What Would You Ask Jesus?
Tom Shrader walks through Jesus' encounter with Pontius Pilate, highlighting the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders who wanted Jesus executed but wouldn't enter Pilate's quarters to avoid ritual defilement. Despite Pilate declaring Jesus innocent three times, the crowd chose the terrorist Barabbas over Jesus. Shrader emphasizes that God was in complete control of these events, fulfilling prophecy through Christ's crucifixion, and challenges believers to trust in God's sovereignty during difficult times.
“Everything that comes into your life—I don't care what it is—everything that comes into your life either was caused by or allowed by God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: John: The Essence of Life (2003)
Recorded: 2003
Duration: 43 min
Themes: sovereignty, trust, hypocrisy, betrayal, suffering, prophecy, control, innocence, facing injustice, struggling with doubt, experiencing betrayal, questioning god's plan, dealing with hypocrisy, pastor, new believer, going through trials
Scripture: John 18:28-19:16, John 20:31, John 10:31, Acts 7, Acts 2:22-23, Romans 3:23, 2 Corinthians 5
Theological Themes: crucifixion, divine sovereignty, prophecy fulfillment, biblical authority, christology, passion narrative, substitutionary atonement, providence
Full Transcript
Today marks session nine of our twelve-session study in the Gospel of John. We'll work our way through this and then have a little space for summer before we take our summer break. I'll talk to you more about that as it gets closer.
Session nine of our study covers the entire Gospel of John—all twenty-one chapters—in twelve weeks, so we know there are huge chunks of this Gospel that we're skipping. What we're trying to do here is really whet your appetite and create in you a desire to learn more, to study more. This is a great place with just great sections throughout.
As I was preparing this study, I'm also getting ready for summer camp where we'll take 450 to 500 kids to San Diego for four or five days. Out of this preparation came a whole different idea that I might just come back and explore: questions that the disciples asked Jesus. My thought being that they're like you, and if they spent that much time with Him and had these series of questions, maybe you and I would have similar questions.
Questions Throughout the Gospels
This opened up for me a whole different way of thinking about a potential series. As I was reading through the four Gospels, looking at the questions, there's a whole series of questions that the disciples asked Jesus. There's a whole series of questions that the Jews asked Jesus. There's a whole series of questions that the multitudes asked Jesus. Then there's a whole series of questions that Jesus asks each of them. It would be a great series, I think, to work through. Maybe someday in the future we'll be taking a look at that.
Let me remind you what John writes: "Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, not written in this book, but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." If there's anything that's become clear to me, it's that we are approaching really the same point—that Jesus is the Son of God, and if you believe in Him you have eternal life—and we're coming at that same point twelve different ways.
Again, we're looking at this Gospel of John as a prism where we just tweak it a little bit each time we look at it and hopefully see nuances of the same point. So that's what we're examining.
Meeting Pontius Pilate
Today, I invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 18 and verse 28. We're going to look at an encounter that Jesus has, a dialogue, with a man whom you know even if you have never read a Bible, even if you're not a religious person, never even been around church. You know this guy, and his name is Pontius Pilate. His name has become really infamous through history.
I was trying to think—it's up there with some of the greats. I keep coming back to it, though, and I don't think any of them really surpass Judas. I imagine that there are kids named Saddam and kids named Adolf. I don't know anybody who named their kid Judas, ever. That name probably is singular in really its infamy, but Pontius Pilate is who we look at today.
Follow through the story. John chapter 18 verse 28: "They led Jesus, therefore, from Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves did not enter the Praetorium, for in order that they may not be defiled, but might eat the Passover meal."
Hypocrisy and Irony
There is a single word that I keep using in this discussion, and it's hypocrisy. There are actually two ways, some subtleties of that. The hypocrisy of the Jews just comes screaming out of this section of scripture. The other thing that you see is the irony that drips from all of this. And then you really do, I think when you get into the story, see what a pathetic creature Pilate really is. Hopefully all of that will come clear.
You see hypocrisy here in verse 28. It was early in the morning. That language, based on their culture, would lead us to believe it was about six o'clock in the morning. They take Jesus—He has been before Caiaphas. He's already been tried by and presented to the Jews for incrimination and for judgment, for sentencing really.
When I say hypocrisy, you see two things. They don't want to go into Pilate's headquarters. The Praetorium is where Pilate would reside when he was there in town in Jerusalem, and he would typically be there for any holiday.
The Political Context
Let me remind you—and I think many of you understand this—Rome is an occupying force in Israel at this time. Pilate is in an awkward position in the sense that he has been charged to keep peace in the region. He has to get along with these Jewish leaders, and they have to get along with him. Pilate would typically hang out at Caesarea, a much better environment, a much more comfortable setting. But it's holiday time, festival time, so he is in Jerusalem.
The Jews hate him. They would not go into his house, his quarters, because going into the house of a Gentile would defile them, and it would not allow them to participate in the Passover feast. You see that there in verse 28—they would not be able to eat. It would defile them.
The Fundamental Violation
I say hypocrisy because they're trying to keep this letter of the law. What they've just done is have an all-night session where Jesus has been tried. That's a fundamental violation of the rights and of the order that was dictated by Jewish law. They could not have a trial at night. The whole goal was to prevent any sort of kangaroo court, to make sure witnesses could be called, everyone had adequate access to protection, counsel. There's a fundamental violation that takes place right here in verse 28. You see, again, the hypocrisy of this.
Pilate went out to them. Again, they won't come into him, so Pilate goes out to them. He said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?"
The Religious Leaders' False Accusations
Your charges? And they said, look at verse 30, "If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you." They said, charges, charges, we don't need charges. He's guilty. We're not here looking for due process. We're not here trying to figure out what's right. We've already determined that this guy is guilty.
Now very important, side note but important, never, anywhere, here, anywhere else, never is there produced the slightest bit of evidence that would indicate that Jesus ever sinned. Jesus was born without sin, He remains sinless, and He becomes the perfect Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God.
The Perfect Sacrifice
Let's make sure we understand this. You and I have sinned. We fall short of the glory of God. All of us, Romans 3:23, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. And the wage of our sin is death. And religion, we talked about it last week, religion is man's effort to somehow, out of his sinfulness, reach out to a holy God.
But God's perfect justice demands a perfect sacrifice. And you and I are incapable of making perfect sacrifice. We got that, don't we? Everybody on the same page here, we see that? We're incapable of making perfect sacrifice. To have a perfect sacrifice, there had to be a perfect, sinless Lamb. And that was Jesus Christ.
The Critical Importance of the Virgin Birth
That's why when we look at doctrine, things like the virgin birth are so critical. I go back, and I know I've told you the story probably many times, but when we moved a couple months ago, I found a whole bunch of books that I had actually purchased before I'd become a Christian, and I was struck by the spiritual tone of them. And there seemed to be always some sort of curiosity there.
When I was in college, they brought in a Catholic priest. He was a Dutch theologian, and we would have opportunities to sit and talk with him. I remember one night, we're in a little room, probably about the size, I would guess, of this sitting area up here. And this guy, they're just smoking like mad. Everybody in there was smoking these obnoxious cigarettes. I cannot stand cigarette smoke. So I had a cigar, which cleared my end of the room.
But I remember asking him about the virgin birth. And he said, "My son, you've missed the whole point. You're focused on the virgin birth. Forget that. Forget that. Look at the product of that birth. Look at Jesus. Forget the virgin birth. Look at the product." And I walked out thinking, that is so profound. That is so extraordinary.
Here's what I understand now. That is so wrong. The virgin birth is essential. If Jesus had a human father, just like you or me, and I mean this, I might as well go and die on the cross for you. You might as well go and die for me. Because the sacrifice isn't perfect. See that? The perfect Lamb.
The Hypocrisy of the Religious Leaders
They said, look it, there's wrongdoing, otherwise we wouldn't have brought Him in here. So Pilate said, "Well take Him yourself and judge Him according to your law." And the Jews said, "We are not permitted to put anybody to death."
Now there's irony and hypocrisy there. Their law allowed them to put people to death. In fact, they've already tried to kill Jesus, haven't they? Three times we've already seen it. Back in chapter 10 and verse 31, Jesus has been talking to them, and He said, "Those who are mine, hear my voice, and I know them, and they know me, and the Father and I are one." John 10:31 says, "The Jews took up stones again to stone Him." It's the third time. It's a form of capital punishment.
Let's make sure you understand that. Stoning is not just taking these little rocks and just kind of launching them at them. If you want to get a sense of what stoning was like, go back to Acts chapter 7 and look at what happens to Stephen. And you'll hear the story how the men who were going to stone him took their cloaks off, remember that? Their coats? And they set them at the feet of Saul of Tarsus. And that loosened them up. So they had a full range of motion.
And they would take him, and it was done in a variety of ways, but often they would take him and push him off a little ledge, and they'd be like 6, 8, 10 feet below them. The victim would be there. And they would stand on top of them with rocks about this size and larger. And they would take those, and they would just pummel the man or the victim with these stones, hopefully quickly knocking them unconscious, and then they would continue until they killed him. It was capital punishment.
The Predetermined Plan
Then Pilate says, "Listen, if you want to deal with this guy, take Him. Judge Him by your own laws." Again, here's the hypocrisy. He said, "We're not able to put anybody to death." So here's the problem, Pilate. We've already decided He's guilty, and we've already decided He needs to be killed, so we need you to do it for us.
Verse 32, "That the word of Jesus might be fulfilled which He had spoken signifying by which kind of death He would die." Jesus is talking about being lifted up, that He would be crucified.
The Fulfillment of Prophecy
There are 64, at least, specific prophecies from the Old Testament that are fulfilled by the birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ. Mathematically, it makes it virtually impossible that He is not the Messiah. And there are hundreds of secondary prophecies that are fulfilled in the person of Christ.
You go back in the Old Testament, and they talk about the Messiah. They talk about the Savior dying on this tree, on this wooden tree. It was before crucifixion had ever been invented that they talked about this happening.
So here's what happened. Jesus is going to die. The Jews say, "You kill Him, because if we do it, we're going to stone Him." And John adds, editorially, that's because the prophecies of Jesus will be fulfilled.
God's Sovereign Control
There's something that I want you to understand. God is in control of this very occurrence. God is in absolute control of all of this. Acts chapter 2 and verse 22, Peter is delivering this powerful sermon. He says, "Men of Israel, listen to these words,"
Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourself know. This man, listen now, Acts 2:23, this man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. God's in absolute control.
I met one day with one of the higher-ups in one of the denominations here in town, and we were talking about what do you have to do to go to heaven, what do you have to do to be saved, all these different questions, and we weren't getting very far in my mind. And I asked this guy, do you believe Jesus died? And he said, absolutely. I said, do you believe Jesus died on the cross? He said, absolutely. I said, why?
Here's what he said: because He was a political prisoner. And that's how they executed political prisoners. And I said, well, I guess there's some degree of truth to that. But I said, was there anything that was accomplished in that? He said, oh, it was a great picture of love. I said, did anything else happen? No. He said, actually, I think there was probably something more Jesus had in mind, but this usurped His plan.
God's Sovereign Plan Cannot Be Thwarted
That's what I was trying to get at. Jesus usurped His plan. I hear that all the time. Jesus came into this world to be a Messiah, and that's, in a sense, what the disciples were sensing. Jesus came in to be a Messiah, and they're thinking political or economic or military Messiah. No. He came to die on the cross. That's the whole point.
God's in absolute control. There is no—you've got to get this—there is no maverick molecule loose in the universe that somehow could usurp God's plan. Now is that important? I'd say it's pretty important. It's especially important in your life.
Everything that comes into your life—I don't care what it is—everything that comes into your life either was caused by or allowed by God. See, there's great comfort. Susan, it's interesting, her mom died two weeks ago yesterday. We were just getting ready to go out the other night, and you could just tell she wanted to talk, and it was about that.
She was talking about how great God's timing was, and the hard part was watching her mom for those few hours that she was there, watching her in all of that pain. And she said, what just occurred to me, really, was that God was gracious even there, not so much for me, but for my mom, because I had a chance to be there with her, to provide her some human, flesh-on-flesh comfort in the midst of that pain. See, there's the approach to life. God's in control. Whatever comes into your life, God either caused it or allowed it.
I don't know how deeply you need to understand the why questions and answers, but as you begin to see them, you begin to see and try to see things from God's perspective. Don't read this story and think that somehow God had a plan, and that plan went awry, and now Jesus is a prisoner and executed. Absolutely not true. God's plan is being carried out to the letter, to the jot, to the tittle, every truth, every action being executed.
The King and His Kingdom
Verse 33, Pilate, therefore, entering into the praetorium, summoned Jesus and said, Are you king of the Jews? Jesus answered and said, Are you saying this of your own initiative, or do others tell you about me? There is sarcasm, I would think, in Pilate's voice. He certainly hears that this guy, this king of the Jews, is on the scene, and now the Jews come to him, and Pilate, perhaps confused, is saying, Listen, are you the king of this thing? And Jesus is saying, How did you figure that out? Somebody else tell you?
And Pilate said this, verse 35, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation, the chief priests delivered you up to me. What have you done? Why are you here? Are you a king? Verse 36, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up to the Jews, but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.
And Pilate said, So you are a king? And Jesus said, You say so correctly that I'm a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth, and everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. He says, Are you a king? And Jesus says, Let's keep that language there. Is there a kingdom over which I'll reign? Absolutely. It's not the kingdom of this world. My kingdom is not born out of human thought, human philosophy, it's not born out of sin. There's a king and I will reign. And we know that one day He will reign here.
And he said, So you say you are a king? He said, Absolutely. I am a king and I've been born into this world. Get this now, this becomes very important here for the next point, and it is a gigantic one. We're in verse 37. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.
The Question of Truth
All of a sudden, the stakes are elevated. Jesus is not just talking now in some broad terms. He's now narrowing it down. He's saying, Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate says, verse 38, What is truth?
This is one of those moments where we wish we had a tape of this. Because is he saying, What is truth? In some sort of a sarcastic way, or the idea of, What is truth? Like you know the truth. Or is he saying, What is truth? A couple of things are clear. Jesus said, Everybody who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate says, What is truth? So at least at this point, Pilate isn't hearing the truth. Pilate isn't one of His.
I want to stay on that idea though. What is truth? That word truth could also be translated to reality. Interesting world that you and I live in. Let me give you some of these Barna statistics.
The Confusion About Biblical Truth
82% of the people polled—now Barna, I don't know if you know that name, George Barna is kind of the Christian George Gallup, Lou Harris—82% of the people questioned said, God helps those who help themselves. And 56% of them said, You find that in the Bible. Let me just stop there, just in case you're one of those 56%. The biblical teaching is exactly the opposite. That if you
The Problem with Modern Self-Reliance
If you want to help yourself as it relates to salvation, if you want to help yourself, God's going to say, go right on ahead. You're never going to get there. Blessed are those who are spiritually bankrupt. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Unless you start with the idea that you can't help yourself, then salvation is never available to you.
82% of the people said, "Every person can determine their own destiny." I love that. You'll hear every once in a while, and just so we give equal time here, every once in a while, you'll hear Rush Limbaugh say, "Listen, these are people, they just want to do it. If you want to do it, you can achieve it." That's silly.
Now, it does say go and work. I use the NBA all the time. I don't believe I came into this world—as a little boy, I used to play basketball all the time, shoot baskets all the time, fantasize about being in the NBA. I had no chance. And you can say, and somebody said to me last week, I used this illustration, said, "You didn't practice hard enough. Look at Muggsy Bogues. He's your size." Here's the difference, maybe. My vertical leap is 1.1 inch. He can dunk. There's a big difference here.
You can't determine your own destiny. You're filling the gas tank a couple of months ago out on the East Coast, and a sniper blows by and pops you. You're picking your parents up, getting off an airplane, coming in from Toronto, and you've got SARS. I think you can work hard, and you should, but to think if you can dream it, you can achieve it? What an awful lie to tell somebody.
The Myth of Human Goodness
65% of these polls said the main purpose in life is to be happy. 83% said people are basically good. Again, it's anti-biblical. The Bible teaches that men and women, everyone born, are radically evil.
Even the founding fathers understood that. They understood how evil we were. That's why you have an executive branch, and a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. Barry Asmus makes a great point of this. It had nothing to do with His lesson, but Barry Asmus makes a great point. The reason that free market capitalism is so beautiful is because it's the only economic system in the world that assumes the depravity of man. It assumes every person will get what's best from them. It doesn't try to create this utopia denying that.
The Denial of Absolute Truth
Well, I say all that to get to this. 63% of those questioned said there's no such thing as absolute truth. So if there's no such thing as absolute truth, then there's no such thing as absolute answers. I just laughed because I saw myself in a scene with Alex Trebek in Jeopardy, where Alex gets to make up His own answers. "What's the capital of Iowa?" "Des Moines." "Wrong. DeWitt." I mean, all of a sudden, there's no answers. "2 plus 2?" "5." "No." "7."
Remember what I said? You could translate this word truth, or in some places, reality. Tuesday night, I'm walking through the mall. There's a girl in front of me. She's walking ahead of me. She's got on a t-shirt, a black t-shirt, gold script letters. It was God divinely placing her right there in front of me for this moment. Think about this lesson. Think about Pilate's question. "What is truth?" Right in front of me, she's walking, in the back of her t-shirt, said, "What is your reality?" Perfect. What is your truth? That's what they're saying.
63% of the people said there's no absolute truth. So two people can be looking at the same thing, have exactly opposite conclusions, and both could be right. That's the world you live in. And we laugh. We understand that. 2 plus 2 is 4. We understand in that world. But when all of a sudden we come into the spiritual world, all of a sudden, we want to say everybody's ideas are equally true. We deny certain laws. There is a God. God created us. God manifests Himself through Jesus Christ. God provided us this word. And there is the truth.
The Search for Truth
Pilate says, "What is truth?" And I just go through this because you could be here today in your own way saying, "What is truth?" Maybe that you're searching. It may be that you're just sarcastically saying it doesn't matter.
Here's what's become very popular, is to allow you to define your own truth. So that you can have 10 people in a room with 10 different views about the Bible, about Jesus, about salvation. And we live in a world where everybody wants to say they're all right. All different paths leading to the same God. No, they aren't.
You can't say Jesus is my Lord and my Savior, and have a person over here say, Jesus is just a good teacher, and this person says a prophet, and have them all be right. They can't all be right. When the Mahatma said, "I follow the teaching of Jesus, but I refuse to believe that Jesus or any other man could die for me," the Mahatma, based on that testimony, must be in hell if the Bible's true. And if he never changed that. Right? You see that? That's what's at stake here.
This is huge. When Pilate says, "What is truth," that is a magnificent opportunity for us to go to the marketplace and talk about truth. What is truth?
Pilate's Verdict and the Barabbas Choice
And when He said this now, verse 39, He went out again to the Jews and said to them, "I found no guilt in Him." Here you go. There's been a trial. The witness has been heard. The presiding officer says, innocent.
Verse 39, Pilate says, "But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you wish then that I release for you the king of the Jews?" And therefore, they cried out again, saying, "Not this man, but Barabbas." And Barabbas was a robber.
Let me tell you a little bit about Barabbas. More important than a robber, he was a terrorist. He is the Osama bin Laden of that day. Get your arms around this now. They had this tradition that on the Passover, a prisoner would be released. We get much more of this as we read the other Gospels. Pilate is out there. Pilate is now constantly looking for a way out of the dilemma. Do you see that? Pilate sees Jesus as innocent. He understands the huge forces...
of these Jewish leaders that want Him executed. Remember, Pilate has to keep these guys happy. They have to coexist. If there's an uprising here, Pilate is gone. So he comes out and says, "I'm going to give them an offer they can't possibly refuse. Who do you want? I'm going to release one of these two guys."
There's the crowd. You've seen depictions of it in movies, perhaps. There's a crowd and they're out there. "Who do you want me to release? Jesus or Barabbas? Jesus or Osama?" And they scream, "Barabbas, Barabbas." And he says, "What do you want me to do with Jesus?" And they say, "Crucify Him. Crucify Him."
I read a really neat article one day where this was written from Barabbas' perspective, who was probably being held in a cell. He hears this angry mob. All he can hear are these words: "Barabbas, Barabbas. Crucify Him. Crucify Him." He's thinking, "Wow, this is going to be a bad day for me," because he's putting those together and seeing what's going on. Exactly the opposite is true. He's released.
Pilate's Desperate Attempts to Avoid Truth
Pilate wants a way out badly. He's doing anything he can to avoid an honest evaluation of who Jesus is. So chapter 19, verse 1: "Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed Him in purple robes. And they began to come up to Him and say, 'Hail King of the Jews,' and giving Him blows in the face."
Let me take some of you who have been around East Valley—we talked about this around Good Friday. But let me describe again for you what a scourging was. They would bring in the prisoner. They would strip them naked. They would tie them to a post so they'd be in a position like this, legs spread and tied to this post. They would be naked at this point.
There would be those who were going to administer this scourging, this whipping. It was so physically exhausting that they would use two or three men and they would take turns whipping. They would use a stick 12 to 18 inches long, a pole, a wooden piece. On it would be straps of leather. And on that leather, attached to the leather, would be bone and metal.
The Brutality of the Scourging
It was designed so that the executioner could come and actually get a running start. He would take this whip and the steel, the metal, would grab onto the skin. Once that had taken place, then there'd be a rapid jerk down. That's what they'd do.
It was not at all uncommon for a prisoner to die from the scourging. What it would do is just lay open the person's back, cut right through the muscle, the vein, even into the bones, where you could literally see the innards of the victim. So that's done to Jesus.
Then they'd take a crown of thorns, probably date palm thorns. They'd be anywhere between 6 and 9 to 12 inches. They made a crown. They pushed it down on His head. And they'd wrap Him in a purple robe, purple being the sign of royalty. They'd mock Him as the King of the Jews.
I just want you to get that sense. So here He is. He is bloodied. He is beaten. They've hit Him in the face. And in all probability, His face would almost be indistinguishable. You couldn't even really begin to sense who He was.
Behold the Man
Pilate does this for a very important reason. He's thinking this might satisfy the Jews. So Pilate came out, 19:4, and he said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find"—here it is again—"no guilt in Him." Therefore, Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, "Behold this man."
Now think of that. Think of what a person... Try if you can, in your mind's eye, try to imagine that scene, that pathetic, beaten man. Thinking perhaps, at this point, there might be mercy that the Jews would show.
Verse 6: "When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, 'Crucify Him, crucify Him.'" And Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourself and crucify Him. I find no guilt in Him." I find no guilt in Him. This is now the third time that Pilate's declared Him not guilty. Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty.
The Charge: Claiming to Be the Son of God
"When Pilate, therefore, the Jews answered and said, 'We have a law, and by that law, He ought to die. Here's why: Because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.'"
For those of you who encounter people who are saying, "Jesus never claimed to be God," that's the whole point here in verse 7. That's why they killed Him. They killed Him because Jesus said He was God. That's the whole point of this thing. And they said, "He ought to die. We can't kill Him. He ought to die."
Now, they could—capital punishment—stone Him. But God's in absolute control here, and He has prophesied that there would be a crucifixion, not a stoning.
Pilate's Growing Fear
When Pilate, therefore, heard this statement, he was more afraid, and he entered the praetorium, and he said to Jesus, "Where do You come from?"
The Romans were extraordinarily superstitious. They had this vast array of these gods that they worshiped. And all of a sudden, he hears from the Jews—he hadn't heard this before—"He's the Son of God? Who is this guy? What's going on? Where are You from? Are You really one of the gods? How does this work?"
And Jesus didn't answer him. And Pilate said to Him, "You do not speak to me. Do You not know that I have the authority to release You, and I have the authority to crucify You?"
Jesus' Final Words to Pilate
And Jesus said, "You have no authority over Me unless it was given to you from above. For this reason, he who delivered Me up to you has greater sin."
And as a result, Pilate made efforts to release Him. But the Jews cried out, "If you release this man, you're no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar."
When Pilate, therefore, heard these words, he brought Jesus out and set Him down at the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement. Now was the day of preparation for Passover. It was the sixth day. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King." And therefore, they took Him away, and they crucified Him.
And they said, "We have no king but Caesar." See the hypocrisy there? You see that whole scene?
What to Know in Difficult Times
Jesus, in the moment, and I'm going to try to get some practical application. We've got about five minutes. Let me give you some practical application here. What do you do when you're beat up and you're discouraged? What do you do when there's difficulty in your life? What do you need to do?
I think, rather than do, there's some things you need to know. Here's Jesus at this moment. And what comes to His mind? What does He tell Pilate? God is sovereign. See, that's what you need to know.
Listen, I periodically talk about the counseling stuff and all that, and I'm very suspicious of it. I don't trust the human psychology and counseling. I don't trust it at all. I do have credit, not for Christian counseling. I don't trust Christian counseling either. Biblical counseling, okay. No Christian counseling. Be careful there.
That's somebody that you go to that throws a Bible verse, but then they just give you a whole bunch of human psychology with it. You don't want Christian counseling. You want biblical counseling. Very big difference.
The Heart of Biblical Counsel
Here's what most counseling is. It's taking the person who knows Jesus Christ—now, assuming this is a Christian—taking the person who knows Jesus Christ and reminding them God is in control. Isn't that it? That really is it. "Why so downcast, oh, my soul? Put your trust in God." That's about as good a counseling advice as you're going to get.
Here's Jesus at this moment. What does He remind Pilate? What does He remind us? That God is in control. "You don't have any authority."
The Danger of Success and Pride
I don't know who you are here today. I don't know what you're thinking. I don't know who you think you are. I don't know what you think you're all about. I don't know if you think you're hung the moon. And everybody around you is telling you that.
We tend to get fairly successful people, people who have some level of achievement in their life, tend to come to studies like this. And when you have that level of achievement, people begin to tell you how special you are. And they begin to think that you've got some magic dust. And it's pretty easy all of a sudden to become an expert.
It's like reading Jack Welch. It's very hard to do. A lot of arrogance there. Read Iacocca Beck and read the old Iacocca. I'll tell you, the guy, I read all of His stuff. I love to read Him. The Donald. The Donald is a tad bit short on humility. And I love to read His stuff. And I think a lot of it's pretty interesting. But the Donald really thinks He did this stuff on His own.
I use Muhammad Ali all the time. I really do think Muhammad's the greatest. Three things in my life that I saw that I'll never see again. Secretariat. You'll never see a horse like Secretariat. The Beatles and Muhammad. He was the greatest.
Susan doesn't like boxing at all. And I've got an ESPN Classics one day. And of course, all she knows is kind of Muhammad now. And it's Muhammad fighting Cleveland Williams from the Astrodome. It was an extraordinary fight. And even to somebody who doesn't like boxing, Susan said, "That's amazing." He was the greatest. And now He can't even. The greatest?
The Source of All Truth
Here's what you need to remember. That there is truth. And you find the truth in this word and in Christ. And nowhere else. If it contradicts this, throw it out. That's what you need to know.
Now for many of you in this room, probably most, you already know that. You already know that Jesus is Lord. You already know that in your life, He's Master and Savior. Here's what you need to do now. Now you need to live like that's true.
Especially in difficult times, you need to be reminded that He's in control. I don't want to diminish the hard things that come. Life is difficult. That's okay. He caused it or allowed it.
And let me flip it around too. And in the good times, that whatever you have, God gave you. And He will judge you, by the way, accordingly to how you handle that. You know that.
Understanding God's Judgment
We've got to close. This is really unfair to close on this. But I assume you understand, when we talk about the judgment of God, the non-believer, the non-Christian, is not really judged. They're condemned.
What we're told in 2 Corinthians 5 is it's the Christian who's judged. Let me take a little pressure off of you, or intensify it, one of the two. Your sins are not judged, because they've already been paid for. What's judged? What you did with your life since that point in time that Jesus Christ was your Lord and Savior. That's how your life is judged.
It is a magnificent picture of His love, and His grace, and His mercy to you. We pick up right there next week.
Father, help us see this truth. Help us live in a way that brings honor and glory to You. Father, I pray for all of those who are listening to this who would be part of that 63% that would say, truth is whatever you want it to be, or whatever you think it would be. And we do. We live in a world that defines its own reality and its own truth.
God, thank You that we don't have to wonder and we don't have to guess, that we have Your Word. God, we love You. Here's our prayer this morning. That Your Spirit would cause us to love You even more. That each day we would fall deeper in love with You. And that would manifest itself in a life that was filled with obedience. That we would want to share this truth with all of those around us. And that God, our life would become a display case for Your good works.
Father, it's our prayer that people would see You work in our life. And they glorify You. God, we pray that to You in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.