Turn your Bibles to Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 27. You come to these last few chapters of Matthew. In fact, all of the Gospels, it's as though the Gospel writers push a pause button and begin to focus upon details. And here we see that in Matthew chapter 27. Let me pick up the reading at verse 11 of Matthew 27. Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said, You have said so. But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge. so that the governor was greatly amazed. Well, let's look to the Lord. Father, we again are thankful that we can sing praises to you and acknowledge your greatness and your majesty. We believe, Lord, that you are the God who continues to reign and rule and the God who continues to speak. So speak even to us tonight. We believe that you will, by your word, speak to our hearts and our minds and our souls. And so, Lord, we ask you to use your word to continue to change us, transform us, bring us into greater likeness to your Son. We believe your word is a living, powerful word. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. So come, we pray, blessed to our hearts and to our lives. And we ask this in your Son's name. Amen. One of the first things you learn about God from your Bibles is that God speaks. Genesis 1, that whole chapter, is dominated by the speaking voice of God. You wouldn't be alive, neither would I. The world would not exist if God did not speak. We depend upon His speaking voice. And God just didn't speak in creation, but He speaks when it comes to redemption and salvation. And there's hardly anything that is more stressed in the Word of God than the fact that God speaks over and over again. If you read through the Old Testament at least 4,000 times, you have expressions like this. The Lord spoke. The Word of the Lord came. The Lord commanded. The Lord said, God spoke all these words. Think of the prophets. What were they raised up to do? They were raised up to speak on behalf of God. And what you have in your hands is a Bible, the speaking words of God. They have been inscribed here, but all Scripture is God breathed. That's how the literal rendering is in the Greek. God breathed. It comes from God's mouth. And certainly we could say this, that God, the God of the Bible, is distinguished from all the false gods of the world. In this way, He speaks. Remember what the psalmist says, they have mouths, but they do not speak. He's speaking of all the false gods. They are no better than storm-mannequins. Our God speaks. He's a living God. He speaks powerfully. He speaks authoritatively. He speaks creatively and he speaks redemptively. And when we open up our New Testament, who are we introduced to? The Word. The Word. John 1.14. The Word became flesh. To put it in a contemporary way, the Word became human. moved into our neighborhood and began to do what he does best. He spoke. He speaks. He comes as a preacher, as a teacher. Mark 1 says Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming, speaking the gospel of God or the kingdom of God. And it shouldn't surprise us when people hear Jesus speak, we're told over and over again, they were astonished, they marveled, they never heard anyone speak like Jesus. You can have a lot of Bible talkers, but Jesus wasn't just a Bible talker. You could say that He was a walking Bible. He was the Word. And he starts off his ministry speaking throughout the whole of his ministry. He speaks, in fact, if you study Matthew's Gospel, it's divided into, I think, seven major discourses, or speaking times in the life of Jesus. And when you come to the back end of the Gospel, you find Jesus in this most difficult time, His trial and His sufferings and His crucifixion, and He continues to speak. Seven words come from that cross. Jesus was a speaking man. No one spoke like him. And he never ever had to retract anything he said. He never had to apologize for anything that he said. How many times do your words get you into trouble? How many times are your words tinged with anger, self-pity, pride, sarcasm? We sin a lot with our tongues, but Jesus never did. Tonight I want us to focus on Christ, not so much by what He said, but by what He didn't say. He is speaking amazed people, but it's clear even what we read tonight, even his silence, his silence amazed people. And I want us to consider the silence of Jesus from three perspectives. Number one, Jesus practiced a silence of devotion and solitude. That's the first major principle or perspective I want to show you from the Word of God, Jesus practiced a silence of devotion and solitude. Secondly, Jesus refused to indulge a sinful or stubborn silence before God or men. And then thirdly, Jesus practiced an obedient or grace-saturated silence. Jesus practiced a obedient or grace-saturated silence. So let's consider the silence of Jesus from these three perspectives. Number one, Jesus gave expression or a practice of silence, a silence of devotion and solitude. When do Christians typically, when are you most silent? Well, it should be when you're sitting under God's Word or when you're reading your Bibles, when you're praying, you can pray out loud, but oftentimes we're silent when we're praying or when we're meditating upon God's Word. We all should have that experience that's described in Psalm 46, verse 10, be still and know that I am God. And there's no one who practices silence better than Jesus. You could argue that his public ministry began on a note of silence. Well, what does he do? After he's baptized, where does he go? He goes into the wilderness, a place of solitude, a place of silence. He's there for 40 days, 40 nights. At the back end, he engages the devil and their speaking words by our Lord, but during those 40 days and 40 nights, most of those hours would have been spent in silence and solitude. And you see, throughout the Scriptures, the Gospels in particular, they tell us about Jesus seeking silence or solitude on different occasions. In Matthew 14, He went up a mountainside alone. Mark chapter 1 says, early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Luke chapter 4, verse 42, at daybreak, Jesus went to a solitary place. He lived out Psalm 62, My soul waits in silence before God. On one occasion, he even encouraged his disciple friends to come off by themselves to a quiet place and get some rest. Jesus practiced a devotional silence. The second thing I want to say about the silence of Jesus is he refused to indulge in a sinful or a carnal or a stubborn silence. Silence can be a good thing. It can be a holy thing, but it also can be a carnal thing or a bad thing. Let me show you from the Word of God. Turn to Psalm 32, one of the great penitential psalms, Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 are two great penitential Psalms by David, and they focus upon a particular time in his life when David went astray. David's life, for the most part, was distinguished by a high level of godliness. This was a man after God's own heart. But David suffers a great fall, and he falls into sin and temptation. It's the story of David and Bathsheba. It's recorded in 2 Samuel 11. It's really a dark story. It's a story of lust, murder, deception, and lies. But there's a bright side to the story. David is rescued by God's grace. David's story is our story, isn't it? Let's not forget that. We might not sin in such a high-handed way. in a scandalous way, but we always need to be rescued by God's grace. It's a story of sin and temptation, but it's a story of God's mercy and grace. And David gets back into right relationship with God by way of confession and repentance. And that's what this psalm is about. But you get a sense from Psalm 32, if you look closely here, that David struggled for a long time. This was not what you would call a speedy repentance. It was a delayed repentance, probably eight months. David stonewalled God. And David tells us right here that he practiced a sinful silence. And it impacted him physically. We shouldn't forget that there can be, not always, but there can be a relationship between your sins, unconfessed sin, and physical suffering and affliction. Psalm 32, verse 3, notice what he says, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away. Through my groaning all day long, God's hand was heavy upon David. And it was because David practiced a stubborn silence. When I kept silent, he didn't want to talk to God. He was avoiding God. And we can appreciate that kind of sinful silence because that often happens in marriages, doesn't it? We can use silence as a weapon. Instead of dealing with sin problems in a transparent, humble way, what often happens is husband and wife build walls. They erect walls, and one wall that sinners love to build is a wall of silence. Now, there might be some wisdom sometimes in keeping silent in the moments of the tension and conflict, but not a long silence. My grandfather, for the most part, was a very moral man, but I learned from my grandmother that he would keep silent for weeks. It was a form of punishment. One pastor calls it the silent menace. It can be generated by pride, selfishness, vengeance, self-pity. Jesus never indulged that kind of silence. He never shut himself off from God like David, nor did he ever shut himself off from people by a stubborn silence. Think of what took place on the cross. There Jesus, you could say, is shut off by God Himself. I mean, God shuts Himself off from Jesus. There's a holy, righteous silence, if you will, during those three hours of darkness. But Jesus is still crying out to God, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And remember those two thieves who railed upon Jesus while He was on that cross. If there was ever a time you'd want to shut yourself off from people, especially people who have criticized you and ridiculed you, it would have been that very moment. But as soon as one thief acknowledges his sin and sues Jesus or entreats Jesus for mercy, what does Jesus say? Today, you will be with me in paradise. as fatigued and as exhausted as he was, and as trashed verbally as he was, by that same man, moments before, Jesus could turn to him and say with all sincerity, truly you will be with me in paradise today. Jesus refused to indulge a sinful, stubborn silence before God and men. He practiced a silence of devotion and solitude. But thirdly, Jesus practiced an obedient or a grace-saturated silence. He practiced an obedient or a grace-saturated silence. Turn back to that portion that Pastor Bernard read earlier, Isaiah 53. This is that great prophetic chapter that brings into sharp focus the suffering servant. It's been said that nowhere does the gospel shine brighter in the Old Testament than Isaiah 53, which was written, what, 700 or so years before Jesus was on that cross. Certainly one great proof that the Bible is like no other book in the world by virtue of its prophetic fulfillment, but everything that was said about Jesus, His birth, His death, His resurrection comes true. And Isaiah 53 is one of those great prophecies concerning the death of Jesus on the cross. It's very possible that Jesus had Isaiah 53 in mind when He said, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to him. He wasn't caught by surprise. And no doubt Isaiah 53 shaped his thinking. He knows he's going to be rejected. Isaiah 53, 1-3, the spies rejected by men. He knows he's going to go to a place and die on behalf of sinners. He's going to be crushed because of their iniquities and transgressions. And he also knows that he's going to be the Lamb of God. He's going to be the Lamb of God in two ways. He's going to be sacrificial, or be the sacrificial Lamb. He's going to take that place of substitution. But He also knows He's going to be the silent Lamb. The sacrificial Lamb, and also the silent Lamb. Verse 7, He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." Jesus, the perfect communicator, the greatest speaker who ever lived. He could speak wisely, he could speak powerfully, he could speak authoritatively. You could say at times Jesus could roar like a lion. He's called the Lion of Judah. You know that lion can roar so loud that they can be heard five miles away? Do you know that when lions roar, that if there's a car close by, the actual car will tremble, shake? Jesus could roar. You read Matthew 23, it sounds like he's roaring. He's calling down those curses upon the Pharisees, exposing their hypocrisy. Seven woes he pronounces against the scribes and the Pharisees. And I'm sure when they heard those seven woes, they were shaking in their boots. But Jesus wasn't just the lion who could roar. He was a lamb. that could endure suffering with quiet submission to the will of God. All three synoptic Gospels, that's Matthew, Mark and Luke, tell us about His silence. Notice Matthew 26. Go there, if you will, to see for yourself. Matthew 26, Jesus is arrested. He's brought before the civil and then the religious authorities, or first the religious authorities and then the civil authorities. He's first brought before the religious authorities, that would be the Sanhedrin, that high court, that Jewish court. And verse 57, we're told here in Matthew 26, than those who see Jesus led them to Caiaphas, the high priest, with the scribes, the elders, where they had gathered. False witnesses are brought forth. Jesus could easily have defended himself, but he takes the posture of the Lamb. Notice his response in verse 63. He remains silent. He's then brought before the civil authorities. First he's brought before Pontius Pilate, turned over to Chapter 26. We're told in verse 2, they bound him, they led him, or delivered him to Pilate the governor. Jesus is now in Roman custody. Rome will decide his fate. And we pick up the judicial proceedings in verse 11 of Matthew 27. Then Jesus stood before the governor. And obviously Pilate knows what the accusations are against Jesus. They are spoken right there in His presence. And Pilate says to him in verse 13, Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they have testified against you, Mr. Rabbi? There are some serious charges brought against you. What are you going to say for yourself? In verse 14, he gave no answer. not even against a single charge. Silence. And notice Pontius Pilate's reaction, greatly amazed. He'd never seen anything like this. I mean, he probably had hundreds of people stand before him and be accused for certain crimes, and he could hear them howl and cry out and protest their innocence. but not this man. He's silent. He's brought before Herod. We read of that in Luke chapter 23 and Herod was one of those kings who loved to showcase himself. Kings in those days were like Hollywood actors and actresses on the red carpet. They dressed in fine linen, in purple linen, and he probably had an assortment of jewelry on his neck and on his hands. And this king, this King Herod, he's always wanted to see this man Jesus. He's heard about Jesus. He's sort of been looking forward to this opportunity. So here you have two kings meeting. The king called Herod, and the king of the Jews called Jesus. Herod is dressed again in his elaborate apparel, rich gold silver, but Jesus is dressed in ordinary clothes, and he's pretty disheveled at this point. Remember what's happened to him. He's been physically abused. His face was probably black and blue from all the punches they spit upon him. So you have two kings. They're face to face. There's this contrast between the one king decked in rich apparel, the other king dressed in the common everyday clothes of that day. But there's another contrast here in Luke 23 between the two kings. King Herod does all the talking. Verse 9, So, he questioned him at some length. And again, notice Jesus' response. But he made no answer. Think of the questions he might have asked Jesus. Are you really the Christ? Can you really do all those miracles I've heard about? Are you really the King of the Jews? Are you a revolutionary? Are you against Caesar? Jesus remained silent. When Jesus stood before those two previous judiciaries, the religious and also Pontius Pilate, we know he did speak, right? It wasn't an absolute silence because when Pilate asked him, he said, are you the king? And he responded, he said, as you say. And then in John chapter 18, Jesus does a considerable amount of talking to Pilate. Remember that? It's clear that he spoke to Caiaphas, the high priest. So, what do we mean he doesn't speak? Well, he doesn't defend himself. It wasn't an absolute silence, but it was a silence that was perfectly consistent with Isaiah 53. It was the Lamb silence. It was the submissive silence of a Lamb. You can often tell a man's character by how he speaks, the words that come out of his mouth. But you can also tell a man's character oftentimes by his silence. They said, I've said this before not so long ago, that George Washington, which something was a Christian man, was a master of silence. Quite a contrast with some presidents. I won't mention names. Jesus manifested a silence that was grace-saturated. It was an obedient silence. He puts on display meekness. I remember Dr. John MacArthur describing meekness as power under control. Jesus was meek, quiet, meek, submissive to the will of God. Jesus knew Isaiah 53. Jesus knew he was the Lamb of God. Remember, John knew he was the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus knew he was the Lamb of God. He knew he was to fulfill Scripture. Jesus submitted to God's Word. He was obedient, says the Bible, even unto death. And God demanded a sacrificial lamb, but also a silent lamb, a lamb that would not open its mouth. If Jesus had opened His mouth to defend Himself, He would have stepped outside of God's will. We needed a Savior. A Savior who is willing to die, but also a Savior who is willing to fulfill all prophecy and willing to be silent. for us. We needed a Lamb Savior who would shed His blood, but also a silent Lamb who would fulfill all righteousness by His sweet submission to the will of God. The silence of Jesus, a silence of solitude, a sinless silence, it was never a stubborn carnal silence and it was a grace-saturated silence. Let me just close by three very brief applications. What can we learn? Number one would be this. This is a clarion call for imitation. We are disciples of Jesus. That means we follow Jesus. We imitate Jesus. We should imitate Him in how we speak. He spoke graciously. He spoke truthfully. He spoke wisely. He spoke words that were seasoned with grace. We imitate Jesus by our speaking. I've wondered sometimes, have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear Jesus? What would it be like to sit under a sermon preached by Jesus? I remember when I was in the academy many moons ago, and someone said they'd actually been able to get a recording of C.H. Spurgeon. I said, wow, that'd be great to hear Spurgeon. Well, the truth came out that it wasn't Spurgeon, it was his son, Thomas Spurgeon. Thomas Spurgeon was recorded on an Edison Bell, is it called a phonograph? And he stood up and he said this, this is what his son Thomas Spurgeon said about his father, is with great regret that none of us can hear my father's words preserved by means of the phonograph. Perhaps the next best thing is for me, his son, to repeat. The very words that my father once spoke, and he ended up speaking a sermon that Spurgeon had spoke. But we don't have Spurgeon's voice. We don't have Jesus' voice. We don't know how it sounded. We don't have a CD or a tape recording, but we have our Bibles. And we know when people heard him, they said, no one spoke like him. He spoke perfectly. Every word was pure, kingly majesty, tender love and kindness. There was sometimes righteous anger, but that was still a perfect word. He never wasted a word. So we can imitate him by how he spoke, but we can also imitate his silence, can't we? We can imitate his devotional silence. We need to practice silence and solitude in our own relationship with God. We are to spend time with God, those quiet times. We can imitate Jesus when it comes to this matter of sinful silence or stubborn silence before God or before men. We don't want to practice that kind of a silence in our homes or in our church, with our spouses, with our wives, with our children. And we can also practice a grace-saturated silence. The Bible says there's a time to speak and a time to be silent. Perfect obedience, the perfect obedience of Jesus was shaped by His words and also by His silence. And we are called by the Word of God to imitate Jesus when it comes to suffering. 1 Peter 2 says this, You have been called because Christ also suffered, leaving you an example that you might follow in His steps, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile. We can suffer like Jesus in this way when we are reviled, when we are accused, and sooner or later in life, believe it or not, you will be accused. You will be misrepresented, either by close relatives, by in-laws, by children. Something will happen in your life, maybe guys at work, maybe people in the church, but sooner or later, we all come under a verbal attack. And the question is, what do you do? In my pastoral counseling, there have been at least one or two occasions when I know men have been under attack, verbally, by slander. And I've said to them, because it was said to me many years ago, suffer like the lamb. Take the posture of the lamb. Don't defend yourself. Don't defend yourself. Sometimes we need to defend ourselves, I realize that. But there's times where we take the posture of the Lamb and we say nothing. I really think that was a problem with Job. Job didn't stay silent. Job defended himself. There's times, brethren, where we are going to have opportunity to imitate Jesus and share in His suffering, share in His sufferings. And one of the best ways you can share in His sufferings is by enduring your persecution or those verbal attacks by a meek, quiet-like submission and silence. It really is a marvel to behold. The world hasn't seen anything like it. Your children, your wife perhaps, the guys at work, when you put on display Jesus the silent lamb, they will notice. They will notice an uncomplaining patience and silence. You could call it a supernatural silence. May God give us opportunities, brethren, to be like our Savior, even when it comes to suffering that brings our own character or reputation into question. We have opportunity to put Jesus, the Lamb of God, on display. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, we thank you for your Son, the Lion of Judah, but also the Lamb of God. And help us, Lord, to be like your Son even in this way. We need your grace, your supernatural grace to suffer well We pray when we have those opportunities to put our Savior on display, that you will give us the grace we need. Help us to learn to bear our sufferings in a dignified, uncomplaining, patient, submissive way. And we pray this in your Son's name. Amen.