The Court of the Wicked

Good morning, family. We are a church that is a house of prayer, presence, and proclamation. I want to welcome our online community, our digital disciples, those joining us across the camera, and our guests. And I want to welcome the unbeliever.

Why? Because we were all once unbelievers. You don't get to be naturally born into this thing—you must be born again. The door is Jesus. God, the true and living God, has offered a way for us to get to know Him, have access to Him, be saved, be delivered, be restored, and be redeemed. It's been offered only one way through Jesus Christ.

You are bombarded with so many other ways for spiritual enlightenment—horoscopes, gems, so many other religions. But the scriptures say anybody else that tries to get to God any other way, the scriptures call them a thief and a robber. Our hope is that the Holy Spirit would prick your heart, that you would join us aboard the ark of safety and walk with Him on this earth, enjoying eternal life both here and in heaven, which is to know the true living God.

Evil Comes From Unexpected Places

Let me talk about something today: there's evil in the world. There's unadulterated evil, and people that seek to hurt people, damage them, harm them, subjugate them, deceive them, and poison them.

But here's the thing—dealing with evil is one thing. Dealing with evil coming from your parent is different. Dealing with abuse is one thing, but at the hands of your mother or father, that's different. Dealing with violence is one thing, but dealing with violence at the hands of a crooked cop is different.

Why? Because these people, you give them a level of trust. Nobody's sending their children off to actually be abused. Nobody's going into the medical system expecting to be mishandled by a doctor. Nobody's coming to church to be lied to from a pastor or suffer spiritual abuse. When the people who should be pushing righteousness, holiness, and goodness betray that trust, it cuts differently.

Our Lord and Savior finds himself in a similar situation. We'll be looking at Matthew 26:57-68.

The Trial Begins: Matthew 26:57-61

Verse 57: "Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered."

Caiaphas was the high priest, but here's something I never saw until I started studying this: the Roman government appointed him. That sounds crooked to me already. It's like the governor of Georgia coming and appointing the next pastor of this church. And the first time we heard of Caiaphas is when he planned and plotted to kill Jesus. Now we're watching him execute that plan.

Verse 58: "And Peter was following him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest. And going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end."

Jesus was alone. I want to drop something here: maybe you can handle it. Yes, we push community. Yes, we push brothers and sisters. But sometimes in this walk, you may find yourself alone. You may not have planned it. You may have depended on somebody—a small group, a friend. You sent the text out needing help, and nobody showed up.

Do we plan for that? No. But I need to let you know that if no one shows up, we still need to stand solid in Christ. The people Jesus poured into, did miracles with, fed, ate with in houses—they saw who He was. He revealed who the church was. And now they're gone, and He's alone. That's why He's our idol. He stood solid on who He is.

Verse 59: "Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death."

Stop right there. If you've been around church and heard the Ten Commandments once or twice, this should jump out at you. They were seeking false testimony. The Ten Commandments say in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5: "Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor."

How are you a whole high priest with a whole Sanhedrin council actively trying to find a false witness? What are we doing? It's one thing to fall into sin. It's another thing as a high priest to say, "Hey, come be a false witness. Come break one of the Ten Commandments. Come on. Matter of fact, you know who's going to be the victim of your crime? Christ." It's a wicked court.

Verses 60-61: "After all their trying to get a false witness, they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward. And they said, speaking of Christ, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.'"

It's weird because they said they found none and then they found two. Let me clear up any confusion: they're blatantly trying to do evil, but they're still trying to do it with righteous demands. They're looking for people who are going to lie, but they're still trying to make the lies line up. By the way, it was actually illegal for them to meet at that time. They're in the dead of night trying to get people to come and lie and have the lies match up.

Now, here's the thing: Christ didn't say that. What He actually said is in John 2:19: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." He was talking about His own body. So here the Son of the living God—they have nothing because they're twisting His words. They're trying to find something that they could have an offense about and use to put Him to death.

This is what's important to us: if Christ broke one law, He would be disqualified from dying on the cross and being our savior. Christ had to walk a perfect line for 33 years. And they tried to get Him, and they still failed here.

The High Priest's Demand: Matthew 26:62-64

Verse 62: "And the high priest said to Him, 'What is it that these men testify against you?'"

He stood up, which tells me he was sitting down. He stood up and said, "Have you no answer to make?"

Verse 63: "But Jesus remained silent."

As I read the scriptures, and Christ is supposed to be our true idol of our heart, one of the things I love about Him is that Christ always came off cool. You just weren't going to rattle Him. You never saw Him flustered. The man died—they said, "If you'd come here, you could have saved Lazarus." He got to Him on His own time. God is never in a rush.

How can we extrapolate that point? Many of us deal with anxiety at a level that we should not. I deal with anxiety. I'm trying to see around corners. But I need to trust the One who can see everything. There's nothing wrong with planning, but planning to the point where I have to know everything? You never will. How much research do you have to do to know everything? Aren't you about to be stressed out? He was quiet.

The second part of verse 63: "And the high priest said to him, 'I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the son of God.'"

He's basically saying, "Swear to God and tell us whether you're the Christ." Does that sound like something a high priest should be saying to the living Son of God? You ain't got to be deeply religious or saved to be like, "Swear to God." Some of us got smacked in the face for much less.

Here's a whole high priest talking to the Son of the living God, ordering Him to tell whether He's the Son of God and swear to God by it. Could I just point out again the restraint of Christ? "Boy, I was there when you were made." Imagine my 2-year-old son rolling up on me talking like that. He can barely talk, and I say, "Who are you talking to?"

Look at Christ's response here, and I love it.

Verse 64: "Jesus said to him, 'You have said so. But I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.'"

Let me unpack this slowly. It's pregnant with a couple of things.

First, why are you pressing Me? You have already said I'm the Son of the living God. That's what Christ said. You have said so. Why are you pressing Me? You put on your shame trial in front of people. You already believe it.

Second: "But I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

The Name of Power

You've heard me say from this stage that primarily Christ came to bring us a new name for God—for us to be able to call Him Father. Jehovah-Niessi, Jehovah-Tsidkenu, Jehovah-Rapha—the names of God in the Old Testament. He's still that, but primarily He gave us the name Father. Through the blood of Christ, we are adopted by the Spirit of adoption. Now we can call the Almighty God by the Gospel and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross—we can call Him Father. Abba, Daddy.

But I never saw this before: we have another name to call Him. It says "the right hand of power." Look at that in your Bible. That P is capitalized. We're not talking about power as a thing. We're talking about power as a person.

Your Daddy's name is Power. Your Father's name is Power.

Wow. And guess who told you it was true? Jesus Christ Himself. That changed the way I pray, because you pray different when you know you're praying to Power. "Ask anything in my name, believe and you will receive it." Why? Why? Why? Because my Father's name is Power.

Let me share something with you. I was coming back from Ohio where my in-laws live. I was doing sermon prep while I was gone. When I came back, it really hit me because revelation will change you. Not just information about God—do I have a revelation of who He is, given by the Spirit of God? That's the question. There are scholars that read the Bible all the time. But do they have a revelation of who He is? Have they had an encounter with who He is through the scriptures?

It was Saturday after Thanksgiving. Sunday after Thanksgiving is actually the worst day to travel. We thought we'd get on Saturday and everything would be okay. Well, it wasn't. I was driving, coming from Ohio back to southern Atlanta, and all of a sudden the Google Maps estimated time of arrival changed from green to orange to red. It was already a solid nine hours with no stops, and we had four children in the car. Six people total. I'm ready to get home.

It started climbing and climbing until it got like an hour more than originally stated. And I think it was my youngest baby. She said, "Can you pray?" I pray, but they remind me to pray sometimes. She said, "Daddy, can you pray?" I was like, "I can."

I'm over here stressed out, and I just got the revelation that my Father's name is Power. When you get revelation, it changes how you move. I said something along the lines of, "God, I'm believing that you would take this additional time and get rid of most of it."

This is next to the worst day to travel. I just kept moving, and family, I kept driving. And do you know that of the hour that was added, approximately 40 to 42 minutes came off.

Now, some of you are going to hear that and say, "Well, you don't know..." There's always going to be a reason you can explain away God's grace. You can try explaining away all of God's blessings. What I do know is that I prayed to Power and something happened. That's what I do know.

I'm going to encourage you as homework: forget "speak truth to power." Pray to your Father whose name is Power and expect something to happen. He can change you and the situation at the same time. Don't you limit Him or put Him in a box.

You can seek His face and His hand. They're connected at His heart, and it's for you. It's for you in Christ Jesus.

The High Priest's Unintended Role

This is the high priest talking to the One who will become the high priest. I almost named this sermon "Meet Your Replacement." This is what's diabolical. They're scheming. They're meeting in the dead of night. They're having multiple things in the night. They hide and look for false witnesses. He doesn't even know he's being used by God to help do one of His last sacrifices.

Before Christ was a high priest, He was the Lamb of God. He's taking the high priest's time, his deceit, his evil, and he's helping to usher the Lamb of God—which is actually one of his responsibilities. Because on the Day of Atonement, the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies and he presents the lamb on behalf of the people and himself.

This is a good time to insert this: what the devil meant for evil, God turned it around. He turned it around. In the middle of their plan, He turned it around. You trying to trap Him. He has made a way for all. He turned it around. He's helping to sacrifice the Lamb of God so that then He will become our High Priest.

He, as a high priest, would be aware of prophecy. In Revelation 1:7 it says, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen." Christ already told him, "You already said it. You already said I'm the Son. And now I'm going to give you a prophecy as the high priest. I know you recognize it. But you just couldn't press Christ into a corner and have Him fold.

I love that about Him. I idolize that about Him. He is solid character. Even unto death, He did not fold.

Do you remember Stephen getting stoned in the New Testament? Did he run? No. And it says they stoned him, and Jesus in heaven stood up to receive him. Disciple, don't fold. Don't fold. You have the Great Sustainer at your back. You are seated in Christ. Even death cannot steal anything from you. Nothing can be taken away from you that cannot be restored. He is the One that sustains you in your weakest hour. You call on Him.

Even if He does not deliver me, He is still able. He's still able, whether He shows up in this circumstance or not. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We can walk in a confidence that the world can't shake. They can't imitate. I am His and He is mine.

You know how you get that confidence? You do something real diabolical and wild: just read your Bible. You were waiting, weren't you? He is the Sauce. The Living Word. You can meet Him right here. Read the Psalms: "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He restores my soul. He restores my soul. He restores my soul."

I am not the restorer. I just met Him. Don't act like if He doesn't show up in a ball of light, He didn't come. No, no, no, no, no. Get to know Him right here. Carve away time. I know you're busy. You ain't that busy to not meet with the living God. Neither am I. Get to know Him. Turn down your plate. Turn down your screen. Seclude yourself. Steal away and get to know Him. That's how you get it.

Anybody that's really gotten to know Him did it that way. Yes, you have the scriptures and the Spirit with nobody else around. This is how you can walk alone.

The Blasphemy Verdict: Matthew 26:65-66

Verse 65: "Then the high priest tore his robes and said, 'He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy.'"

Verse 66: "And the Sanhedrin council, the elders, the chief priests, they answered, 'He deserves death.'"

They tried to jam Him up. They couldn't do it. They had to misrepresent His words to even get two witnesses to somewhat agree. He is the One that knows thoughts, and He said, "You already said that I'm the Son of the living God." You don't think Christ could have gotten out of that? You don't think He could have argued His way out of that? But He didn't.

Let me tell you a quick story. I'm from Jacksonville, North Carolina, and I lived with my grandmother till I was 13 years old. Unfortunately, my grandmother was a housekeeper. One day—and I wasn't even at school—I think she tried to step on the curb and she missed it and she fell real hard. She actually broke her hip. And you know, older people—brittle bones and stuff. It worked against her.

My grandma was feisty. When the physical therapist came and said, "All right, let's do your physical therapy," she wasn't trying to work with them. Even more than that, she was actually insulting them. So much so that my mother, her daughter, would be like embarrassed: "Mama, you can't say that to the people. They're here to help you." She didn't care. That was my grandma.

It got to the point where she went to a nursing home, and I was probably 17, 19 years old. I remember going to see her, and there was this girl named Natasha who went to high school with me, Jacksonville High. I don't know what possessed me to say it, but it wasn't like I was a big towering figure—I was probably half my weight now. Never been a tough guy. But I meant what I was about to say. It's probably been over 25 years, so give me some grace. But I said something along the lines of, "If anything happened to her, I'mma turn this place upside down."

I'm not advising you to say that, but I'm telling you the story. She didn't play about me, and I don't play about her. Because I knew if I turned the corner and I saw something wild going on in that room and she was in there, I can't speak for nobody else, but I knew it was about to be bad in this place, because I was about to be temporarily insane. Again, I'm not a tough guy. I'm just telling you where I was.

But she actually started to develop dementia and Alzheimer's. She's out of it. She's defenseless. And even to this day, man, it's hard for me to watch the news. I hardly ever watch it. They have a great ability to put some of the most tragic stories—some of the most defenseless communities in front of you: children, elderly people. And they just put it in front of me and I can't deal with it.

I understand that there's sex trafficking in America, actually a global thing, but I can't stare at it long. I have to divert my attention. Don't judge me. It's just hard for me to deal with evil, especially among people that are defenseless. It's just hard for me to stomach it.

The Mockery and Spitting: Matthew 26:67-68

Verse 67: "Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him."

Verse 68: "And they said, saying, 'Prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you?'"

I ain't going to hold you, fam. This thing brought me to tears early this week. Real talk. It brought me to tears because of the thing I was talking about—the defenseless communities. Christ wasn't defenseless. He rendered Himself defenseless. He chose to take His power and put it down and chose not to use it.

Now, why would He do something like that? If you were in there, wouldn't you be like me? "Somebody do something." Do something, man. Peter, bust in there. Do something. Don't let him do him like that. Don't let him do him like that, fam. Don't let them treat our Savior like that. We can't let that go down like that until somehow we wrap our minds around the fact that He did it on purpose.

Christ skipped no steps along the crucifixion process. He didn't mail it in. He was fully God and fully man. And let me talk to the men and some women who are either sensitive or hyper-sensitive to disrespect—like I battle with. You probably heard me say, "Man, cussing at me is just a little bit lower than spitting on me." Either one of those things happen, somebody needs to help me arrest my flesh. Go call Elder Milton. He did it for you. He stayed in the pocket of persecution for you.

At any given time, He could have made quick work of all this. He could have appealed to His Father whose name is Power to dispatch some angels. Legions—really, just one angel can do quick work of this whole situation. Just one. He had legions available.

But here's the thing: when you get angry and you want to sin and get into your flesh, He understands that anger. That's why in the scriptures He can say, "Be angry, but do not sin." Like He didn't.

Imagine being there when men were actually made. The scriptures say all things were made through Christ. And then that creation or creations spitting on you, punching you and slapping you all the while mocking you: "Prophesy to us now. Who was it? Who was it that struck you?" It's because of you. So we could call God Almighty Father.

If He gets out of this trial or He wins the trial and doesn't go to the next step, there's no salvation on the cross.