Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL

Ash Wednesday
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at Noon and 7:00 p.m.


Saint James Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL

Second Lenten Midweek Services
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 at 12:10 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Rev. Larry D. Troxel

"The Gospel According to Jesus' Enemies:
The Gospel According to False Witnesses"
(Matthew 26:59–61)

In Jesus' name. Amen.
The Apostle Paul said, "The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes."¹ The Gospel is that power by which God the Holy Spirit has conveyed to you and me the gift of saving faith in Christ Jesus. We expect to hear the Gospel in its truth and purity in the Scripture readings we use in our worship services. We expect to hear the Gospel in its truth and purity in our Bible classes, Sunday School classes, parochial school classes. We expect to hear the Gospel in its truth and purity in our homes and wherever Christians gather together.

But do you ever expect to hear an unbeliever bearing witness to the Gospel? Do you ever expect the hear the Gospel being spoken by those who are avowed enemies of Christ Jesus? No, we do not expect to hear the Gospel from unbelievers. But the Gospel is so great, so gracious, and so powerful that it cannot be hidden. It refuses to be hidden, not even by the darkest of circumstances.

As we journey through this holy season of Lent, and in the coming weeks as we read portions from Saint Matthew's account of Jesus' suffering and death, you will hear something truly amazing. You will hear the Gospel message being spoken nearly every time Jesus' enemies open their vile mouths to speak their hateful words.

You may recall that when Jesus was buried, his friends rolled a large stone across the entrance to the burial cave. Jesus' enemies convinced the Roman governor to put his seal across that stone-covered entry and to post soldiers to guard the tomb. On Easter morning, that very same stone testified to the resurrection of Jesus. In a very similar way, the enemies of Jesus, including clever Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin's false witnesses, pitiful Pontius Pilate, the cruel crowd standing beneath Jesus' cross, the merciless mockers, and even the amazing confession of tough Roman soldiers bear witness to the Gospel and to Christ Jesus, the center of the Gospel. Their words are the texts for our Lenten midweek sermons this year.

Today/Tonight we hear "The Gospel According to False Witnesses." Our text is Matthew 26:59–61.

⁵⁹Now the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put Him to death, ⁶⁰but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward ⁶¹and said, "This Man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.' "

Do you think that any person ever would willingly distort what another person has said? Do you think that any person ever would lie intentionally about what another person has said? Do you think that any person ever would remain silent and not speak up to defend the truth about another person? Surely, we always and without fail carry out perfectly what Martin Luther wrote as the explanation of the Eighth Commandment, don't we? You remember the words, don't you?
"We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way."²

No, we don't always and everywhere keep perfectly what God's commandment requires of us. Sadly, yes, every one of us either has distorted what another person has said, intentionally lied about another person, or kept silent when we could have and should have spoken to defend the truth.

Shortly after being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin. This was the Great Council, made up of seventy highly respected men, though not all of them were present at every session, certainly not at Jesus' trial.

It is clear from Holy Scripture that Jesus' trial was a complete miscarriage of justice. The High Priest, Caiaphas, who presided at the trial, already had declared how he expected the trial to turn out. Days before Jesus' arrest, Caiaphas had spoken the fateful words: "It is better for you that one Man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish."³ Scripture also testifies that both the leaders and a majority of the other Council members "were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put Him to death."⁴

And what false testimony did they finally receive? "At last two came forward and said, 'This Man said, "I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days." ' "5 Their words brought to the minds of the members of the Sanhedrin something which had happened three years earlier. It is recorded in John chapter two and we usually refer to it as the first time Jesus cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was in Jerusalem with His disciples for His first celebration of the Passover with them. He was distressed by what He found going on in the outer courts of the Temple. "In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the moneychangers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, 'Take these things away; do not make My Father's house a house of trade.' "⁶ When the religious leaders challenged Jesus' authority to do what He had done, He replied, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." ⁷ John's Gospel makes clear exactly what Jesus meant. "He was speaking about the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken."⁸

When the false witnesses attempted to use Jesus' words against Him, they were not acting as honest men. They were acting with malicious intent. And they did not even quote Jesus' words correctly. Jesus said, "Destroy this temple …," indicating it was something His opponents would do to Him. Jesus did not state that He intended to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem. He was speaking of the very thing which the Sanhedrin was intent on doing, destroying His body, putting Him to death. Jesus promised, "I will raise it up," referring to His bodily resurrection. He did not say, "I am able to rebuild it …," the words spoken by the false witnesses in reference to the Temple that stood in Jerusalem.

Those who speak lies about others usually are not interested in quoting accurately the one they intend to harm. Their main interest is to do as much harm as possible. So today some people spread malicious gossip about others with the intent of doing them great harm. It happens in the business world. It happens in elementary schools, high schools, and universities. Sadly, it even happens in the church.

Perhaps you have spoken a lie with malicious intent about someone else. Even if you have not, you and every one of us still have behaved as false witnesses. We have not always given the Word of God the honor that it truly deserves. If we always honored the Word of God, our Sunday School and Bible class attendance would equal or even exceed our worship attendance, and our worship attendance every weekend would be about 90% or more of our congregation's membership. If we always gave the Word of God the honor it deserves, we would make time for personal and family devotions every day. If we always gave the Word of God the honor it deserved, we would always uphold the freedom of the Gospel and never fall into the trap of legalism. If we always gave God's Word the honor it deserves, we would make use of every opportunity God gives us to give a clear answer whenever someone asks us the reason for the peace and confident hope that are ours in Christ Jesus. If we always gave the Word of God the honor it deserves, we never would have to recruit people to teach Sunday School, lead Vacation Bible School, and host small group Bible studies in our homes.

The Good News is that Christ Jesus has fulfilled all the demands of God's Law perfectly for us, as our Substitute. When Satan faced Jesus in the Judean wilderness, Jesus defeated every temptation with the Word of God, declaring that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."⁹ Jesus also bore for us all the pain that intentional lies inflict. And He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life¹⁰ always spoke the whole truth of God both to us and for us. He sacrificed Himself on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for all the times we have failed to speak the truth and for all the times to come that we will fail to speak the truth.

Jesus once said that Satan "is a liar and the father of lies."¹¹ By His suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus has rescued us from "the father of lies" and has given us His own Gospel truth to speak.

When the false witnesses misquoted Jesus, they brought back to the minds of Jesus' enemies the words which Jesus truly had spoken, words which pointed to His death and resurrection, words which declared that Jesus truly is the Son of God who has sacrificed Himself for us and for our salvation. In attempting to harm Jesus, the false witnesses had borne witness to the truth of the Gospel, namely, that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our sins against us.¹²

In this we see once again the amazing grace of God at work on our behalf. He does not excuse or applaud the false witnesses. He condemns them. And against their very intentions, God the Holy Spirit uses their lies as a reminder of the great and glorious Gospel, the Good News of a Savior who loves us so much that He endured injustice and lies and even death by crucifixion and who then rose in victory to assure us that the demands of divine justice have been satisfied and that we live under His full and free forgiveness, forgiveness even for the lies we have spoken and the many times we have remained silent when we could and should have spoken the truth. Because Christ Jesus has done this for us, we join with David the forgiven psalmist who wrote: "O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise."¹³ Amen.

1. Romans 1:16
2. Martin Luther, "Explanation of the Eighth Commandment," Luther's Small Catechism with Explanation, (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1991), page 13 and 87.
3. John 11:50
4. Matthew 26:59
5. Matthew 26:60–61
6. John 2:14–16
7. John 2:19
8. John 2:21–22
9. Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3
10. John 14:6
11. John 8:44
12. 2 Corinthians 5:19
13. Psalm 51:15


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