Well, you can look with me, we'll pick back up now and our look and journey through Mark's gospel. We're now in chapter 15. This morning, we'll pick up there in chapter 15 in verse one. I wanna thank Pastor Aaron for filling in for me last week, but it is good to be back now and picking back up here in Mark's gospel. A couple of reminders before we get into Mark's gospel though this morning. Again, on March 23rd, we have that congregational meeting where we'll be voting on a new elder and four new deacons. So please make sure you're available and you can stay after service on that Sunday to cast your vote. Again, even if you're not a voting member, please stay. It'd be great to have you there, and you can learn more about our church and some of the processes that we have. But also on that Sunday, March 23rd, and then for those three consecutive Sundays, we're gonna pause once again our series in Mark, and we're gonna preach three, a short three-sermon series from Acts chapter 20. Because in that chapter, Paul is speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus, and he gives some wonderful instructions and some foundations about what it means to be a church and what it means to be an elder serving the church. So we're going to look at that. on March 23rd, March 30th, and then April 6th, which will coincide with our election and installation of our new officers because that chapter gives us some wonderful information about what it means to be elders and deacons and how those offices serve the church. So we're going to do that then. And then we'll return to Mark. And we'll wrap up the series, we'll have two more sermons at that point and the final sermon will be on Easter Sunday where we'll be in Mark chapter 16 on the resurrection. So that's the plan going forward. If you didn't catch any of that, that's okay. Just show up on Sunday and you'll follow right along, it'll be fine. Well, that's the plan. But for now, let's look at Mark chapter 15, and I'm gonna read for us verses one through 15. So this is the word of the Lord. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him, you have said so. And the chief priests accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed. Now at the feast, he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there's a man named, a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him released for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, Then what shall I do with the man who you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. And Pilate said to them, Why? What evil has he done? but they shouted all the more, crucify him. So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, You have sent your Son to suffer and to die in this incredibly gruesome, horrible death on the cross. We pray that our familiarity with this story, that it would never take away from our wonder of how great your love is for us. So we pray now that your spirit would illuminate our hearts to receive your word and that you would apply it to our hearts, that you'd be sanctifying us through your truth. We pray for that and we pray all of this now in Jesus' holy name, amen. Well, earlier in our service, we recited the Apostles' Creed, and we always have some confession of faith that we have in our service. And most of the time, we do use the Apostles' Creed. And maybe you've wondered, why is that? Why do we use this one the most? Well, it's because this creed contains the core teachings of the of the apostles of the apostolic deposit that's given to us and and hence hence the name the apostles creed now there's some traditions that will say that the apostles themselves are the ones that wrote the creed that's likely not the case but it is a summary of what the apostles taught In other words, it's a summary of Scripture because the Bible is the apostolic deposit. This is the teaching that is given to us. And the creed, the Apostles' Creed, is a summary of what is necessary to know to be a Christian. What do you need to know from Scripture? So sometimes it's called the rule of faith. This is what it means to be a part of the Christian faith. You believe these things, these propositions that are listed there in the Apostles' Creed. In fact, the Heidelberg Catechism that I'm gonna reference a little bit later in the sermon, and many of the other catechisms and confessions of the church have developed over the years. The Heidelberg uses the Apostles' Creed as a teaching tool, and it lists the phrases in there, and then it explains, here's what you're saying when you say these phrases. So there's a lot more that could be said there, but have you noticed in the Creed that we confess one of the phrases in there is that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. Now if the creed contains the core teachings of the Christian faith that we all must know, then it means that every one of those phrases is very important for us. So why is it that it's so important that we confess that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate? Why specifically do we need to know that? That's what we wanna consider today as we read this story of Christ's suffering under Pilate. Pilate, he is going to ask three questions in this passage about Jesus. And now actually, if you're gonna be specific and count the question marks that show up, there's actually five questions that Pilate asks, okay? But there's three, the last three that he asks are basically the same idea, which is, what are we going to do about this Jesus guy? So the questions are this. The first question Pilate asks is, are you the king of the Jews? And then Pilate asks, the second question, he asks Jesus, have you no answer to make? And then, third, across the, verses six through 15, that whole section, all the questions that Pilate's gonna be asking basically amount to this one question, what shall we do with Jesus? What shall I do with this man? So why is it important for us to know and to confess that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate? The answer is found in those three questions that Pilate asks of Jesus. And from those questions, we learn three things. We learn first that Jesus is the true King, Second, that he is the suffering king. And third, that he is the servant king. If that didn't make sense to you, it's gonna make sense as we work through it. So let's just jump through it. We'll jump into it here. We'll work through each of those three things. The first thing is that Jesus is the true king because Pilate asks him, are you the king of the Jews? And now let me read that again for us. As soon as it was morning, it says, the chief priests, they held a consultation with the scribes and the elders, the whole council together. They brought Jesus to Pilate, and Pilate asks him, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus says, you have said so. Jesus has been betrayed. We've already looked at that. He's been betrayed, he's been abandoned. He was put in this sham trial in the middle of the night. And these same Jewish leaders that held this sham trial, they're listed again here in verse 1. The chief priests, the elders, the scribes, these are the people that made up the religious leadership in Judea at the time. This is the Sanhedrin, the highest court of the Jewish people. And they had already made their decision. This man is guilty, and we want him executed. The only thing that was missing was the charge. Why is he guilty? That's what they had to come up with at this sham trial. And they do so, and then they gather together the next morning. So this is the Friday morning now, this first good Friday. They hold a consultation together. It's likely that some of them weren't able to make it to this sham trial that was in the middle of the night last night, but now the whole group is gathered here. They agree upon the charges, and they now bring him to the Roman governor. They bring him bound to Pilate, and Jesus is going to suffer under him. So why was this necessary? Why do we confess that he suffered under Pontius Pilate? Why do the Jewish leaders have to bring him to Pilate to begin with? Why don't they just take care of it themselves? Well, they wanted the death penalty for Jesus, but it was not lawful for them to carry out that execution on their own. They were under Roman rule. The Sanhedrin, they had certain liberties under the Roman government to exercise their own authority amongst the Jewish population, but they were not able to carry out the death penalty. There is also another problem. As brutal as the Roman Empire was, they weren't likely to execute somebody for any reason whatsoever. And we even see hints of that in Pilate as he's talking to them. Pilate understood, this man's not guilty. And that's gonna be important for us. He's actually declared innocent by Pilate. He understood it was out of envy that they were doing all this. That's why, though, that they were trying their hardest to center their charges about Jesus around the fact that he was the Christ, which is the Messiah, which is that he was claiming to be a king. And Luke's account tells us this in more detail, that when they brought Jesus to Pilate, they told him, quoting Luke 23, that we found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar and saying that he himself is Christ, that is, a king. You see, they're translating it into something that Pilate will understand. They're explaining to Pilate, he's making himself to be our Messiah, which means that he's making himself to be a king, which means that he's rivaling Caesar himself. So don't you wanna go and do something about that? And that explains then Pilate's first question. Are you the king of the Jews? See, these are the claims that Pilate's been hearing. Jesus is making himself out to be this messianic king figure. But Mark doesn't record that back and forth for us. So why doesn't he do that? He just starts with Pilate's question. Why does Mark do that? Well, it's very Mark of him. He wants us, he wants his readers to be asking that question ourselves, and he wants us to be thinking, why would Pilate be asking this question? And Mark wants us to be asking the same question. Is Jesus truly the king? And he wants us to be asking the question, is Jesus truly my king? Do I believe in Jesus? But then Jesus answers the question. He says, you have said so. I love that answer. Why does Jesus answer it that way? It's a yes answer, but there's some nuance to it. Jesus says, yes, I am king, but not in the way that you think. It's not in the way that Pilate thinks. Jesus does tell Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world. In John's gospel, there's a longer back and forth that's recorded for us. But for Mark, he just leaves it simply there. You have said so. I am a king. I'm a king, my kingdom is not of this world, but I'm a king nonetheless. And through this interrogation then, under the Roman government, that God himself has instituted because he is sovereign over all things and all nations. He's using this to pronounce and to declare on behalf of the Roman government, Christ truly is king. Jesus confirms this, he testifies to the Roman authorities that he is the king. That's the first thing. But the next thing we learn, not only is he the true king, but he is the suffering king. He is the suffering king. Verse three, the chief priest accused him of many things. Mark just summarizes that for us. And then Pilate, it's recorded that Pilate again asked him this question, have you no answer to make? Pilate asked Jesus, listen to all these things that are being said about you, have you no answer to make? Yet Jesus didn't answer and Pilate was amazed. He didn't have to answer. Jesus didn't have to answer any of these questions because he was the suffering king. And the son of man must suffer. Everything we've been looking at throughout this whole series of Mark that we've been in for many, many months now, all of the foreshadowing, all the themes, all the motifs, all the promises, all the prophecies, all of these things, they're now converging. as Jesus approaches the cross. And one of the things that Jesus has promised and told his disciples about from the very beginning is now coming true. And he told his disciples this back in chapter eight, verse 31. It says that Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, but then on the rise again after three days. You see, this was his mission. He had come to suffer and to die and to rise again. So no, he has no answer that he needs to make because all of this is happening according to his plan. All of this is going according to what God has ordained for him to do. He's already prayed in the garden. God, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but your will be done. It was God's will for him to drink the cup of wrath. And now that moment has come. And in this moment, Jesus fulfills another prophecy, another part of Isaiah's suffering servant prophecy. We've looked at that a lot throughout Mark's gospel. But here's what Isaiah prophesied, Isaiah 53, seven. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Listen. Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Who is Isaiah talking about? This is what Jesus is doing right here. He's fulfilling the suffering servant prophecy by being the suffering king. receiving this suffering in silence. He opens not his mouth. He made no further reply. And Pilate was amazed at this. What kind of man would do this? Who would sit back and receive all these accusations and not even try to defend his case? Especially a king. Especially someone who had just said, yeah, You ask me if I'm a king, you've said so, yeah. But then nothing, then silence. What king would suffer like this? And that's that question why, why must Jesus suffer? What kind of king would suffer like this? That leads us then to the third thing. Jesus is the true king, he's the suffering king. Why must he suffer? Well, because he is the servant king. And that's the third thing we learn here. And we learn this through that last series of questions that Pilate asks throughout verses six through 15 as he approaches the crowd. He asks them several times over, what do you want me to do with this man? What shall we do with Jesus? And in this moment, this is very important that we understand. As Jesus suffers under Pilate, he is declared innocent. Pilate asks, what evil has this man done? Yet, Christ was condemned to death. The innocent man was made guilty, and in his place, a truly guilty man was set free, this Barabbas. We'll talk about him in a moment. But this is exactly what Jesus promised he was going to do. So if you've been with us through this series, you'll remember the theme verse that we've talked about several times in Mark's gospel. What's the theme verse of Mark's gospel? Mark 10 45. For the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve. And how does he serve? And to give his life as a ransom for many. You see, this is the servant king. The reason why the Son of Man must suffer is because of this, because he came to serve and to be a ransom for his people. Peter would later describe Jesus' sacrifice like this in 1 Peter 3. He says that Christ also suffered once for sins. He says the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us, that is the unrighteous, bring us to God. And this is the beautiful picture of the gospel that we get here in this passage. See, under Pilate, Jesus is suffering because he is found to be the true king, yet he's willingly suffering, opening not his mouth. so that he can be the servant king for his people. He is innocent, yet he is declared guilty and condemned as guilty, and in his place, a guilty man is made innocent and set free. This is exactly what the gospel is. This is exactly the good news. This is exactly what happens to each and every one of us, to you and me. This is why faith in Christ is so important. It's the most important thing. Because we are all guilty before God due to sin. But we can be made innocent by faith in Christ. You see, we are all, in terms of this story, we are all in the shoes of this man, Barabbas. We are all Barabbas in the story, but because of Christ, we are able to be made innocent. And it is through faith in Christ that we are made to be sons of God. And isn't it incredible, this is so beautiful, the way that God has inspired scripture for us. This beautiful imagery and biblical poetry here that this man's name, Barabbas, Bar Abba, son of Abba, son of the Father. That's what his name means. And that's what you and I become when we put our faith in Christ. Because of our union with Christ, we are able to cry out, Abba, Father. We are able to pray as we did earlier in the service, our Father in heaven. He's our Father, He's not just a father, He's our Father. And we're not just any particular people, we are sons and daughters of the Father. And that is what Jesus does as he suffers under Pilate. Sinclair Ferguson, he says it well. He says, Jesus was not dying for his own crimes, but for the crimes of others. Not for his own sins, but for the sins of others. He did not die for himself, he died for us. That's what Christ has done. In this story, we learn that important truth that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, and because of this suffering, we know that he is the true king, he is the suffering king, and he is the servant king. And because all of that is true, we are made sons and daughters of the living God. So as we wrap up here, I hope that this gives you some more appreciation for the Apostles' Creed as we recite it so often on Sundays. And when we say that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate, that is a historical claim. And that's an important part of it as well, is that our faith is not based upon myth or upon imagination or anything of that sort. Our faith is based upon fact, upon historically verifiable fact. Christ suffered under the Roman government, this Jesus of Nazareth. He was declared by the Roman government to be innocent, yet he was unjustly condemned to death. That is historical fact. But that's not all that we are to believe. But we're also to believe that Christ endured all of this for us. And when we make that personal switch, That's where our faith becomes real saving faith. It moves from just mere knowledge, it moves then to a personal ascent, a personal trust in Christ, in Jesus himself. This is where our faith becomes truly receiving and resting upon Christ. That's when we say that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate for me. That's the switch that takes place. So I wanna read, as we're wrapping up, I wanna read, this is a somewhat longer quote, so bear with me here, but I think it really helps bring all this together for us. And I mentioned the Hatterberg Catechism earlier in the service. It uses the Apostles' Creed, it works through that creed, all the phrases to teach what it means to believe and to be a Christian, to believe in the Christian faith. And it does so about this phrase that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. So I'm quoting, this is from Zacharias Ursinus, one of the primary authors of the Heidelberg Catechism. And he's explaining in more detail what it is that we confess when we confess that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. And he's gonna make the same point, that there's the historical element, but also that personal element that's needed. So this is what he says. He says, to this we reply. That is to the question that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. That it does not merely include a historical faith, but it involves such a belief in Christ as leads us to confide in his passion. It is therefore to believe first that Christ, from the very moment of his birth, endured and sustained miseries of every kind. and that he, especially at the closing period of his life, suffered under Pontius Pilate the most severe torments, both of body and soul, and that he felt the dreadful wrath of God in making a satisfaction for the sins of the whole world and in appeasing the divine anger which had been excited by sin. It is also to believe, in the second place, listen to this, that he endured all of this in my behalf, and is thus satisfied also for my sins by his passion, and merited for me remission of sins, the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. Do you see that connection that he's making there? Between the historical and the personal. This truly happened, but do you believe that this truly happened for you? That's the question. Can you say that about yourself? Can you say, yes, Jesus endured this for me. He made atonement for my sins. He achieved my forgiveness through the cross. There is no more important question than that this morning. Is Jesus your king? Is he your savior? Let's pray. Jesus, we pray now that as you have spoken to us through your word, that you would now continue to apply it to our hearts and apply it by your spirit, work in us. And I pray for those here this morning, those here who answer yes to those questions, I pray for them that you would continue to impress upon their hearts even more and more our need for you, our Savior, that you would grow us in our love and in our devotion to you. But for any here this morning who might answer no to those questions, who have not yet prayed and turned in repentance and faith to you as Savior. I pray for them that they would say yes, that you would move in their minds and in their hearts and work faith in them so that they would receive you as their personal King, the true suffering servant King and Savior, that they would find in you the forgiveness they need, the satisfaction for sin, and peace with God, the living God. May you receive all the glory for it. And we pray this all in your mighty name.