Sermon Cloud

Scripture Reading; 1 Samuel 8:1-7

Last time I spoke to you about Pontius Pilate and the Jews and their disregard of the Truth of Who Jesus is.

• Pilate questioned the Jews to find out their accusation and so you remember their answer?

• Pilate questioned Jesus and Jesus told him who He was.

• In Contrast, Pilate had no background in the things of God that he might recognize Him for who He was.

• The Jews on the other hand were waiting for their Messiah for 1500 years and had a book (the Old Testament) that described Him in many ways.

• When confronted with His Person it was Pilate who found no fault in Him and feared Him and the Jews who wanted to exterminate Him.

• And so the trial proceeds....

John 19:1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. 3 Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands.

• Remember that last time Jesus stood before the Roman Governor who offered to release Jesus to them. (Because he knew the had acted out of envy.)

• John 18:35-40 Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here." 37 Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 38 Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all. 39 "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?" 40 Then they all cried again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a robber.

• It is after this that we read that Pilate took Him and scourged Him.

• He also allowed the soldiers to mock Him by fashioning the crown of thorns and putting on Him the purple robe and hailing Him as a king as they beat Him.

• Many times we pay more attention to the crown of thorns and the mockery than to the scourging.

• Scourging was the legal preliminary to crucifixion, but, in this case, was inflicted illegally before the sentence of crucifixion was pronounced, with a view of averting the extreme punishment, and of satisfying the Jews.

• The punishment was horrible, the victim being bound to a low pillar or stake, and beaten, either with rods, or, in the case of slaves and provincials, with scourges, called scorpions, leather thongs tipped with leaden balls or sharp spikes. The severity of the infliction in Jesus' case is evident from His inability to bear His cross.

• And so now Jesus comes, bloody, beaten and mocked, apparently helpless before His people and the Roman governor.

John 19:4 Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him." 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!"

• Again Pilate declares Jesus' innocence.

• Yet He has treated him like a slave and a criminal.

• He presents Him to the crowd, probably to draw upon their sympathies, knowing that He is truly innocent.

• Yet these hardened men who have brought Jesus this far will not see their mission fail no matter how corrupt and wicked it is!

• These men who should have know better than to crucify their Messiah.

• These men who had lived their lives supposedly for the cause of the purity of their religion.

• These men who had perverted justice to rid themselves of this man had simultaneously made scrupulous study of their law which forbade;

• trials by night

• trials or hearings with no witnesses (Annas)

• trials for capital crimes to be dispensed in one sitting.

• Yet all of these were a part of the trial of the Jews who had brought this man to the Romans already condemned in their own minds.

• Pilate pleads with them for His innocence and even scourges Him in hope that it would satisfy their blood lust.

• And what was the result?

John 19:6 Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him."

• Notice it is the Chief Priests and officers who are unrelenting.

• Those who should best know the Scriptures.

• Again Pilate says, “I find no fault in Him!”

John 19:7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God."

• The Jews now tell Pilate that their Law is different than his and that He is guilty by their Law.

• Now the charge finally comes.

• This man not only claims to be a King but to be God as well.

• He has claimed to be the Son of God.!

• Son of God

• THE Son of God

• Same substance as the Father

• Do you have a son? Is he subhuman?

John 19:8 Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, 9 and went again into the Praetorium, and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." 12 From then on Pilate sought to release Him,

• Now Pilate got it and he seemed to really understand the claim to deity!

• He is now becoming frantic and desiring even more to release Jesus!

• His frustration comes out as he yells at the Son of God,

• Vs. 10 "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?"

• Jesus tells him that He has given Him the authority that he has.

• But the Jews appealed to an authority that Pilate feared more than Jehovah.

John 19:12b but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar." 13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

• Pilate finally yields.

• Sitting in the judgment seat is the official act for pronouncing sentence.

John 19:14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" 15 But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!" 16 Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified. Then they took Jesus and led Him away.

• The sentence is handed down.

• Apparently Jesus has celebrated His Passover a day early and now as it is the day to prepare for the Passover. Passover Eve the day on which the Passover is slaughtered and eaten, Jesus is sentenced to the cross at the very time that the animals are beginning to be slaughtered.

• 1 Corinthians 5:7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

• God is pretty amazing to pull this off to the very hour in fulfillment of this ancient type!

• Just as profoundly and tragically the Jews also fulfilled another prophecy from Hosea,

• Hosea 3:4-5 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.

• Their disloyalty to God who was regarded as their King from the founding of their nation and treasonous statement saying, “We have no king but Caesar.” would be well rewarded within a generation as the Roman Caesar Vespasian would send his son Titus to destroy the city in a four year siege from 66-70 AD.

• God had been their King from the beginning: Hosea 13:4 "Yet I am the LORD your God Ever since the land of Egypt, And you shall know no God but Me; For there is no savior besides Me. 5 I knew you in the wilderness, In the land of great drought. 6 When they had pasture, they were filled; They were filled and their heart was exalted; Therefore they forgot Me. 7 "So I will be to them like a lion; Like a leopard by the road I will lurk; 8 I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, And there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them. 9 "O Israel, you are destroyed, But your help is from Me. 10 I will be your King; Where is any other, That he may save you in all your cities? And your judges to whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes'? 11 I gave you a king in My anger, And took him away in My wrath.

• Talmud says, “Israel has no king but God!”

• And so, as we saw last week that the Jews failed to see Jesus in Truth,

• Now we see that in their blind ambition they have rejected the government of God and committed treason in giving allegiance to a temporal authority.

• One that God had placed over them as a form of chiastiement.

• Men are so weak.

• We so often think that we are in control and we are just infinitesimal specks in a vast universe.

• We cannot add one cubit to our stature, probably reference to extending our lives by the least amount.

• We have very little control over the most significant events in our lives.

• Life and death

• Sickness and health

• relationships

• money or the economy

• Yet somehow we still imagine that we are in control ultimately.

• Men submit themselves to what seems the best possibility of providing them immediate comfort.

• Israel had a history of this and we are no different.

• And in the process of getting a short term gain they reap a harvest of pain and sorrow.

• Our economy is the perfect picture of this.

• So in all of this as we see Pilate succumb to pressures of life and the Jews push violently for a place in the world, yet both miss the reality of Who God is and what He is saying to sinful man.

• Both chose to submit themselves to temporal power in home of a better now

• And in turn alienate themselves from God and loose a better eternity!

Whom do you chose as your King today?

• Are you your own Caesar?

• Is God ruling your life as you trust in Jesus Christ, the TRUTH of God …...?