to the glory of God. Pontius Pilate is one of the most interesting and tragic people in the Bible. He was interesting because he lived a very full and fascinating life that saw him rise to great heights and accumulate great power and authority in the dangerous political arena of the Roman Empire of the first century. Pilate's conversations with Jesus during his trial are riveting. and have been the subject of much study and research over the centuries. There are many legends, extra-biblical legends about Pilate and his wife and what happened to them after this event. But Pilate is also one of the saddest and most tragic people in the entire Bible for the very same reasons that made him interesting. His political ambition along with his love of fame, recognition, money and power fueled his worldliness. and encouraged this man to become one of the most brutal and inhuman prefects in the Roman Empire. Pilate is one of only a handful of people who actually stood face to face with the incarnate God and had a conversation. But unlike those who wanted to hear the Savior teach or to watch Him perform great and staggering miracles or to be touched and healed by the Master, Pilate will forever be known as the man who finally condemned Jesus to die. Now from the earliest days of the Christian church, believers from all walks of life memorized and confessed a very simple creed that contained almost all of the essential elements of Christianity. And right there among all of the issues of the incarnation and the resurrection, we find Pontius Pilate. The Apostles' Creed, in part, says this, I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. And then in A.D. 325, and again in A.D. 381, the basic Christian confession was expanded to say this about Jesus. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made. That's the line that Athanasius himself wrote. Homoousia. Jesus is of the same substance with the Father. who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end." So it is impossible to discuss the crucifixion of Jesus without mentioning Pontius Pilate. It is with Pilate that we have some of the most powerful interchanges between the incarnate God and sinful human beings that are recorded in the whole Bible. For example, Matthew 27, 13 and 14, then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And he did not answer him with regard to even a single charge. So the governor was quite amazed. John 18, 33 and 38. Therefore Pilate entered again into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me? Well, we're going to get into that next week. This is the same thing that happened to Nathaniel. I saw you when you were under the fig tree. Are you telling me what other people told me pilot or have you been talking about me. Do you know who I am. And another version says he says it is as you say in which you the one been talking about me. Pilot answered I'm not a Jew am I your own nation and the chief priest delivered you to me and what have you done. Jesus answered 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. Therefore Pilate said to him so you are a king. Jesus answered you say correctly that I am a king 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. 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 guilt in him. John 19, 10 through 13, so Pilate said to him, you do not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him but the Jews cried out saying if you release this man you're no friend to Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar therefore when Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement but in Hebrew Gabbatha. Matthew 27, 17 through 25 says that when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release to you? For you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ. For he knew that because of envy they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message saying, Have nothing to do with that righteous man. For last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. But the governor said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release for you? And Barabbas Pilate said to them, Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, Crucify Him. And he said, Why? What evil has He done? But they kept shouting all the more, saying, Crucify Him. When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And the people said, His blood shall be on us and on our children. And I'm going to examine each of these passages over the next couple of weeks. Now, it was through these interchanges with Jesus that brought his final condemnation. But it was through these same interchanges that haunted Pilate for the rest of his life. It was because Pilate chose to allow Jesus to be killed that separated this cruel politician from his wife. eventually saw him lose everything he had worked so hard to obtain and end his own life alone and in disgrace and sent him to a devil's hell." So in reality, Jesus was not on trial here, Pilate was. It was not the Jewish crowd that called for Jesus to be crucified that was in charge. No, God was sovereignly putting them on trial. And even though it was the Sanhedrin court that had the solemn duty to administer justice based on the inspired Old Testament Scripture, these pompous, self-righteous men stood in condemnation by the great Judge of Heaven. So there were actually three things going on here as Jesus stands before Pilate. Number one, the love of the world that was in Pilate. Number two, the condemnation of Jesus by the crowds. And number three, the sovereignty of God. And several years after the resurrection, the same Dr. Luke quoted the apostles as they were praying about these issues all working simultaneously together in the book of Acts chapter 4 verses 27 and 28 when they said, for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel..." Look at this. "...to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur." So these men who led the church during its formative years believed and taught that the evil actions of unsaved and wicked men were carried out under the predestined purpose of God who works all things after the counsel of Him. So in reality, evil is not a force that roams freely throughout the earth, but is merely a tool that God uses to further His own goodwill in both saving all of His elect and damning the non-elect. So we're going to take some time to go through this together, and my goal is that three things will become clear in your mind. Number one, the great danger of loving this present evil world. The biggest criticism that is leveled against my ministry is that I'm too theological in my preaching. I give too much Bible, too much biblical information, and not enough practical application. You want practical application, I'm going to give it to you in buckets in the next couple of weeks because Pilate is a study of what loving the world looks like. Loving the world makes you act like Pilate acted. Loving the world will cause you to choose your career over Jesus. It will cause you to choose your prestige and your position over Jesus. It will cause you to be willing to wash your hands of Jesus as though that relieves you of responsibility. Number two, that I hope you see in this series as condemning Jesus really only condemns yourself. And number three, that God is absolutely sovereign in the death of His own Son. That it pleased the Lord to crush Jesus. Now, we have already met Judas, the betrayer of the only truly innocent man the world has ever seen. And now we meet Pilate, the man who finally condemned the sinless Lamb of God to be crucified. Now, people who read and study the Bible know about Pontius Pilate because throughout the 27 books of the New Testament, Pilate is mentioned 56 different times. The Apostle Levi, or Matthew, wrote nine times about Pilate. John Mark, who was commissioned by the Apostle Peter to write the Gospel of Mark, mentions Pontius Pilate ten times. The Apostle John mentions him twenty-one times. The Apostle Paul mentions Pilate once. While Dr. Luke, who was commissioned by the Apostle Paul to write the Gospel record that bears his name in the diary of the first 30 years of Christianity, mentions Pilate 15 times. 12 in the Gospel of Luke and 3 times in the book of the Acts. But Pilate is also one of those historical characters that almost everybody has heard of. Kind of like Pharaoh. Everybody knows Pharaoh? Yeah. So Pilate, like Pharaoh of Moses' day, is a well-known figure. And yet, like Pharaoh, much of what people think they know about Pilate comes from Hollywood and not from the Bible. So I think it would be good to camp here in this passage that Brother Andy just read to you so we can examine all that Dr. Luke wrote about this fascinating and tragic man. Now any of you who have been here for a while understand that Luke is one of what is called the Synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, those three Gospel records are called the Synoptic Gospels. Whereas John is called the Spiritual Gospel. Because John wrote his gospel much later than the other three wrote theirs. He was concerned about people understanding Jesus as God. And so that's why it's called the spiritual gospel. And it doesn't mean that John doesn't agree with Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He does. And the reason there are differences in their writings is not because there's contradictions. It's because they're looking at the same event from different angles. And so you take, if you want to get a clear picture of an event, you take all four of the Gospels and you put them together and form what happened at this event, which is what we're going to try to do here. Now to pick back up in our journey through Luke, we need to renew all that is going on here because I just spent the last ten weeks preaching about something else. So back in Luke 22, somewhere in or near the year A.D. 29, on a particular Thursday evening in the Jewish month Nisan, not the car, which is the month April, Jesus sat down with His disciples and establishes the ordinance or the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. And even though this is supposed to be a very sacred moment, it is there at this Last Supper where the most sinful and wicked demonstration of pride and arrogance takes place as these twelve men begin to argue about which one of them is the greatest. It is at this Supper that Jesus tells Judas, what you do, do quickly. It is at this supper where Jesus tells Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. When Peter begins to tell Jesus how much he loves Him and how dedicated he is to Jesus, Jesus tells Peter, I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me. It was this same night when Jesus led them to the Garden of Gethsemane where He told them, My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch with Me. Pray with Me. And then Jesus went about 50 or 60 feet further into the garden, fell on His face, and began to cry out to God in prayer with such fervency that the blood vessels near the surface of His skin broke, and He began to sweat blood. And He prayed, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Yours be done. Jesus prayed several hours like this. And finally, well past midnight on Friday, He walked serenely to His sleeping disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Less than an hour later, Judas comes into the garden leading a group of over 500 men, many of them battle-hardened soldiers, and they come for one reason, to arrest Jesus. And after knocking them all to the ground with just His Word and healing the man whom Peter had cut off his ear, Jesus allowed Himself to be taken. So at some point early Friday morning, Jesus enters the courtyard of the high priest and his father-in-law to be interrogated while both Peter and John follow at a distance. And for several hours, Jesus is questioned by the high priest. And after each of these sessions, Jesus is beaten and spit on and slapped around and mocked and laughed at. And as Jesus is being dragged back and forth between Caiaphas' and Annas' house, Peter is very busy out in the courtyard by a fire, denying that he even knows him. And during the last of his three denials, Luke records this, after about an hour had passed, another man began to insist, saying, certainly this man also was with him, for he is a Galilean too. But Peter says, man, I do not know what you're talking about. Immediately while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had told them, before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times. And he went out and wept bitterly. I alluded to this when I was preaching through this. This is the great distinction between spirit-initiated repentance and human grief. This is why Judas killed himself and why Peter became an apostle. We're going to get into that, especially on Sunday evenings in our study about conviction and confession and repentance. There is a thing called human-engineered grief or human-engineered sorrow. that is not repentance. It does not bring salvation. It brings grief, even to the point of suicide, but it doesn't bring salvation. Repentance, conviction of sin from the Holy Spirit brings forth confession of sin, which brings forth repentance, which brings forth forgiveness. There's a difference. That's almost daylight and they took Jesus back in and Dr. Luke tells us, now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him and beating Him. And they blindfolded Him and were asking Him, saying, prophesy! Who is the one who hit you? And they were saying many other things against Him, blaspheming. There's one thing you notice when you study This event with Jesus and how they treated the apostles in the book of Acts, how brutal these people are. Pilate said, okay, I'll let him go, but I'll beat him first. And then in the book of Acts, when they were beating the apostles, they found them to be not guilty of the charge. And so just for good measure, they beat them with many stripes, the Bible says, before they let them go. Just for good measure. So just beating was a way of life for these people. So Jesus has been up all night. He has prayed so hard that an angel came to strengthen Him as He sweat blood. And since just after midnight, Jesus has gone from one beating to the next, one interrogation to the next, and now it is daylight on Friday morning. And Luke writes in v. 66-71, when it was day, the council of elders of the people assembled both chief priests and scribes, and they led Him away to their council chamber saying, if You are the Christ, tell us. But he said to them, if I tell you, you will not believe. And if I ask a question, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." Now he was not equating himself to his humanity by calling himself Son of Man. He was equating himself with the prophecy of Daniel that they were well familiar with. which is just irritating the life out of them all the more. Because that is equating himself with God. So interestingly, the phrase, Son of Man, is about Him being God. And that's why they all said, Are you the Son of God then? And He said to them, Yes, I am. Then they said, What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth. So Judas has betrayed Him. Peter has denied Him. The disciples have all abandoned Him. And soldiers have beaten Jesus all night long. And He is manhandled and abused and questioned. Now this is one thing if you and I go through this. Because as they're beating us, we would begin to think, Lord, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy I'm a sinner saved by grace if I get beat they kill me I deserve it I'm not worthy to be set free I'm not innocent I've committed horrible sins in my life and plus I don't have the power to make them stop Jesus was not guilty and he had the power to stop them and he didn't Now we need to remember that this all night affair is not a sincere effort by the Jewish authorities to find either guilt or innocence. Jesus has already been condemned by the religious leaders and this so-called trial is really nothing more than a kangaroo court. It is nothing more than an excuse to conduct a brutal interrogation that is being carried out in violation of both Jewish and Roman law. Now we need to understand that Jesus is being tried and condemned here for the very same reasons for which lost people are saved. Number one, who Jesus is. They don't believe who Jesus is. Number two, what Jesus taught. They don't believe what He said. And number three, what Jesus did. They don't believe what he did. So other than not believing who he is, what he said, and what he did, they were okay. Which brings up another all-important question. What will we do with Jesus? The Jews categorically rejected who Jesus is, what Jesus taught. Nobody can be saved who rejects those two issues. Every single human being born after Adam must confess out loud that Jesus Christ is God Almighty in human flesh. And all who are saved must believe and strive to obey all that Jesus taught. But these religious hypocrites ran into a serious problem about the many amazing things that Jesus had done over the last three years. These men feared the people, and so they could not deny the spectacular miracles that Jesus had performed in broad daylight in front of hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses. So they solved that problem by simply saying, He cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons. That fixed it, right? No, it didn't. because they attributed the divine power of Jesus to the devil. And this is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He said this in Matthew 12. He who is not with Me is against Me. He who does not gather with Me scatters. Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. This does not mean you can't criticize somebody that's doing goofy things in the name of the Holy Spirit. This means you better not say that what Jesus did was not of the Holy Spirit. Any human being is able to be criticized about something. And the preachers around here that think they're above criticism, and they think that criticism is the same thing as getting beaten, are just babies. They're just patsies. They're just too weak. I'm criticized all the time and most of the criticism is earned. I work hard to get my criticism. So help me. So pray for me. So there is no attempt at conducting this trial fairly, no intention of ever setting Jesus free. As far as the religious leaders are concerned, Jesus is an evil imposter masquerading as the Messiah. They have condemned Him as a blasphemer and a liar, the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier and a demon. and the result of rejecting the incarnate God is the final condemnation that Jesus gave to the Jewish religious rulers in Luke 19 when He said, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you and surround you and hem you in on every side and they will level you to the ground and your children within you and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not recognize the time of your visitation. I'm going to tear it down. And when I tear it down, it will be over. And you'll never sacrifice another animal. And you will never have a Levitical priesthood. And you will never even be able to chart your genealogy back to Abraham. I am done with the Old Covenant. I'm bringing in the New Covenant. And you will never go back to the Old Covenant again. And I'm God and I can make that happen. And he did. And that came to pass in 70 A.D. with the Roman destruction of the temple and the elimination of the entire fabric of Jewish worship and way of life that was established under the Old or the First Covenant. There's a wall in Jerusalem right now. And that wall is a hall that was in a hallway that was from one building that connected to Herod's temple. Herod's temple's gone. That wall is not a part of Herod's temple. And they're sticking little pieces of paper in those blocks, and they're putting their head against those rocks, and they're praying. And you know what they're praying? They're praying for Messiah. They're praying that the temple can be rebuilt. Why? Because they still don't believe in Jesus. And they don't want to love and serve Jesus Christ. Because they believe to this day He was an imposter. God's not answering those prayers. And until Jerusalem says, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. That's when you know salvation is going to come. And that's why we need to build churches in Jerusalem instead of helping them rebuild their temple. That's why we need to be on the streets of Jerusalem because it's against the law in the city of Jerusalem to preach the gospel out on the streets. Do you know that? You can preach it in Baghdad, but you can't preach it in Jerusalem unless you break the law. So that's why we need to go to Jerusalem and preach the gospel so they can be saved. Because they're not saved. Amen. This is why I don't get invited for Christmas dinner. This is why they took me off the radio. Right, because I'll say this. And this is the truth. I want people to go to heaven. And you don't go to heaven because you were born into a particular ethnic culture. You go to heaven because you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ. Somebody say amen on this. Praise the Lord. Now you're all in trouble. I got you on tape. Praise the Lord. But because Israel was merely a vassal state of Rome during the first century, these religious frauds needed the permission of the Roman authorities to kill Jesus. And so in Luke 23, verse 1, Dr. Luke says, then the whole body of them got up and brought him before Pilate. Now the phrase the whole body refers to the complete Sanhedrin court. This was the governing body of 70 men of Israel during that time that made sure that what the nation did was in accord with Jewish law. Yeah right sure they did. And the reason the entire Sanhedrin was sent Jesus to Pilate was to show the Roman ruler that they were all in agreement. John Mark wrote in Mark 15, early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole council immediately held a consultation and binding Jesus, they led him away and delivered him to Pilate. That's how this works. Now let me give you an idea of how the council is supposed to work. We've got three elders in this church. Brother Andy, Brother Vern, and me. And the three of us meet together every single week. And we discuss what's going on with the church and the people and what we need to do, and then we pray. We pray for ourselves to have the broken, contrite, and trembling nature that God sees. God has told us that we are not to lord it over the sheep, but we are to lovingly put our arms around the sheep and shepherd them into the truth of God's Word and life of holiness. And where there is a need to encourage, we encourage. And where there is a need for rebuke and correction, we do that. Because that's love. So we pray for wisdom and purity of heart to lead this church in love and truth. And then we pray for each one of you. And we are in the process right now of updating and amending our doctrinal statement. And I should have had that for publication next week. I should have had it this week and I'd got ten pounds of sugar I was trying to put in a five pound bag and some of it spilled out. But we're going to get it there next week, Lord willing. But we can't just change the doctrinal statement willy-nilly. We have to have a reason and we have to tell you what that reason is. So I'm going to have a cover letter showing you where the changes have been. We're adding a section. I'm correcting some typos that Brother Matt found. And I've been in this church since 1998 and Matt's the only one that's ever found any typographical errors in the doctrinal statement. So I'm hoping the rest of y'all read it. He's the only one that said anything. And that's scary. But I thank him for reading it. And then I'm adding a section on what we believe and teach about human sexuality. Because that's a big important issue. And the bylaws of the church state that for any major decision all of the elders must agree unanimously. So no major decision will ever be made in this church with a two against one vote. It is unanimous or we can't move forward. Because if it's not unanimous then we're wrong. If it's God then why don't the three of us agree with it? So we go back and we meet again and again and again and again and we talk and we pray and we keep meeting until Jesus comes but we will not go forward with that decision until we're unanimous. That's in the bylaws of the church. And that is to protect us and the church from making decisions based on political considerations or popularity contests or worldly and carnal minds. Now does that guarantee that we will always make the right decision? No. But it's much harder to be wrong when three men who constantly have their noses in the book and their knees on the carpet are each looking at the same issue. And as this church grows, we will have more elders. And the more we have, the more men that we have who are genuinely godly and biblical leaders, the harder it becomes to make the wrong decision. Because one of the requirements that we have made with each other, the covenant that we've made with each other, is we don't say yes unless we think the answer is yes. We tell each other, that's dumb. You can't do that. Here's why. And we don't get offended when somebody says what we just said isn't right. And one of the most important factors of godly leadership is that the leaders themselves be men of godly integrity and humility who go to great lengths to make sure that the sheep of God understand and know the Scriptures. Here's another complaint about my ministry. That I give you too much stuff to read and think about and pray about. That I'm drowning you in information. Guilty. It's going to get worse. We're going to ratchet this thing up about four notches this year. Because I don't want to drag. Jesus is coming. And so I'm warning you to see. I'm warning you to hear. I want you to ask questions. Now Chris King called and Sundays are hard for him. He's trying to lead his church and he's caught up in a study on Malachi he told me. So he's not going to be able to be here this afternoon but Brother Robbie's coming. So only way I know to get Chris is to have it on another day besides Sunday. So I don't know how to fix that but Because he has a Sunday. He's one of the few churches in Gulfport that have a Sunday evening service like we do. So God bless him I'm all for him. But we'll have Q and that's why we have Q and A. You're supposed to ask questions at the Q and A. You're supposed to be struggling over stuff. And it's OK if you say I don't I don't I don't understand this. What is this talking about. That's how we learn beloved. I give you a Puritan reading challenge every month. I give you a dog a Bible. reading plan whatever it's called what's it called the Bible reading plan OK that's a good name. You take my sermons you got the radio you got all kind of so so my goal is nobody's doing anything in the seat in a corner nobody's doing anything under this under the covers know everything's on top of the table everything's in the daylight everything's open And so that's the sign that I'm wanting you to learn. I'm wanting you to see. Do you understand, beloved, that when John Wycliffe finally translated the Bible out of Latin and went back to the Greek and translated the New Testament into English, that the English people danced in the streets because they could read the Bible themselves. And what he got for that was assassination. They killed him for that. It was the capital offense in England to translate the Bible into English. And every one of us has got several English Bibles in our possession. So what I'm trying to get you to do is read them and learn. That's not the sign of a cult. That's the sign of a biblical church. A cult wants to keep you secret. It has secret ceremonies and only a few elite members know what's going on. And there's all kinds of rituals and ceremonies that are hidden. And we don't want you to read. We don't want you to talk to anybody. I want you to talk to everybody. Now that's how it's supposed to work. But that's not how the Sanhedrin worked. And it didn't work because the sheep of God were not willing to walk in God's ways. It didn't work because the leaders themselves were unsaved and ungodly men who went to great lengths to keep the sheep in the dark about what the Scriptures say. That's not happening here. And so Dr. Luke is telling us that the whole body of these religious leaders were all in one accord about Jesus. Now listen, and what they were unanimous about was that Jesus has to die. That's what they agreed on. And that's probably the only time in history when these religious charlatans were in agreement about anything. And that's the wrong thing to be in agreement about. So this was a display of their supposed unanimity to the pagan ruler to say, in effect, the Sanhedrin is 70 men strong and we can't all be wrong about this man. But they were all wrong. And that is an indication of how wicked and how ungodly the spiritual leadership of Israel in the first century had become. And so here they come, all 70 of them, to Pilate to show this man that they are in full agreement. Jesus has to die. So just who is Pilate? Well Pontius was his family name that indicated that he was of the original people of ancient Italy that eventually became Romans. So in his native tongue his name would have been Pontius Pilates. The A is long. It's not Pilates. Pilates. But no other credible record of his background has been found. According to history Pilate was the fifth procurator or prefect or governor of the Roman province of Judea. The apostle Levi wrote this in Matthew twenty seven and two and they bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pilate the governor. So Matthew called him governor Levi called him governor Pilate was not born into wealth or political royalty and there is reason to believe that his wife Procula or Procula was the niece of the emperor Tiberius and that is why he was appointed as the governor of Judea. But in any event, aren't you glad that we have elevated our nation to the point where we don't have family members promoted to high positions of authority in our government? Aren't you tickled pink that we're away from all of that? But in any event, Pilate began his rule in A.D. 26 and dominated that region until he was removed from office in A.D. 36. So about 10 years in office. And Pilate had quickly made a name for himself from the barbaric cruelty that he used on Enhiewa Challenge's authority. The Jewish historians Josephus and Philo described Pontius Pilate as, quote, a stubborn, inflexible, and cruel man who had no respect for the Jewish people, unquote. Perhaps because of his military background, he may have sometimes used force when it wasn't necessary. On one occasion, Pilate told his soldiers to disguise themselves in civilian clothes with their swords hidden under their cloaks and mingle with the crowd of Jewish demonstrators. After they were in position, he signaled for them to pull out their weapons and attack. And in the ensuing bloodbath, hundreds of people were killed. Now even though the Persians under Darius I actually invented crucifixion about a thousand years before Jesus was born, the Romans had perfected it. With their advanced knowledge of the human anatomy, they located the medial nerve which runs the entire length of the body. And by positioning the nails against the medial nerve in both the feet and the hands, not only would crucifixion bring about death by suffocation, it would also give the people unbelievable pain while they were dying. They had to invent a word. The word is agony. That word had to be invented to describe the pain associated with crucifixion. The understanding of the horror of crucifixion and Apollo had grown to such an extent that many people would readily betray their own family, even their own children, rather than face it. Now Pilate was a very ambitious man. He loved power and the prestige that went with the power. So for example, in order to impress his superiors back in Rome, Pilate was especially fond of imposing as much pain on his victims as possible. And so even though he was only in power about three years, when he came into contact with Jesus. Pilate had already gained a reputation of being a vicious, unmerciful man whom the people feared. It was common for the condemned to beg for mercy at Pilate's feet before he would send them off to die. So this was the man to whom the Jewish religious leaders sent Jesus. Now to show you the depth of the hypocrisy of the Jewish religious leaders, look at what the Apostle John wrote. In John 18, 28, then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium and it was early and they themselves did not enter the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover. What? Now the Praetorium was the palace of the governor. It was the office, the place of judgment where Pilate would try the accused and render judgment and because the Jews saw the Romans as being pagans they wouldn't dare enter into the governor's palace because that would make them unclean and they would have to go through the long drawn out purification rites before they could eat the Passover and since it was already time to eat the Passover the day they brought Jesus to Pilate these men could only stand outside and wait as Pilate interrogated Jesus alone So it was okay for these religious fakers to lie and make up stories about Jesus so they could have him murdered, but they were too holy to even enter into a Roman political ruler's office lest they be defiled. That's the hypocrisy. That's what we're talking about here. This is a perfect example of what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 23, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness, but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others, you blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Now as we get into this, we will see that Pilate did not respect the Sanhedrin at all. In his short time as governor of Judea, he saw example after example of their blatant hypocrisy. He knew how greedy and sexually immoral they were. This is one thing you've got to remember. These people were not pious men. They were adulterers to the max. Divorce was rampant among the Pharisees of that day. And he recognized all of this in them because he was of the same caliber himself. In fact, Pilate is the perfect example of what the Apostle John was talking about when he said this in 1 John 2, 15-17, Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you love the world... Now I'm not talking about the dirt. I'm not talking about the trees and the mountains and the rivers and the streams and the air and grass and birds. All that. That's not the world. He's talking about the world system. And he explains to you what he means by the world in verse 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world. That's the world that he's talking about. The world system that exalts business people who are ambitious, so ambitious they throw wives away like we throw away old shoes. and who will lie, cheat and steal because it's good for business. Pragmatism. Pragmatism in the church says whatever draws a crowd must be of God. So that's the world. If you love the world, the Bible says the love of the Father is not in you, which means you're not saved. Right? Verse 17, the world is passing away and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. If you want to know what being worldly looks like, look at Pilate. Pontius Pilate was one of the best examples in the Bible of what being worldly looks like. He was so ambitious. He so lusted for power and prestige. He was so in love with money and position that he would sanction the murder of a man that he knew was innocent by people that he knew to be religious hypocrites. Because even though Pilate protested Jesus' innocence several times and made a weak attempt at letting Him go, John records for us why Pilate finally agreed to His death in John 19. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. They just beat the fire out of Him. Scourging involves... I'm going to get into this next week. Scourging is not slapping Him around. They used tools for this that were made to scourge people with. and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a purple robe on him and they began to come up to him and say hail king of the Jews and to give him slaps in the face. One of the commentators on verse three says that slapping him in the face involved grabbing him by his beard and shaking his beard so they could pull out handfuls of it. Pilate came out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man. So when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, Crucify him. Crucify him. These were the same people that he healed. The same people that he fed. The same people He cast demons out of. The same people that cried out to Him, Son of David, have mercy upon us. Pilate said to them, Take Him yourself and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him. The Jews answered, We have a law, and by that law He ought to die, because He made Himself out to be the Son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. There you go. Afraid he would lose his power. And he entered into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, now this is by himself with Jesus one on one. Where are you from? Jesus gave no answer. So Pilate said to him, do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. They hated Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. They're fixing to be holy. They're fixing to all be holy. Yeah, they were running up down the streets Tuesday, dancing half-naked, getting drunk, taking drugs, having free sex, so they can go Wednesday and have ashes put on their forehead, mocking God. That's why Mardi Gras is not like the Fourth. I got no problem with you celebrating the Fourth of July. I got every problem in the world, you catching beads at Mardi Gras, because I don't believe in the rosary, which is what the beads are signifying. It's a religious holiday sanctioned officially and formally sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church. That's the last day you can kick up your heels and get drunk and commit lewdness before you go spend 40 days mocking God about fasting. Because you're not going to give up food for 40 days. You're just going to give up the brand of cigarettes you don't like anyway. You're going to give up your favorite soap opera. You're going to give up pepperoni pizza, but you can still eat sausage pizza. It's just a mockery of everything holy. So don't participate in this religious abomination. There's a reason why all the floats are named after gods. Have you noticed that? Bacchus and... That's amazing. And nobody catches on. This is synchronism at its worst. This is synchronizing pagan worship with Christianity. And guess who wins with that? Paganism wins. Because Christianity is the truth. You don't mix it with anything. Hallelujah. I mean, I've made everybody mad in the Gulf South, so it's okay. I'm an equal opportunity offender. And that's exactly what they're fixing to go get holy and take to Passover. So they've got to hurry up and kill Jesus. That's why they came out to break their legs. So they would hurry up and suffocate to death. Because it's against the law for somebody to hang on a tree overnight. And we don't want to break the law. No, you don't want to disappoint God. So let's hurry up and kill Him quick. This is unreal. That was the day of preparation. This is the day they're supposed to prepare to be holy. It was about the sixth hour and he said to the Jews, Behold, your king. Why did Pilate use these terminology? Why did he say this? Because of what he believed about Jesus. So they cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate said to him, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. This is not the average Jew. This is the religious leaders saying this. So the searing question that burned into Pilate was this, What will I do with Jesus? If Jesus is the Son of God, then Pilate must worship Him. But in order to worship Jesus and follow Him, Pilate would have to give up his position and his power and his prestige. And if Jesus is the liar and fake that these religious hypocrites say, then Pilate must have Jesus killed. What shall I do with Jesus? Several times Pilate tried to pass the book. Several times he tries to let somebody else decide. Yet each time Pilate is forced to face Jesus Himself. You will be forced. Jesus will stand in your way and look you in the eye. And you will have to say, what will I do with this man? Every human on earth will look at Jesus. And you will bow before Him or you will curse Him. But you will not remain neutral with Jesus. Pilate knew that he was not guilty. Pilate knew the Sanhedrin had fabricated their story. Pilate knew something about Jesus. There is reason to believe that Pilate had conversations about this man and had made statements about this man before Jesus stood before him. And the fact that Jesus stood calmly and fearlessly before him and was not begging for his life shook Pilate to the core of his being. What will I do with Jesus? So he stared into Jesus' eyes. This brutal barbarian looked deeply into the soul of the incarnate God, and what he saw troubled him. So I ask you this morning, beloved, what will you do with Jesus? Will you fall before Him and worship Him? Will you leave father and mother behind and love Him? Will you give up worldly position and power and prestige for Jesus? What will you trade for Jesus? What's your price to betray the Lord? What is your price to turn away from Jesus? Now that Jesus has stood before you, now that you have examined all of His claims and looked deeply into His eyes, what will you do with Jesus? Amen. Let's pray.