It's wonderful to be here with all of you today, and we have a
wonderful crowd because you're here.
We have, as has been mentioned, several of our folks that were
sick and recovering and you're here.
And we give God the praise, the glory, and the honor for it all.
As always is the case, I do consider it an honor to speak
concerning the Word of God. And today I want to continue
where we left off last time when Jesus was before Pilate.
The title that's on the screen is the words that Pilate used in
Matthew 27 and 22 to the people when he said, what then shall I
do with Jesus? So the title of our lesson comes
from Matthew's account, but the narrative that we're going to
follow today is going to be found in John's account, just
like last time. But in Matthew 27 and 22, our
introductory text, Pilate said to them, what then shall I do
with Jesus, who is called Christ?
They all said to him, let him be crucified.
You know, after Jesus was tried in Pilots Hall, Pilate had a
choice to make even though he knew Jesus was innocent.
And now as we come down to the historical narrative, we come
face to face with the fact that Jesus Christ is going to die.
He's going to die for the sins of the world.
He's going to die to fulfill God's eternal plan from the very
beginning, as the Bible says, known unto God are all His works
from the very beginning, That it was God's purpose in the very
beginning that Jesus Christ would be God's lamb to redeem
mankind and bring mankind to God in heaven one day.
That was always God's plan. We have a part in that, and we
have to follow our part. But that was God's plan.
OK, so as we come to this narrative, what's happened
already? Well, the religious trial is
over. Jesus was taken to Anna's and
the Sanhedrin in the middle of the night.
As we noticed last time, that was illegal.
Why was it illegal? Because you couldn't deal with a
capital case, or you couldn't examine a capital case unless it
was under the light of day. So you didn't hurry and make a
hasty, hasty decision based on somebody's life.
So again the next morning, to make what they did illegal the
night before legal, they met with Caiaphas in the Sanhedrin
the next morning. What did they say Jesus was
guilty of? They said he's guilty of
blasphemy. But do you remember in the last
verse that we noticed in John chapter 18 and verse 38, Pilate
said, I find no fault in him at all.
Pilate tried to get out of his decision of what am I going to
do with Jesus? So he sends him to Herod.
You know what hair it does hair, it sends them back.
It's your problem, you deal with it.
But let's just make a spiritual application here, please.
Pilate tried everything he could to get out of his decision of
what must I do with Jesus? What am I going to do with him?
But God forced him to make that decision.
And you know, God does the same thing for everyone that lives.
Everybody has to make that decision.
God is not going to make that decision for you.
You got to make the determination.
What am I going to do with Jesus in my life?
Look at the examples of the apostles themself.
Look at Judas Iscariot, He had a decision to make.
You know what he did? He betrayed Jesus and he sold
them for 30 pieces of silver. What about the others?
What about the other disciples? The Bible says they all forsook
him and they all fled. I'm not getting into the
reasons. I'm saying they had a choice.
What must I do with Jesus? They all fled.
How about Peter? Peter, when they all fled?
The Bible says he followed Jesus from afar.
Isn't that a picture of what a lot of people do today in their
decision of what I'm going to What am I going to do about
Jesus? Oh, they follow him, but they
follow him from a distance out of convenience from afar.
You know what happened to Peter as a result of following Jesus
from afar? He ends up, what's the end
result, doing exactly what Jesus said.
He denies him three times, even cursing and swearing.
I know not the man. Everybody has to make that
decision. So let's begin.
In John chapter 18 and verse 39, Pilate says, but you have a
custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover.
Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the
Jews? So in an attempt to get rid of
Jesus, he had several failed proposals.
He asked also. He also had one already.
Remember last time in John 18 and 31, what was his failed
proposal? He knows Jesus is innocent.
And what does Pilate say? He said you take Him and you
judge Him yourself. That was illegal.
The right of the sword belonged only to Rome.
Remember Roman law, Roman law said the Jews could have their
law, they could regulate their law, and they could even have
punishments for those that break their laws.
But when it came down to executing somebody or the death
penalty, the right of the sword belonged only to Rome.
And I love this because in the entire time of the ministry of
Jesus, the three years of the ministry of Jesus, Roman law
stated that only Rome could execute somebody legally.
So therefore, it proved that God was ultimately in control.
He had to be lifted up according to the prophecy found in Numbers
21. He had to be hung on a tree as
the Bible prophecies. Jesus would be the Messiah.
It couldn't be a Jewish stoning. It had to be a lifting up.
It had to be a crucifixion. Pilot thought, you know what?
Here's a failed proposal. I don't want to do this.
I want to get out of my responsibility here.
I don't want to make the decision.
You do it. And what did they say?
You know, Pilot, it is not lawful for us to put a man to
death. Here's another one though.
He said I got it. Here's a failed proposal.
He said you have a custom. In other words, it's Passover
time after all. Just a few days before.
By the way, it was Hosanna of the highest.
Just a few days before, when Jesus came in to Jerusalem and
made his triumphal entry on the back of a colt of a donkey.
They said hosanna to the highest, hosanna to the king.
Hold on to that thought. Hold on to that phrase for just
a moment. Let's think about Pilot.
Let's get in Pilot's head for just a moment.
Maybe he's thinking, you know, just a week ago, just a few days
ago, they were saying, hosanna, maybe if I present this as an
alternative, you got a custom that had passed overtime.
I'm going to release somebody. Surely they'll pick Jesus and I
can get out of that decision. Surely the people will overwhelm
the situation and demand Jesus would be released.
So he says this. Do you therefore want me to
release to you the King of the Jews?
And in verse 40, here's the answer.
Then they all cried out again saying not this man, but
Barabbas. This morning, early in my Sunday
morning routine, when I have the lesson, I get up really early.
I I connect my computer to my TV in my office with a PowerPoint,
check all my slides and I go over my sermon in my head.
And you know what hit me? What hit me is this passage
right here. He says, do you want me to
release to you the king of the Jews?
And notice they all cried, not this man, but Barabbas.
And I couldn't help but thinking, didn't anybody cry for
Jesus? Couldn't have been Peter?
Peter just betrayed Jesus three times, the Bible says when he
did so. And the rooster crowed.
The Lord looked at Peter then. Then he pointed this out when I
preached that sermon a couple weeks ago.
He said it says he went out and he wept bitterly.
You ever wept? You ever weep bitterly?
You ever been in anguish so bad that you go out and weep
bitterly? Not just cry a few tears of her
grill. I mean weep bitterly.
He went out and he wept bitterly.
So Peter was nowhere to be insight to cry out for Jesus.
You know why he's out bawling somewhere.
What about the rest of them? They all forsook and they all
fled. There's no one there.
So I got to thinking, what about the women?
What about the precious women? I saw a movie years ago on the
crucifixion and when this scene was going on, Hollywood's
depiction of this scene, when they all cried out Barabbas to
be released, it showed those Marys screaming the name of
Jesus. Is that what happened?
I don't know. I know those courageous women
have the courage and the backbone to be there at the
sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection.
And God chose them to be first hand eyewitness testimony to the
resurrection. Maybe they screamed out, but you
know what the Bible says about all those Jews that were there.
They all cried. Not this man, but Barabbas.
Who was Barabbas? Barabbas was a robber according
to the passage, and in the Greek it means bandit or highwayman.
In other words, it's the kind of man that Jesus referred to when
he gave the parable of the Good Samaritan.
I won't go into the whole narrative.
I'll just point out a couple of things.
Jesus pointed this out about who's your neighbor, who's our
neighbor, and who's our responsibility to our neighbor.
So he tells this story. He said there's a man one time
and he leaves Jerusalem and he goes down to Jericho.
And that was about 15 miles or so, descended some 3000 feet.
It was rough and rocky terrain. It was rife with robbers and
highwaymen. And the Bible says Jesus said
the man fell among thieves. He fell among the kind of man
that's standing next to him. Barabbas, that kind of a man.
And they came and those men on the Jericho Rd. they beat him,
they robbed him, and they left him for dead.
This is the kind of man that Jesus is standing next to.
Look at the irony of that. He's standing next to exactly
that kind of a man. What happened then when I told
you we're going to get back to Hosanna, they said Hosanna the
king, Hosanna the highest. I wanted to confirm the
definition, so I looked it up again this morning.
If you look up the word hosanna in our dictionary or you Google
it because we live in a Google world, I like Google or it's
right there. I don't have to carry a
dictionary. You know, I really like the fact
too, that I used to have to go to Bible studies in the old days
and I bring my Bible out of Concords.
I don't even need that. I need my Bible and my phone.
So it's true that the phone can be a tool of the devil if we're
not careful. And all the other fancy things
we could do with a phone, we could do some bad things too,
but we can do some good things with it too.
And one of the things you can do is you can Google a passage that
you're not, you can't remember what it was and boom, there it
is. So we do live in a Google age.
So I looked up the word hosanna in our modern definition and it
says praise and adoration. So when we look at it, it looks
like they were praising Jesus and giving adoration to Jesus.
But the word you remember, hosanna, comes from the phrase
hoshaya na, which is the Greek form of a Hebrew word to God for
an appeal. It actually means in Hebrew,
Save now we pray, Lord, save us. They misunderstood.
The Jews thought Jesus was going to save them from Roman
oppression, was going to come in as the Messiah and establish an
earthly Kingdom. They missed the whole point when
they didn't get exactly what they were wanting or
understanding about the Messianic Kingdom.
Then about a week later, let's just crucify him.
But you know, get this for just a moment, if you will.
I think it's very typical. It's typical with people.
It's typical. Then it's typical.
Now you know what? When it's Hosanna day, it's
Hosanna. When it's crucified day, it's
crucify him. Let me tell you why that applies
today. Applies today too.
I know people 2 * a year, OK December, 1 day in December and
one day in April managed 3 chairs for Jesus and then the
rest of the year, whatever you want.
There's a lot of people just like that when it's three cheers
for Jesus day. Hey, 3 cheers for Jesus and then
do whatever you want the rest of your life.
It's typical. It was typical back then, too.
Hosanna day. Yeah.
Hosanna crucify. Day crucify.
So what happened? What happened to the people from
the time they were saying hosanna to the highest Hosanna,
the king? Let's go to Mark's account in
Mark 15 and 11. But the chief priest did this,
stirred up the people so that he should rather release Barabbas
to them and not Jesus. They had a chance to do what
they should have done and that was stand up for Jesus and they
failed miserably. They had a chance to pick the
greatest man that ever lived and they chose the worst scum you
could imagine. And you know something, I
thought about this the other day.
We think, well, wait a minute, we would never do anything like
that. We would always have a backbone
and we would have the strength not to do that.
Well, where was their backbone? They chose the worst and it's
typical. Let me just say this, you're
saying, no, I wouldn't have done that.
Well, let me just phrase it like this.
And I do this very respectfully, OK?
But anytime in our Life, OK, when we choose sin over our
Christianity, you just chose Barabbas.
When I choose a sinful path over the Lord, I just chose Barabbas.
If not, why not? So before we get too hard on the
ones that were there, think about art life too.
And many times in our life, we make the wrong choice for
whatever reason. And when we do, when we choose
anything but the Lord, when anything's more important in our
life than the Lord, you know what?
For that brief moment, in that way and in that act, we just
chose Barabbas. OK.
Pilate then had a second proposal that didn't work, so
something else. Then Pilate took Jesus and
scourged him. This was actually an effort to
compromise. And if you look at Luke's
account and Luke 23 and 16, it says that Pilate said before
this, he said I got it. I got what I'm going to do.
What I'm going to do is I'm therefore will chastise him and
then I will let him go. I will release him.
You know, that's the greatest example of a coward I can even
ever imagine. If you know he's innocent, why
are you going to beat him? Why are you going to beat the
Lord? Why are you going to beat Jesus
if you know he's innocent? That's the act of a coward.
To appease the people. I'll pacify them.
And then I'll bring his mutilated body out before the
crowd and they'll look at his mutilated body and they'll say
that's enough. You know why he has a decision
to make. What am I going to do about
Jesus? And he doesn't want to make it.
Let me talk about the Roman scourging for just a moment,
please. A Roman scourge was a thick
stick wrapped with leather. At the end of it were leather
thongs of some length, and in the end of those thongs were
held bits of brass and lead and bone filed to sharp points.
The victim was either then stretched flat on the ground
with his back up or tied to a post hanging or strapped
suspended from the ground. The soldier would thrust the
scourge across his back of the victim, tearing the flesh from
his back. This is called, by the way, a
scourge or a Pflagram. That's different than a cat of
nine tails. You ever heard the phrase cat of
nine tails? That was more like a
superficial. It made superficial cuts to the
skin. This was different.
It had lead on the ends for weight, lead lead piece on the
end, lead balls on the end for weight.
The sheep bone would be Shard and there would be lead spikes
on that too. And they would take the scourge
and they would thrust it across the back of the victim and when
they would pull it back, it would literally take the skin
off of the back. They took the victim and they
suspended him on a pole like that, or they laid him flat on
the ground. Got to make a point here.
Get the number 39 out of your head.
Some people think he was scourge.
So therefore he was beaten 39 times.
And the reason for that is because of the Old Testament.
By the way, the Old Testament. Did you know in the Old
Testament there was no such thing as prison?
Didn't have prisons in the Old Testament?
That wasn't God's way. Do you know what God did when
somebody did something wrong? There was immediate retribution.
There was immediate action, immediate penalty, immediate
punishment, and then it was over.
In other words, they didn't get to go sit somewhere and think
about what they did. They actually paid for their
crime and it was over. And one of the things was
immediate, not capital, but corporal or physical punishment.
And they would have lashes that there would be lashed not with a
flagrant but with leather, and they would take a beating.
And the Bible says under Jewish law, it couldn't exceed 40.
So what they did is it would be 40 less 1.
So it would be 39. So they never would exceed 40 if
they miscounted. That is Jewish law.
Rome didn't have that law. I'm going to tell you something
right now. I believe with all my heart.
They beat Jesus almost to death. And the reason Jesus didn't die
is because God intervened, because Jesus had to go to the
cross, because that's what the Bible says he had to do.
God kept him alive. They beat the Lord almost to
death with a Roman scourge. The torture was so horrible.
No Roman citizen. We talk about this with
crucifixion, but did you also know that no Roman citizen could
ever be scourged? It was illegal and it was
forbidden. What else did they do to Jesus?
And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his
head, and they put on him a purple robe.
I've always pictured it like this.
I've always seen pictures of Jesus, or even statues of what's
supposed to be Jesus on the cross and the crown of thorns.
And we think a crown of thorns must have looked something like
that because that's what a crown is.
A crown goes around the head, right?
I read some historians who said it's entirely possible that the
crown of thorns didn't look like that.
And here was the explanation. By the way, I don't know this to
be true. It wasn't there, but I'm just
going to say what I found and I'll share it with you.
This one historian said it didn't look like that because if
it was like that and they pressed it down on the head of
the victim, they would have stabbed their own self in the
hands. And therefore they didn't have
it that way. The, the in other words, the
thorns had to be on the inside. So one historian said that it
was probably more like this, a helmet of thorns where all the
thorns are on the inside and they put it on his head and
pressed it down on the Lord's head, and then they put on a
purple robe. Verse 3 says this.
Then they said Hail king of the Jews, and they struck him with
their hands. You know, in the Greek
translation if the verbatim, this is how the Greek actually
would read. And they kept saying hail King
of the Jews, and they kept giving him blows with their
hands, punching him in the face with their fists.
That's not bad enough. What about the purple robe?
The Romans had a game they like to play with idiots and
imbeciles, and that's a direct quote, by the way.
Idiot meaning somebody of low intelligence and an imbecile
before the 20th century was a word that was used to describe
somebody that had some form of mental retardation.
I realized, look, I'm getting older and I don't know all the
rules of politically correct. I don't know if you're allowed
to say that anymore. I don't know.
I'm just telling you, that's what people called somebody that
had a mental disorder like that before the 20th century.
They were called an imbecile. What the Romans would do, they
would catch them. They would dress them up so no
one dressed them up like kings, and they would sit them on
places and they would mock them. They would bow down and make
fools out of them. It's a terrible game, but think
about it this way. That's what they did to the Lamb
of God. That's what they did to the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's what they did to the
Savior of the world, God's Lamb. And Pilate allows him to be
abused, beaten, mocked, spit on. And then in verse 4, Pilot then
went out again and he said to them, behold, I'm bringing him
out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.
This is ridiculous. What a coward, Pilot.
So all of a sudden the Lord's been beaten, He's been scourged,
and here comes Pilot. Oh, by the way, I'm bringing him
out to you. So you know that I find no fault
in him. If you found no fault in him,
then why did you beat him, Pilate?
Then Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns in a purple robe
and Pilate said, behold the man. I think Pilate was basically
saying this. Look at the man.
Does he really look like a king? Does he really look like
somebody that's a political revolutionary?
Does he really look like a dangerous man?
I could picture in my mind's eye the blood running down his neck,
pulled with his back and down to the ground.
I don't know how else to put it. A bloody mess.
I'm not trying to be graphic, but truly a bloody mess, A
despicable sight. And brought him before the
people and said, behold the man. I think in Pilot's mind, as a
failed proposal, he said, I'm going to appease the people.
I'm going to have him beaten. And they're going to say that's
enough. OK, good, we're good.
OK, thank you, Pilot. That's good.
I think that's what he thought.
But notice, therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw
him, they cried out saying crucify him.
Crucify him had no effect at all.
By the way, may I just suggest something?
When hatred is what drives you in your heart, I say you as in
general to people, OK? When bitter hatred is what
drives you in your heart, and you make the determination in
your mind what you want in advance, you don't want justice,
you want it your way. And when hatred is all you can
see, bitter hatred, you're going to be unfazed and unaffected by
circumstances that may alter your opinion.
Here's Jesus, a man that did nothing, came to die for the
sins of the world. He brings them out and he says,
Oh no, crucify him, crucify him, Pilate said to them, here we go,
you take him and crucify him. Here we go, Broke the law again,
still trying to get out of it. He says you do it, can't do it
illegal, trying to get out of the decision and then he says
this for I find no fault in him. Do you know this is the fifth
time you said that he does it 6 total times.
This is number 5. I find no fault in him.
Then they responded like this verse 7, the accused answered
him. We have a law and according to
our law he ought to die because he made himself to be the Son of
God. Remember this, the two things
they absolutely despised about Jesus when Jesus was on the face
of this earth, two things. One, how he handled the Sabbath,
couldn't stand it. Jesus said I can do whatever I
want on the Sabbath. I'm Lord of the Sabbath, I'm
granted on the Sabbath, and he marked the transition from the
Old Testament Sabbath significant day into the Old Law
to the New Testament significant day, the first day of the week.
Jesus, as my father would say, he had all the votes.
You can do whatever he wanted. They hated him for that.
You know what else they hated him for?
They hated him for saying I'm the Son of God.
They felt that was blasphemous. What Jesus was trying to explain
when he preached on the face of this earth is this is not
against God. What he's saying is I do
everything with God and if you want God, you got to go through
me. If you want God, you got to go
through me. Don't let anybody tell you that
Jesus is not the answer. Jesus is the answer.
There's no other way to heaven except Jesus except people say,
well, what about all I don't know about?
I don't know about any of that. All I know is this.
Jesus says no one comes into the Father except through me.
That's all I know. Jesus is the answer.
They rejected him. In summary, noticed in summary,
what were the accusations so far?
Well, the first thing they said is, well, he threatened to
destroy the temple. That wasn't true.
What he says is I'm going to destroy the temple and build it
up in three days. He was talking about himself
being raised on the third day. So that's not true.
Oh, they said he's a bad guy. He's an evil doer.
Remember when they came to Pilate and they said Pilate
says, what evil hath he done? And they said, oh, do you think
we would have brought him to you?
If you want an evil doer, Falsely.
They also accused him of perverting the nation.
That was also false. They falsely said he forbade
paying taxes or paying tribute or taxes to Caesar.
That's not true. Talked about that last time.
What else? They said, oh, wait a minute,
he's stirring up the people. None of these things have any
bearing or any merit to PILOT. What else?
They said he's a political revolutionary.
Again, not true. What else?
Finally he says. Then he makes himself to be the
Son of God. What does that mean?
That means he's a false God, Pilot.
And we don't like those kind of guys, Pilot, And you better do
something about it. Here's an interesting point in
Roman history. They were so superstitious, you
know, they actually believe. The Romans believed.
They believed in multiple gods. There was a God for this and a
God for that and a God for this and a God for that.
All kinds of gods. Small G, by the way, right?
And they believed that there were times when these small G
gods came down to Earth in human form and dwelt among people.
Remember Acts chapter 14? I think they called Paul
Jupiter, didn't they? And Barnabas, Mercury, they do
it again to Paul in Acts 28. You know why?
Because they believed. It was a custom.
They believed in the superstition that God's actually
come down to the earth and dwell among men.
Pilate is scared out of his mind, thinking, Wait a minute, I
may have just scourged the Son of God.
Notice the next passage. Therefore, when Pilate heard
that saying what saying that saying he was more afraid when
they said He makes himself to be the Son of God.
When he said that he was more afraid that phrase actually
means he was in a frenzied panic.
Let's add it all up. Either heard a lot of stuff
about Jesus. He's heard and seen the
character of Jesus. He's concerned about his own
moral judgment. How about the warning of his
wife who came to him and said have nothing to do with this
man. I had a dream about him.
All of this and Pilate still can't get rid of Jesus.
And now he's scared to death that he just might have beaten
the Son of God. As one said one time, he's
bordering a raving maniac. So this is what he says.
And he went again into the praetorium and he said to Jesus,
where are you from? He wasn't wondering what's your
address over there in Nazareth? That's not what he was asking.
He was asking him, are you from the place where God's come from?
Are you really from that place, or are you just from earth?
That's what he wants to know. He's panicked.
Where are you from? But notice, please.
But Jesus gave him no answer. Why was Jesus silent?
Have you ever wondered why Jesus was silent?
I know you're thinking you're you're thinking you know the
answer. The first one's going to leap
off the pigs. We get it.
But I got a second one to slip in.
OK, the first one is obvious and that's prophecy.
Isaiah 53 and seven, He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened out his mouth. He was led as a lamb of the
slaughter and as a sheep before it's shears is silent.
So he opened out his mouth. So first and foremost, Jesus was
silent because the Bible prophetically stated hundreds of
years before the prophet Isaiah said he would be silent.
But I think there's a secondary reason to in addition to that.
And that was because of pilot's heart.
You ever think of that pilot's heart?
You know, there's one thing that Jesus could do that I can't.
Sometimes we try and don't ever do this.
Please don't ever try to think you can judge somebody's heart.
You cannot. You can't read it.
You can't judge it. I know the Bible says by your
fruits you shall know them, but you can't ever really judge a
motive of somebody else. You can't judge their heart.
Nobody can't. Jesus can't.
God can't. Jesus knew Pilate's heart.
In other words, Jesus knew that Pilate was finally at the point
when there was nothing that Jesus could say that would have
mattered in the mind of Pilate. So we said nothing.
And I really think there's something sobering here.
I think there might come a time sometimes when an when an
individual and please hear my exact words when an individual
willfully rejects Jesus, OK, that the Lord become silent.
I didn't say it's impossible for them to change their life down
the road. I didn't say it's impossible for
them to repent, come back, come later on.
Didn't say that because I know a lot of people that have
willfully rejected Jesus for most of their life and have come
back to the Lord. I'm not saying it's impossible.
I'm saying this there does come a point in time and I'm going to
explain what I mean. There does come a point in time
when people willfully reject Jesus and his teachings where
Jesus becomes silent. What do I mean by silent?
Did the Lord go anywhere? No, he didn't go anywhere.
Acts, John 1837. Jesus already said this last
time. Everyone who is of the truth
hears my voice. The word here means to listen
intently and obey. That's what the word here means.
OK, There comes a time in life when sometimes people reject
Jesus and the teachings of Jesus and the Lord become silent.
What do I mean by that? I mean the Lord is no longer an
influence in their life because of their choice.
Give you a great example. Judas Iscariot with Jesus all
that time. Jesus behind those locked doors
instituting the Lord's Supper when they were eating the
Passover feast. Judas is to the left of Jesus.
John is to the right of Jesus. Reclining this way, Oriental
custom was the actual ultimate guest of honor was not the one
to the right, not John, it was the one to the left.
Jesus put Judas in the ultimate position of honor.
He served in first too. And then Jesus said, one of you
is going to betray me. They all began to say, Master,
is it I? And again, is it I?
Finally Judas said, is it I? And the King James says, thou
hast said, do you know what happened next?
Jesus whispers to Judas, Whatsoever thou doest, doest it
quickly. That's what the King James says.
Remember the next phrase? And then Satan entered Judas.
That didn't mean that he was all of a sudden demonically
possessed by the devil. It meant the devil was now the
ultimate influence in his life and not Jesus.
Let me give you an example. Remember, when your kids, you're
young. We're all young.
We have parents. Guess what?
We love our parents. Oh, yeah.
I really respect our parents. They're the loudest voice in our
head, in our ears. We respect them.
We follow them. And sometimes we get to an age
where our friends start speaking louder in our ears than our
parents, and they become, for a period of time, a greater
influence than our parents. What that means is when we're
listening to our peers and our friends, and that's the greater
influence in our life. When we're doing that, guess
what? Our parents are silent.
And that's what happens when people choose to follow worldly
things, the devil things, the pure things, simple things, and
not listen to the Lord. Lord didn't go anywhere.
His message is still as powerful and as strong as it ever was.
The difference is the heart of the recipient has now turned.
And I believe Jesus knew Pilate's heart was turned.
So he was silent. Then the response when he was
silent, then Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me?
Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you and the
power to release you? Notice the response Jesus
answered. You can have no power against me
unless it had been given you from above.
In other words, I love this. This is not you, Pilate.
You think you got control? You wouldn't have this power.
You wouldn't have the authority, You wouldn't have the control if
my Father in heaven did not give it to you.
Wow. Then he said this.
Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin.
Who's that? Who's the one that had the
greater sin? Not Judas, who had the greater
sin? Caiaphas and the religious
leaders were the ones that had the greater sin.
Why is that? Now Pilate's sin is pretty great
here in it. It's going to crucify the Son of
God. The ones that delivered Jesus to
Pilate had the greater sin. Why?
Caiaphas and the religious leaders had no legal authority
or right to do what they did to Jesus.
They had no right to lay hands on him.
They had no right to bind him. They had no right to have him be
led to Pilate to have me crucified.
Jesus said you wouldn't have this authority over me unless
God gave it to you. And therefore the one who
delivered me to you has the greater sin.
Wow. Now when you understand that
that somebody could have actually had a greater sin than
Pilot, then we understand the guilt of those that were
screaming for the blood of Jesus.
Let's take a step back. Please let me ask a question.
Answer this to yourself. Could anybody today be that
guilty? Is it possible for anyone to be
that guilty? Today, as the ones that scream
for the blood of Jesus Christ back then, the answer is yes.
When when somebody knows the truth of the word of God and
rejects it. According to Hebrew 6 is guilty
of crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an
open shame. Men today are just as guilty as
the people who scream for the blood of Jesus when they
willfully reject the Lord. Now I got to say a couple things
here. Tune in TuneIn tight.
Maybe in your life you've drifted.
Maybe you're drifting now. Maybe you've had struggles in
your life. Maybe you're struggling now.
Maybe you're sitting here and you're saying, not me, I've
never drifted. I've never struggled.
Well, if that's the case, then I have just to say to you,
congratulations. But for the rest of us that are
not perfect, let me just suggest this.
Sometimes people struggle, all of us.
And sometimes when we struggle, we drift.
Who are we drifting away from? Not the club.
Sometimes people talk, treat the church like it's a club.
You're drifting away from the club, you're drifting away from
the Lord. And sometimes people drift.
So let me just say, if you are going through a time of struggle
and you're drifting some right now, let me just implore you,
make sure you don't drift so far that you forgot where you came
from and you can't remember how to get back.
Perfect example. I preached a sermon, I don't
know, seven or eight years ago in Oklahoma at a young people's
meeting, and I used this illustration.
I'm going to use it again. A number of years ago, I held a
meeting in Texas. I was staying with a brother and
sister. I'd never been there before,
wasn't familiar with the area. 1 morning, I felt really good.
I was, you know, decided to go for a run.
I went out and started running. I ran 45 minutes to an hour in
the opposite direction, going up and down streets.
I felt so good. I was kind of like Forest Gump,
man. I was running and running.
You know what happened? After about an hour, I realized
something very startling. I am lost.
I ran away from my destination for one hour and I ran so far
and so long I couldn't remember how to get back.
I had to call a friend of mine who gave me the address so I can
get back. Spiritual perspective.
If you're struggling, if you're drifting, reach out.
Reach out to somebody that can help you find your way back.
I'm going to tell you something. We have a tremendous
responsibility as a lighthouse. You ever consider yourself
somebody saying, well, I'm not? Yeah, you are.
Well, I'm not. Yeah, you are.
Yeah, you're important. Yeah, you are.
There's somebody in your life that needs you as a lighthouse
to find their way when they're drifting out at sea.
You have that kind of an impact on somebody in this life.
And when they're drifting, they need to see the lighthouse.
There it is, way out there. Don't you see?
We are the light. Jesus says you're the light of
the world and the salt of the earth.
That's what you are. We're not the light.
Jesus is the light. We're luminaries broadcasting
the light of Jesus to the world. And you know what?
We can be that light. You know what we do sometimes
somebody struggles at cross them off.
Don't do that. Don't you dare do that.
Reach out, reach out, help them see their way back.
You know what it's called? GPS, God's provided solution.
What is it? It's the Word of God.
If you're struggling in your spiritual life, the Word of God
is the solution. If you're a Christian and you're
the light broadcast in the light of Christ, you can reach out and
have an influence and an impact on helping somebody find that
solution and get right with God. If they're not, then verse 12.
From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried
out saying if you will let this, if you let this man go, you are
not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king
speaks against Caesar. This is ridiculous because they
had they hated Caesar. Come on, he couldn't stand
Caesar. They hated the oppressive thumb
of Caesar. And they're saying we don't have
anybody but Caesar. And if you don't do this,
Pilate, you're not Caesar, friend, we're going to tell on
you. So Pilate had to choose between
his neck and his soul. Then in verse 13, what happened
then? Pilate therefore heard that
saying what? Saying what he just said.
We're going to tell on you, Pilate.
He brought Jesus out and sat him down in the judgement seat in a
place that is called pavement, but in Hebrew.
Gabafa verse 14. Now it was the preparation day
of the Passover in about the 6th hour.
And he said to the Jews, Behold your king.
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him.
Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king?
The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar.
Then in Matthew's account, Pilate said, What then shall I
do with Jesus? They said, let him be crucified.
What shall I do with Jesus? They said, let him be crucified.
Doctor John's account, John's 19 and 16.
Then he delivered him to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus and they let him away.
What next? Well, now it's on to Golgotha
and that's what we'll pick up probably next time.
On to Golgotha. Why is it called Golgotha?
The word Golgotha in Aramaic means skull.
It's also called in the scriptures, Calvary.
Why is it called Calvary? It it's called Calvary from a
Latin calva meaning bald head or skull.
Now I got to tell you, be careful when you read
commentaries because one commentator said it was called
the place of the skull in the Scriptures because many people
were crucified there. So there was a lot of dead guys
and a lot of skulls there from the all the crucifixions.
That's not why it's called the place of a skull because it's a
skull shaped hill in Jerusalem. That's what it is.
That's Mount Calvary, a skull shaped hill in Jerusalem.
Again, I don't live there. I wasn't there.
I don't know, but this is, I pulled this up.
I googled this too. They say look, maybe something
like that. I don't know the place in the
skull. It looks like a skull, like a
face. Entirely possible it was there.
Jesus was crucified, He was taken down from the cross and he
was buried in a rich man's tomb. And on the third day, so
thankful he rose again. And because of that
resurrection, we have the hope of a resurrection too.
These are lessons that are coming up.
Thank you for your kind listening.
I'm finished this morning. What did we learn though?
What did we learn? What did we learn from all this?
We learned this. Everybody, no matter who you
are, no matter where you're from, no matter what your
background is, has to make a decision about what you're going
to do with Jesus. Let me just suggest, when you
hear the teaching of Jesus Christ and you hear the teaching
of what you must do to be saved, obey it before the Lord is
silent. What does Jesus say about that?
In the parable of the sower, he said the seed that fell by the
wayside, what happens? The birds are going to come
before it can go down into the ground and pluck up those seeds
and carry it off. Luke's account says of that
narrative, it's the devil. Don't let the devil take it
away. And then the Lord is silent.
How do you become a Christian? It's very simple.
The first thing you got to do is hear the word of God.
Romans 10/17 So that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. After you hear the word of God,
you got a choice. You got to believe with all your
heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.
Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him. Then what?
You got to repent of your sins. All that means I got to make a
change in my life. Acts 17 and 30.
Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent. Then what you got to be willing
to say the greatest thing you will ever say, confess Jesus
Christ as the Son of God. Acts 837 Then Philip said, If
you believe in all your heart, you may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God, but then you must be baptized for the remission of
sins. That's the point of salvation.
Mark 1616 He who believes in his baptized will be saved, but he
who does not believe will be condemned.
Is it necessary, and does it actually save us?
First? Peter 321 This is the King James
here the light figure where to even baptism doth also now save
us, not the putting away the filth and the flesh, but the
answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. That those are the steps that a
person must take in order to be saved.
If you've never taken those steps of obedience, we can
assist you in that right after services today and you can
become a child of God. You can be saved today.
Maybe you have taken those steps.
Then what do you do? You got to repent of your sins,
confess it to God. Do that today.
We'll pray with you and for you, and God will forgive and
restore. If you want to be your class,
come forward while we stand.