THE ENORMOUS LOVE OF JESUS

Todays text is very familiar. We need to fight through the familiarity. I would ask that you try to engage this story as if you were hearing it for the first time; reading it from the perspective of what the disciples watched and what Jesus endured. What we are going to read today really happened. These events covered a time frame of roughly 12 hours [from around midnight Thursday night until noon on Friday]. What we will read contains a list of terrible acts of injustice & violent abuse towards Jesus...but also, woven together in a miraculous, beautiful way, we will experience the expression of enormous love from Jesus. My goal today is to spend time in the story, to simply tell you the story, [reading some from John, summarizing some from MT< MK< LK]

THE focus today is to observe Jesus; what was done to him, what was said to him, what his response was and what we can learn from what he endured. My prayer is that we will come away from today LOVING JESUS more because of his enormous love for us…expressed to us in what he endured during this 12 hour period…let's experience this together...

1] Phase 1 Jewish Trials: ANNAS and PETER’S DENIAL [pt1]
John 18:12-24

2] Phase 2 Jewish Trials: CAIAPHAS || MT26/MK14/LK22
- Chief Priests, Elders, Teachers, Whole Sanhedrin present || Sanhedrin Supreme Court, 70 people, Sadducees/Pharisees, Met to determine evidence to charge Jesus and put him to death || Lots of false witnesses, no statements matched, they could not find any charges against him (MT 26:60, MK 14:55)
- Caiaphas finally stood up, spoke directly to Jesus, asked “are you the Christ, the Son of God?” || Jesus said “I Am. Said Jesus. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (MK 14:62)
- quoting Psalm 110:1/Daniel 7:13 which was a prophecy about the Messiah
- Caiaphas lost his temper, tore his clothes and shouted “BLASPHEMY!” We don’t need anymore witnesses…he deserves death! || everyone agreed
- It was at this point that Jesus absorbed his first round of physical abuse. - MT, MK and LK all record the details of this event. It is recorded that Jesus was
- SPIT in the face
- STRUCK in the face with fists
- SLAPPED
- BEATEN
- BLINDFOLDED and MOCKED with people asking him to prophecy who hit him.

3] PETER’S DENIAL [pt 2-3] || John 18:25-27
Alternate reading:
LUKE 22:54-62 “54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. 55 And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” 58 And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” 59 And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly."

Peter’s Journey:
Andrew introduces him/Jesus invites him to follow him/experiences miraculous catch of fish/experiences miraculous healing of his MIL/was Simon renamed by Jesus to PETER (Cephas) which means “rock”/saw Jesus miraculously raise a little girl from the dead/saw Jesus miraculously walk on water and calm a raging storm/Peter proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God/Jesus commended his faith/said he would build his church on that/Peter rebukes Jesus when he says he will die and raise to life in 3 days/Peter proclaims his loyalty by saying he would never deny Jesus, he would die for Jesus/Jesus tells Peter he will deny him 3 times before the rooster crows/Peter joins Jesus in the Garden to pray/Peter defend Jesus and cuts off Malchus’ ear/Peter flees when Jesus is arrested/Peter follows at a distance due to fear/Peter does exactly what Jesus said…denied him 3 times before the rooster crowed/Peter saw Jesus look at him/Peter wept bitterly/there is more to this story…

4] Phase 3 Jewish Trials: SANHEDRIN || MT27/MK15/LK22
[timing was now early FRI morning] illegal for Sanhedrin Council to meet during darkness, sham trial anyway || met to formally declare decision made during the night || asked Jesus again if he was the Christ, son of God || Jesus said Yes || they agreed Jesus was blaspheming and deserved death

5] Phase 1 Roman Trials: PILATE || John 18:28-38a
Timing early FRI morning || Pilate finds no fault, sends him to Herod

6] Phase 2 Roman Trials: HEROD || LK 23:6-12
Jesus is a Galilean, Herod’s jurisdiction || Herod excited to meet/see Jesus, hoped Jesus would do a miracle || Herod asked Jesus questions, but Jesus refused to answer him || Chief Priests and Teachers of the Law were there and they aggressively accused him || Herod and the soldiers mocked Jesus, ridiculed him, put a robe on him, then sends him back to Pilate

7] Phase 3 Roman Trials: PILATE || John 18:38b-19:16
- Barabbas “son of the father”, interesting swap
- Jesus was flogged. What does that mean?
[https://www.cbcg.org/scourging-crucifixion.html]
"Flogging was a legal preliminary to every Roman execution, and only women and Roman senators or soldiers (except in cases of desertion) were exempt. The usual instrument was a short whip with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths, in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals. For scourging, the man was stripped of his clothing, and his hands were tied to an upright post. The back, buttocks, and legs were flogged either by two soldiers (lictors) or by one who alternated positions. The severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the lictors and was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross. After the scourging, the soldiers often taunted their victim."
- Jesus was mocked. Beaten. Crown of Thorns. Purple Robe. Humiliated and brutalized.
- listen what Isaiah prophesies about Jesus || ISAIAH 53:1-12 ESV
- Pilate thought he had authority, Jesus was clear where the authority was coming from. || Jesus said Jews were guilty of greater sin. || all of these things done to an innocent man…according to Pilate, according to Herod, according to even the Jews who had to lie and drum up false accusations to charge him with blasphemy

JESUS SHOWED US HE LOVED US...
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
2 Cor 5:21“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

3 THINGS JESUS UNDERSTANDS...

1. Jesus understands injustice:
When we are going through terrible injustices in our lives…Jesus experienced more than we could ever understand…he knows exactly how we are feeling, he can identify with you. And in that identification, he is able to help you too.

2. Jesus understands what it means to sacrificially obey:
When you are struggling with obeying God, in a difficult struggle, a besetting sin, and addiction, a fight with your flesh, remember that Jesus endured incredible pain and agony, obeyed to the point of death…he understands how hard it is. He showed us we can, with his power, endure hardships and obey God in the midst of them.

3. Jesus understands what it means to truly love:
I have to own it. I have to remind myself that it wasn’t just the evil people who falsely accused Jesus, who mocked him, beat him, flogged him, eventually crucifying him…it wasn’t just their sin that Jesus died for…it was mine. It was yours. The ones you committed this week. The ones you committed this morning. Those sins. Jesus loves us so much, that he was willing to take the penalty, to be the substitute, to pay our ransom with his blood, his death, so that we might be free, forgiven, loved, restored, adopted, filled with every spiritual blessing,