Micah McCormick: Turn to Matthew chapter 26.
Micah McCormick: Pastor Doug and Royal are away visiting their family in England.
Micah McCormick: We're going to continue on in the Gospel of Matthew.
Micah McCormick: We've been studying this gospel for uh quite a while now.
Micah McCormick: We're coming towards the end of the gospel, but Matthew chapter 26, and we'll be looking at verse 57 down through verse 68.
Micah McCormick: If you are using our Pew Bible and not sure where that is, it's page 883.
Micah McCormick: Matthew 26, verses 57 down through verse 68.
Micah McCormick: This is what Holy Scripture says.
Micah McCormick: Those who had arrested Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the High Priest, where the scribes and the elders had convened.
Micah McCormick: Peter was following him at a distance, right to the high priest's courtyard.
Micah McCormick: He went in and was sitting with the servants to see the outcome.
Micah McCormick: The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they could not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward.
Micah McCormick: Finally, two who came forward stated, This man said, I can destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.
Micah McCormick: The high priest stood up and said to him, Don't you have an answer to what these men are testifying against you?
Micah McCormick: But Jesus kept silent.
Micah McCormick: 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.
Micah McCormick: You have said it, Jesus told him.
Micah McCormick: But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.
Micah McCormick: Then the high priest tore his robes and said, He has blasphemed.
Micah McCormick: Why do we still need witnesses?
Micah McCormick: See, now you've heard the blasphemy.
Micah McCormick: What is your decision?
Micah McCormick: They answered, He deserves death.
Micah McCormick: Then they spat in his face and beat him.
Micah McCormick: Others slapped him and said, Prophesy to us, Messiah.
Micah McCormick: Who was it that hit you?
Micah McCormick: Let's look to God once more.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we have the prophetic word made more certain, to which we do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day rises and that morning star rises in our own hearts.
Micah McCormick: Lord, again shine on us this morning.
Micah McCormick: We ask this that your glory might be seen, that Christ might be known and marveled at.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name, amen.
Micah McCormick: Have you ever been accused of something?
Micah McCormick: Is your first impulse just to remain quiet?
Micah McCormick: I think for most of us, the answer is probably not.
Micah McCormick: We are ready to launch in and defend ourselves.
Micah McCormick: You can see this especially in children.
Micah McCormick: Children, we're glad you're here in the service.
Micah McCormick: We are delighted that you're able to hear the word of God.
Micah McCormick: But children have a special knack for defending themselves.
Micah McCormick: Johnny hit me.
Micah McCormick: No, I didn't.
Micah McCormick: I was just stretching.
Micah McCormick: Well, well, I did hit him, but it's because he was teasing me.
Micah McCormick: Now, are adults really that much better?
Micah McCormick: We control ourselves a little bit more, but if you ever go on X, it was formerly Twitter, not that much has changed.
Micah McCormick: We are ready to activate our inner lawyer, as Paul Tripp says.
Micah McCormick: But notice in our passage in verse 63, Jesus kept silent.
Micah McCormick: It wasn't an absolute or permanent silence.
Micah McCormick: He does finally speak in our passage.
Micah McCormick: But right at the crux of false accusation, he remains silent.
Micah McCormick: And then at the end of the passage, they're taunting him, they're beating him, they're asking him to prophesy.
Micah McCormick: They want him to speak, but we don't find him here in Matthew saying anything.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 53, verse 7, Ethan read this earlier.
Micah McCormick: He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.
Micah McCormick: Like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep, silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth.
Micah McCormick: We found fulfillment again and again in the Gospel of Matthew, and we're seeing it here today.
Micah McCormick: Matthew is showing us under inspiration of God that Jesus is the silent lamb that Isaiah spoke about.
Micah McCormick: You've probably thought about the glory of the suffering lamb.
Micah McCormick: Have you pondered the glory of the silent lamb?
Micah McCormick: That's what God is calling us to do today, to ponder the glory of the silent lamb.
Micah McCormick: Jesus had every opportunity to defend himself.
Micah McCormick: If ever anyone deserved to defend himself, if ever anyone was truly innocent of the accusations, it was Christ.
Micah McCormick: And yet, unlike all the self-justifiers of the world, this one who actually had the ability to justify himself chooses to remain silent.
Micah McCormick: The glory of this silent lamb is all the more remarkable when we consider more and more who it was that remained silent.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes Christians speak of the three offices of Christ.
Micah McCormick: They don't mean like his home office and his work office, his remote office.
Micah McCormick: They don't mean he was governor or mayor.
Micah McCormick: This is language that's borrowed in part from the Westminster Catechism question 23.
Micah McCormick: What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?
Micah McCormick: And here's the answer: Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king.
Micah McCormick: So they're roles that Christ fulfills to bring salvation.
Micah McCormick: And those roles of prophet, priest, and king very wonderfully encapsulate so much Bible truth.
Micah McCormick: There were many great prophets in the Old Testament.
Micah McCormick: Jesus comes as the greatest prophet.
Micah McCormick: There were many priests in the Old Testament.
Micah McCormick: Jesus comes as the final priest.
Micah McCormick: There were kings, even kings as great as David and Solomon, but Jesus is the greatest of all kings.
Micah McCormick: So we're going to use those offices of Christ, prophet and priest and king, as a lens this morning to consider just how amazing it is that this Savior, this Lamb, would remain silent.
Micah McCormick: First, the silent lamb is the silent prophet.
Micah McCormick: The silent lamb is the silent prophet.
Micah McCormick: Now already we have attention.
Micah McCormick: Prophets aren't people who are quiet.
Micah McCormick: The nature of their job is that they speak.
Micah McCormick: Look again at verse 67.
Micah McCormick: They spat in his face and beat him.
Micah McCormick: Others slapped him and said, Prophesy to us, Messiah.
Micah McCormick: Who was it that hit you?
Micah McCormick: They're asking him to prove himself a prophet, to be a prophet.
Micah McCormick: They're not treating him like a prophet, although they are treating him like the prophets of old, wrongly.
Micah McCormick: But he doesn't do it.
Micah McCormick: Luke tells us they had blindfolded Jesus, so that's part of why that they're slapping him.
Micah McCormick: Whose hand was it that hit you?
Micah McCormick: They understand something of what a prophet is, that a prophet often has supernatural insight from God, but they're taunting him, even though he knows who's hitting him.
Micah McCormick: It's no mystery to him.
Micah McCormick: His eyes, Revelation 1.14, are like a fiery flame.
Micah McCormick: He can see right through a blindfold.
Micah McCormick: He knew Jesus would, Judas would betray him, Matthew 26, 25.
Micah McCormick: He knows people's thoughts.
Micah McCormick: Mark 2, 8.
Micah McCormick: He knows all things.
Micah McCormick: John 16, verse 30.
Micah McCormick: So why doesn't he just meet their challenge and tell them?
Micah McCormick: Why doesn't he reveal the name of every hand that slapped him?
Micah McCormick: Why doesn't he reveal the names of their children, of intimate details of their lives that no one else knows?
Micah McCormick: He chooses to remain silent.
Micah McCormick: Christ the Lord is on a mission from God.
Micah McCormick: Completing that eternal mission is more important than satisfying himself in the moment before his accusers.
Micah McCormick: He knows that he's fulfilling all scripture.
Micah McCormick: And notice also that Matthew clearly shows us Jesus really is a prophet.
Micah McCormick: In verse 64, Jesus predicts what will happen.
Micah McCormick: I tell you, Jesus says, in the future, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.
Micah McCormick: So as a prophet, he is able to speak God's word and here to speak into what is to come.
Micah McCormick: He's not merely a lamb who was slain, he's the great prophet of God.
Micah McCormick: But even though he speaks about the future, he doesn't open his mouth to defend himself in the present.
Micah McCormick: He's still this silent prophet.
Micah McCormick: There's another compelling contrast.
Micah McCormick: Throughout this passage, false witnesses are raging against the true prophet.
Micah McCormick: In verse 59, you see leaders looking for false testimony.
Micah McCormick: In verse 60, many false witnesses come forward.
Micah McCormick: Then finally two are selected.
Micah McCormick: Verse 65, the leaders conclude we don't need any more witnesses.
Micah McCormick: Prophets are supposed to be witnesses.
Micah McCormick: Not all witnesses are prophets, but all prophets are witnesses.
Micah McCormick: So here are these false witnesses, and Matthew's bringing out a subtle but genuine contrast.
Micah McCormick: Jesus Christ is the faithful and true witness.
Micah McCormick: He's the one about whom it was said in Deuteronomy 18 that God would raise up a prophet like Moses.
Micah McCormick: In Matthew chapter 17, verse 5, we already heard the voice of God thunder from heaven.
Micah McCormick: Behold, my beloved son, listen to him.
Micah McCormick: He's been identified as a prophet in Matthew, but the true witness, the true prophet, verse 63, keeps silent in the face of these false witnesses.
Micah McCormick: Who ever heard of a silent prophet?
Micah McCormick: Jesus often speaks when he does speak, his mouth pours forth beautiful words.
Micah McCormick: He's taught again and again in Matthew.
Micah McCormick: But he stuns us in this passage with a prophet who is able to refrain from speaking.
Micah McCormick: That's the glory of the silent lamb, who is a silent prophet.
Micah McCormick: Second, the silent lamb is the silent priest.
Micah McCormick: In our passage, Jesus has a lot of interaction with priests.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 57.
Micah McCormick: He's led away to the high priest.
Micah McCormick: In verse 58, Peter follows to the high priest's courtyard.
Micah McCormick: In verse 59, the chief priests are trying to make Jesus look guilty.
Micah McCormick: In verse 62, the high priest questions Jesus.
Micah McCormick: In verse 63, the same high priest exhorts Jesus.
Micah McCormick: In verse 65, the high priest tears his robes.
Micah McCormick: So Matthew emphasizes over and over again, Jesus is dealing with priests.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is dealing with priests.
Micah McCormick: But who is Jesus himself?
Micah McCormick: Hebrews 3.1, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession.
Micah McCormick: Hebrews 2, 17, he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God to make atonement for the sins of the people.
Micah McCormick: We sing about this truth sometimes.
Micah McCormick: Jesus, my great high priest, offered his blood and died.
Micah McCormick: My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside.
Micah McCormick: His powerful blood did once atone, and now it pleads before the throne.
Micah McCormick: The one who could do what they never could do.
Micah McCormick: They were condemning the one who can set us free from condemnation.
Micah McCormick: They wanted to kill the very priest who was willing to sacrifice his life so that his people might live forever.
Micah McCormick: Do you see that that contrast there as it is filled out in Matthew's gospel and scripture?
Micah McCormick: And then in verse 62, it's the high priest who says, Don't you have anything to say?
Micah McCormick: Jesus kept silent.
Micah McCormick: He could have rebuked all of them.
Micah McCormick: He could have said, You fools, don't you see who's before you?
Micah McCormick: Don't you see that you yourselve need a priest?
Micah McCormick: You yourself need a mediator?
Micah McCormick: This trial that they put him under is going to lead to his death.
Micah McCormick: Verse 66, they actually call for his death.
Micah McCormick: But it's the very death of Christ that is part of his work as the great high priest.
Micah McCormick: Because he's the priest who was also the Lamb.
Micah McCormick: He's the priest who offered himself up as the final sacrifice, the atonement that's the only hope of sinners everywhere.
Micah McCormick: What they sought to do with wicked hands was something that Christ knew was necessary for salvation.
Micah McCormick: And he's willing to submit to it.
Micah McCormick: Peter says it this way in Acts chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.
Micah McCormick: Read again this afternoon, Isaiah 53.
Micah McCormick: By his wounds we are healed.
Micah McCormick: Where do priests serve?
Micah McCormick: They serve in the temple.
Micah McCormick: Now, before we expand on that, I'm going to draw out an application.
Micah McCormick: What's the significance of the two witnesses here?
Micah McCormick: They're looking for witnesses, they disagree with each other, then finally two come forward.
Micah McCormick: Deuteronomy 19, verse 15.
Micah McCormick: You need two or three witnesses to make a case.
Micah McCormick: So they're going by the book.
Micah McCormick: They have malice in their hearts towards the very Son of God, but they got to make sure they do everything right.
Micah McCormick: If we need two witnesses, let's get two witnesses.
Micah McCormick: What's the point of application here?
Micah McCormick: It's not, well, just ignore God's word, as long as you have a pure heart, it's all good.
Micah McCormick: No, it's it's good to follow God's word, but you can be so intent on pursuing the right things to do that you miss Jesus Christ, that you miss the Savior.
Micah McCormick: Friends, don't miss the Savior today.
Micah McCormick: Back to what they say.
Micah McCormick: Verse 61.
Micah McCormick: If you're good Bible readers, you might say, Well, wait a minute, destroy this temple.
Micah McCormick: Wait a minute.
Micah McCormick: Didn't Jesus say something like that?
Micah McCormick: I mean, that they're not false witnesses, they're they're telling the truth.
Micah McCormick: Well, not precisely.
Micah McCormick: In John 2, 19, Jesus doesn't say that he would destroy the temple.
Micah McCormick: He says if the temple is destroyed, he would raise it in three days.
Micah McCormick: So if Jesus ever said that he himself would destroy the temple, that's not recorded for us in Scripture.
Micah McCormick: And yet, and this is an important and yet, Jesus does have the prerogative to change the place of worship.
Micah McCormick: If he would have said he was going to destroy that temple, he had every right to do that as the Lord of glory, as the Lord of heaven.
Micah McCormick: He does tell the woman at the well in John 4, an hour is coming and now is when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
Micah McCormick: True worshipers worship in spirit and in truth.
Micah McCormick: It's not limited to one physical place now that Christ has come.
Micah McCormick: So when Matthew calls them false witnesses, those are those are Matthew's words, obviously not the chief priest's words.
Micah McCormick: When he calls them false witnesses, he's not emphasizing so much exactly what they said.
Micah McCormick: Matthew calls them false witnesses because they want to put Jesus' words and actions in the worst possible light.
Micah McCormick: They wanted to portray him as a rebel against God rather than a servant of God.
Micah McCormick: Carson says it this way: their witness had some element of truth, but was evilly motivated and disregarded what Jesus meant.
Micah McCormick: Let's insert another application.
Micah McCormick: When you speak about others, do you go out of your way to portray what they said in the worst possible light?
Micah McCormick: That's false witness.
Micah McCormick: Well, that that's what they said.
Micah McCormick: Well, what did they mean?
Micah McCormick: What were they intending?
Micah McCormick: Well, I don't know.
Micah McCormick: Then keep silent and sila for a little while.
Micah McCormick: So often when we publicly, and if you have a concern with what someone said or even their motivations, it's okay to go to them.
Micah McCormick: But isn't it true that so often when we publicly paint that spouse or that VBS worker or that co-worker in the worst possible light, it's because we have bitterness in our heart toward them.
Micah McCormick: Consider your words.
Micah McCormick: Love believes all things, love hopes all things.
Micah McCormick: Now back to the testimony here.
Micah McCormick: If the priests who are putting Jesus on trial here, if they would have listened carefully to what Jesus said, if these witnesses who came forward would have listened carefully to what Jesus said in light of all that he was doing, they would have understood that Jesus is indeed the fulfillment of all that the temple was intended to be.
Micah McCormick: They were so in love with their temple, their place of worship, but that was a gift to God to symbolize and picture a necessary meeting place between God and man.
Micah McCormick: And Jesus is the one who came and tabernacled among humanity.
Micah McCormick: He was the meeting place of God and man, and in a greater and permanent way that no mere building could ever achieve.
Micah McCormick: The priests that were offering the sacrifices there in that temple, they were meant to be temporary, pointing the way forward to this priest who was to come.
Micah McCormick: As he says in John's gospel, destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up.
Micah McCormick: And then John tells us, and those who have eyes to see could understand he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Micah McCormick: The words on the lips of the false witnesses contained what they needed.
Micah McCormick: Here's the righteous priest.
Micah McCormick: He's offered himself up for you.
Micah McCormick: Turn and repent and hear and believe and trust.
Micah McCormick: What might have been going through Jesus' mind when they gave that testimony intending to overthrow him?
Micah McCormick: Perhaps he thought, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
Micah McCormick: How often I would have gathered you as a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.
Micah McCormick: Whatever was in his mind, he remained silent.
Micah McCormick: And even that very silence points us to his mediatorial work.
Micah McCormick: That just means his work as a substitute for sinful people.
Micah McCormick: He's our substitute in his suffering and his death.
Micah McCormick: And he's our substitute in his life.
Micah McCormick: His life of constant, perfect, righteous response and trust in God.
Micah McCormick: The scripture tells us to put our whole trust in God.
Micah McCormick: Often, not always, but often.
Micah McCormick: Often when we jump in to defend ourselves, we're not trusting in God.
Micah McCormick: We're concerned that we need to defend our reputation or make an excuse about ourselves.
Micah McCormick: And we're not thinking about God at all or submitting ourselves to Him.
Micah McCormick: Jesus trusts God entirely with his whole being all of the time.
Micah McCormick: And in this particular case, he offers up the righteous response of silence.
Micah McCormick: And he's doing that, even that, on our behalf.
Micah McCormick: Do you see?
Micah McCormick: So don't convince yourselves that from now on you'll always respond with perfect trust in God.
Micah McCormick: First come to Jesus and receive his righteousness.
Micah McCormick: The silent lamb is the silent prophet, the silent lamb is the silent priest.
Micah McCormick: Finally, this morning, the silent lamb is the silent king.
Micah McCormick: Now, under this heading, I am using silent in a little different sense, because it is actually the words of Jesus in our passage that point us to this reality.
Micah McCormick: Verse 64, he does finally speak after the high priest puts him under oath before God.
Micah McCormick: And he says, You have said it, he is indeed the Messiah.
Micah McCormick: And then he goes on to say, I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Micah McCormick: So he verbalizes his regal character, but when I say he's still the silent king, he doesn't enact that kingly authority right then and there.
Micah McCormick: He doesn't choose to judge them and slaughter them right then and there.
Micah McCormick: And we've seen, haven't we, in Matthew's gospel, even in these surrounding verses, how often Jesus allows himself to be killed rather than publicly showcasing his kingly authority by overthrowing all of those who would come against him.
Micah McCormick: The Garden of Gethsemane, Peter draws his sword.
Micah McCormick: Peter's ready, the fisherman is ready to become a heroic knight.
Micah McCormick: And Jesus says, Not now, put your sword away.
Micah McCormick: He gives himself over to the soldiers, he gives himself over to the kangaroo court.
Micah McCormick: He gives himself over to walk the road of the cross and be hung in shame.
Micah McCormick: He could have called 12 legions of angels, but he doesn't.
Micah McCormick: He's a silent king who bends his head to the executioner's table.
Micah McCormick: Think about Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia.
Micah McCormick: He's so powerful, but in that particular moment, he even shows the power by allowing himself to be killed.
Micah McCormick: But we do need to mark his words in verse 64.
Micah McCormick: You'll see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power.
Micah McCormick: There's regal language.
Micah McCormick: We have this phrase, the Son of Man, and once again, it's not merely to indicate that Jesus is truly human, it's showing us he is the promised Messiah.
Micah McCormick: This phrase comes from Daniel 7.
Micah McCormick: Listen to verses 13 and 14 of Daniel 7.
Micah McCormick: I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven.
Micah McCormick: Do you hear, son of man?
Micah McCormick: Clouds of heaven, same as our passage.
Micah McCormick: He approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him.
Micah McCormick: He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him.
Micah McCormick: His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away.
Micah McCormick: His kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.
Micah McCormick: So in Daniel 7, we have the Son of Man ascending in the clouds of heaven, escorted into the throne room, and receiving a kingdom.
Micah McCormick: God's Messiah is on par with God.
Micah McCormick: That's why the high priest tears his robes and says he's blaspheming, he's calling himself God.
Micah McCormick: He was.
Micah McCormick: And we see the vision of Daniel 7 beautifully fulfilled in Acts 1, when Jesus teaches them about the kingdom of God, and then it says a cloud received him up to heaven itself.
Micah McCormick: Now, here in our passage in Matthew 26, as I understand it, Jesus is warning his rulers that his reign as king will culminate in judgment.
Micah McCormick: We've seen this in Matthew.
Micah McCormick: Matthew 24, verse 30.
Micah McCormick: Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky.
Micah McCormick: All the peoples of the earth will mourn.
Micah McCormick: They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Micah McCormick: Revelation 1, 7, look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him, so it is to be.
Micah McCormick: Revelation 14, verse 14, I looked, and there was a white cloud, and one like the Son of Man was seated on the cloud, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Micah McCormick: That image we have, the cartoon image of the grim reaper, that's a cartoon.
Micah McCormick: The son of man is the one in scripture who is coming with the sickle, and we do need to fear him.
Micah McCormick: So please make no mistake about it.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is never passive.
Micah McCormick: He intentionally chooses not to execute his kingly authority in immediate judgment.
Micah McCormick: He's not passive, but he is patient.
Micah McCormick: Friends, if any of you haven't bowed the knee to King Jesus, wouldn't you do that today?
Micah McCormick: Embrace him while there is time, because the Lamb is also the lion.
Micah McCormick: And he will roar in his fury, he will speak in his wrath, but he still invites us.
Micah McCormick: Come to me now.
Micah McCormick: All you that are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
Micah McCormick: You hear that sometimes?
Micah McCormick: If God is real, why do he let me get cancer?
Micah McCormick: If God is real, why do babies die?
Micah McCormick: If Jesus rose from the dead, why doesn't he appear to me?
Micah McCormick: Why doesn't he talk to me?
Micah McCormick: And I understand there are real questions to be addressed, but it never goes well for people who put Jesus on trial.
Micah McCormick: Here in Matthew, Jesus has already spoken openly, clearly, plainly, time and time again, and they just don't want to listen.
Micah McCormick: God has spoken in the created order, his power and divine glory.
Micah McCormick: He's spoken through his word.
Micah McCormick: Listen to him.
Micah McCormick: Listen.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 53, 7.
Micah McCormick: He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.
Micah McCormick: Like a lamb led to the slaughter, like a sheep silent before her shears, he did not open his mouth.
Micah McCormick: There is a unique glory here to Jesus.
Micah McCormick: He is fulfilling a mission from God to bring salvation.
Micah McCormick: And none of us can fulfill that mission.
Micah McCormick: So there's a large and unique element about the way he acts here in this passage.
Micah McCormick: But there is an element of his glory that we are called to mirror if we belong to him.
Micah McCormick: Peter understood this.
Micah McCormick: Pastor Doug brought this out last week, but Peter's learning his lesson here as he follows Christ.
Micah McCormick: Matthew tells us that Peter was following along in a distance.
Micah McCormick: And that same Peter who watched Christ, and he's going to actually deny Christ, but listen to what Peter will write later on.
Micah McCormick: Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.
Micah McCormick: Peter says, Christ left us an example.
Micah McCormick: When he was insulted, he did not insult in return.
Micah McCormick: When he suffered, he didn't threaten, but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.
Micah McCormick: So resist the urge to quickly and always activate that inner lawyer.
Micah McCormick: If you're just trying to give someone the silent treatment, that's not what Jesus is doing here.
Micah McCormick: He's not trying to let them know I'm above speaking to you because you've got a lot of problems and I'm doing pretty good over here.
Micah McCormick: That's not what's happening.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is giving his heart and his soul over to God.
Micah McCormick: He's so entirely captured with trust in God and an embrace and understanding of God's purpose in his life that when his reputation is attacked, he can leave it aside and trust in God.
Micah McCormick: When he's physically assaulted, he can trust in God.
Micah McCormick: I mean we we face all kinds of opposition.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes it's mockery, like he experiences here.
Micah McCormick: For some of us, at different points, maybe in the future, maybe some of you have in the past.
Micah McCormick: Who knows?
Micah McCormick: Maybe there's a physical threat to you.
Micah McCormick: But are we willing to entrust our souls to God?
Micah McCormick: So, Mike, you're saying we're just supposed to lay down and let people run us over?
Micah McCormick: Sometimes, yes.
Micah McCormick: Because Jesus left us an example.
Micah McCormick: Particularly when it's it's the cause of Christ that's at stake.
Micah McCormick: That we should be eager to see Christ glorified.
Micah McCormick: It's not about us and needing to see ourselves justified.
Micah McCormick: So, particularly when we're persecuted for Christ's sake, we can leave it to the Lord.
Micah McCormick: But wait a minute, Micah, okay, I I want to hear what you're saying.
Micah McCormick: But even Peter said we have to be ready to give a reason for the hope we have.
Micah McCormick: And Peter does say that.
Micah McCormick: But listen to the context of all that Peter says there.
Micah McCormick: He says, In your hearts, regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that's in you.
Micah McCormick: Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
Micah McCormick: Peter's point is not that we all have to be on a crusade all the time to defend our own rights, or else, who knows what could happen?
Micah McCormick: It's sanctify the Lord in your heart.
Micah McCormick: Be ready to give a reason when they ask for the hope you have in the gospel.
Micah McCormick: That should be the thing that is first and foremost on our minds.
Micah McCormick: Could it be, let me just ask the question.
Micah McCormick: Could it be that sometimes the reason we're so easily personally offended is because we think so highly of ourselves.
Micah McCormick: Not because we want to be such bold champions for Christ.
Micah McCormick: And there's a place and a time to speak.
Micah McCormick: Certainly, Paul appealed to his own rights as a Roman citizen at different times.
Micah McCormick: But but what's controlling our heart?
Micah McCormick: Where is our worship flowing?
Micah McCormick: Is it flowing to the Lamb or is it flowing to how can they think of me like that?
Micah McCormick: When's the last time we were content to be quiet and trust in God?
Micah McCormick: Now, for all of us, what we need most is to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Micah McCormick: Listen to Isaiah 50, verses 4 to 7.
Micah McCormick: The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are instructed to know how to sustain the weary with the word.
Micah McCormick: And listen as we put these words even on Christ the prophet, he awakens me each morning.
Micah McCormick: He awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.
Micah McCormick: The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.
Micah McCormick: I did not turn back.
Micah McCormick: I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard.
Micah McCormick: I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.
Micah McCormick: The Lord our God will help us.
Micah McCormick: The Lord our God will help me, the Messiah says there in Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: What a marvelous Savior He is.
Micah McCormick: You know what He's doing right now as our King?
Micah McCormick: He's upholding all things by the word of His power.
Micah McCormick: He's ordering everything in the universe for his glory and for our good.
Micah McCormick: You know what he's doing right now as our great high priest?
Micah McCormick: He ever lives to intercede for us.
Micah McCormick: What is he doing right now as our prophet?
Micah McCormick: He's speaking to us through his word.
Micah McCormick: Let's keep listening to him this day and this week.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Oh Father, oh Lord God, how we thank you that we see glory in Christ time and time again, a glory that astounds us because it's it seems impossible for us to imagine our own ability to be silent in the face of accusation, even though we're often rightly accused.
Micah McCormick: And yet here the Lord of glory could be the silent lamb, the lion who roared did not roar here at this time.
Micah McCormick: Oh, how we adore this one, how we claim his righteousness for us, his work for us, his suffering, the wrath of God for us, his righteous response of an open ear and a listening heart and a trust in God.
Micah McCormick: We want to claim that all as our own today by faith.
Micah McCormick: So we ask, Lord, that you would receive our prayers this week and that we too would listen, that we too would listen in quietness and trust and find salvation, find a contentment that abounds in a way that the world cannot see and understand, that they might ask about the hope we have, that we might have reason to speak with gentleness and respect of Christ our King.
Micah McCormick: We pray all these things in Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.