Turn Down the Silence!

Friday   11-27-15      Modesto, California

Scripture reading:   Psalm 125   Matt 26 - 27

S=Scripture O= A=Application P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Matt 26:62-63  Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Well, aren't you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?" But Jesus remained silent.

Matt 27:12-14  But when the leading priests and other leaders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. "Don't you hear their many charges against you?" Pilate demanded. But Jesus said nothing, much to the governor's great surprise. NLT 

O.  There are times when silence shouts louder than sound.  Jesus was not intending to plead innocent.  He was standing before the top ranking Jewish religious leaders being accused of claiming to be the Son of God... the Supreme, Royal Deity.  Finally the High Priest could no longer stand the extreme volume of Jesus’ silence and screamed at Him, “I demand by the living God that You identify Yourself!”  Now Jesus spoke, “You have it right, boys.  And one day you will see Me seated at the Father’s right hand and coming in the clouds of heaven!”  BAM! The room exploded.

A little while later Jesus was on trial before Governor Pilate.  Again Jesus is silent before a raging crowd of accusers.  Jesus’ silence was roaring in Pilate’s ears, when his wife crept over to him and warned him to back off... she had suffered a horrible night-mare because of this innocent victim.  So he calls for a basin of water.  He sends Jesus to be beaten and crucified... and now two millenniums later he is still standing over there trying to wash the blood of Jesus off his hands.

A.  So, who is guilty of the blood of this “innocent Man”?  I must recognize that this Man is, in fact, the very first innocent Man.  All the rest of us are sinners.  He was the pure Lamb of God sent to die in my place.  I am the guilty one.  My sin, my guilt, my wickedness... drove Him to the bloody beating, the crown of thorns and the cruel cross.  The crowd screamed, “Let his blood be upon our hands and on our children!”  Oh!  And it is!  It is on all of our hands!  He went to that cross for me!

P.  Bloody hands are ugly, God.  That crowd wasn’t satisfied to get their hands bloody... they poured their guilt onto their children’s hands.  But somehow I see now that You are not trying to identify guilty, bloody hands.  You are offering the free gift of pardon to all of us.  Your blood becomes the antiseptic cleanser to wash my sins away and cleanse my guilty soul.  I was just a little child.  I did not understand all this.  Yet, at my cry of repentance, You took me in... erased all doubt... and made me know that I was a recipient of Your divine love.  Thank you, Lord.  I pled guilty and that opened the door for Your forgiveness.   Amen.

Ralph