The glory of God. Next week, if the Lord is pleased, I'll be focusing primarily on the resurrection of Jesus. And then the Sunday after that will be going on with the passage beginning in v. 26. So, this is the final message on pilot that I'll be preaching in this series. And I do not think that I've done a very good job. I do think that I've left a lot out. I do think I could preach four or five more sermons on this passage. But I think that we're getting enough that we can move on. So last week we saw how Pilate had sent Jesus over to Herod. For Herod to make the determination because he really didn't want to condemn Jesus. And this was for two reasons. He didn't want to be used by the Sanhedrin. Pilate despised this Jewish religious ruling body. He knew they were hypocrites. He knew they were frauds. He had no respect for them. He saw how they unjustly dominated over the poor and the weak and the orphan and the widow. He knew they weren't godly by any stretch of the word. Pilate was a very educated man. Pilate was a very cultured man. He was a very sophisticated man. He had been around the block. He had been highly trained. He was an example of an amazing soldier. He commanded armies. He was the praetor over the garrison that was in Jerusalem. He had the respect, according to history, he had the respect of his men. He was unmerciful. He was brutal. He was to the point. He didn't play with anybody. And he despised these Jewish rulers. But there was another reason. It is because having spent time with Jesus, he came to believe that Jesus was not guilty, that Jesus was innocent. Now that doesn't mean he was saved. But he didn't think that he was guilty of anything worthy of death. But as we have discovered, Pilate was a perfect example of what worldliness looked like. He is competent in calculating. He is pragmatic in self-preserving. All of the things that would make us be successful in this life. Pilate was a man of pragmatic, worldly wisdom. He probably saw himself as a realist, which was ironic, because he got reality dead wrong. He seemed to see Jesus as a disposable pawn in a political chess match when in reality, Pilate himself was the pawn and Jesus was the king. So we must understand that it was not God's will for Herod to condemn Jesus. Pilate was chosen by God to be the man who would forever be linked with the final condemnation of the Lamb of God. That is the only reason he was born. That is the only reason he lived his life. He was chosen to be the man who would forever be linked with the final condemnation of the Lamb of God. And all of the Gospel writers agree with that statement. The Apostle Levi said this in Matthew 27, verse 26, Then he, Pilate, released Barabbas for them, but after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. Mark 15.15 says, John Mark wrote, wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them and after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified. The Apostle John wrote in John 19.16, so then he, Pilate, then handed him over to them to be crucified. How utterly tragic that Pilate condemned Jesus to rescue his own political career. Now we pick back up in v. 11 when Herod further assaults Jesus and mocks Him and then sends the Lord back to Pilate. In v. 13-16, Dr. Luke wrote, Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers of the people and said to them, you brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against him. No, nor has Herod. For he sent him back to us, and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him." That was the official ruling of the praetor in Jerusalem. Now, normally that would have been it. But it wasn't it, was it? Because not only was Pilate's wickedness at play here, not only was the evil heart of the Sanhedrin at play here, but the sovereignty of God in crushing His own Son was in play here. And so Pilate says in verse 16, therefore, because He's innocent, because I find no guilt in Him, therefore I will punish Him. For what? And then I'll release Him. This is convoluted. This is not justice. Now remember that Pilate was inside the Praetorium which was the Roman palace. There's reason to believe that it could have been a permanent structure but it might have been a tent where Roman law was adjudicated by the Roman Praetor and the Sanhedrin and the other Jewish rulers were outside the Praetorium and so when Pilate realizes that Herod was not going to condemn Jesus he got up and went outside because the Jews could not go inside the Praetorium And he walked outside and said, You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion and behold, having examined him before you, I have found no guilt in this man. This is the second time he said this. Regarding the charges which you make against him, no nor has Herod, for he sent him back to us and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him. So two Roman rulers have ruled Jesus to be innocent. This is the second time that Pilate has proclaimed Jesus' innocence. The first was back in verse 4 when Pilate asked Jesus if He was the King of the Jews, and Jesus looked him right in the eye and said, You're the one who says that I am. And we saw how this answer could very well have been uncovering some private conversation that Pilate had had with his wife or with others about Jesus, and that Jesus said this to confront Pilate with his own need for a Savior. Could very well have been that. But in any event, after this initial confrontation, Pilate went out and told these religious frauds, I find no guilt in this man. And he never did. Pilate never thought that Jesus was guilty, and yet out of political expediency, he condemned the Prince of Life. And now here in verses 14 and 15, Pilate is actually trying to reason with the Sanhedrin over the innocence of Jesus. And in verse 15, he includes the fact that not only has he himself not found any guilt in Jesus, but Herod didn't either. And look what Pilate says in verse 16, Therefore I will punish him and release him. Now the reason that Dr. Luke gives this information to us is very important because there is reason to believe that what Pilate was actually saying here was, I will punish Jesus myself. In other words, Pilate knows that the Sanhedrin is determined to have Jesus killed. And more than anything else, Pilate wants to try to keep peace with the Jews. Over his short time in power, Pilate has already had to deal with several riots that the Jews carried out because they felt the Romans were ignoring their concerns. And the more riots Pilate had to deal with, the more likely that the authorities back in Rome would remove Pilate from power. So he's anxious to go along with what they want to do to Jesus. But Pilate also knows that Jesus is categorically innocent of the charges. He knows full well that every single charge against this man has been trumped up. Now what is fascinating here is that normally Jesus' innocence would not have been a big deal. Many innocent people had come before Pilate and he never hesitated in condemning them to death. It was common to have prisoners fall down before Pilate and beg for their lives only to see Pilate cruelly reject their pleas and hand them off to die. But Pilate didn't beat anybody personally. Pilate never actually killed people himself. His job was to find guilt or innocence and then order the prisoner to either be set free or condemn him to die. But here, with Jesus, Pilate is taking the unprecedented step in offering to personally beat Jesus and then set Him free in the hope that by beating Jesus Himself, that that would satisfy the Sanhedrin and Pilate would then be free to let Jesus go. There's his logic. Convoluted as it is. Now in verse 17, Luke gives us insight into a very interesting legal maneuver that was in place back in the first century when he said, now he was obliged to release to them at the feast one prisoner. And in John 18-39, the Apostle John says that Pilate himself made this offer when he said, but you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish then I release for you the King of the Jews? Interesting way he phrased this about Jesus to these guys. Now this would have infuriated the Sanhedrin. So he's not making this offer to the Sanhedrin. Because they didn't believe Jesus was the king of the Jews, they thought Jesus was of the devil. This offer by Pilate was designed to pacify the crowd, not the rulers. Pilate is speaking this to all the Jews who were gathered outside the Praetorium who by this time were a fairly large crowd. When the Sanhedrin first brought Jesus to Pilate around 5 or 6 a.m. there weren't that many people there but as the news spread that Jesus had been taken a crowd gathered. So Pilate's offer to release a prisoner in accord with their custom was not made to the leaders but to the general public and in doing this Pilate was being very shrewd. Now remember at this moment, Pilate knew two things. He knew that Jesus was innocent, and he knew the Sanhedrin wanted Jesus dead. And being worldly, Pilate was concerned about setting off a riot if he released Jesus, and this would compromise his political power. But Pilate remembered the great crowd that had welcomed Jesus in Jerusalem just a week or a few days earlier as Jesus rode down Main Street on the colt of a donkey. Brother Andy just mentioned that to us. And Pilate knew that Jesus had a reputation of great admiration and devotion with the people. Everywhere he went, there was this huge crowd following him. And they were calling out his name, Son of David, Son of David, have mercy on us. And he turned and he fed them and he healed them and he raised them up and he delivered them and put their arms back into function and got them off their cots and multiplied fish and loaves and cast demons out of them. And the people loved him, he thought. So because Pilate knew that the people loved Jesus, he thought that by offering to release a prisoner in accord with their custom, that the people would naturally want Jesus. And that would take care of both of Pilate's problems. He could tell the Sanhedrin that he released Jesus because the people wanted him, which would quell any chance of a riot, and he could refrain from condemning a man that he knew was innocent. So Pilate stacked the deck in his own favor by padding the question and he bypassed the Sanhedrin and asked the Jewish crowd, do you wish that I release for you the King of the Jews? Thinking for sure that they would all ask for Jesus to be released. Now, there's very few events in the life and the ministry of Jesus that are recorded for us in all four Gospel records. Normally they have the three synoptic gospels which means they're in synonymous relationship with one another Matthew Mark and Luke and then you have the spiritual gospel called John and these three are most often alike where John is talking about Jesus is deity primarily that's the focus of John which is one of the indications why we think that John wrote this gospel many years after Matthew Mark and Luke were written is because he would be no longer needed to cover the same things that Matthew Mark and Luke had to cover now of the three synoptic gospels Luke is the more detailed there are things in which is why I started going through Luke there are things in Luke that are found nowhere else but in Luke But this event, right here, is in all four of the Gospel records. They all included this man in the accounts, and that's important. Now first of all, his name was not Barabbas. His name is Bar-abbas. The prefix bar meant son or son of. And Abbas is a Hebrew derivative of the Aramaic word for father. If you remember in Jesus' prayer, I meant to say, he called his father Abba in Matthew 14.36. That is an Aramaic word, not a Hebrew word. Jesus did not speak Hebrew. Jesus spoke in Aramaic. And the Apostle Paul used that phrase to illustrate the intimate relationship that genuine believers have with God through their salvation in Jesus Christ in both Romans 8, verse 15, and Galatians 4, verse 6. So Bar-Abbas was the son of the Father. That was his name. Son of the Father. And we don't know anything else about his family. The word bar is very common in the Hebrew culture. They have what they call bar mitzvahs. which when a boy becomes a man, he becomes a son of the law. The word bar means son of and mitzvah means the law. He's the son of the law then. And so Bar Abbas was his name. And the Bible gives us some interesting information about this man. Matthew 27 verse 16 calls him a notorious prisoner. The word notorious means he had a reputation. He had a bad reputation. He was a bad dude. He'd have been on the most wanted list for the FBI in our day. He would have been at the post office in our day. He'd have been on the telephone pole or the telegraph post in the old Wild West. So he was a notorious prisoner. And Mark 15 verse 7 says that he was an insurrectionist who had committed murder in an insurrection. So first of all we know he was a Jew because of his name. And Bar-Abbas was also well known by both the Jews who would have counted him as a hero. And the Romans who would have called him notorious. He wasn't notorious as it pertained to the Jews. He was notorious as it pertained to the Romans. And so this man had worked to undermine the Roman authorities and had murdered someone in an attempt to overthrow the government. Now this tells us that Bar Abbas was probably among the group of Jews called the Zealots who were first century terrorists of that region. And these Zealots would kidnap, assassinate, torture or murder Romans in their pursuit to have what they called a pure society of Jews who rigorously kept the law. Now, this concept, and I've tried to be faithful to talk about this many times during our journey through Luke, this was the common understanding of the first century Jew of what salvation, the word salvation meant. This is what the word deliverance meant. This is what the word healing meant to them. They had been invaded by polytheistic pagans who mocked their religion. They were the people of God, and they knew they were the people of God. And yet, God had allowed these pagans to dominate them. And before them it was the Greeks, and before them it was the Babylonians, and before that it was the Persians, and before that it was the Assyrians. And God had used pagan nations to bring correction and judgment and discipline to His people. Now it's easier for us to understand the judgment and the correction of God when He uses inanimate objects like an earthquake, or a hurricane, or a fire, or something, and what the insurance industry terms as acts of God. Because we say, look what God did. It's harder for us to put the pieces together when God uses other people. to bring correction and discipline into our lives, especially when those other people are ungodly. But the Bible is clear about this. God will use pagans to bring His own people into discipline. He's done it a thousand times, sadly. He's done it with you. He's done it with me. And our temptation is to say, well, you don't even love the Lord, I don't have to listen to you. And many, many times in the Bible, pagans talked to God's people and gave them the Word of the Lord. Moses' father-in-law was an idol-worshipping pagan. And Moses' father-in-law gave Moses the wisdom of how to govern the people, which is the prototype of how we run the church with a group of highly trained godly elders as opposed to congregational rule that our friends in the Baptist persuasion are confused about. And so we see that this all came from the mouth of a pagan. But it was the Word of God. And so this is something for you young people to understand. You have a natural father. Your natural father is probably not saved. I hope he is. Maybe he is. But he's your father. He has a special place in your heart and your life. Now some of your fathers have abandoned you and you have somebody else that has assumed that role in your life. So then what I'm about to say pertains to that person. But you go to that man and you listen to him. God has put him in your life to help you. And I went to my father, as a Christian, I went to my father and he was lost and I was saved. And I went to him and I got down on my knees in front of him and I said, put your hand on my head and pray for me and speak wisdom into my life. And my dad didn't know what to do. He patted me on the top of my head like that. He said, you're a good boy, you're a good boy. But I made it a point to go and sit at his feet and listen and learn. and He imparted a lot of wisdom to me. This is the way of God. This is how God has determined that young people are educated in school is by wise older people. And this is why I tell you my position about older people just sitting back taking it easy when they've got a wealth of wisdom to share with the younger people. They're the smartest people in the room. And so they're the closest to heaven. by the time clock. And so that's the time to be busy and productive, not the time to slow down. Our culture's wrong about this. And the Bible has a better plan for this. And so, somehow that has something to do with this. And I'll tie it in somehow, so let's just get back to this. Alright, we know he was a Jew. And it was part of this group called the Zealots. Alright, we got that. Now the Zealots had a small little knife with a curved blade that they kept hidden in the sleeve of their robe. And they would stand in the crowd and work their way behind a Roman. And they would reach around and slice his jugular vein and then blend back into the crowd. And if things got too hot for them in Jerusalem, these Zealots would run up to Galilee to hide. This is why the people assumed Jesus was one of them. But the zealots would also murder other Jews that they considered to be compromisers with the pagan Romans. And so the only way to get along with these zealots was to agree with them about everything or they would put you on the list to be killed. Somebody was asking me not long ago, one of y'all called me and said, what do I do about these people that are King James only? I said, you can't reason with them. You cannot. You try. You can't reason with them. They think you're going to hell if you don't use the King James. And so if you don't agree with them, you're the enemy. And there's a lot of groups about this that pick an issue, and that's the hill they're going to fight and die on. And most of the hills they pick to fight and die on are irrelevant. I'm willing to pick a hill and fight and die on the sovereignty of God, the deity of Jesus, justification by faith alone, and sola scriptura. I'll fight and die on those hills, but I'm not going to fight and die on some of these other hills. Now what is interesting is that one of the disciples of Jesus that the Lord chose to be an apostle back in Luke 6 was a man named Simon who was a member of this group of zealots. Another apostle was Levi or Matthew who had been a tax collector. And the zealots considered the tax collectors to be the very epitome of evil because they had sold out their Jewish brethren and were oppressing their own people by doing business with the Romans. Now normally a zealot and a tax collector would have been at each other's throats, and yet there is no mention at all of any hostility between these two men. And this is testimony of how genuine salvation can overcome very serious political and social differences. You love your brother more than you love your politics. You love your brother more than you love the food you eat. Huh? And this tells you that social issues and politics are not the main thing. Jesus is the main thing, but not politics. So back in the first century, a tax collector was considered to be a sellout and a traitor to his own people. And in Matthew 18, verse 17, Jesus Himself said that a person who laid claim to being saved and yet who refused to repent when confronted with blatant sin three separate times was to be excommunicated from the worldwide Christian church and was to be treated as a Gentile and a tax collector. And that is because by not repenting, he is acting like an unbeliever, which is a Gentile. And by abandoning the church and embracing sin, he is acting like a tax collector. And so a person who engages in ongoing, blatant, and public sin, and who after repeated attempts at getting him to repent, refuses to acknowledge his sin, and remains proud and arrogant, that person has forfeited his blessings of membership and should be excluded from the household of faith until he can repent. And once he is excluded, he is now living outside the ordinary means of grace that God has provided through His church. And the Apostle Paul phrased it this way in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 5, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Nobody has the right to lay claim to be a Christian and then continually live in such a way that is blatantly opposed to all that Scripture teaches and keep the blessings and the protection and the joys that God has provided within the church. Either that person is deceived about his salvation and needs to be born again, or else he needs to be placed in the hands of Satan so his spirit may be saved in the day when Jesus comes back. But either way, proud and impenitent people cannot be tolerated. Now, you can think I'm a hard man by what I just said, but you would be wrong. I would remind you that I didn't write the Bible. And so what you should think about what I just said is that I take Jesus and the apostles and God's Word in Christ's church very seriously because Jesus and the apostles took God's Word in Christ's church very seriously. And what you should also think is that the person who lays claim to be saved and yet who does not think enough about Jesus to live in humble submission to the authority of Scripture, that's the one who is hard. not me. Now evidently Barabbas had been involved in one of the many efforts by the Jews to fight against Pilate and the other Roman authorities and drive out the pagans from the land of Israel. Now history tells us that these efforts went on all the time and as we already found out back in Luke 21 Jesus promised that these efforts would escalate after his resurrection until Rome had to do something about it. And in 70 A.D. they did, by crushing the Jews, destroying the city of Jerusalem and the temple. And with that destruction, the order of the Levitical priests was ended, along with animal sacrifices and the entire Jewish way of life. And so God used a pagan nation to bring to an end the reign of the First or the Old Covenant. And evidently, their effort to overthrow the Roman rulers failed. And they were captured. And Barabbas had been in prison since that time, awaiting his execution. But what is fascinating is that John 18, verse 40, the Apostle John calls Barabbas a robber, which comes from the very same Greek word we get thief from. And we also know that these zealots never acted alone. And so there would have been several men who had joined together in this plot to overthrow the Roman rulers. And at the crucifixion, Mark 15, verse 27 says, they crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. So it is very possible that the two robbers, or the two thieves that were crucified with Jesus, were part of the plot to overthrow the Romans that Barabbas participated in. Pilate was confident that if he was to offer to release a prisoner to the Jewish crowd, that they would overrule their leaders and ask for Jesus, and then Pilate could go back to his life. But look what happened from Mark 15, verse 11. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead. So much to Pilate's dismay, the Sanhedrin saw what he was doing and they counteracted his efforts by stirring up the crowd. And so when Pilate asked the crowd if they wanted him to release Jesus, Dr. Luke says they replied, away with this man and release for us Barabbas. Now evidently the response of the crowd grew louder and more forceful because several times Pilate asked the same question. And the reason he kept asking is because he was certain that they would eventually want Jesus, who had healed them and fed them and to whom many of these same people had followed all over Israel for years. But the more he asked, the more the crowd turned away from Jesus. At one point, Pilate said, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? Now once again, the word Christ here is our English translation of the word. What he would have told the Jews at that point was not Christ, but Messiah. And the Apostle Levi says they all said, crucify Him. And once again, the sovereignty of God is at work here. Because he could have cut his head off. He cut the Jews had James's head cut off. So cutting their heads off was common back then as well. But they wanted Jesus to be crucified. John 19.37 says that the reason that these people asked for Jesus to be crucified was so that the prophecy from Zechariah 12 verse 10 would come to pass where Zechariah prophesied, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication so they will look on Me whom they have pierced. and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." And it was at this point that Pilate became exasperated. And in Luke 23, 22, he cried out, Why? What evil has this man done? I've found in him no guilt demanding death. Now, it was somewhere during this discussion about Bar Abbas that another amazing event occurred. The Apostle Levi tells us from Matthew 27-19, while he, Pilate, 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. Now, I started to put a lot of this in here, I couldn't get any verification of this. I came across many things to talk about this one verse right here. But the main thing that we need to know is what God the Holy Spirit inspired and let us leave the rest to human conjecture. There are extra biblical legends that Pilate's wife became a believer and that later on she sought for Jesus. You can't prove that. There are other tales and stories that bend curious minds even so much that there's a group of so-called Christians in the Middle East right now that believe that Pilate became a Christian. And that he was actually doing God's bidding by what he did. Which is corrupt logic. Back in 1882, Charles Spurgeon preached an entire sermon on this single verse. It's sermon number 1647 if you want to look it up. But all we know for sure is that Pilate's wife sent him this message saying Jesus was a righteous man, warning her husband to have nothing to do with him because she had gone through what she described as a lot of suffering in a dream because of Jesus. Now how much or how little this dream was of God or from God, we don't know. And what effect this event had on Pilate and his wife, we don't know. I hope it had a great effect on both of them. But Scripture does not tell us. But what we do know is that her plea went unanswered. And he paid no attention to her. And what we also know is that later on when the apostles were talking about Pilate they never gave any indication at all that the man was saved. That only he was an evil man. We can prove nothing else from Scripture, and so it is best to state what we know is true, and then move on. But what is amazing is that in effect, this brutal, unmerciful, pagan tyrant is now standing in the place of Jesus' defense attorney, pleading for his life. And then for the second time, Pilate offers to appease the crowd by taking the unprecedented step of beating Jesus Himself by saying, therefore I will punish Him and release Him. Now the way the Greek is worded here shows us that Pilate was not saying, I will have Jesus punished, or I will order Jesus to be punished, but rather I will personally punish Jesus. Now many people in the 21st century would not see this as an effort by Pilate to help Jesus, precisely because he is saying here that he will personally punish Jesus. But we must remember that no matter how terrible the beating might be, it is preferable to death. But even after offering to beat Jesus Himself, Dr. Luke tells us the condition of the crowd in verse 23, but they were insistent. Now that word insistent means they didn't say something one time. This was ongoing in their rejection of Pilate's offer. So Pilate's continually offering this, and they're continually rejecting it, asking that He be crucified, and their voices began to prevail. So this is a long, drawn-out process where he's arguing for Jesus' life to be spared. They're constantly saying they want Him to die by crucifixion. This is an amazing thing. Now keep in mind that this is not a single cry from the crowd, but an ongoing cry. And a cry that grew in intensity and force. And it was at this point when Pilate began to see that the crowd was going to win. That several very amazing things happened. And these events are very important because God the Holy Spirit moved upon the biblical writers to tell us. And I would say they are also important for us to understand in our day as well. And to begin to see what transpires next, go to John 19 with me. The 19th chapter of the Gospel of John. And let's look at verse 1. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. How this would have been done evidently is that they're outside the praetorium. He's arguing with the crowd. Jesus is with him, with the guards around him. So evidently Pilate took him back inside the praetorium, away from the crowds, and Pilate scourged him personally. Now the term scourged as used here comes from a Greek word that is only used this one time in the entire New Testament. The word scourged in English is found other times, but it's a different Greek word. And unlike the way the Hebrew derivative is used in the Old Testament, this word was reserved solely for Roman punishment and not the type of scourging that the Jews carried out. And the word means punishment by whipping or beating. So Pilate beat the sinless Lamb of God personally. Now, there were restrictions placed on the Roman authorities as to how they could administer this type of scourging, especially to other Roman citizens. So, for example, Roman law stipulated that if a Roman citizen could survive 40 lashes, he would have to be set free. And so they got around that law by beating Roman citizens 39 times. And that way, they could beat them repeatedly. And in the case of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 34 says that they beat Paul on five different occasions, each one with 39 stripes. So now you have to try to picture this. And I've gone over this in several of our Sunday night Bible studies. But they beat Paul, they broke open the skin on his back, and they beat him 39 times with either a leather belt with iron and pieces of rock on the end or when they when they beat him across the back and they pulled the lash it would rip the skin or with or with rods but but Paul's specifically separates that he was beaten three times with rods five times with thirty nine stripes so the stripes are no doubt from this lash that the that the people beating with So he's a prisoner. So they beat him. He's bleeding. He's beat up. They throw him in the prison. And the way the prisons were in the first century, you set the prisoner down with his feet in front of him, his arms up in the air. They chain his arms to the wall. They chain his feet to the floor where he can't stand up. He can't move. And at night, the rats would come out and they would eat his toes and crawl all over him and bite him and eat him. and get on his back where he's bleeding. The wounds would become infected. He would have a high fever. He'd sweat the fever off. The serum and the bodily fluids would begin to scab over and it would take weeks for him to be in that condition. And then they would take him out and they beat him again. And then they beat him again. And then they beat him again. And then they beat him again. And then they beat him again. Five times he went through that. And then they beat him three times with rods. According to history, Paul was four foot ten inches tall. He was a giant in the faith. It's amazing the man didn't die. It's the providence of God. And this is why I tell you, I believe this with all of my heart. You got a day appointed for your death. It is appointed and the man wants to die. And after that, the judgment you're going to make that appointment. You can't cancel that appointment. You can't cancel it by exercising. You can't cancel it by eating broccoli. You can't cancel it by taking vitamins. You're going to die on that day. But before that day, you are immortal. You will not die. If they shoot you, you will not die. If they put a gun to your head, the gun won't go off. Something will happen. You will not die before that appointed time. And that appointed time, no medicine, no surgery, no doctor, no prayer will save you. You are going to die. I believe that with all my heart. So they couldn't kill Paul until his appointed time. They could not kill Jesus. I'm just trying to give you an idea of the brutality of the Middle East that is right now as well they are a brutal culture and the Jews are brutal right now the modern day state of Israel is categorically brutal to the palace Palestinians some of whom I'm just trying to complicate your politics they are absolutely brutal to the Palestinians who some of them are your brothers and sisters in Christ You need to think about that. And they are brutal to those people because they're mixed in with the others who are the bad guys. It's not simple over there. It's never been simple over there. But we the church are not the same as the government. So be careful that you're being fed by conservatives who are not biblical. Be careful. You will attack your own people. If you're not careful. So we have to side with our brothers and sisters. No matter what nationality they are. Right? Now I just messed your politics up royally. So. But. Now. So they beat Paul five different occasions. Each one with thirty nine stripes. But that was because Paul was a Roman citizen. Jesus was not. And so Pilate could have beaten Jesus with much more than 39 stripes. They beat Him and beat Him and beat Him and beat Him and beat Him and beat Him. And all of the putrid wickedness of their soul as they beat the Lamb of God The evil of their hearts came out in their actions. And they beat this man and beat him and beat him. And it was during this scourging that Pilate allowed Jesus to be humiliated. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. I don't know if you can see this or not. We got this from the Middle East. These are the thorns. They're about two inches long. I'm not talking about stickers. And they put it on his head and they hit him on the head with a rock and they pushed it down over his head. So the blood is streaming. Now the blood vessels in the head are very close to the surface. And the blood is streaming. Now remember, he's been up all night praying. He prayed till he sweat great drops of blood. He's been beaten, slapped around all night long. He hasn't had a minute's sleep. And now this is the beating. The last beating that he's going to have. And they put a purple robe on him. They put a towel over his head and they hit him in the face with what is called a male fist, which we would call iron knuckles nowadays. And they hit him in the face and say, prophesy who hit you. Again, this is extra biblical information about how Romans did people. They would grab his beard and pull it until they could pull parts of it out. And they begin to come up to him and say, Hail, King of the Jews! And to give him slaps in the face. You have cruel and godly men pushing a crown of thorns on the head of the King of the Universe. The thorns that were being pushed on Jesus' head were about one and a half inches long. You have evil men mocking the darling of the Trinity by placing a purple robe on Him. You have wicked, hard hands slapping the face of the incarnate God. This is unimaginable humility. We need to remember that if these men treated us this way, We wouldn't be able to do anything about it. But Jesus could. Jesus owned the universe. Jesus controls their heartbeat. Jesus had the power to end this all right then. Jesus had the power to blink His eyes and eviscerate them all right then. And yet as they mock Him and beat Him and spit on Him and slap Him, Jesus just looks at them and makes no move to defend Himself. This is how much He loved His Father. So I've got a question. After seeing how they treat Jesus here, how could any of us feel the need for vengeance against our enemies. We are sinners who have committed horrible acts of treason against God, but Jesus was perfectly sinless. And after watching Jesus humiliated like this, how could any of us ever complain about any mistreatment we might be given? How could any of us ever gripe about any persecution we have to go through? After seeing Jesus right here, How could any of us ever bellyache about any hardship the Lord might bring our way? This is why the writer of Hebrews tells us to look at Jesus. He said, you have not striven unto blood against sin. Jesus did. Truly, for us to gripe and complain about anything requires that we close our eyes and forget who we are and what we are seeing here. But we need to know that the context here is that Pilate was beating Jesus to make a point to the crowd outside. And the reason we know that is because of what John records next. In John 19, verse 4, Pilate came out again and said, Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him. How will He demonstrate His innocence this time? So after beating Jesus and mocking Him and humiliating Him, Pilate walks back outside, tells the crowd who has been chanting over and over all this time, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Behold, I am bringing Him out to you. He's not out yet. I'm going to show Him to you, so you may know that I find no guilt in Him. And it was at this time that they brought Jesus back out to present Him to the people. And John tells us, Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate says, behold the man. And the crowd could not believe what they saw. Now remember, Pilate's idea was to take the unprecedented step in beating Jesus Himself in the hope that after doing this, the crowd would say, that's enough. and asked for Jesus' release. But the only reason this effort might have saved Jesus' life is if Jesus had been beaten so much that normal people would have been ashamed to carry it out any further. And so there is every reason to suggest that when Jesus appears here, the sight of Him would have been shocking. What the crowd looked at was a very bloody, weak, and beaten man who was just barely alive. And this is confirmed by what Pilate told them. Behold the man. In other words, Pilate was saying, behold the man you're all so worked up over. Behold the man that your leaders want me to kill. Behold the man who you say has done so much damage all throughout Israel. Look at him! Behold this pathetic man who can barely stand upright. He's defeated. I beat him myself. Behold the man who cannot harm you anymore. Behold the man who can barely live. And I think it worked. I think Pilate's effort did indeed silence this crowd. The sight of Jesus swaying back and forth about to pass out from the terrible beating He just endured began to have its desired effect and the people grew quiet. And normally that would have been it. The people had what they wanted and Jesus would have been set free and we would all be yet in our sins. But when the Sanhedrin saw the sight of Jesus standing there as a beaten man, was having this effect on the crowd. John tells us in verse 6, So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify! Crucify! The crowd had had enough. Seeing the shocking sight of this beaten man was enough. But not the Jewish leaders. God had completely stepped aside and was allowing the evil that was in their hearts to be fully manifested. So to stir up the crowd again, it was the leaders who cried out. And Pilate saw this too. And John tells us, Pilate said to them, take Him yourself and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him. Pilate is disgusted with the Sanhedrin and doesn't mince any words with them. But look how these religious frauds turn this whole thing around to their favor. The Jews answered him, we have a law. And by that law, he ought to die. Why? Because he made himself out to be the Son of God. And look at Pilate's reaction. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. They had him. There is no more false accusations about insurrections or the law of Moses or sacrifices now. No more games. This is the issue. This is the one single issue about Jesus. This has always been the issue with these people. Jesus must die because He said He was the Son of God. The one single issue that saves souls is the one single issue that brings Jesus' death. Jesus must die because of who He is. Not the miracles. Not the healings. Not the casting out of demons. That's not the issue. The issue is who is Jesus. Nobody gets mad because Christians feed the hungry or clothe the naked. Or because we build hospitals around the world and treat people for free. Nobody has a problem with the church setting up homes for blind children or the deaf. or because we minister to lepers, or those who are dying with AIDS. Nobody dies because Christians counsel unmarried women who are pregnant, or because we want political leaders to rule wisely. The issue is who is Jesus. Christians die over the issue of who Jesus is. Believers are beaten and robbed and tortured, and their goods are confiscated, their homes are plundered, their wives are ravished, their children are sold into slavery because of who Jesus is. You cannot go to heaven unless you know who Jesus is. You cannot be forgiven unless you know who Jesus is. You cannot be redeemed unless you know who Jesus is. It is not enough to believe in God anymore. that since this man lived and died and rose again, nobody is saved unless they believe and confess with their mouth that Jesus is God Almighty in human flesh. That He was born of a virgin. That He lived a perfectly sinless life. That He died a vicarious death on the cross. that He rose from the dead three days later in the very same body that He died in. And that 40 days after that, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And He is interceding right now for you and me. And He's coming back again. And the only entity on earth that teaches that is the church. And the only people who believe that are Christians. Who Jesus is, is the issue. It was the issue back then. It is the issue today. And it will always be the issue until Jesus comes back. Who Jesus is has always been the issue and it always will be the issue. Who Jesus is is what got Jesus killed. Who Jesus is is the source of all persecution against all Christians. And who Jesus is is the only means of salvation. Who Jesus is is what scared Pilate to death. And it scared him because he knew. Jewish law was clear. Blasphemy was punishable by death. Roman law was clear. Anyone condemned correctly by Jewish law must be put to death. They had snookered Pilate and he couldn't wiggle out. So look what he did next. He entered into the praetorium and again said to Jesus. Now the man just got beat within an inch of his life. He drags him back inside the praetorium and said, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said, you don't speak to me. Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and I have the 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. So for the last time, Pilate had the beaten Jesus taken back inside the Praetorium so we could ask Him one final question, where are you from? Now this is the equivalent of us today asking somebody, who are you? How can one man cause so much hate and disruption? Why do these people hate you so? Are you even from this earth? Are you from heaven? And since Jesus has already answered this, He doesn't speak. But this irritates Pilate, and so he says, You don't speak to me? Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and I have the authority to crucify you? You better talk to me, Jesus. I'm the only thing standing between you and these people who want you dead. This is when Jesus told tells him you would have no authority over me unless it had been granted you from above. For this reason he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. Then John tells us as a result of this look what it says pilot made efforts to release him. He still wants to defend the man. So evidently, after this exchange, Pilate made even more efforts to set Jesus free. But then John says, But the Jews cried out, saying, If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. They've thrown everything at the book at Pilate. Now they got him politically trapped. So now we're back to the crowd of Jews and not just the Sanhedrin. So at some point during all of this, the Jewish leaders had manipulated the crowd enough to get them back into wanting Jesus dead. And they used the very thing that Pilate feared the most, his reputation and position. As we have seen, Pilate was the very epitome of what worldliness looks like. So he valued who he was and what he had and the power he had been given and the prestige that went along with all of that more than he valued anything else. And when that was threatened, By these scheming religious leaders, that was the last straw. And Dr. Luke tells us, Pilate pronounced sentence, that their demand be granted. And he released the man they were asking for, who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder. But he delivered Jesus to their will. The Apostle Levi gives us this insight. When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. See to that yourselves. And all the people said, his blood shall be on us and on our children. Now, washing your hands like that, Pilate had learned from them, from the Jews. It was a symbolic gesture that had moral implications. It was begun back under the Old Covenant where God had revealed to the Jews about the scapegoat. And in Deuteronomy 21, verses 6 and 7, the Scriptures say, All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, and they shall Answer and say, our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. So by washing his hands publicly, Pilate was doing two things. He was trying to alleviate his own guilty conscience. He was using the Jews' law against them. He succeeded at accomplishing the second one because the entire Jewish crowd responded, his blood shall be on us and on our children, which is frightening on any number of levels. I could go into that in great detail. Not the least of these is the fact that some of these people were in the crowd that called Jesus' name to heal them and to feed them and to have mercy on them. And yet here they cry for His death. How desperately wicked the human heart is that one minute we can be friends with Jesus and in a moment of time call for His execution. And yet the reality is that those who thought they were condemning Jesus were only condemning themselves. And what I get out of that is that unless God changes our hearts, mercifully and sovereignly. And unless God keeps our hearts mercifully and sovereignly, we have no hope. But even though those present that day were condemned, Pilate miserably failed at alleviating his own guilt that he had before God at condemning Jesus to die, even though it was God's will that Jesus die. The wickedness of this man's heart was not overlooked by God, and unless Pilate repented and trusted in the very one he rejects here, he is among those screaming in hell right now. And the smoke of his torment will ascend forever. So we have seen some very tragic people. Judas, Annas, Caiaphas, Herod, and now Pilate. All of them in Jesus' presence. All of them looking into Jesus' eyes. All of them speaking to Jesus. All of them, to some degree, impressed with Jesus. And yet none of them were saved. It is so tragic. So what about you this morning, dear friends? Will you spend time with Jesus only to remain lost in your sins? Will you read the Bible and go to church and pray and yet never be saved? Will you sit and hear the Bible preached and taught? Or will you repent? And will you trust in Jesus? I've done my best to preach this series to you. I don't feel adequate. But I've been broken over this series. I've been changed. This has profoundly affected my life. And I pray that we can all see Jesus more clearly today. Amen. Let's pray.