Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I'm going to have us turn in our Bibles this morning to the Book of John again. We're in chapter 19, a very familiar story to us. And I believe that God wants to say something maybe a little unexpected as we look at this story of Jesus being sentenced before Pilate. Do you know, when describing the person and work of Jesus Christ, in the second century, the early church created a confessional statement called the Apostles. And I just want to remind us, I know we don't usually say that in our types of churches, but many liturgical churches would say the Apostolic Creed. And here it is. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate and was buried, died, crucified, died and was buried. He ascended to the dead, and on the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead. So in John 19, we're going to see exactly how Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. It actually happened. And we're going to see how this plays out. You see, Pilate had evaluated Jesus in chapter 18, and he had come away with this actual summation of the trial that he was evaluating him under. And he said there is really no basis for the charge that is being brought against him. In other words, he ruled that Jesus was innocent of charges. Now, how many know in a court of law, if you're innocent, what's the next step?
[00:01:46] Well, release the person. Right. But Pilate doesn't do that. And we're going to take a look at maybe why he didn't do that because he's a little concerned, because before him is a crowd of people. And I think this crowd is primarily Judean in nature. They're not Galileans. And the religious establishment, not all of them, but the majority of them, are hostile to Jesus and they've brought Jesus before Pilate. And, and this crowd wants one thing to happen, that Pilate would sentence Jesus to be crucified, to be executed. And so they've shouted that response out. And so Pilate comes up with an option in his mind maybe to placate the crowd. And we'll get back to that in a moment. But he says he remembers that there's a custom that they could release a prisoner during Passover. And the crowd has the option of who it is. And so they begin to scream the name Barabbas, who was a well known insurrectionist, a revolutionary. And so now this insurrectionist is going to be freed because that's who they're choosing. And Jesus is still standing before Pilate. And in this interchange of dialogue between Pilate and the religious leaders and this Judean crowd around him, they begin to exert pressure in order to undermine justice. Now, how many know we all think we want justice, but in our society, I'm not convinced of that. I think what we want is our way. What we want is our agenda to be fulfilled. We're not that interested in justice unless someone's wronged us. Then we're interested in justice. Right? But if we're guilty, what are we interested in? Mercy. So we have a totally different mindset about justice. It just depends on the circumstance. So four times in this chapter, in chapters 18 and 19, these two chapters, Pilate in his engagement with Jesus continually concludes that there's no basis for the charge. It's said four times. So we know that Pilate believes that Jesus is totally innocent. We need to understand that. But rather than letting him go, this examination now is going to become an attack on Pilate as a leader. Remember I said last week, if you were here, who's on trial here, Jesus or Pilate? And we're beginning to see that it's really Pilate that's on trial. And in his own mind, he thinks, if I let Jesus go, two things could happen. One, I could lose control of this crowd around me, number one. Or number two, his political standing before Tiberius the Caesar of Rome may become jeopardized. And so he's concerned about those two things. And so in light of all of that, I want to bring out, I want to put us back into the shoes of Pilate for a minute. And I know we'd like to be Jesus, but maybe we wouldn't. He's about to be crucified. Maybe we'd want to pass on that. But we're going to look at this story in light of where Pilate's coming from, because really, we all face times in our lives that we experience pressure to make an uncomfortable, maybe even a wrong decision that not only will affect ourselves, but it's going to affect a lot of other people, and many of them are innocent. We're put in those awkward places. And I think we've all had moments in our lives where we've been in an awkward spot. How many here you do not like confrontation? Anybody here besides the pastor don't like confrontation? But I've experienced it. We don't like it, but it comes upon us. Now we're under pressure, what are we going to do in that situation? And a lot of us say, I just want to avoid it at all costs. But there's moments you can't avoid it. It just comes to you and you got to deal with it.
[00:05:32] And then we. So I want to speak a little bit today about how can we overcome the pressure of making wrong decisions? How many, you know, you say, hey, that sounds like a good idea. I want to avoid making wrong choices. I want to avoid making sinful choices. I want to avoid making the wrong decisions. Because I think we have to. To do that, we have to understand some underlying factors that contribute to these kinds of decisions. In other words, I think when we start understanding ourselves a little better, why would we make wrong choices?
[00:06:08] And then once we understand that, how can we overcome those things in our lives that are causing us to make the wrong choice? Does that sound like a good approach to the story we're going to look at? We're going to see how it happens in Pilate's life? I'm going to keep pointing out, this is what Pilate's doing right now. This is the underlying factor in his life. This is why he's going to make this wrong choice and probably what he could have done about it. A little later on we'll talk about that. So let's take a look at the three elements that cause wrong decisions. Number one, when we try to placate those who are putting pressure on us, when we're trying to just get them out of our hair, just give them something so that we don't have to make a decision or maybe the wrong decision rather than making the right decision. And we'll talk about why don't we make the right decisions.
[00:06:57] So after failing to gain Jesus release through what I would call popular opinion, Pilate wants them to agree that he should be released, but they don't want that. So now he's stuck because he kind of gave him an option and they didn't do what he wanted. So he still got Jesus. What are you going to do with Jesus here? He's still there. So rather than do the right thing and rather than experience criticism, because how many know there are certain situations, and I love creating win win situations, but I've discovered in my long tenor of being a leader, there are some moments you just can't win. Isn't that true? You just, you know, you try to find where is a win win. But in this situation, there is no win win. There's going to be a win and a Loss. And there's going to be the right thing and the wrong thing. And no matter what you do, somebody's going to be unhappy with it. You're going to be criticized by somebody. So you got to be. You got to brace yourself. It's coming, this criticism. So rather than experience criticism and pressure from the populace, you know what he does? He decides, well, I'm going to torture Jesus.
[00:08:04] That's his option. Now, he figures if I torture Jesus enough, maybe they'll feel sorry for him and let him go. That's part of his thinking. So it says here, then Pilate took Jesus and he had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, and they put it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe, and they went up to him again and again saying, hail, King of the Jews, and they slapped him in the face. In other words, they were mocking him and they were brutalizing him. And so here's Pilate's kind of justification for torturing Jesus.
[00:08:39] Because Jesus had no legal standing, Pilate felt he was okay to do this behavior. He didn't feel anything bad about this. You see, Jesus was what we would consider a subjugated person. He was a subject of Rome, but he wasn't a Roman. He didn't have citizenship. He didn't have the right of a citizen. Pilate could have never tortured a Roman citizen and got away with it. But because Jesus was Jewish and he was of this, you know, basically a group of people that the Romans basically despised, he thought nothing of torturing Jesus to achieve his ends, which was get Jesus out of my life. Right now it's bugging me. I've got all this pressure from these other Jewish people that are causing me grief. FF Broof says it this way. He says the infliction of any punishment on one who had been convicted of no crime was an act of injustice. But ordinary provincials did not enjoy the legal protection extended to Roman citizens. So that's why he did it. Gerald Bouchard suggests maybe some of the thinking behind Pilate's action. This is a supposition. Nobody knows for sure, but this is what he says. Pilate next returned to the inside judgment hall since he had failed in his manipulative attempt to release Jesus. And there he apparently devised yet another plan to deal with this bothersome situation.
[00:10:04] The Jews normally railed on the Romans for their harsh treatment of Jews. So the next stage was to have Jesus whipped. Luke supports the factualness of Pilate's plan to whip Jesus and then release Him. That's what it says in Luke 23:16. The purpose of such a whipping would, according to John 19:4 here, seemed to have been not as a preparation for death, because that's what they would do before they crucified people. They would, you know, they would whip them. Many of them didn't survive it, and so they would just die. But a means to attain the placation of the Jews and the justification for Jesus release by Pilate. In other words, maybe they'll feel sorry for this guy and let him go. But I want to point out something, doing the wrong thing to placate people exasperates the problem. In other words, it makes everything worse. So when we do the wrong thing to please others, it only makes things worse in our own lives and it affects other people in a negative way. This is one of the cause of much suffering in people's lives as well as our own. We can argue that the ends do not justify the means because when we use the wrong means, we rarely get to the right ends.
[00:11:17] And by the way, a lot of people in our society think it's okay to do the wrong things to get to the right ends. And I'm telling you, if you do that, you probably won't get to where you think you're going. So you better pick the right means, the right way to go about doing things in order to get to the right ends. And doing something wrong to do the right thing is never the right thing. Okay, that's what I'm trying to say here. Once again, Pilate acknowledged the innocence of Jesus, but also revealed the beating that Jesus endured. And this is how he did it. Jesus is on the inside. He brings them out once more. Pilate came out, see, bouncing between inside the palace, his area, and then outside to where the Jews are. Because they don't want to be ceremonially defined. He says now he brings Jesus out with him. Look, I'm bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.
[00:12:11] And when Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, here's the man. Now, I don't know if we realize it, but John, he loves irony. He loves the fact that the bad guys are saying the right things. He loves to do that. He likes to put truth in the mouth of these guys. And even though they don't even know what they're saying, what they're saying is true. Like Caiaphas said, it's important that one man would die to save a nation. He doesn't realize at the time that's exactly what's going to happen. And he's actually saying something prophetic. Now. Pilate says, here's the man. And so Pilate is used by John to declare something that's extremely significant, that God has to become a man in order to address humanity's greatest enemy, which is death itself. By dealing with the cause of death, which is our sin, he's got to deal with it.
[00:13:14] DA Carson says, the sarcasm which Pilate presents Jesus to the crowd. He says it in this way he's aware as he is that it's the people who must choose the man who will receive the governor's amnesty. He presents Jesus as a beaten, harmless, and rather pathetic figure to make their choice of him as easy as possible.
[00:13:38] In his dramatic utterance, here's the man or the latinissi homo, Pilate is speaking with dripping irony. Here's the man you find so dangerous and threatening. Can you not see he's harmless and somewhat ridiculous? Like, why are you threatened by this guy? Look what he's, you know, he's not a problem.
[00:13:56] If the governor is thereby mocking Jesus, he's ridiculing the Jewish authorities with no less venom. But the evangelist records the event with still even deeper irony. Here indeed is the man the word made flesh.
[00:14:12] All the witnesses were too blind to see it at the time, but this man was displaying the glory of the one and only son and the very disgrace, pain, weakness, and brutalization that Pilate advanced as suitable evidence that he was, in a sense, in Pilate's mind, judicially irrelevant. In other words, it's not about Jesus. This is a conflict between him and the religious rulers. But the reality is Jesus is at the center stage, and he's the one that's demanding all of our attention. And John is bringing that to our attention right now. So I put down here, doing what's wrong to please people does not ultimately work. It only fuels an appetite in the minds of the leaders that Jesus would be destroyed, he would be executed. John's revealing how the leadership of the Jewish people had led the people astray. And they have to take responsibility for the death of Jesus. As soon as the chief priest and their officials saw him, they shouted, crucify. Crucify. Pilate said, you take him and crucify him. I find no basis for a charge against him. Once again, Pilate is stating the innocence of Jesus and mockingly telling them to do what he knows they're not able to do because they're subjected to Rome and they have no authority to crucify Jesus.
[00:15:37] Now we know Pilate's action in torturing Jesus is an act of injustice. How many say that's true? There's no excuse for it, right?
[00:15:46] Pilate is the ultimate authority on the scene here. He has the power to release or not release, and he should have released Jesus. He's already said three times he's innocent. But what does he do? He doesn't release Jesus. So when we allow people pressures to determine our decisions, we often make many wrong and harmful decisions.
[00:16:09] We need to do what's right.
[00:16:12] We need to do the right thing.
[00:16:14] Even though it may be difficult, we need to do the right thing. We'll talk about how do we get to that place where we can do the right thing. So why is it that we don't do the right thing? Well, my second point. We have personal fears and insecurities. How many go, that's so true. We're afraid. A lot of times we make bad decisions because fear is such a profound motivator in our lives. How many say, that's right? All of a sudden we become afraid and we say the wrong thing? I mean, how many have ever felt pressure? And all of a sudden you lied instead of telling the truth. You just felt so much pressure. Let's be honest about this. You felt that pressure and you said the wrong thing, you know, and you did it because you were afraid. Maybe you were afraid to hurt somebody else's feelings or you were afraid, you know, of. You know, if they knew the truth, you wouldn't be liked or, you know, all kinds of reasons go into our minds, but fear is extremely powerful as a motivating factor in our lives. So not only was there this public pressure, but in discovering Jesus claims to be the son of God, Pilate's own superstitious beliefs now is going to create an even deeper level of despair within himself that distorts now his objectivity and now will drive him to surrender to injustice. Having flogged Jesus, Pilate brings Jesus before the people. We've already seen that. And now here's what the religious leaders, how they respond to this. This is what they say. We have a law, and according to that law, he must die. So they've moved away from this. Jesus as a king, he's treasonous. They're moving away to their religious grounds for why they want Jesus executed. We have a law. Here's our law. He claims to be the son of God.
[00:18:06] And then they say, and when Pilate heard This, he was even more afraid.
[00:18:13] I think that's a clue. Fear is driving him now. He's even more afraid now. Why would Pilate be so afraid of what's going on? Well, the mention for the first time, this is Roland Tasker. He says in Pilate's hearing of the expression son of God increases his fear. Possibly a superstitious fear that for all appearances to the contrary, he might be in the presence of a supernatural figure with all the sinister consequences that that might involve.
[00:18:45] But more probably a fear that in spite of the lack of evidence, here was one who really was claiming for himself the title to which the Roman emperor laid claim. Divi filius, which really meant Caesars began to think of themselves as the sons of God or divine. Thus, in a very curious manner, what to the Jews was the primary charge of blasphemy now becomes equated in the mind of the procurator or the governor with the secondary charge of treason. So what's happening here?
[00:19:19] Well, two things I think could be happening here. We don't know for sure, but we think two things are happening. One is that Pilate himself has his own superstitions. I mean, he's grown up with all of this mythology, Roman and Greek mythology. Anybody know anything about Roman and Greek mythology? Well, you'll know that as I'm going to share that some people considered some human beings to be part gods. All right, I'll give you an example. Hercules, he's the son of Zeus in the Greek mythology, but he's conceived in a woman. So there's this whole thinking in this mythological world of Greeks and Romans that that could happen. So now he comes back into the palace.
[00:20:02] The first thing he says to Jesus, where did you come from? Like, he's freaked out, like, where did you know? Like, who are you?
[00:20:11] And he asks Jesus, and Jesus does not give him an answer. So he's asking the question, who is Jesus?
[00:20:19] And maybe the other one, as I've already. Well, let me go back and say this. And this is that Greek and Roman mythology. Maybe he's thinking, hey, I kind of overstepped myself. Just think if he's somehow connected to one of the Roman deities, maybe I'm going to be in trouble because I just tortured him. Maybe now I'm going to be in trouble. He's freaked out. That could be one reason. I think the other reason is Jesus is now making himself out to the same title that the Caesar has made himself out to be having a divine origin. It's a little bit unnerving Pilate to think that maybe Jesus is setting himself up to be another Caesar or a king or something. So he's asking these questions. And then on top of that, don't you love Jesus? The unnerving silence of Jesus and the issue of authority. Jesus doesn't answer them. Now, how many know that when you are a little rattled and somebody's begging for an answer and you don't give it to them, that even heightens the anxiety within the person asking the question. So we know that Pilate is under a lot of stress right now. He's got the crowd outside, they're in mob frenzy. And you've got Jesus over here not answering his question. And he's just been tortured. So Pilate steps up, and I think he uses his position now. So he says this to Jesus, do you refuse to speak to me? Pilate says, don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify? He says, listen, your life is on the line, and I hold the cord whether you die or live. And you're not answering me. You need to speak up, buddy, or you're going to be in trouble here. I mean, he's threatening Jesus. How many see that? Anybody catch that? Okay. Warren Worsby explains why people who are afraid often abuse their power. He says this fear and anger often go together. When we're afraid, we're weak. And we go to the other extreme and try to appear strong. Isn't that interesting? You know, we try to do the opposite. We try to pretend. We try to pretend that we're strong when reality, we're caving on the inside. It's a false front. So Pilate throws us at Jesus. And this is what he does. He's reminding Jesus of his authority. But his statement is not demonstrating his power. It's demonstrating his weakness. And this is what Wursbee points out for if he had the authority to release Jesus, why didn't he do it?
[00:22:45] He's condemning himself with his own boastful words. He's actually putting himself on trial. And he says, I have the authority to release it. Well, then why didn't you do it? Because obviously, three times you said he's innocent, but you haven't done it. So you're just exposing your own fears and pretending to be this strong person, when in reality, Pilate is actually quite weak. And we see that in the story.
[00:23:11] Now, why didn't Jesus respond to his question? Isn't that a great thought about where he came from? And I was reading Warren Worsman he said part of the reason was Jesus had already answered that question. He had answered in the earlier chapter in verses 36 and 37, when he said, my kingdom is not of this world and I came to testify of the truth. So he's already answered him.
[00:23:35] This is an important thought. Warren Worsby points it out and I agree with them. It is a basic spiritual principle that God does not reveal new truth to us if we fail to act on the truth we already know. He's not going to tell you something. You know, we cannot expect God to keep revealing things to us. If we refuse to do what he's already said, why is he going to give us more instruction? I mean, we're not even doing what he's telling us to do. So step number one, I'm where I'm at in my spiritual journey and I stop at the place of disobedience. If I want to continue the journey, I have to address what God's got before me. Obey. And then God starts revealing more. We have a choice.
[00:24:20] And so we could, you know, and some of us, you know, I feel like I'm stagnant. I feel like I haven't moved forward. Yeah, but maybe you know, that there's something that you should be doing and you're not doing. And God's putting his finger on, says, do this first. You want more? Do this first. He's not going to move us on until we do what he's asking us to do. Furthermore, Pilate had already made it clear that he was not personally interested in spiritual truth. You know, and there's a little verse that says, don't cast your pearls before swine. When you know people have a non interest in spiritual things, that's fine. You know, I have a little principle in my life. I work with the willingness, I work with the interested. If people want to engage in conversation, I'm happy to do that. If they have no interest, I don't torment them.
[00:25:08] See, I just pray for them. I don't write them off.
[00:25:12] They're not ready yet. Why would you want to spend time with people who are not ready? And so we all have people in our lives, they're not ready to respond yet. Start praying for them, keep praying for them. And you know what happens in their lives. Crisis comes along, difficulty comes along, something will provoke them, something that they'll see or hear, somebody will challenge them. And all of a sudden they start thinking. And now you start to start engaging. And now you have somebody that's now interested. Now you can Converse with people.
[00:25:41] So all he was concerned about in Pilate's mind was maintaining peace in Jerusalem as he tried to expedite this trial of Jesus of Nazareth. Pilate did not deserve an answer. So Jesus doesn't give him one. How is that? Well, the real issue here is actually one of authority. Jesus said to him, you know, you have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.
[00:26:08] Now, I want to just stop here and say this. All of these governments that we have, the only authority, they have come from God.
[00:26:16] That is their authority base, period.
[00:26:19] Therefore, now Jesus is now going to say, who's really culpable or who's the real guilty party in this whole thing? He's going to let Pilate off the hook a little bit here. He said, therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. So he doesn't say, pilate, you're innocent of sin. He's saying, no, you're accountable for what you're doing. But there's one that's even more cullable. There's one that's even more guilty than you.
[00:26:46] This is probably fascinating to Pilate, listening to Jesus, how many think you get the impression that Jesus is not on trial here and Pilate's on trial. Does anybody pick that up right now? He's kind of pointing out you're not. He says, there's one that's handed me over to you is even guilty of a greater sin than what you're doing. So he's not saying you're sinless, Pilate, you're under God's judgment. And we read it in that confession. God's going to come back. Who's coming back to judge the living and the dead? Jesus is. Jesus is the judge to judge the living and the dead, to judge the living there. That means the spiritual people, the born again people, we're the living and the people who are dead in trespasses and sins, they're the dead. Who's going to judge all people? Jesus is going to judge. Interesting. We got to do something with Jesus here.
[00:27:34] All of the participants in Jesus trial, let me go back up. So Pilate now explains to Pilate what's really occurring and who's ultimately responsible. Gerald Bouchard says it this way, but what of the deliverer who judged, who is judged by Jesus to be guilty of an even greater sin? Who is this person? And some of us would probably think, well, it's got to be what Judas. But no, that's not even who it is. You know, the deliverance technically was done from Annas to Caiaphas unto Pilate. But it was Caiaphas, the high priest that year who issued the judgment following the popular raising up of Lazarus that Jesus had to die and who had plotted to have him killed. So now he's saying Caiaphas, the high priest, is ultimately the one that has committed the greater sin. This is interesting. Now, you may not agree with Bouchard, but I tend to agree with him. He goes on to say, given this Jewish conspiracy, a number of commentators have argued that the deliverer must have been the Jewish hierarchy. Now, I bring all of that out because I think it's important.
[00:28:42] All of the participants in Jesus trial are driven by fear. All of them, including the high priest. All of them are afraid. They're afraid of lack of support. They're afraid of the Romans, they're afraid of this, they're afraid of that. And it all ends up with terrible decisions, evil decisions that are going to bring judgment upon themselves and their nation because they're the leaders. And if the people are going to follow that decision, they're going to suffer with them. Right? Fear blinds us to truth. Do you realize that fear can blind people to the truth and cause people to act in foolish and sinful ways? That's what happened to these leaders because as Paul explained what? They did not understand the wisdom of God. Listen to what Paul says. This is why they killed Jesus. First Corinthians 2, 8 says, none of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would have not crucified the Lord of Glory. Isn't that amazing? Paul said, if these guys really understood what God was doing, they would have never killed Jesus. Well, first of all, you know, God was in their midst. This is so interesting to me. God was among them. Jesus said, if you see me, you've seen the Father. And the people that said that they served God couldn't see God in Jesus.
[00:29:57] That's how blind they were. And in reality was, there was so much sinning going on in the religious hierarchy that they were blinded and hardened to the reality of God in their midst.
[00:30:09] That's a challenging thing for us as believers that we don't get that way. We can get so hard in our hearts because of our personal sin that we're missing what God wants to say and do in our lives. That's a challenge to us. Let me move on to the third element. It's when we feel threatened, and when people feel threatened, they're going to do some crazy stuff. You know, when our personal interests collide and it can create potential conflict and you know, what's in the best interest of other people many times fly by the wayside. We often are ignoring it. And often the outcome is that we do what we think is best for ourselves at the expense of others.
[00:30:46] That happens all the time.
[00:30:48] We may not do what is the right thing on behalf of others when we think the personal cost to ourselves is too high.
[00:30:55] So I'm going to say something to all of us here. We have to come to a place in our Christian walk that we have to make some major choices in our lives ahead of time.
[00:31:07] And I'll tell you why these are important choices ahead of time. Because if we wait until the crisis, we'll make the wrong choice. You got to sit down and sit down to yourself and say, hey, okay, who am I living for?
[00:31:20] Self or God?
[00:31:23] You can't serve yourself and serve God at the same time. There's going to be a conflict somewhere down the road. You have to make a choice. And I'm arguing that if you serve God, in essence, you're actually serving your better self. In the long run, you'll be actually serving yourself the best way possible. But, you know, so often we see it as my way or God's way. I'm just saying, choose God's way. It's always the best way. Always the best way. Yeah, but sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes it's not what I want to do. I don't care. Do it. Do what God wants you to do. I don't care how you feel about it. Yeah, but it's narrow. The path is narrow, Pastor. Not everybody's doing it. It's difficult. I have to die to myself. I'm going. Yeah, that's right. That's the path. You're on it. Good. Keep doing it. Because in the end, you're going to be so happy. Because, you know, the broad road leads to what?
[00:32:10] Destruction. And I see a lot of people on the broad road. And I see a lot of people destroying their lives. They destroy their families at the end of their life. They're a mess because they chose their path. But I noticed the people that choose God's narrow way, the difficult way, the road less traveled, the one that says I'm going to die to myself and obey God no matter what the cost is, they're the ones that come to the end. They're celebratory. They're full of joy. Yeah, maybe they've suffered along the way, but they've got Joy in their life. That's the powerful thing about it.
[00:32:41] Such is the complexities of the human heart when we may know what the right thing to do is, but we don't do it.
[00:32:48] Other pressures come into our lives that cause us to move from an objective decision making approach to a very subjective one. You know, we can even fly in the face of total objectivity. I've had people actually lie to my face and they're believing what they're telling me. Because you see, there's only two languages in this world. You say, well, there's all kinds of language paths. No, there's basically two. We're either under the Father of Truth or the Father of lies. We're either speaking truth or we're speaking lies. We have a choice. We got to choose. And I want to be under the Father of Truth. And I want truth to radiate into my life. I want to expose my soul to the truth. Even though sometimes there's duplicity and lies in my own soul, I need to see it for what it is. And I need something outside of myself to make an evaluation. And what is that? God's word. That's why I keep encouraging you get into God's word so that word can get inside of you and begin to evaluate you and begin to call you up short. And then you and I can have short accounts with God. How important is that? It's critical. It now becomes based on subjective emotional fears and thoughts of potential loss. And that's where a lot of decisions are being made today. It's being driven by that. So let's take a look. Pilate's now threatened in verse 12. From then on, Pilate, after Jesus tells them all this. Pilate now is doing everything he can to set Jesus free. Why don't you just set him free, Pilate? No, because he's still caught up. He's afraid.
[00:34:14] He has got these people. He is trying to placate these people. And he is afraid if he doesn't do what they want, he is going to have a riot on his hands. Or even worse yet, they are going to say something to him. The Jewish leaders kept shouting, if you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone claims to be a king opposes Caesar.
[00:34:36] When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus up and sat down at the judge's seat at the place known as the stone pavement, which in Aramaica is called Gabbatha.
[00:34:46] Now what's he doing? He's going to sentence Jesus.
[00:34:50] You see? Now they've threatened him and now he feels like he has to act. And we know from our text that Pilate not only thought that Jesus was innocent, but that he was trying to release Jesus, but only with the approval of the Jewish leadership. And now that had proven to be impossible. The Jews exposed the desperate weaknesses of Pilate's authority by shouting, if you let this man go, you're no friend of Caesar. And Pilate had ample reason to fear this implicit threat.
[00:35:22] As a matter of fact, DA Carson says the Jews basically were quick to expose his weakness. Tiberius Caesar was known to be quick to entertain suspicions against the subordinates that he had and swift to exact ruthless punishment. On an earlier occasion, the Jewish authorities had communicated their displeasure with Pilate to the emperor. Pilate had no reason to think they would refrain from doing so in this case. And what defense of himself could he possibly give to a somewhat paranoid ruler called Tiberius against the charge that he had failed to convict and execute a man arraigned on the, well substantiated charges, sedition? Well, they weren't well substantiated, but you know, the Sanhedrin would say they were. And brought up on charges put forward by the Sanhedrin, no less, the highest court in the land known to be less than enthusiastic about the emperor's rule. So, I mean, if they're saying this guy's trying to be the king and they're saying it, we better pay attention to this.
[00:36:23] The verse is saturated with irony. In order to execute Jesus, the authorities now make themselves to be more loyal subjects of Caesar than the hated Roman official. Pilate is. How many? See, there's a little irony in all of that. Well, there is. So here's Pilate's response. And it's an ironic one, too. He says in verse 14, it was the day of the preparation of the Passover. It was about noon. I don't want to get into all these dates. I got to say a lot about that, but I won't. Here is your king, Pilate said to the Jews.
[00:36:53] Pilate knows he cannot escape the political trap, as Carson points out, but he taunts his hated opponents once more without a trace of remorse for the shame and scorn that both he and his opponents are heaping on Jesus. In other words, he's just a non factor in their minds. He mockingly acclaims Jesus as if at a coronation. Here is your king. He's going to say that Pilate's no fool. He's perfectly aware that the ostensible which something appearing to be true. But isn't allegiance of the Jewish Authorities to Caesar is no more than political hypocrisy deployed to ensure that he will condemn Jesus to the cross. By this acclamation of Jesus, he substantially throws up with bitter irony the spurious charge of sedition in their face and mocks their vassal status by saying that this bloodied and helpless prisoner is the only king they're likely to have.
[00:37:53] But again, the evangelist sees deeper irony. Like Caiaphas before him when he said, this man has to die to save the nation, Pilate spoke better than he knew. The long awaited king of the Jews stood before them and they did not recognize him. Jesus is the King of the Jews, but he's more than that. He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He's the King of the universe. But they shouted, take him away. Take him away. Crucify him.
[00:38:22] And then what shall I do with your king? Shall I crucify your king? Pilate says, we have no king but Caesar. The chief priest answered, oh, my goodness, are these guys going over the top or what? You know? So in another ironic moment, Pilate flips the pressure, mocks the religious leaders and asking whether he should crucify their king. Their responses, echoed throughout history as a terrible indictment of the rejection of the Messiah. And Bouchard sharpens that irony by accusing them, accusing Jesus of blasphemy in which they themselves are guilty of. They're accusing Jesus of something he's innocent of. They themselves are committing the ultimate blasphemy. Just listen what he says. In this present text, the religious leaders who were charged with the responsibility of representing God actually commit the ultimate hypocrisy by responding to Pilate with the blasphemous words, we have no king but Caesar. Let me face it, Israel, they had a king. God was their king. Now they're saying, no, no, we're choosing Caesar, we're choosing this world's ruler to be my king rather than God. That's what they're saying. And in doing so, they verbally removed God from any role in the kingship of Israel. So what does Pilate do? He gives in to their demands. Finally, Pilate handed them over to them to be crucified. So we need to understand that though this was God's providential plan, God used human people, not against their will, but according to their will. How many think this is kind of a mystery how God can take what he wants to get done without violating our wills. And Peter brings this out in his sermon on the day of Pentecost. This man speaking of Jesus was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. And you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. In other words, you guys are responsible for what you did. Yes, God providentially planned it, but you guys were the instruments that did it willingly. Then he goes on, but God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
[00:40:37] So let me close what areas in our lives that we may feel the pressure of others in making wrong decisions. And how can we overcome that pressure? How can we move past the pressure people would place on our lives to compromise by dealing with our fears, our insecurities and our threats to our own personal sense of well being. And I think it comes down to this. We're going to close in prayer over this. It comes down to knowing Jesus, it comes down to trusting him to see us through it. Realizing that by making godly choices, the final outcome will always be better than compromising over short term gains.
[00:41:25] What am I saying? Pay the price. Do the right thing. Let God figure out the outcome. Just do what's right and pleasing in God's sight. When the nation of Israel asked for a king, I put God there. But it's a king. They were rejecting God the Father. Remember that back there in Samuel when they asked for Barabbas, they were rejecting God the Son.
[00:41:47] Today, when people are rejecting Jesus, they're rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit. We see in our text that both Pilate and the religious leaders fail to embrace the truth. And so I pray that we will not fail to embrace the truth and the challenges that are set before our lives. May we choose Jesus. So let's stand as we close in prayer.
[00:42:12] And I shared this with the guys that I prayed with today and maybe this is going to help us a little bit. How many realize that fear is very powerful? How many are willing to acknowledge fear is a very powerful thing? I got my hand up. Come on, guys. Don't you think fear is powerful? Of course it is.
[00:42:29] Can I just tell you, courage is not the absence of being afraid.
[00:42:34] Courage is doing the right thing despite the fact that you're afraid. That's what courage is. Courage is I'm going to do the right thing even though I am afraid.
[00:42:45] And how many recognize in the scripture, and this is really amazing to me, how many times does the Bible say, do not be afraid, do not fear. Do you know they've counted them 366 times. That's a lot, isn't it? What does that tell you? As human beings? We're fearful. That's what it tells me. And then I read scripture like this. Be strong and very courageous.
[00:43:12] Well, you say, well, that's not normally who I am. I don't feel strong and I don't feel courageous. I'm going to join the club. It's not about feelings.
[00:43:21] It's about doing the right thing.
[00:43:23] So I want to pray today for all of us, including me, your pastor. I don't feel like I'm above anybody here. I feel like I'm part of the same challenge. You know, if you would think of this life as a huge spiritual battle going on right now all around the world. I know some people think there's a lot of conspiracies out there. I'm going to tell you there's one big conspiracy.
[00:43:46] It's spiritual. We have an adversary called Satan, and he's doing everything in his power to hinder the work of God, the advancement of God's kingdom on earth. How many say that's true and he's doing it, and it's in the spiritual realm and we don't always see it. And a lot of people think that they're choosing their own way when in reality, they're driven by their insecurities and fears. Let's be honest about that.
[00:44:13] What I'm saying right now is Satan is against a group of people called the Followers of the Lamb, the followers of Jesus. And if you and I are a follower of Jesus, we have an opponent because we're on the other side. We're following Christ, and that's the only people he's really focusing in on right now, because the rest are already captured. Okay.
[00:44:34] You and I are the only free people on the planet. We're the living.
[00:44:40] I'm giving you an image. It's a huge battle going on, and Jesus knows that. Many of his children are so fearful that when the attacks come, they just run.
[00:44:52] But I want us to be a unit before Almighty God, this community of faith. I want us to be a unit that when the attacks come, we don't run. We might be afraid, but we're not running.
[00:45:05] Having done all to stand in this evil day, Paul writes in Ephesians, stand.
[00:45:12] I'm challenging us, and I'm going to pray for us that we will be people of great courage because we're people of great faith and we're trusting in a great king, and our leader's not going to let us down. And yes, there's a price to pay, and yes, we may suffer something, but we're saying, lord, right now, I'm making a decision today.
[00:45:33] I'm willing to lay down my life, pay the price. I'm willing to stand, even though I'm afraid. And I believe that in the end, that's the best course to take. And I'm going to decide today, before I get to that moment of crisis, I'm going to ask you to come and fill me with your courage.
[00:45:51] How many said might be a good idea, Pastor, because that battle's coming and you're already in it. You don't realize you're already in it. And a lot of people are casualties in this battle. But I don't want us to. I don't want to. When I get to heaven, I'm going to go, lord, these are the people you called me to, and they're right here. They all made it. No casualties or very little casualties. We're just going to keep moving forward. How many are saying, pastor, I'm with you. I get it. I get what you're saying, man. I'm connecting with this. I realize this is not that simple, you know? Yeah, if I was in that place, it would have been no problem. I said, yeah, most of us would have wilted, just like Pilate.
[00:46:32] Let's be honest, under that kind of pressure, that kind of responsibility, it's tough.
[00:46:38] We pray today. So, Lord, I do pray today that you'll help each, every one of us in this room, that you help us overcome our fears and insecurities right now.
[00:46:48] I pray that you will help us, despite our emotions, Lord, to stand for what's right, to be courageous, Lord, in the battle to be bold, to stand together, to encourage each other, that we're standing side by side and we know that you are our leader and we're not running. Help us to be bold and courageous and strong in this hour of conflict. Help us not to be afraid of what's happening in our world. Lord, you are actually winning the battle. But the enemy wants us to focus on all the places where there is defeat, discouragement, and help us to get our eyes off that and begin to see where you're winning and where you're triumphing over this planet. Right now, there's more people coming to faith than ever before in the entire history of humanity. Right now, it's happening.
[00:47:39] Help us, Lord, to be strong and courageous. And so when we're in an environment where we might be in the minority, help us to realize not how many of us there are, but who's on our side and it's you. And you're greater than the forces of darkness. And not allow fear to rule and reign in our lives, Lord, but to help us to be a people that have a quiet confidence in you. And we're strong in you and we love you and we're courageous, Lord. And that when the moment comes and we need to take a stand, Lord, help us to stand. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave.
