What Would You Ask Jesus?
Tom Shrader explores Jesus' trial before Pilate in John 18-19, highlighting the ironic reversal where Jesus, though appearing to be on trial, is actually the one examining Pilate. The teaching emphasizes that Jesus' kingdom is not of this world and that true reality can only be understood through Scripture and knowing Christ.
“The Christian faith is not about great teaching and a tomb that has Jesus in it. It's about an empty tomb.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: John: The Essence of Life
Recorded: 2008
Duration: 43 min
Themes: truth, authority, kingdom, trial, irony, reality, scripture, wisdom, facing opposition, questioning faith, seeking truth, political pressure, defending beliefs, pastor, teacher, skeptical friend
Scripture: John 18:28-19:18, John 14-17, John 10:26-31, John 3:16
Theological Themes: christology, biblical authority, kingdom of god, sovereignty, apologetics, worldview, hermeneutics, gospel of john
Full Transcript
Session 9 in what are 12 sessions in this flyover of the Gospel of John. There are 21 chapters, so you know just by that that we're moving quickly. If you've got Bibles, you can open them to the Gospel of John in the 18th chapter.
As I say that, you are really astute and you notice that's why I say flyover. You notice that last week we kind of just touched on the very beginning of chapter 14 and we begin today in chapter 18. Therefore, clearly, you understand we've skipped essentially all of 14, 15, 16, and 17, which are really a key passage. This is something I'd probably say every other month, even through the course of the year, I keep coming back to this. If you're looking for just a study, just something to look at, examine, really stimulate thought, get you moving, John 14, 15, 16, 17 is a great section for that. That is Jesus, the night before He dies, so He's really trying to connect with His boys, give them some truth. Then chapter 17 is the real Lord's Prayer. He says, "All right, now this is in place, now let's pray," and then He begins to pray to the Father. So really important section.
Jesus Heads to the Cross
A little bit unique, let me just kind of remind you. Jesus is now heading to the cross. He has said goodbye to the guys, He has prayed, and now circumstances are now in place. From some general knowledge of that time in Christ's life, you're going to know that there's some things that have taken place. Something very different for us in this study, in this sense: we kind of look at Jesus in situations with people, and to this point, every one of the illustrations we've looked at has been Jesus with a Jew. The only kind of exception is the woman at the well who would have been half Samaritan, half Jewish, but we're going to put her in that camp.
So all of these have been Jesus dealing with Jews. Today is different. Today the real focus is this dialogue, discussion, interaction between Jesus and Pontius Pilate. So there's a real shift now. Jesus has been betrayed, Jesus has been arrested, so we pick up that part of the story.
Remind you just a little bit of the backdrop, and that really gets into what you see in the interaction today. Paul tells us the Jews were looking for signs, so they're constantly saying, "What are the signs? What are the signs? Here, show us a sign." The Romans, the Greeks, they were looking for wisdom. They're much more philosophical than experiential. They want to have this huge philosophical discussion, and indeed, Jesus engages them in that very thing today.
The Jewish Leaders and Their Hypocrisy
Look at chapter 18, verse 28: "Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas, so this is the high priest, into the praetorium. It was early, and they themselves did not enter into the praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover. Therefore, Pilate went out to them and said, 'What accusations do you bring against this man?'"
There are the Jewish leaders. There is so much irony and hypocrisy in this that we come back to it again and again and again. We have this, and I'm going to make this point to you about eight times in this lesson. This gets into the season that we're in now, the calendar, where we got into these big discussions every year about who killed Jesus. Was it the Jews? Was it the Bible? Here's what I want you to understand: in the strictest sense of the word, it was actually God who killed Christ. It was Christ who laid down His life. It's so important to see this.
The Essence of the Cross
I'll give you just a little background. One time, I had not been a Christian very long, but I could not leave the people around me alone talking about this stuff. I don't know how you all are, but I would just, I mean, this was a pretty constant part of my dialogue with at least parts of my family and my friends and coworkers. So I had this guy who was from a mainline denomination, doesn't matter which one, and he just is seeing his world rocked by the idea of grace.
By the way, that's always going to rock somebody's world. Any religious person is going to be stunned when you talk about grace. They can't handle grace, because grace strips you of anything that you can bring in terms of contribution to your salvation. Grace forces you to acknowledge that you are utterly helpless, and pride and ego doesn't want to hear that. Just instinctively, that's how we go. So even as you see in Peter's ministry, you'll see it in Paul's as well, you'll see it in Jesus, especially in Peter's ministry. He delivers a message, and immediately they say, "What shall we do?" That's what we are all about. That's how we're wired. We're wired religious. Grace strips all that away.
So we're having this conversation. So he wants to have me go and meet with one of his guys. And the focus became the cross. So I said to the guy, "Why do you think Jesus died on the cross?" And he said, "Because He was a political prisoner, and that's the way they killed political prisoners in that day." I said, "All right, there's certainly truth to that. There were certainly some that were killed that way. Anything else?" He said, "Unbelievable picture of love." I said, "All right, anything else?" He said, "Role model, self-sacrifice." I said, "All right, anything else?" He said, "No, that's kind of the essence of it."
Well, no, it isn't. The essence of it is all those things are true. "Have the mind in you that's also in Christ Jesus, emptied Himself, not of His deity, but of His glory, came to earth, humbled Himself, became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." The implication is go and do that. And Jesus is indeed a wonderful role model. And indeed, it's a picture of love. And indeed, it's a picture of self-sacrifice. But at its core, He died on the cross to save His people from their sin. That's the essence of this. And He did this voluntarily. So as you read this, don't think that Jesus had this plan to set up this giant kingdom, to do this huge economic bailout, to do all of these things.
That was not why Jesus came. That was not part of it. And then He got swept away, said a couple of stupid things, and then they nailed Him to a cross. That's not what happened here. This is all part of what Christ is doing to redeem His people.
So don't read anything into that, nor for a second think you're saved by Jesus' teaching. Jesus' teaching is wonderful. Jesus' teaching saved no one. You're saved by the cross and the empty tomb.
The Error of Following Only Jesus' Teachings
So you get somebody like Gandhi. I use Gandhi all the time because the guy was clearly a magnificent leader and an admirable man who believed the teachings of Jesus. And he would say that. I believe and follow the teaching. I read the Gospels almost every day. Gandhi would say that. But he would say, I refuse to believe that Jesus or any other person could die in my place.
Thomas Jefferson did essentially the same thing. So if you go to Borders today or Barnes and Noble, and you go to the religious section, and if you go into Bibles, you can actually buy, if they have them in stock, they usually do, a Jefferson Bible. It was a Jefferson Bible. And what Thomas Jefferson did was take the four Gospels, and you can go to Monticello, and they still have the way he did it. And he literally cut and pasted, would have been great if he would have had a computer, but it made it a lot easier for him. But he literally cut and pasted the New Testament, took out anything supernatural, and left in all of the teaching, and said, Jesus is this wonderful moral leader who has so much to teach us, and I follow His teaching.
Here's something interesting. In the Jefferson Bible, here's how it ends. And they placed Him in the tomb and rolled the stone over the opening. That's the end of the Jefferson Bible. There isn't much hope in there, is there? No. The Christian faith is not about great teaching and a tomb that has Jesus in it. It's about an empty tomb.
What Makes Christianity Different
And whether you're Gandhi, this great moral leader, or Jefferson, this brilliant mind, who literally is dumb as a brick when it comes to the things of God, he missed the essence of the Gospel. Got the teaching. That's what separates Christianity, and I want you to see this. So when somebody's talking about, oh, he's not acting like a Christian, we've got to make sure we understand it.
At its core, Christianity is a body of truth and doctrine in what we believe, not how we behave. Is our behavior important? Yes, but it flows from this doctrine. So you got a whole bunch of atheists who go down and build Habitat for Humanity and do good things. You got a whole bunch of Buddhists that will give clothing to naked or feed people who are hungry. That is not what makes you a Christian.
What makes you a Christian is that you believe that your sin has separated you from God, and God did something about it. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. That's Christianity. Does it matter how we live? Yes, and then all these things flow from it. But standing on the outside, you can stand and kind of look at it and go, I see how all of these end up in the same place because they're all doing the same thing. That's a huge difference.
The Balance of Grace and Truth
So when you come, I will just tell you this, especially if you're a person who's been around the faith for a long time, who loves to study the Bible, who loves to go to Bible studies, who's very serious about their faith. Even you, I would suggest, can see your world rocked if you would go and hang in this idea of grace a little bit. Because this is a matter of grace and truth. You can't separate them, but we do. And generally, the grace guys can't stand the truth guys, and the truth guys can't stand the grace guys. That's again why Christianity speaks not hardly at all to the world.
So, if you want to address this, and then I'm done with that. But that book, and we've sold, I've brought some of them down, I'd be willing to do it, and I've done it for some of you. If you call our bookstore, the book is called Prodigal God by Tim Keller. If you call the bookstore at church, and you can pay, and I make no money on it, so all I'm trying to do is help you, and I mean that. I don't get any money out of it, and we don't make hardly any money on this stuff either. Our whole goal is to try to break even, and we're struggling to get there. But we're ahead of most companies in the country, so that's a good thing. But if you call the bookstore at East Valley Bible Church, the number is 480-632-2220. Get the bookstore, Prodigal God, you can pay them there, and I'll deliver it to you, I'll bring it to you.
The Hypocrisy of the Religious Leaders
Anyway, back to the story. The hypocrisy of the Jews, you'll see it's early, probably about 6 o'clock, between 6 and 11, probably at the front end of that. The Jews, they're so self-righteous. Oh, we don't want to go into the praetorium because that would defile us, then we couldn't celebrate the Passover. Now, they just held court all night, which is a fundamental violation of all of their rules. They just had a kangaroo court for Jesus.
They come to the praetorium, that's where Pilate hangs out when he's in and around Jerusalem. He tried to be there, honestly, as little as possible. He really resided in Caesarea. Just to put it in terms, when he's coming to the praetorium, he's coming to Yuma, but most of the time he's in Delmar. That's how this is hanging out.
You understand that the Romans are an occupying force, and Pilate is representing Rome in this scene. He's a governor, the political leader. He has to deal with the religious aspects of this. And there have been some uprisings and some problems, and Pilate is super sensitive to the political situation that he has there in Jerusalem. And also, it's at Passover time, it's at a Jewish feast time. He would always be in town for that. Those were particular times that they were afraid. So they come to him, and they bring Jesus to him. Now, they won't go in. They're...
Again, the hypocrites. They won't go in. They'll be defiled, even though they're about to turn over the Savior in this mock courtroom that they've already had this trial. You'll see some of that pretty quickly.
And so Pilate comes out and says, "What did he do?" And they answered in verse 30, and they said, "If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you." I love it. What did he do? Hey, listen, we're not going to get hung up on a bunch of stuff here. He's guilty, or we wouldn't be here. And Pilate's going, "Is there due process? Is there anything here? What have you done with this?" And they said, "No, no, no."
Now, understand, it's really important to get that background. This is an explosive situation. Pilate, from this point on, is looking for a way out of this thing. He gets it right now that he's got an issue.
So Pilate said to them, "You take him yourself and judge him according to your laws." And the Jews said, "We're not permitted to put anyone to death." And they said this to fulfill the words of Jesus, which He spoke, signifying what kind of death He was about to die. So Pilate says—I mean, in essence, you see what he's saying? See that push away? I don't want you guys to handle it. You take care. And they said, "We can't put anyone to death."
The Hypocrisy of the Religious Leaders
Now, again, the hypocrisy and the irony of this is huge. Already three times they've tried to stone Him, which is to put Him to death. Three times already. Remember back in John 10? That's the one we really focused on. We said John 10, verses 26-27 down through verse 31, ought to be a section of scripture that you master because there's so much in there. But at the end of that, Jesus says, "I and the Father are one," and they pick up stones to stone Him.
By the way, stoning—I'm not sure, I assume we understand that. Stoning was a form of capital punishment. The intention there was to kill Him. But they said, "No, no, no, no, no, we can't kill anybody." But do you see why they said that? Because Jesus had prophesied that He would be lifted up. The Old Testament talked about the crucifixion prior, hundreds of years prior to the invention of crucifixion as a form of punishment and death. Again, God's in absolute control here.
Pilate Questions Jesus
Therefore, Pilate entered again into the praetorium, and he summoned Jesus, and he said, "Are you the King of the Jews?" So he's about now to gather some information. He's about to call Jesus and have this kind of one-on-one. And you get the sense here that Jesus is on trial. What you're going to see, and again, the irony of it, is the one that's on trial here is Pilate.
"Are you the King of the Jews?" And Jesus said, "Are you saying that on your own initiative, or is that the result of just what others have said? Did others tell you about me?" And Pilate said, "I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done?"
Again, Pilate's looking for a way out. Pilate's looking to either find a crime for which he can punish, or he's looking to find Him innocent. And the reality is, and you're going to see it in verse 38, in chapter 19 verse 4, in chapter 19 verse 6, three times Pilate declares Jesus is absolutely innocent. Couldn't find a crime. And he's looking. He wants something there. So what is it you did?
Jesus' Kingdom Is Not of This World
And Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm." Jesus is saying, "Yeah, I am a king, but not here. I'm the King of kings. I'm the Lord of lords." The whole implication here is way bigger than this. I created this. I created this world and this universe and everything in it. I hold it together. Nothing happens in here outside of the realm and sphere of my authority. There's not a maverick molecule in the entire universe that is loose that could somehow subvert my plan, my intention. This is who I am. I am a king, but not in this realm, this earthly realm. This is not what I'm about.
And we can make a mistake here and begin to think, "Well, Jesus doesn't care what happens here on earth." No, I think Jesus cares. Isn't that what He tells us to pray? Pray, "My kingdom come on heaven as it is on earth." We understand that isn't going to happen until He comes and reigns again. But part of us being here—Wayne Grudem talks about this, especially as Grudem talks about government. Grudem will talk about we are here. In essence, our existence here makes this a better place to live.
Politics, Policy, and Christian Engagement
So I can tell you as a guy who is on a leadership team in a church that I get pressure on both ends about politics. So I'll get this whole group that says, "Don't have anything to do with politics. We don't want anything to do with politics." And I get the other group that's constantly frustrated that we aren't doing enough. And so I really—and I by nature am a pretty political cat. I care about this stuff. I read about it. But I really do. I'm going to give myself high marks here. Keep it out of the pulpit.
The distinction that you need to make is between politics and policy. It does matter what we do as it relates to abortion. It does matter what we do as it relates to marriage. It does matter. And then you can fill in the blanks. This world is a better place because there are people in there, like a Kathy Herod at CAP, or like the gals and guys at CPC. That's one of my favorite organizations, Crisis Pregnancy Center. Crisis Pregnancy Center is just an amazing organization. And there are others. There's a whole bunch of others. Christian Family Care, you know them.
But they're there, and they're fighting for policy because policy matters. And you ought to care about policy. Now, unfortunately, that gets wrapped in politics. And unfortunately, because bipartisanship is a joke, and that's not going to happen, and there's a reason there's two parties because there's philosophical differences.
So I don't think you try to mend those together. I think you fight like mad for your convictions. And on those things you can agree about, try to agree upon them, whatever those four things are. But the rest of this is a battle. Don't buy that other stuff.
Well, you're in there pitching away. Generally, when you get on an issue like abortion, unfortunately, most of the people that are going to line up on the things that I would fight for happen to be from one party. That's not my problem. I wish it weren't so. But that doesn't mean I'm involved in politics. I'm involved in policy. And that is not a distinction without a difference. That's a big deal.
But you ought to care. This world is a better place because you're here, and you ought to care about it. But Jesus said, that's not my kingdom. It's going to be one day. Try to bring it now.
Imagining Life Without Sin
Try to think of your life without sin. Try to think what it would be. I am in a very creative mode at this point in my life, but I just came up with an idea a couple of months ago for a new deal with young business guys. And I just started last week, so I'm not sure what I'm doing, but I'm on this thing and hopefully have them help me figure it out.
One of the things I'm trying to get them to think about is not just business by the book—I want to do that—but a deeper theological reality of why we do what we do. So we were meeting with some gals the other day who are Titus 2 gals. They want to talk about marriage and family and all that. I'm all for that.
But you know what? There are points in time, I think, where you step back and go, let's get a grid that's bigger than that. It's a theological grid. So somebody just called me and said, "You know anybody who can come and talk about a singles thing?" And I said, "I could, but I don't want to talk about singles. Let's talk about God and contentment because that's usually the issue there." See that? So we come back to this grid over and over and over again.
Well, part of what I've tried to say to them, imagine negotiating a deal without sin in the way—which is, I don't know how you can even imagine that. But that's what heaven will be like. So we can't even have a relationship.
I was saying to these guys, we were sitting in a U, there were about seven of them. And I said, "I want to ask you a question. And I want to talk about it. I'm going to pull this." And I stopped and I said, "Now, here's what I want you to know. The minute I said that, you began to respond in turn, right? Your heart rate increased a little. You got nervous. Why? Because you're afraid that you're going to say the wrong thing or I will think less." That's all sin. That's all sin. All that insecurity, all that stuff, that's all sin.
Imagine a relationship where that doesn't exist. And the closer you can get to that, the better marriage you're going to have, the better friendship you're going to have, all that goes with it. Well, Jesus said, that's a kingdom that's coming, but that's not this one here.
Jesus as King and Truth
So Pilate says, "You are a king." He says, "Yes, for this I have been born. And for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice." And then Pilate says—absolute classic passage in verse 38—Pilate says, "What is truth?"
Now let's stop right there, because it's a huge question. That word could also be translated in other places "reality." And I'm comfortable honestly with both of those. What is truth?
Living in a Post-Christian Culture
There was a front page centerpiece article in USA Today Monday on what's beginning to happen in evangelical churches. And I don't know how—my assumption is you're not that into it. And I understand it. I just, it's like industry trade for me. I have to read it. But here's what they're saying: that as a culture, we're rejecting truth and we're rejecting church at a huge pace. We're just walking away from churches.
You're living—and here's what some of the experts would call—in a post-Christian country. There are 30,000 missionaries coming to America every year. There are more Christians in China than America probably. You're living at a time where all the things we took for granted and the whole dialogue, that whole framework is different.
So when I was a kid and I did whatever it was that we would have called sin, even though I might not have known it was sin or I might have, I felt guilt. I knew it was wrong. Now, when you talk to a kid—and you don't want to get mad at them by the way for this, but there's no reason to get mad at them. It's just the way they've been raised.
And in culture, they don't even know it's wrong because they've been told—think about this. This is why all these things matter. They've been told that their whole world is an accident, that you evolved from nothing. So there is no creator. There is no one with authority. Who made you king? Who told you what to do? So now you come along and say it's wrong. The immediate response is what? "Who said it's wrong?" See, this gets back to truth.
The Confusion About God's Help
Let me give you some stats. And I love these. 82%—this is a Barna Group study—82% of Americans questioned said, "God helps those who help themselves." 56% said that's found in the Bible. Now here's the deal. This is why this is so pathetic. The Christian message is exactly the opposite of that. The Christian message is you can't help yourself.
But you come along with this power of positive thinking stuff, and then somebody says, "God helps those who help themselves"—Benjamin Franklin, thank you. And we go, "Oh boy, that's really profound. That makes sense. That still gives me a little bit of control and something I need to do. It gives me some responsibility." The Bible's exactly that. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, those that are spiritually bankrupt." The Bible is a message of helpless people, but not hopeless.
82% of people said they can determine their own destiny. I mean, I just find that amazing. Yes, there are things you can, but when I listen, and let's
When I listen to, for example, Rush, when I listen to Rush talk about anybody can be anything, do you understand that's simply not true? You can't all be president. You can't all be captain. You can't all be homecoming queen. You don't all start out on an equal footing in life. Equal before the law, the best we can do, but not equal in life.
Haley used to work at CPC, and then when she had the boys, she quit. So she volunteers an afternoon a week down there, and I'm so happy she does. One of the things she does is scan. A gal will come in and think she's pregnant. She'll scan, and you couldn't have anybody better than Haley doing this. You don't know Haley, but she's the most disarming. She's perfect. She's the most disarming. She will just lay your heart bare, but you need to know this about her. She wouldn't flinch in a valley. You couldn't move her a degree off of what she believes. She's the most inflexible person I've ever been around, and I find that a fairly endearing quality. You couldn't move her, but she smiles. She's the nicest, sweetest person.
There is nobody who knows Haley who doesn't like her. If you say Tom Schrader, there's people who like me. There's people who don't like me. I got it. And that's the line, the don't like line is longer. If you say you know Haley, and you go, you like her, that line goes as far as you can see. Do you not like her? There's nobody in it.
She stopped the other night because they were doing a baby shower at the house for one of our staff gals, and she didn't have enough time to go home, so she stopped. She just got done. You could see the heaviness of what that day had produced in her life. She'd just done a scan for a lady who had eight babies, and they started to talk to her about adoption. She didn't even know what it was. Just talk about, can we relieve this? She didn't know.
There was a 16-year-old girl that came in from one of the big churches down our way, and she was supposed to have had a baby in January, but they aborted it last year. Her Bible-believing mother paid for it, and now she's pregnant again with a guy she's been with this guy one month. She dated him a month. She's pregnant again. And Haley's just going, this is just so heavy.
There are 10,000 children in the system, and it's part of the problem right now, waiting to be adopted. Now, here's the problem. They're not all little white middle-class babies who were just born. Their kids have got some issues. But if you want to minister, I can give you 10,000 opportunities.
We had a crack baby. The last baby we had was a crack baby we had for three months that I thought was going to destroy our family. It was so hard. Baby cried 23 hours a day, literally. That kid and your kid start with the same chance in life? I don't buy that for a second.
Wayne Grudem and I, you think Wayne, you think Grudem and I are close to equal, other than I'm taller and stronger than him? Actually, that's sad, because I don't know that I'm either. But I mean, Dr. Grudem can just run me into the ground, brain-wise. We're not even close. There's a responsibility. That doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility.
The Crisis of Truth in Our Culture
Anyway, all of that to get to this statistic. 63% of those questioned say there's no such thing as absolute truth. So if there's 63% that say there's no truth, then when we say, what is truth, there's 63% of those questioned who say there's no answer to that. So see how this all builds up? See why evolution matters? See why all of this, you build this whole picture, and now you have a whole culture.
They're starting to do a ton of work. There's a bunch of research now, and a bunch of books, secular books, coming out and going, here's what's wrong with America. We've lost our moral compass.
What's behind all of this crash? Sin. Greedy people at Freddie and Fannie. Greedy corporate guys. Greedy borrowers. People borrowing more than they can possibly pay back. People lending when they know that they can't pay it back. Greed and sin is the course of all this. My dad, he would throw up if he was alive today as a banker from the 1980s. What happened in there? Sin, greed, pride, arrogance. What's truth? Well, whatever you think it is.
Pilate's Question and the Nature of Truth
So when Pilate says what is truth, let me again say it my way, what is reality? That's a wonderful question to ask. I think it's interesting to connect the last part of verse 37 with the first part of verse 38. "Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice" and then Pilate says "What is truth?" Now what does that tell you about Pilate? He ain't dialed in right now. He's not focused, right? He's not hearing the truth. But he wants to know, see how it fits in to the Greek mindset or the Roman mindset, probably more of an American mindset even too. What is this? Argue this.
And when He said this, He went out to the Jews and He declares Jesus innocent. "I find no guilt in Him."
What is truth? What is reality? Well, if I want to understand reality in the world around me, I need to go to the one source of truth which is going to be the Scripture.
The Myth of Human Goodness
So there was another stat, let me see if I can find it, because this is the one that makes me laugh every time. I just want to know what planet these people live on. 83 percent. That's a lot of people. 83 percent of the American public said people are basically good. I mean I just can't even find any empirical data to even sniff at that. You lie, steal, cheat the minute you get an opportunity to. From the womb. We understand that.
What is reality? The reality is God created the world. We've done this with you before. God creates the world. Let me just give it to you proportionately in Scripture. So here it is right here. That's really interesting. In my Bible it's two pages. It's actually a page and a half. God creates the world in this page and a half and then takes the rest of this to fix up what we did with it. It's the story of His redeeming.
this world and His people from it. So reality is that you cannot know reality unless you know Christ. You can't see the world as it really needs to be and as God designed it to be.
Now that's a subplot of what's going on because there's still this whole interaction with Pilate and the Jews. So he says he's not guilty. Remember Pilate now? Pilate isn't looking for truth. And I shouldn't say that. That's not fair because we really don't know the inflection there nor can I really look into his heart. So I don't know if he was saying that is true or he's going help me. What is true? But regardless of whatever that was he's got a bigger problem. He's got to figure out how to satisfy these Jews.
Pilate's Attempted Solution
So he comes out and he says listen he's innocent but you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. We release people. We bring them out. Release a prisoner. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?
Now the other gospel writers give us a little more detail and he's saying listen we got this guy Barabbas. Barabbas is what I wrote the Osama bin Laden of his day. He's a terrorist. He's a robber. He's a threat. He's diabolical. So Pilate's going this has to be a winner.
So he comes out he says listen you got this custom. I release somebody. Which one do you want me to release? Jesus or Barabbas? And they shout back Barabbas. Barabbas. And again the other gospel writers and eventually we get there in the story but the other gospel writers told us at this point he said what do you want me to do with Jesus and they say crucify Him. Crucify Him.
I read a wonderful little short story one day written from Barabbas' perspective talking about sitting in a cell knowing there's some meeting going on and hearing the rumblings of the voices and he hears two chants. Barabbas. Barabbas. Crucify Him. Crucify Him. So that screwed up his day.
The Scourging and Mocking
Pilate still wants out. So he took Jesus and scourged Him and the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns put it on His head put a purple robe around Him and they began to come up to Him and say hail King of the Jews and they give Him a slap.
So they scourge Him. On the scourging or the whipping, sometimes I think of whipping but this scourging would be a short wooden piece maybe a foot maybe a foot and a half attached with leather strips and on the leather strips would be attached bone glass sharp objects. So a scourging went like this it was actually two parts which would put the glass or the bone into the skin that was part one and then the second part would be pulling down and many people died from the scourging and literally it would lay the back open you could see the organs depending on the severity of it.
The crown of thorns probably date thorns that were six to twelve inches long that would be put in a circle and thrust in His head and then mocking you know the royal color of purple around Him. And I don't know this to be fact but my sense is Pilate's going all right I'm gonna show them I can play hardball too. I'll put Him in there I'll beat Him I'll bring Him out.
Behold the Man
Verse 4 of chapter 19 Pilate came out and said to them behold I'm bringing Him out to you so that you might know here it is again it's the second acquittal I find no guilt in Him. And I think what Pilate's doing is going listen I played hardball here look at this look at this pathetic beaten man scourged bloody blood all over the thorns are now they pierced His head so there's blood everywhere He's wrapped in this robe I've done this that must be enough and He's not guilty.
Jesus comes out behold the man. So when the chief priests and the officers saw this they cried out crucify Him crucify Him. And Pilate is now going no you take Him you crucify Him. Verse 6 third time I find no guilt in Him.
And the Jews answered and said we have a law and by law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God. Now two things here we got to move really quickly that's the charge. So when somebody said Jesus never said He was God that's the charge.
Pilate's Growing Fear
Pilate hears this Son of God thing and he goes oh because the Romans were very superstitious so now he's going wait a minute God Son of God are we dealing with a deity here. Pilate heard this verse 8 and he's even more afraid because now the ante's been increased.
And he entered the praetorium and he said to Jesus where are You from. Jesus didn't say anything and Pilate said to Him You don't speak do You know that I have the authority to release You and I have the authority to crucify You do You understand that. And you can see him playing that You're not even gonna honor me You're not even gonna answer that do You understand I can release You right now I can kill You right now.
Jesus' Response About True Authority
And Jesus said You have no authority over Me unless it's been given to you from above and for this reason he who delivered Me to you he has greater sin. Pilate let Me bring you back to reality. You want to know what truth is? You can't take another breath if I don't give it to you. You want to know Pilate even as bad as you are the only reason you're in this position of authority is because I placed you there.
We see that by the way all through scripture so even the reason that Paul calls us to submit and obey government is because all government good bad Hitler Hussein George Washington all established by God. Now that really again as grandpa says charge your preserves because you're going wait a minute Hitler that's the whole idea that's what's communicated in Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar looks around he goes I realize that God raises up God puts down for whatever reason to accomplish His purpose.
When you start asking the whys on that you come back to for whatever reason. Why would I have this cancer? Well so that God would be glorified. Why would I be going through this hardship? I think God's in the process of really glorifying Himself.
In the hard times that we are in, it's just a very painful difficult time that's getting worse by the day. There's hardly now a day that I don't meet somebody who didn't just lose their job, or their husband or their kids just lost their job. In our church there's a family where the husband, wife, and two kids—in the last month all four of them have lost their job. Playing by all the rules, doing all the things they were told to do, playing by the rules, and they're out.
Pilate's Final Confrontation
Jesus confronts Pilate, and Pilate gets it. Verse 12: "As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him." Pilate wants out—He understands Jesus is innocent. But the Jews cried out and said, "If you release Him, you are not a friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. This guy says He's a king. He's in opposition to Caesar. Are you loyal to the very guy that placed you there?"
Therefore Pilate, when he heard these words, brought Jesus out, set Him down in the judgment seat in a place called the pavement, or in Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your king." And they cried away with Him, "Crucify Him, crucify Him."
And Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your king?" And the chief priests—here's the Jewish leaders—yet one more sense of hypocrisy said, "We don't have any king but Caesar." They're coming into this whole environment of sacrifice to the king of kings, to Yahweh.
The Deceptive Power of Sin
Think of the deceptive power of sin. Their whole thing is that God is king, right? These are the whole leaders—that's the very reason that they're in the position they're in. But they're swept away with this. "We don't have any king. We got one king, Caesar."
So he handed Him over to them to be crucified. Verse 18: "And they crucified Him with two other men, one on either side, Jesus in between." What a confrontation. Well, there's some real drama in that, in the best sense of the word.
The Central Question of Belief
Here you go. Remember the operative word in the gospel of John is believe. Do you believe? Not that Jesus was crucified—this is historic, actual stuff. I don't think there's anybody who denies the historical accuracy of these events. But why was He crucified?
Let me give you the answer: for your sin and mine. If we believe Jesus, who He said He was, we have eternal life. If we don't, not only are we helpless in this world, but we will spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell.
Three more sessions in this, hopefully, great story, the gospel of John. Father, help us see these amazing truths. We love You, and we acknowledge that that love we have for You really flows from Your love for us.
What Is Truth?
What is truth? Well, we're holding it in our hand. We saw it on the earth because Jesus said, "I am truth." What is reality? Well, it's to see the world as You see it. So God, open our eyes to see these amazing, wonderful truths.
We thank You for the Savior, especially in this calendar time of the year, when we're in that time as we're leading up to those events that we're reading about. God, prepare our hearts. Prepare our hearts for that moment of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. God, do that work in our life. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.