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Book: John
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John 18:19
I. The high priest then asked Jesus of His disciples and of His doctrine.
A. He is asking Jesus to testify against Himself, which is
contrary to the law.
1. In our constitution we have the 5th amendment that
protects a person from testifying against himself.
2. The legal procedure would have been to prefer some
charge against Jesus and then bring in witnesses to
prove that charge.
3. The judge who was supposed to listen to all of the
evidence and then determine the guilt or innocence of
the defendant, was himself taking on the position of
the prosecuting attorney in asking the leading
questions.
4. It is obvious a fishing expedition in which they were
looking for something that they might charge Him with.
B. He asked first about His disciples, then about His doctrine.
1. There intent from the beginning is to turn him over to
Rome so that the death sentence might be imposed upon
Him.
2. At this point and time in history the Jews had lost
their right to condemn a prisoner to death.
3. This right was taken from them by Rome, around the
year 6-7 A.D. The son of King Herod and his successor
named Herod Archelaus, was dethroned and banished to
Vienna according to Josephus (Antiquities 17:13) He
was replaced by a Roman Procurator named Caponius. The
legal power of the Sanhedrin was severely restricted
and at that time the power of imposing capitol
punishment was removed from them. Josephus records this
in The Wars of the Jews book 2 chap.8. In the minds of
the Jewish leadership this was interpreted as the
removal of the scepter from Judah. The prophecy of
Jacob was that the scepter would not depart from Judah
until Shiloh came, or the Messiah came.
4. The historian Josephus in Antiquities 20:9 writes.
After the death of the procurator Festus, when Albinus
was about to succeed him, the high priest Ananius
considered it a favorable opportunity to assemble the
Sanhedrin. He therefore caused James the brother of
Jesus, who was called Christ, and several others to
appear before this hastily assembled council and
pronounced upon them the sentence of death by stoning.
All the wise men and strict observers of the law who
were at Jerusalem expressed their disapprobation of
this act. Some even went to Albinus himself, who had
departed to Alexandria to bring this breach of the law
under his observation, and to inform him that Ananius
had acted illegally in assembling the Sanhedrin without
the Roman authority.
5. When Rome took from the Jews the power of capitol
punishment early in the first century The Babylonian
Talmud in chap. 4 folio 37 declares: "When the members
of the Sanhedrin found themselves deprived of their
right over life and death, a general consternation
took possession of them: they covered their heads with
ashes, and their bodies with sackcloth, exclaiming:
Woe unto us for the scepter has departed from Judah
and the Messiah has not come."
6. The High Priest was seeking to develop some charges
that he might take Jesus to Pilate in order to get the
death sentence pronounced upon Him.
II. Jesus answered him, "I spoke openly to the world; I taught in the
synagog and in the temple, where the Jews always resort, and in secret
I have said nothing."
A. He had no secret agenda with His disciples of overthrowing the
Roman government.
1. There had been many impostors who had appeared about
the time of Jesus, but all of them spoke of
overthrowing Rome.
2. This of course would have been a valid reason to bring
Jesus to the Roman authorities.
B. What He had taught, He had taught openly.
C. His private discussions with His disciples was only explaining
to them what He had said in public. Their were no secrets, no
hidden agenda.
D. He had not encouraged His disciples in their thoughts that He
would assume the authority of the Kingdom of God immediately.
1. Quite the opposite, He had spoken to them over and over
of His being despised, rejected, and crucified.
2. He had actually sought to discourage them in thinking
that the Kingdom of God was to be immediately set up.
E. When they had sought to trap Him in the issue of paying taxes
to Rome, He asked them for a coin and asked whose image was on
the coin, when they answered Caesar, He said, render unto
Caesar the things that are Caesar, and unto God the things that
are God's.
F. They did not really have any legitimate charge to file against
Him, so they were seeking to trump up some charges.
1. When He was eventually brought before Pilate, Pilate
was shrewd enough to realize that they did not have
legitimate charges but had only delivered Him because
of envy.
2. They had tried to get some false witnesses against
Jesus, but they could not even agree among themselves.
The whole case against Jesus had broken down so they
had to resort to extortion.
III. Why do you ask Me? ask them that heard Me what I have said unto them.
Behold, they know what I have said.
A. Jesus is taking over the trial. He is now asking the questions,
and commanding the High Priest what to do. This obviously
stymied the High priest and He was at a loss.
1. One of the officers who was standing by Jesus seeing
the dilemma of the High Priest struck Jesus with the
palm of his hand. The margin reads a rod. I believe
that it was a rod, and the prophecy of Micah 5:1 was
being fulfilled.
2. This is the first physical blow struck against Jesus.
He will later be beaten until He will be unrecognizable
as a human being.
3. It is always sad when reason gives way to force.
4. You don't have sound answers, you are exposed in your
absurd folly, so you start swinging with your fists, or
verbally attacking the character of your opponent.
5. I have seen this over and over in the creation
evolution debates. Because the evolutionist cannot
offer any sound scientific evidence that proves the
theory, they attack the intelligence of anyone who does
not believe that man came from the goo through the zoo
to his present state of existence. Why should you
believe that? Because they say that that is how it
happened. But they are fools. They profess themselves
to be wise, but they are fools. The fool has said in
his heart, "There is no God." Why should I believe a
fool just because he possesses a PhD?
B. The officer that struck Jesus said, "Answerest the High Priest
so?"
1. He was no doubt upset that Jesus was so right as to
silence the High Priest.
2. He no doubt knew the law and knew that the High Priest
was outside of the law in questioning the prisoner as
he was.
IV. Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil:
but if well, why do you smite Me?"
A. Jesus is still in control of the whole procedure. He is first
commanding the officer to bear witness of any evil that He had
said, then demanded the reason why he struck Him.
B. Later in history when Paul was before the council to be
examined as Paul began to make his defense, declaring that he
had always lived in good conscience before God, the high
priest commanded those who were standing by Paul to hit him on
the mouth. Paul said to him, God will smite you, you whited
wall, for you sit to judge me after the law, yet you order me
to be smitten which is against the law.
C. This officer was violating the law in smiting Jesus.
D. When those who are appointed to uphold the law, begin to feel
that they are above the law, we have descended to the lowest
conditions possible.
V. Now Annas sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.
A. This was a necessary move on the part of the religious council
for Annas though the recognized head over the religious affairs
of the nation, was not recognized by Rome, and could not thus
bring Jesus before the Roman judicial system in order to get
the death penalty pronounce upon Jesus.
B. We have already commented upon the unusual conditions where
there were two high priests.
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