When Justice Stood Trial | Follow-Walking in the Way of Jesus | Sunday March 15, 2026

Jesus continues to come towards us, not to judge us though. Why? Because he received all that judgment on himself. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so he can say, find me as I find you that I might restore you. And he comes to Peter and he says, I want to bless you. I want to love you. I still believe in you. I will still direct your life. And that's what changes Peter forever. It isn't in his worst failure that his life changes. It is in the restoration of Jesus that Jesus meets with him and restores him in forgiveness. That's the power of the story. That's the power of the gospel. [00:44:30] (46 seconds)  #RestorationNotCondemnation

So when you are treated unfairly, know that you are suffering the same way Jesus did. But Jesus entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. And there's coming a time where the bible says Jesus will return, and good will be determined good, and evil will be determined as evil. And until that day, our job is not to seek out our own justice, but rather make sure we're on the right side of God's justice. Right? When we're on the right side of God's justice. [00:35:23] (31 seconds)  #TrustGodsJustice

But when push comes to shove, when he gets cultural pressure, crowd pressure, he caves. Even if a few hours earlier, he said, if everyone falls away, I never will. And yet three times, he's like, I don't know him. I'm not associated with him. Leave me alone. There's a deeper human pattern there. See, our faith our faith collapses, not when we stop believing in God, but when we stop believing God. That's the difference. [00:40:57] (32 seconds)  #BelieveGodNotJustInGod

So then by that, we can derive some truths out of the themes by that, such as Christian leadership begins with repentance, not heroism. The bible is full of people who failed. Right? There is only one hero in the whole bible. Only one. His name is Jesus. Everybody else was an abject failure. So if you buy your grandkids or your kids a book that is full of bible heroes and there's more than one, you shouldn't buy that book. Alright? [00:21:42] (34 seconds)  #RepentanceNotHeroism

A dog is afraid of men. Like, that's kind of it's a human thing too. Right? They all can really say, okay, I can't trust certain people. And there's a level of discernment and wisdom around all of that, yet, if it comes from a place of self protection, that the only person who's not gonna hurt me is me, and I have to disengage from other relationships, you are claiming justice for yourself. And here's what we see. You're never gonna get it. Jesus, the Bible says, entrusted himself to the one and the only one he knew would judge him justly. [00:33:38] (37 seconds)  #DontProtectYourself

But there's an honesty to this story. There's this this vulnerability. There's some really powerful things that only give greater credibility to both the historicity and the spiritual significance of Mark's gospel. The early church who kinda brought all of these writings together proclaimed truth rather than protecting reputations. There's some validity to the scripture that really matters to us because they were more focused on proclaiming the truth of Jesus rather than making themselves look good. [00:21:06] (36 seconds)  #HonestGospelHistory

And so he stayed quiet in this moment. He doesn't defend himself. He doesn't fight for his rights. He doesn't engage in debate, he doesn't get angry. He takes the identity of a victim without the demand for justice, but still holds on to the truth. He knew who he was, and he held on to that. He was not going to compromise, he was not going to back down, but he was going to receive whatever was determined had to happen in this place. [00:34:14] (33 seconds)  #SilentStrength

Jesus understands what it means to be the victims of injustice. He's experiencing an incredibly unjust process. The verdict is already determined, the witnesses contradict each other, leaders twist his words, and when the truth is spoken, it's answered with violence. The only righteous man is the one being condemned. Jesus knows what it means to be the victim of injustice. Most of us maybe haven't experienced an injustice to that same scale, but we do know what it's like to be treated unfairly. When someone misrepresents what we said, someone lies about something we've done, someone questions our motives, Someone's determination seemed to have already been made, and and we feel judged before we heard. Anybody? [00:30:24] (52 seconds)  #KnowingWhatInjusticeFeelsLike