Light on the Hill

Jane: Next on Light on the Hill, we're going to read about Jesus being put on trial, but in actuality, it's God who is judging those who put Christ on trial.

James Kaddis: Christ is being put on trial everywhere. Everywhere you go, his name is being tried. And what most people don't realize is as they were putting Christ on trial, God is executing judgment. And I want us to see this. I want us to capture this because this dynamic that we're about to read starting in verse 53 and going to around verse 65 shows us a spectacular picture of how man will seek to do what it wants to do in order to cover up or even destroy what is good so that they can continue to keep moving forward in the status quo.

Jane: The death of Christ and his resurrection are extraordinary moments in history, but perhaps the most remarkable part of his life was the perfection that led him to the cross. He paid an immense price that we could never afford, and through him, we now have salvation that cannot be earned. Now that we possess something so priceless, here's the real question. Are you willing to do your reasonable service? Let's give thoughtful consideration to that now on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis in Mark chapter 14.

James Kaddis: All right, Mark chapter 14, and we've already gone through a lot. Jesus at this point has been taken away. He is headed to trial, if that's what you want to call it. And there's a lot that we learn here. And perhaps right off the bat, I think that the avenue that I should probably take is the fact that Well, let me just back up for a second. Let me just make a statement about your salvation and my salvation. How about that? How about we just start from that perspective? How about we start from the perspective that involves us learning to appreciate what we have because it's priceless, right?

Learning to understand the fact that the salvation that God has granted to us is spectacular. It's beyond spectacular. It is something that we could never repay. It's something that we could never go back and say, God, thank you. Here's the Here's the debt that I owe you. We will always owe him a debt that can never be paid because he's faithful. And truth be told, I want everybody to understand this because it's really important. We wouldn't even be able to quantify what that debt looks like, okay? Even if we tried, even if we tried to understand what that price was, we would not be able to do it.

So when we look at the accounts of the death of Christ, those accounts are uniquely important, right? They are critical to being able to understand so much of what he went through. But perhaps more consequential than even the death and the burial and the resurrection of Christ would have to be the life that he lived sacrificially and perfectly that expanded you know the course of 33 years where he literally did every single thing when he was breathing that was necessary in order to bring perfection that we might be able to find salvation. It's hard to contemplate.

It's a hard thing to even think about. It's hard to be able to quantify or to to sort of place in anything that's even remotely tangible because that's the faithfulness of the God that we serve. That's the goodness of the God that we serve. He loves us. He's extended to us so many incredible things. And quite frankly, the more I think about it, the more I begin to realize that even if I wanted to, I wouldn't even be able to take one simple aspect of it, which would be how he even got there and be able to understand that.

It's remarkable. It's absolutely remarkable. So when we read passages like this, there are things we're going to need to understand right off the bat. And perhaps one of the most consequential aspects of this centers around cost, okay? And I know that this is something we've been talking about a lot lately because financial instruments seem to be the topic of discussion amongst Americans nowadays, especially with all the speculation that's happening. And I've heard everything. I've heard every kind of thing that you could think of. I hear people that don't know anything when it comes to this stuff who now become subject matter experts, and they're wanting to tell me how crypto works and they they want me to they want to tell me how precious metals work and they want to tell me how you know the stock market goes this way and goes that way and this is the way it is and so on and so forth.

I've even heard people recently go on this just radical tangent ripping the president because they think for some reason that the president is responsible for destroying our economy. Even though our economy for all intents and purposes happens to be in a very strong place. I hear the the craziest things in the world, but the thing that's so unique to me and so interesting is that they don't people don't seem to understand all that's involved. Why? Because if you knew all that was involved, you probably would be in a position where your mind wouldn't even be able to fully understand how mind-boggling it is.

And when you look at something as simple as what exists in our economy in the world's GDP, when you look at the the simplicity of all of the things that involve the economy of this world, wait until you get into the complexities of what had to happen in the spiritual in order for our debt to be paid. It's so much more complicated. So much more unique, so much more for lack of a better term, spectacular. But I think we don't spend enough time trying to understand it. The reason why we don't spend enough time trying to understand it is because we don't spend enough time trying to look to the word to give us perspective or at least adjust our lens that we might be able to see through God's eyes.

In this story that we're going to read, we're going to read about Christ being put on trial. And the way that I like to put this or this is one aspect of him being put on trial. The way that I like to put this is Jesus here is being put on trial, but God is judging those who put Jesus on trial. You understand what I mean when I say that? I think that there is a mindset that we have in this world where we are taking godly things and we beat those things up. We literally put them on trial because they are suspects to our ungodly, worldly, demonic influences.

And what the world doesn't realize is that as they put Christ up for judgment, they themselves are being judged by God. I'm seeing it happen on a whole bunch of levels. Here's one example, and I'm I'm saying it because it's very real right now to me and very raw, and it bothers me beyond no avail. And it's something that has been the source of a lot of prayer where I'm asking God to constrain me from completely losing my mind and flying off the handle and trying to go to war with every single person who seems to be contributing to this.

But it's astounding to me that last year we could have the assassination of a man who was truly dedicated to preaching the gospel. We could watch that happen then within the course of 2 weeks because of the brilliant way his widow handled everything and the way that everybody seemed to very quickly capitalize on the opportunity. We saw a memorial service that was seen by not millions of people, folks, billions. Billions is the number now. Okay? We are estimating that hundreds of millions of people got put in a position to make a decision to put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

And within the course of probably a few months, a bunch of lying, ignorant, demonic, satanically inspired people are jumping up on podcasts making every kind of ridiculous accusation you can imagine when they don't know their heads from their rears. They don't know the people that they're accusing. They don't know the things that they're saying. And what they don't realize is they're not just beating up a really beautiful, wonderful, godly widow, but what they're actually doing is they are joining forces with Satan to destroy the work that God was doing in the hearts of so many people.

Now I think about this very, very vividly. You can gather your millions of people. You can make the lists of lies that you perceive were said. You can pretend you knew people and you were on good terms. You could pretend you are on the inside. You can say whatever you want, but as you are holding a trial that you were never called to hold, God is damning you. God is judging you. The reality of it is what's happening in those circumstances are not unique. That's the part that I have a difficult time being able to separate right now.

What's happening in those circumstances are not just simply unique. Something that we don't see. It's happening all over the world. And it's happening when it comes to the name of Christ. Christ is being put on trial everywhere. Everywhere you go, his name is being tried. And what most people don't realize is as they were putting Christ on trial, God is executing judgment. And I want us to see this. I want us to capture this because this dynamic that we're about to read starting in verse 53 and going to around verse 65 shows us a spectacular picture of how man will seek to do what it wants to do in order to cover up or even destroy what is good so that they can continue to keep moving forward in the status quo.

Look at what happens here. This is verse 53. And they led Jesus away to the high priest. And with him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. Okay, I want to just simply stop right here and I want to make myself very, very clear. When righteous people begin to develop an understanding of that which is true, they often times allow themselves to be removed from the ungodly actions that the world tends to take on to want to bring into light or into darkness is the better term the accusations that often come.

Now I'm telling you right now as Peter is watching from afar off, I am not calling him a hero because he's separating himself from darkness. That's a very broken way of characterizing this. Peter is scared out of his mind, and the first time we actually see Peter actually get bold about things is when he's baptized with the Holy Spirit. That's when things change and he becomes somebody that we you know have never really known him to be. But the reality of it is the wicked, the ungodly, those who continue to contend with the devil will always seek to put on trial the righteousness of God, the goodness of God, the son of God.

That's what they're doing. So it is the religious leaders that are gathering around Christ like vultures seeking to destroy him. That's what's happening here. Look at this in verse 54. And Peter followed him afar off even into the palace of the high priest, and he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire. Now there's a sort of a interesting dynamic that we begin to see here. We're going to play off this dynamic a little bit because it sort of has a tremendous effect later on when Jesus goes back and confronts Peter and asks him if he loves him three times.

And if you remember that whole interaction, you know it's an interesting one. A lot of people place a lot of emphasis on the original language used within that conversation. That original language play that varies from agape to phileo has absolutely nothing to do with any type of change of the definition of love there. It's just simple literary flow, but there is something very consequential and unique that Jesus does with Peter that relates to the very moment that we're reading about right here and we'll get into it when we actually discuss that story. Look what it says when it goes on to say.

It says in verse 55, and the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death and found none. You know this is so interesting because this is exactly how the devil works. And by the way, we're watching it happening right now, right? The enemy will seek to find accusers against those who stand righteously. And in reality, they're not going after those who stand righteously. They're going after the Lord. So when the persecution happens, you have to understand they're not going after you. They're going after Christ in you. So one of the best pieces of advice that was ever given to me many, many years ago by somebody in the ministry and the advice went something like this.

James, don't take anything personally when you're attacked because the reality of it is they are convicted when they see Christ in you and they're not attacking you. Although it feels like they're attacking you, what they're actually attacking is Christ because they are convicted and they don't want to be convicted. Now that's really, really important. Now another good piece of advice that I was given is sometimes people don't know how to confront and they might seem to attack you. And if that attack is founded in something that you erred in, then be very, very quick to respond by saying I erred and move on, right?

That's all that's also an important thing. So I know that there's a lot of people who will say, well, they're just attacking me because that's what Satan did to Jesus when in reality they've completely blown it in an area. Okay, that's when you probably need to speak up and say I was wrong. It's kind of an important thing. But with all that said, understand they hate Jesus and they're looking for people to bear false witness against him and there's nobody that can. But they're doing it because he is getting in the way of all that they want to be, which is very much fake.

Look what happens in the next verse. For many bear false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. So interesting. It's such a powerful description of what happens when Christ is put on trial. And I see this every day and I hope you guys see this every day. There are many that will come to bear false witness against Jesus. Many, many, many. And here's the exhortation I would give to each and every single one of you. Be careful to jump on the bandwagon in giving credibility to the lies that are being told about Christ.

Simply stand on the truth that you know and do not contend from the lies, right? I I heard somebody from the Middle East recently make an argument that you can preach the gospel from the Quran, meaning you can go to the areas in the Quran that talk about Jesus being sinless and so on and so forth and you can make those arguments. And I think that that's a hugely erroneous foundation to pursue because the reality of it is the Quran isn't the word of God. And it's hugely, hugely it's just broken on a bunch of levels.

I mean even if you take the most recent or the the oldest manuscripts, extant manuscripts that we have of the Quran, they date closer to the time of the Ottoman Empire more than they date to the time of Muhammad. They're two completely different places and it's so interesting. I mean we even have some of the greatest scholars in Islam right now basically admitting that Muhammad isn't even real. They're actually admitting one guy in Texas, Yasir Qadhi, who's probably one of the greatest scholars in Islam is actually admitting. He's actually speaking to the fact that the hadith doesn't have any credibility.

Well, if it doesn't have any credibility, then the existence of Muhammad has no credibility. Well, is it Muhammad in the Quran? No, actually the word Muhammad is in the Quran and that's in the Quran four times. And when you read Muhammad, it very likely is speaking about the Messiah. It's so interesting how that works, right? I always laugh at this because Islam is not a world religion. Islam is a heretical teaching of Christianity. It's a it's a it's a aberrant teaching of of Christianity. But my point behind it is this is what the enemy does.

The enemy deals in lies. He deals in people who bring lies. And the lies become more and more shallow as they continue to be communicated, but they are formed and fashioned in a way that get a hold of people's emotions and minds and thoughts. And it's actually devastating when you see the effects of those lies. It's actually remarkable. It's absolutely remarkable. I had the opportunity recently to speak to some very high-up political people and that's all I can say. I I'm not going to get into the details of that because I don't want to break any confidences.

But in that, I had the opportunity to actually question some things that I had heard and some stories that had been kind of prominent only to find out how sophisticated some of the lies were, how well the enemy has been working to do things. It's really funny on this one. The story that that one person had told me to to explain what happened, I thought was so outrageous because if what he says is true, that means the lies are so outrageous that it it you don't even want to believe it. You don't even want to believe it.

Then I spoke to a person who didn't even know I spoke to that guy who I know from a from a separate place kind of a a you know whole different side of the world who says he was there and out of nowhere explains it exactly and perfectly like the explanation that I got from the guy who was telling me the truth. And I just think about this and I realize, man, the devil is so good at his lies. That's what he does. He is literally the father of lies. That's what the Bible says. He is the literally the father of lies.

Is it by the way a coincidence that in the Quran it says which basically means that Allah is the chief of deceivers. Is that a coincidence? It calls its own God the chief of liars. It's it's heavy. So they're lying. But the thing is is the false witness that they're bringing can't even bring the collaboration of truth. In other words, the the arguments, the lies are falling apart. It's heavy. So they didn't agree with one another because they can't get their story straight. That's what it's saying there. There arose certain and bear false witness against him saying, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands and within 3 days I will build another made without hands.

By the way, it's so interesting. This is the way that Satan works when he deceives and he's very good at this. And this is why deception can be so easily utilized in so many different contexts where you often times don't even know the truth. By the way, this is why AI has become such a complex thing that people don't completely understand because they don't understand the premise by which it actually works. But this is the way lies work. When a lie is communicated the way the enemy often times festers them, it doesn't just say something that is just blatantly untrue and can never be looked at as even the realm of possibility.

Okay? If you're going to make a lie about me, you would never say, look at Pastor James. He's 2 ft tall and he weighs 100 lbs. The lie is so blatant that it would just appear to be a joke. Yeah, real funny. Right? You realize when you see Pastor James stand up, he's 6 ft 4 and lbs. You know that. There's not much to that. It's it's just very, very obvious. Satan doesn't lie that way. Sometimes he'll do a little bit of gaslighting, sure. Sometimes he'll say something outright because he can play on your your emotions and get you to think that something is right there.

But for the most part, what he'll do is he will take not even what I would call a partial truth. He'll take a majority truth. He'll take something that appears to be almost completely as it was and modify just a few details, just a few, so that people will listen to what's being heard and recognize it as being credible because it just sounds right. Jesus talked about destroying the temple and it being rebuilt in 3 days. He was talking about that. He was talking about his body. The disciples understood that to be the case. They knew what was going on.

The Pharisees obviously didn't completely understand it because they weren't spiritually minded. But did you notice just how subtly they changed the story? Did you notice how they were just very subtle about the way that they brought that forth? Of course, the picture behind the trial there would be to bring up the temple as such because they knew that the temple wasn't just something that was purely Jewish. The temple was one of the seven wonders of the known ancient world at that point. In other words, it was a structure of Herod and nobody would ever seek to defy Rome by destroying a structure of Herod.

As a matter of fact, the only time where it was acceptable to destroy such a structure is when the Romans themselves did it. When Titus did it, there was no comments, obviously. Although it is very interesting because the emperor at that time was very, very upset at the fact that that happened under Titus's direction because it was believed to have been that he had intended to set himself up in that temple and demand to be worshiped. Interesting thing that hasn't happened yet. It's going to happen. The Bible tells us it's going to happen. But did you notice this?

We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands. Did he actually say that? Did he say that it's made with hands? No. Right? And within 3 days I will build another made without hands. Just a small little modification. But if you were there and you don't completely remember what he said, the lie's going to sound pretty good, doesn't it?

Jane: This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, and we're currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well. Pastor James, today you pointed out how the devil works and deals in lies. Next time you're going to talk about how we're to respond to these lies when they're directed at us by underscoring Jesus's response here in Mark chapter 14. Can you give us an idea of what you'll be speaking about?

James Kaddis: Jane, it's a good question. And I think the general principle that drives what we understand from Mark 14 is that we not allow ourselves to be capitulated to the dialogue that the devil wants us to enter into. You see, when we give in to the lies of the devil, we are then redirected to focus on things that God never intended for us to focus on. And by the way, this is something that happened very early on with the Garden of Eden. The enemy lied to mankind. He lied to Adam and Eve. And when Adam and Eve gave into when they capitulated into the lies that were being communicated to them, they began to focus on the one thing that they didn't have thus for fitting everything that God had given them.

And that's where the gist of this conversation is going to go.

Jane: Thanks, Pastor James. When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We'd love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what he's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website, lightonthehillradio.com. We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James's new book, The Last Book. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This Guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book giving you what you need to know about the rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner.

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James Kaddis: I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you. 'Cause all I need is you.