."
5) Then Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world, if it
were then would my servants fight..."
6) He said, My kingdom is not of this world but rather my
kingdom is spiritual.
a) That answered the question, "I am not in opposition to the Roman
govt. but my kingdom is in the minds and hearts of men."
b) It is a spiritual kingdom.
C. The Lord's defense satisfied Pilate and he went out - those Jews
would not come in because on the eve of the passover they would not
go into the home of a Gentile, or they would be unclearn and could
not eat the Passover, so they took Jesus in and they stood outside the door.
1. Pilate went out and said, "I find in Him no fault. I find him not
guilty", but they cried out saying, "He is a Galilean."
a. Galilee was a hot-bed of radicalism and opposition to the Roman govt.
1) Many leaders came up out of Galilee to rebel against Rome.
b. They said, He is a Galilean. You had better be careful about
turning Him loose.
c. When they said, "Galilee", Pilate remembered that Herod, the
Tetarch of Galilee, was in Jerusalem.
1) Herod and Pilate had had a falling out because Herod thought
Pilate had not paid enough attention to him so Pilate said,
"I know what I will do, I'll send this man over to Herod and
that will get him off of my hands and that will help Herod. He will
think it wonderful that I am paying a little attention to him."
2. Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, the son of a man who had been married 10 times
and kill a lot of his wives.
a. The same man who killed John the Baptist.
b. Herod was one of the meanest scoundrels...
D. Herod had the Lord brought in and he wanted the Lord to amuse him like a magician.
1. He started asking silly, sarcastic and disgusting questions.
a. Jesus stood before him as a king and would not answer a question.
b. He maintained complete silence.
2. Herod became angry.
a. They brought a discarded robe, put it on our Lord and then
crowned Him with thorns.
b. They blindfolded Him and said, "Hail, king of the Jews. Here
is the great king."
3. When Herod had finished with that performance, which only
humiliated the Lord and reconciled Herod and Pilate, he returned
Jesus to Pilate.
E. Pilate went out and told the people he found no fault in Jesus.
1. Wearing a crown of thorns and a purple robe, our Lord came walking
out behind Pilate.
2. Pilate said, "Behold the man."
a. There was never a sadder spectacle on the face of the earth
than Pilate the Roman gov. standing with this man who had an
unfair trial from every standpoint with nobody to defend Him,
not any lawyer in the court, not one friend to stand beside him.
b. Our Lord came out with Pilate and Pilate said, "Behold the man."
c. That multitude cried, "Away with Him! Crucify Him!"
F. Pilate said, "I want to release a prisoner", and they cried out,
"Give us Barabbas, the noted criminal and robber, and let this Jesus
be crucified."
1. Pilate had the power to release the Lord.
2. Pilate knew the Lord was not guilty.
3. He could have released him...
4. His wife sent a message and said, "I have suffered many things in
a dream because of this just man. Have nothing to do with Him."
5. Pilate could have released the Lord but he, seeking to be popular
and please the people, turned around and washed his hands, and
said, "I am innocent of the blood of this..."
Conclusion
A. We talk about Jesus on trial before Pilate.
1. Really Pilate was on trial before Jesus.
2. It is said that Pilate went from bad to worse and within 2 years, committed
suicide because of the fact that he had delivered the Lord up to be crucified.
B. This story of the trial of Jesus concludes by saying, "Then they led Him
away to be crucified."
C. I declare to you, if you are interested in law, if you are interested in
the law as it is laid down in the Book of God, here is the most famous
trial in the history of the world.
1. Here is a man who was tried and convicted when the proceedings was
illegal from every standpoint.
2. Here is a man led away to be crucified that was innocent of all charges.
3. They made Him carry His own cross.
D. He lost the trial but was triumphant in the end.
1. He said, "And I if I be lifted up will draw men unto me."
a. He has been doing exactly that.
b. They crucified Him but on they 3rd day triumphantly He came forth
from the tomb to bring life through the gospel.
2. Through these 1900 yrs. he has been living - ready to pardon and
ready to forgive even those who persecuted Him.
3. He has been calling with outstretched hands, "Whosoever will may
come, and let him drink of the water of life freely."
E. Are you a Christian? Have you obeyed the gospel?
1. Would you like to follow Him?
2. Would you like to come into His kingdom?
3. If you would, we want you to come...
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