This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day three of our look through John 18 and daily drive time devotions.
Yesterday we took a look at Jesus before the Roman army, showing the verdict
that he is Lord. He allows himself to be arrested and he's delivered up to the
religious courts for judgment.

And today we're going to focus in on Jesus before these religious courts and the
verdict that we see of who he truly is. Beginning in John chapter 8 verses 12 to
14, here's what happened. Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and
the Jewish officials arrested Jesus.

They bound him and brought him first to Annas who was the father-in-law of
Caiaphas the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the
Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people. You remember we
looked at that earlier in the book of John, Caiaphas had made a prophecy without
knowing it, saying that it would be good if one man would die for the people.

He meant die for the political expediency, but as we see it now we realize he
died for our sins. The interesting thing here is that first Jesus goes to a man
named Annas who is the father-in-law of Caiaphas and the question is why Annas
first? Why was he brought to the father-in-law of the high priest, the one who's
going to judge him is Caiaphas, not Annas.

Well he's brought to Annas first because of who Annas was. From AD 6 to AD 15
Annas had been the high priest and even though he was out of office at AD 15 he
had created a religious political machine. The high priest after him had been
his five sons, his grandson and now Caiaphas is his son-in-law and he's the one
behind it all pulling all the strings.

It was under Annas' direction that the temple began to move more manipulatively
to using money changing and the selling of animals within the temple to feed the
coffers and he was raising a lot of money by breaking God's law and Annas didn't
like Jesus. Why? Well remember what Jesus did.

He went in and he turned the money changing tables over. He chased them out for
what they were doing and Annas did not like that. That was their income stream
that Jesus was messing with and because he is the power behind the power Jesus
has taken to him first and look at what happened.

Let's skip to verse 19. We're going to come back to the verses in between which
are Peter's story which is interwoven here in days to come but verse 19 to 24
here's what happened. Meanwhile the high priest questioned Jesus about his
disciples and his teaching.

"I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in
synagogues or at the temple where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in
secret.

Why question me? Surely they know what I said. " When Jesus said this one of the
officials nearby struck him in the face.

"Is that the way that you answer the high priest? " He demanded. "If I said
something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong but if I spoke the
truth why did you strike me?

" And then Annas sent him still bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Now notice in
this account of the story Annas is still called the high priest even though
Caiaphas is the actual high priest at that time because he was the power. And as
Jesus is questioned by Annas he knew exactly, exactly what was happening.

Jesus replies, "I've taught in the synagogue where everybody comes together.
Nothing in secret. Why are you questioning me?

" He said this to indicate that they were breaking the law by questioning him.
The law was that if somebody was accused first you had to question the witnesses
against them and then you could question the one who was accused but instead
they're questioning Jesus first. That's why Jesus says, "Ask those who heard me,
surely they know what I said.

" He's reminding the high priest's father-in-law about the law and their law
said that they were breaking the law and so they struck him. They slapped him on
the cheek. They did so because they had nothing to say in defense so they hit
him instead.

That's the last resort of people who have nothing to say. Jesus says, "If I said
something wrong, tell me what was wrong. Why did you strike me?

" In these verses Jesus literally shows us what it means to turn the other
cheek. He tells us to do that in the Sermon on the Mount. Here he turns the
other cheek.

He was struck on the cheek and he didn't respond in anger. He didn't slap back.
He doesn't lie and act somehow like he was wrong.

He continues to speak the truth with humility without anger or malice towards
the person who slapped him. That's what it means to turn the other cheek. Some
people think that turning the other cheek means you let people run over you.

That's not what Jesus did. That's not what it means. Turning the other cheek is
the decision to continue to love an enemy, to stay in love.

And Jesus shows us that as you love an enemy, it's okay to continue to tell them
the truth. Now, Annas knew that Jesus was right. So in verse 24 Annas sends him
still bound to Caiaphas, the high priest and we're not going to hear that story
of that trial from John or the things that happened there.

It would have been literally right across the street for him to go to this other
trial. And this trial would have been before the greater Jewish court, the
greater Sanhedrin. The lesser court of 26 men couldn't rule on a capital crime.

But there were 73 men in this greater court and he went across for this trial.
And in this trial that we read in other gospel accounts and even in this
pre-trial that we read here before Annas, something is immediately obvious. It
was not a fair trial.

Let me just give you a list of why it wasn't a fair trial according to their
laws. Nine reasons. Number one, the number of witnesses was not correct.

You had to have two or more. In some cases they had none. Number two, the
witness didn't agree.

Even when they did get two witnesses together in some of the trials, they didn't
agree with each other and by law they had to agree. Number three, they changed
the nature of the accusation halfway through the trial. First it was blasphemy
and then they changed it to treason because blasphemy was not a capital offense
to the Romans.

So they needed to convict him of treason so they could take it to the Romans and
say now you have to kill him. Number four, a man arrested for a capital crime
couldn't be arrested at night. Jesus was arrested at night.

Number five, if a man was arrested for a capital crime, no one who cooperated in
the arrest could be associated with the accused. Judas was associated with
Jesus. Number six, no Jewish trial could be held at night.

This one was held at night. Number seven, a court was not to immediately pass
judgment on a capital offense. They did.

Number eight, witnesses had to be called before the prisoner could be
questioned. The first thing Annis does is question Jesus. And number nine, a
prisoner couldn't be asked a question that would incriminate them of a capital
crime and they broke that one too.

It was not a fair trial. But here's what I want you to see. It was not fair but
it was perfectly used of God.

Can God use something that is unfair to accomplish his will? Our American spirit
says absolutely not. But the cross of Jesus Christ shouts absolutely yes.

God is greater than the unfair actions of men. When life isn't fair, you and I
need to be reminded. We need to remind ourselves that God always is fair.

And when it seems like the books aren't being balanced in this world, we need to
remember that this isn't where the books are balanced anyway. That's going to
happen in heaven at the end. That's where everything is balanced.

That is where God will make everything right and just and fair. And until that
day, as we live in an unfair world, God works even here. God takes even the
unrighteous, unholy things that are done and he uses them through his perfect
power to get Jesus right where he wants him, right when he wants him, to get him
to the cross.

You see, as Jesus goes through this unfair trial, this is a trial that proves
the innocence of the accused and the guilt of the accusers. In fact, the verdict
of this trial as we read it today is Jesus is innocent. The louder their
accusations, the more innocent Jesus appears.

Now, as you and I look at this, these trials, this unfair moment, it's good to
remind ourselves that Jesus is on trial in our lives. It's easy for you and I to
look at these religious leaders and think, "Well, I'm thankful to God that I'm
not like them. " The better thing, the real truth, is to recognize how easily we
can be like that, have been like that.

They were just trying to protect what they thought was right. They were trying
to protect the status quo. They were trying to protect their comfort and they
were trying to maintain their power.

And if you say you've never tried to protect those things or maintain those
things in your life, you probably need to take a better look at your life. We've
all struggled with that. Why did these men do what they did?

Why did they reject Jesus? They rejected Jesus for the same reason that most
people reject Jesus. You might think that in most cases people reject Jesus for
intellectual reasons, but that is not the main reason people reject Jesus
Christ.

The main reason most people reject Jesus is we don't want to change. We want to
stay like we are. We want our lives not to lose some of the comfort that we
have.

We want to maintain the power we have over our lives. That's most of the time
why we reject Christ. That's why even as believers sometimes we hold at arm's
length the work of Jesus Christ in our lives.

We don't want to change. And so we hold him outside of our lives because we know
if we really let him into our lives, he's going to make some changes. Now
they're going to be for the better.

A part of our mind tells us that, but there's something in our gut that says I
don't care. I don't want to change. I'm comfortable where I am.

And so I reject Jesus Christ. And so I say no to Jesus Christ. That's what they
did.

That's why they did it. And that's why we reject him. As we come to the end of
this trial, the real question isn't what they did.

The real question is what's your verdict in this trial? The question for me and
for you is are we willing to be confronted with the truth about I'm not willing
to change. I resist change.

I resist God's work in my life. The place to begin that willingness is always in
prayer and conversation with God. So let me encourage you to pray this simple
prayer today.

Say to him, Father, help me to be willing to change. Help me to see where I'm
holding you at arm's length, putting your truth on trial in my heart because I'm
not willing to change. And as I see it, I pray you give me the strength through
what Jesus has done for me, his love for me, to know that the changes you want
to work in my life are all for the best.

They're all for the eternal good work that you want to do in my character and
through my life for your glory. And so, Lord, I pray you'd help me, help me to
be willing to change for your sake. In Jesus' name, Amen.