Bulletin:
1. See How Self-Righteousness Clouds Judgment. (59-63)
1a. The Chief Priests Try to Build a False Case.
1b. The High Priest Tries to Cut to the Chase.
?- What/who might you be looking at through a self-righteous standard?
?- How could you show greater compassion to someone whose mind is veiled from seeing the truth of Who Christ is?
2. See How Jesus is the Ultimate Righteous Judge. (64)
?- What will the ruling of the righteous judge concerning you be?
3. See What Evil Self-Righteousness Can Justify. (65-68)
?- How can you guard against following the mob mentality of self-righteousness?
?- How might you use the prayer of Psalm 139:23-24 to help guard against a self-righteous heart?
Manuscript:
We're all in danger of being self-righteous.
"Self-righteousness" can be defined as "a certainty of being totally correct or morally superior."
Another source I read defines self-righteousness in this way -
"When a person believes they've done no wrong, and problems in their life stem from other people."
A person can be clearly in the wrong.
But self-righteousness can lead to doing things to make up for their wrong -
A businessman well known for his under-handed, ruthless actions once told Mark Twain,
"Before I die, I mean to pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
I will climb Mount Sinai and read the 10 Commandments aloud at the top."
Mark Twain replied, "I have a better idea. You could stay here and keep the 10 Commandments."
Self-righteousness can cause us to justify our sin.
I read about a man facing charges for stealing a car, went and added another car theft to his charges.
He self-righteously reasoned he HAD to steal the 2nd car because, if he didn't, he'd miss his court date.
His defense attorney literally argued that his second infraction should be overlooked.
His Attorney, John Burton, is quoted as arguing,
"He took the car because he had no other means of getting to court,"
As I said, self-righteousness can cause a person to justify their sin based on the idea that their motives are right or that the circumstances forced them to misbehave.
Will Rogers once said that if you want to hear good news, you should ask a self-righteous person to talk about themselves.
This morning, we will find ourselves shaking our heads as the trial of Jesus amounts to -
Title: A Self-Righteous Judgment Against the Righteous Judge
I hope this message will help us better understand the danger of self-righteous behavior.
And I also hope we can spot it in ourselves when necessary.
Ultimately, we should also be reminded that Jesus is the final judge of people's hearts.
And He holds that role now as well as when He will sit on His throne judging all humanity.
So, we turn again to Matthew 26 in verses 57-68 as we find Jesus brought before the Jewish Council
57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled.
The drama moves from the Garden of Gethsemane to the palatial residence of the high priest, Caiaphas.
With the Jewish Ruling Council (the Sanhedrin) present, they're ready to confront Jesus.
Only 1/3 of the Sanhedrin needed to be present to make a quorum.
Interestingly, according to later Jewish Law, holding this trial in secret was illegal.
But, as we’ll see more of, self-righteousness can cause people to justify “bending” the rules.
58 But Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.
Once again, Matthew seems to skip many details to emphasize certain players and statements.
He seems to intend here to emphasize the contrast between Peter and Jesus.
Peter follows Jesus into the high priest's courtyard.
The man who claimed he would follow Jesus closely no matter where it took him is now keeping his distance to see what will become of His Lord.
Next week, Pastor Josh will preach about how Peter responds to this situation and whether he will keep his claims to stick with Jesus no matter what.
The remaining verses comprise the passage we’re focusing on this morning.
59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.
Finally two came forward 61 and declared, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.' "
62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" 63 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." 64 "You have said so," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?"
"He is worthy of death," they answered. 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?"
From the words and actions that take place in this meeting, I first want to direct you to -
1. SEE HOW SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS CLOUDS JUDGMENT. (59-63)
We'd be very concerned if a judge and jury are looking for evidence of a crime they wanted to find a person guilty of.
We'd be even more concerned if the judge and jury are intent on finding something that would justify the death penalty.
It's a whole other level of concern if they are resorting to finding someone who'd be willing to lie on the stand so that they could put someone to death.
This is how desperate the Jewish Ruling Council was to get rid of Jesus.
Of course, as we’ll see, their actions fulfilled God's perfect plan.
First, we see their pitiful attempts as -
1A. THE CHIEF PRIESTS TRY TO BUILD A FALSE CASE.
59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.
There wasn't a clear agreement between all the false witnesses coming forward.
The Law required two witnesses who could corroborate each other's claims.
Even with the antics used to accomplish their goal, these self-righteous men still cared about doing things by the book - at least the parts they thought were essential.
Finally two came forward 61 and declared, "This fellow said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.' "
These claims resembled statements that Jesus had made regarding His body being resurrected.
And He'd spoken of His body as the temple that would be destroyed and rebuilt in three days.
John records one of these statements that's being referred to by these witnesses.
* John 2:19–21 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
The Jewish temple represented the vital uniqueness of the nation of Israel itself.
It was thought to be both sacrilegious and treasonous to speak of it being destroyed.
Rather than cross-examining the witnesses, they jump on the agreement of two witnesses and -
1B. THE HIGH PRIEST TRIES TO CUT TO THE CHASE.
62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?" 63 But Jesus remained silent.
This direct challenge from the high priest further confirms that Matthew highlights him as a main character in Jesus' movement toward the cross.
What a contrast between Caiaphas' blustering threats and Jesus' calm confidence in who He is.
* Isaiah 53:7 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God."
This question doesn't come out of left field.
There was much talk at the time that the true Messiah would remove and rebuild the temple.
People’s personal experience and viewpoints can often cloud their judgment.
It’s happened more than once that I’ve been asked to describe someone, and I say, “They're tall.”
When it turns out that the person is 5’9”, people respond to me, saying, “You called them tall?”
Well, when you’re the same height as Tom Cruise, people look tall.
Self-righteousness affects us in much the same way.
When we’re convinced that our judgment is impeccable because we’re in the right, we judge others wrongly.
And, like these Jewish leaders, we’ll tend to overlook our sin in the process of making judgments.
We need to ask ourselves -
?- What/who might you be looking at through a self-righteous standard?
Regarding people being self-righteous when they don’t have a relationship with the Lord,
People are still rejecting Christ because He doesn’t fit their idea of what a savior should be like.
We’re told in -
* 2 Corinthians 4:4 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Self-righteousness is often the symptom of this blindness toward the gospel.
?- How could you show greater compassion for someone whose mind is veiled from seeing the truth of Who Christ is?
Moving forward in this sham trial, we come to Jesus’ response to the question, and we can -
2. SEE HOW JESUS IS THE TRUE RIGHTEOUS JUDGE. (64)
64 "You have said so," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Jesus replies to the High Priest's question, "You said it!"
He agrees and upgrades their expectations to the elevated place that He holds as the Messiah.
Jesus claims that the religious leaders would one day see Him as the Son of Man with two descriptions.
Both descriptions fit His exalted position.
First as the eternal Lord who whose name would be exalted above all other names, as in -
* Psalm 110:1 1 The Lord says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."
Second, He alludes to the Son of Man from Daniel 7 to whom would be given dominion over all nations
* Daniel 7:13–14 13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
What might be most disturbing to the High Priest is the term that Jesus leads with - from now on
He isn't just pointing to the future but also the present moment.
Jesus is saying, "In this moment and into the future, I am your judge, no matter how it appears this day."
Paul warns the Athenians of the fact that Jesus is appointed to judge the world in -
* Acts 17:30–31 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."
Trusting Him as our Savior is the difference between salvation and judgment, as He told Nicodemus in -
* John 3:18 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Of course, those who have trusted Christ can be assured of their salvation as John writes in -
* 1 John 5:13 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
The requirement of Jesus the Judge is like the sign that we’ve all seen outside an amusement park ride.
There’s a line on the sign, usually next to a theme park character with a big smile on their face, ready to break a little kids heart.
The sign says, “You must be this tall to ride this ride.”
A relationship with God also has a line that we must reach.
It’s a level of righteousness rather than height (thank goodness).
And the line is so high we can’t even see it from here - above the clouds and in outer space.
Self-righteousness causes people to think that they actually meet God’s standard.
?- What will the ruling of the righteous judge concerning you be?
If you think, “God’s gonna will overlook my sin because I’ve been a pretty good person,” you’re in trouble.
If you think, “The only reason why I can stand before God’s judgment is because the righteousness of Christ has been applied to me,” you’re in better shape.
How do you get from one response to the other?
You do so by repenting of your attempts to be righteous enough.
Recognize that Jesus paid the penalty of your sins by dying on the cross.
Ask God for a relationship with Him based on Christ’s righteousness.
Receive that relationship in the form of His Holy Spirit indwelling you - connecting you with Him forever.
This Council of men had two choices -
See Jesus as a LIAR or LUNATIC - Agree with the High Priest and call for the Lord's death
See Jesus as Lord - Agree with Him and worship Him.
Sadly we learn that they chose unwisely as we -
3. SEE WHAT EVIL SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS CAN JUSTIFY. (66-68)
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?"
Tearing one's clothes was a way of showing sorrow or disdain for a situation.
Interestingly, the high priest was forbidden from tearing his robes in the OT Law.
In this whole sad scenario, we find these men justifying a lot of lawbreaking because of how serious they take Jesus' claims to be.
Blasphemy (disrespecting God) was punishable by stoning according to the OT Law.
This charge would stick if they all agreed with it.
From this point, the high priest pounces on the moment and calls for the "jury" to render their verdict with Jesus' words as evidence.
"He is worthy of death," they answered. 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?"
The Kangaroo Court responds to the charge of blasphemy with a "guilty of all charges."
And… they go on to commit blasphemy by verbally and physically abusing God Himself.
This is an irony that's pointed out in -
* Luke 22:65 65 And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.
What the OT Law allowed at this point was a public flogging.
It was against the OT Law to spit on, strike, and taunt a prisoner.
Once again, we find these self-righteous men justifying their behavior with the gravity of Jesus' claims.
Mark tells us that they covered Jesus' face and mocked His omniscience, asking Him who struck Him.
Once again, we find that Jesus was fulfilling the unthinkable scenario that had been predicted in -
* Isaiah 50:6 6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
We see a similar rise of self-righteousness in our culture in the form of cultural Marxism.
It’s view of society is often called Critical Theory.
And it can involve Critical Race Theory, Critical Gender Theory, etc.
It rationalizes that a person in an oppressed group is right in whatever they do because the oppression they’ve experienced justifies their behavior.
This is why people today are hungry to declare themselves “victims” so that they can think they’re absolved from responsibility for how they respond.
In this way of thinking, all kinds of evil is justified by the person’s self-righteous victimhood.
It might be people burning police cars in a race riot.
It might be a non-binary teacher thinking they deserve to express their fluctuating identity to impressionable children.
It might be a normally law-abiding citizen giving fake Social Security cards to an illegal immigrant.
It might be a drag queen that feels they have a right to read to children.
It might be a crowd of Palestinians that are cheering the dead bodies of children whom they killed.
It might be you or I thinking that it’s OK to hate any of these people because we think they deserve it.
?- How can you guard against following the mob mentality of self-righteousness?
These modern examples of self-righteous justification of evil should stand as warnings to us.
But we should also stand guard against the thought that our church activity somehow justifies us to dive into sinful internet searches in our private time.
We should guard against angry outbursts no matter how far we feel our spouse or kids push us.
We should shun the temptation to gossip even though it might be cloaked in the guise of a prayer request.
We should pray as the Psalmist does in -
* Psalm 139:23–24 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
