"Pontius Pilate – (How to Be Lost in Seven Simple Steps)” - Pastor Doug Batchelor

good morning church family how are you good to see each of you here and as has been mentioned i know that uh there may be a little more estrogen in the room today than normal because a number of our men are camping out we want to pray god is with them and blessing them this week now you know many of you know for many years that i was a pilot well i still have my license and my medical i just don't have a plane but praise god even though a few times i had some close calls i never had an accident and they say any landing you can walk away from is a good landing but i don't want to practice those kind of landings that you just barely walk away from you may not know but one of the things that the faa does to try to keep pilots alive is periodically they do autopsies of accidents they'll be a pilot that has an accident they fly into a mountain or they run out of fuel or whatever it is and they will publish all of the mistakes that that pilot made why do they do that to help the other pilots know don't do this and you know i can't help but wonder sometimes if i'm alive because studying the mistakes of others who did the wrong thing so i would not make those mistakes and i'll tell you it kind of puts the fear in you any of you ever go to traffic school you don't have to raise your hand you ever get a ticket you have to go to traffic school i went to traffic school in the old days where now i've been to traffic school in the new days too i probably could teach the class but usually from speeding but i went to traffic school um back in the old days they would take you and you'd meet with a bunch of other students who had gotten into trouble for driving bad behavior or something or speeding and and they used to show us these films and it was so outrageous the films they would show called mechanized death red asphalt any of you remember that any someone bear witness you remember they'd show you films that the highway patrol took of people who had just had terrible car accidents the kind of things were not for sensitive viewers and they're showing these they're like teenagers and i'll tell you what it put the fear in me they show you well this is what happens when you don't wear your seat belt you know and you see some guy's feet sticking out of his windshield and you don't ever forget that stuff praise god i've never had a serious car accident in the bible there are some sad stories that are there that are there as warnings to help us avoid making those mistakes this message today which might sound like it has an odd title it's about pontius pilate seven easy steps to being lost the seven simple steps being lost i think everyone knows that's being said tongue-in-cheek because we want you to be saved amen but if you look at the steps that he made god willing you'll learn from his mistake and not make the same steps now probably it would be a good idea just to give you a little background in pontius pilate you know his name is mentioned 56 times in the bible his name is mentioned more than the name of thomas philip andrew some of you maybe have come to our church from other churches where you would recite the apostles creed there are hundreds of churches that recite the apostles creed any of you once belonged to one of those churches yeah and there are three names mentioned and the apostles creed is translated into hundreds of languages around the world it's basically foundational teachings of the apostles we would agree with most of it there are three names in the apostles creed the name of jesus the name of mary and pontius pilate of all things his name has kind of gone down into christian history with infamy anyone here have a child they've named pontius pilate maybe a dog people will name their dog nero but they won't name their kid pilate because his name is become an infamous name now i did something this week where i took everything in the new testament about pilate's interaction with jesus most of us probably would not have heard of pilate but because of those four hours approximately where he was involved in the trial of christ his name is one of the most recognizable names of history around the world so i went through the gospels of matthew mark luke and john where pilate appears and there's some things that like matthew mentions that luke doesn't mention and luke mentions that mark doesn't mention and john mentions that the others don't mention and i thought i'd like to get it all together in one continuous record one discourse and so i took my computer and i took everything in the bible it said from matthew mark luke and john i wove all those together i deleted the repeats and i said i want to read it and after i spent an hour and a half doing this then i found someone already had done it online i could have just downloaded the whole thing but i'm sure that it was probably beneficial for me to do this so you know what i'd like to do is before we dive into our sermon i'm going to read it to you fair enough now i can't give you a scripture to follow because what i've done is i've commingled the four gospels but i'll tell you where it comes from matthew 27 starts with verse 1 mark 15 starts with verse 1 luke 23 beginning with the first verse john 18 it begins with verse 28. that's where pilate is introduced into the four gospel stories i i read through that chapter in the desire of ages on pontius pilate and i put all this together and i'm going to read through this now and it's not that long just bear with me so it'll be the context for what our study is as we explore the anatomy of how to avoid being lost and making the seven terrible mistakes that pilate made now after the trial of jesus by the sanhedrin the jewish court and after they abused him he went you know he was arrested in the garden he was brought to the house of anas the high priest and then he went to caiaphas who was really the senior high priest at the time then they briefly gathered and they formally agreed to the death penalty in the sanhedrin and early in the morning probably about six o'clock in the morning at this point they now come and they bring jesus who's been beaten through the night to pilate when morning had come all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against jesus to put him to death and when they bound him they led him away from caiphus to the praetorium that was the courthouse alongside where pilate was staying in jerusalem and delivered him to pontius pilate the governor and it was early morning but they themselves did not go into the praetorium lest they should be defiled but that they might eat the passover now normally pilate lived down in caesarea by the coast but he came to jerusalem because he was there to help avoid rebellion and that's when those things tended to happen likewise herod who was in charge of galilee here at antipas he had come down to jerusalem also because it was the biggest feast of the year was the passover so he was there well the jews didn't want to go in and be defiled isn't that something they were so concerned about dean being defiled by being in the house of a gentile it didn't bother them they were about to crucify their messiah that's called legalism and so that they might eat the passover pilate then went out to them and said what accusation do you bring against this man it's awful early in the morning to start the court they said to him if he was not an evildoer we would not have delivered him up to you don't just trust us we're the religious leaders just do what we say and pilate said to them will you take them and judge them according to your law if it's a religious law you can administer the religious penalty therefore the jews said to him it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death that the saying of jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke signifying by what death he must die see now if the jews were going to kill you you were put down in a pit and you were stoned if the romans were going to kill you you were lifted up on a cross it was very different and executed christ said i would be lifted up stephen on the other hand they didn't take him to the romans and he was stoned he said judge him according to your law they said it's not lawful for us to put anyone to death and they began to accuse him we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to caesar now was that true when they asked him about who do you pay taxes to jesus said render to caesar the things that are caesar's but they had no problem perjuring themselves in order to have jesus executed they just lied but they did not want to go into pilate's house because they would be defiled by being in the house of a gentile had no problem with like breaking the ten commandments and while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders he answered nothing then pilate said to him do you not hear how many things they testify against you but he answered them not a word so the governor marveled greatly now you might be wondering pilate is a roman governor speaks latin jesus and the priests they are jewish they speak aramaic how are they talking to each other virtually all of them understood enough greek was sort of like an international language at the time that so they're probably talking to each other in greek remember above the head of jesus pilate writes in greek hebrew and latin because those are the three major languages and pilate is amazed that they're not jesus is saying nothing to defend himself now he had heard of jesus before and everyone had heard of jesus they'd heard about the miracles they heard about the resurrection of lazarus and so pilate is intrigued so then pilate enters the praetorium and he called jesus i wasn't worried about jesus didn't complain about being defiled by going into a gentile and he wants to talk to him away from the mob that's constantly accusing him he's interested and the governor asked him saying are you the king of the jews and jesus said to him it is as you say are you asking this of yourself or did others tell you this concerning me pilate answered am i a jew your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me what have you done jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world my servants would fight so i should not be delivered to the jews but now don't miss that word now my kingdom is not from here first came the spiritual kingdom later his kingdom will literally be in this world pilate therefore said to him are you a king then jesus answered you rightly say that i'm a king for this cause i was born and for this cause i have come into the world that i should bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears my voice pilate said to him what is truth and when he said this the mob is carrying on outside he'd get go back outside he went out again to the jews and said to them i find no fault in him at all but they were the more fear saying he stirs up the people teaching throughout all judea beginning from galilee to this place when pilate heard the word galilee he asked that the man was a galilean and as soon as he knew that he belonged to herod's jurisdiction he sent him to herod who was also in jerusalem at that time now when herod saw jesus he was exceedingly glad for he desired for a long time to see him because he had heard many things about him he hoped to see some miracle done by him then he questioned him with many words but jesus answered him nothing christ had spoken to herod through john the baptist and he had grieved away the holy spirit by killing john the baptist then herod with his men of war treated him with contempt and they mocked him and the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head and they put on him a gorgeous purple robe and they said hail king of the jews and they struck him with their hands and that very day pilate and herod became friends with each other for previously there had been enmity with them i'll explain that later then they bring him back to pilate then pilate when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people he said you brought this man to me as one who misleads the people and indeed i've examined him in your presence i found no fault in him that's the second time he says it concerning these things of which you accuse him nor neither did herod for he sent him back and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him i'll therefore chastise him meaning i'll whip him maybe that'll appease you for it was necessary for him to release one to them at the feast he said and then i'll release him so pilate took jesus and scourged him and while he was sitting on the judgment seat and jesus is being whipped his wife sends to him saying have nothing to do with that just man for i've suffered many things today in a dream because of him pilate then went out again and said to them behold i'm bringing them out to you that you might know that i find no fault in him and jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns in the purple robe pilate pilate did not put that on him but herod did and pilate said to them behold the man now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the multitude of one prisoner whom they wished and that time they had a notorious prisoner a robber who had been thrown in prison called barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels and had committed murder in the rebellion he's a robber a rebel a murderer therefore when they had gathered together the multitude crying allowed they began to ask that he would do for them just as he had always done pilate said to them who do you want me to release to you see now he's not talking to the jews anymore he says i'm going to take this to the crowd and he thinks for sure as they see the contrast of jesus and barabbas one who is you know has a dignified loving and bearing and barabbas who's a bddi-hardened criminal they're going to see that he says which of these two do you want me to release to you they said barabbas pilate said what shall i do with jesus who's called christ who you call the king of the jews he kind of puts that in their teeth they said to him let him be crucified then the governor said why what evil has he done again he's questioned he hasn't done anything wrong but they cried all the more crucify him crucify him pilate said to them you taken crucify him i find no fault in him that's the third or fourth time depending on you count how you counted the jews answered him we have a law and according to our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of god father goes what nobody said anything to me about son of god you said taxes you said king son of god and he's had this letter from his wife therefore when pilate heard that saying he was more afraid he went again into the praetorium and he said to jesus where are you from jesus gave him no answer then pilate said to him are you not speaking to me do you not know i have power to crucify you or release you i can free you jesus answered and said you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above therefore the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin now there's been great discussion about who jesus is talking about is he saying caiaphas high priest is he talking about judas is he talking about his people from then on pilate sought to release him but the jews cried out and said if you let this man go you're not caesar's friend whoever makes himself a king that's treacherous he's speaking against caesar when pilate therefore heard that saying he brought jesus out and he sat down in the judgment seat in a place that's called the pavement in hebrew it's called gabatha now it was the preparation day and the passover and it was about the six hour that's what we call noon and he said to the jews behold your king and they all cried out at once saying away with this man released to us barabbas but they were insistent that he should be crucified they cried with a loud voice away with him crucify him crucify him pilate said shall i crucify your king and the chief priest answered we have no king but caesar it's amazing what loyal romans they are suddenly becoming they are worried about caesar's taxes when they betray jesus they worried about someone taking the name of caesar and they're saying we have no king but caesar when pilate saw that he could not prevail at all but rather a tumult was rising wanting to gratify the crowd who would want that on their tombstone he took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying i am innocent from the blood of this just person again he calls him just you see to it and all the people answered and said this always makes me shudder his blood be on us and our children so pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested and he released barabbas to them who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison but he delivered jesus after he had scourged him a second time to their will to be crucified so there you've got everything you're going to find in the new testament on pilate now before i go much further it's probably a good idea to just give you a little overview from what we know some of the history of pilate is a little bit sketchy about uh you know we have some comments from early church fathers one report is that he was the illegitimate son of a german woman and a roman soldier that for a while he was a slave that attended the army but he showed himself brave he worked his way up into becoming a regular soldier and finally a soldier soldier showed courage on the battlefield he was made a lieutenant and it was during this time in rome that a young lady named claudia prokula who was the granddaughter of caesars augustus he was a caesar when jesus was born he fell in love with her and married her and because she was viewed favorably by tiberius caesar pilate was asked if he would want a position nobody really wanted the position of being the governor of judea because it was a very turbulent area they were always trying to put down rebellions indeed jerusalem was destroyed because of one of those rebellions and you know through history you could ask any pagan king ask nebuchadnezzar if they rebelled ask persia if they rebelled ask the assyrians if they rebelled ask the moabites and the i mean all of those occupied israel at one time and they constantly rebelled and but it was a profitable assignment because it was a trade route where a lot of taxes came in and whoever was the pro-curator the governor you got to skim a little bit you could become rich so pilate agreed to take that and so from a.d 26 to 80 36 for 10 years he was the governor of that region his responsibilities were he was in charge of the military assigned there he is responsible for administering justice and he was responsible for collecting and passing on to rome the taxes during that time he was the fifth governor of this roman province of judea now because herod the great had divided the kingdom up among his sons being the governor of judea did not mean you are the governor of galilee that belonged to herod's son antipas that's when john the baptist was ultimately beheaded it was by herod who was in charge of that region so um that gives you a little background on him he was not much loved by the jewish nation some of the historians he's mentioned by philo he's mentioned by josephus and a few other church fathers they tell some interesting stories about pilate one is that pilate he didn't like the jews at all he wanted the job he wanted the income and one of the things he did that no other governor did when he came into jerusalem he came marching with his legions down into the coastal city of caesarea it was a roman town caesarea had roman temples the jews it bothered them but they didn't make a big deal of it but he then went marching up one night and he brought the roman ensigns that had an eagle on it and the image now how do the jews feel about images they don't like that had the image of caesar tiberius caesar on it he brought them into the the city of god and they were so he did it during the night they didn't know it when the citizens found out what he had done they were outraged that the romans had introduced these idols they saw it as idolatry because the roman emperor says he's a god to be worshipped and they said he creeping compromise he's bringing idolatry into the city and they went and they protested they said take them out take them out for five days they protested against caesar he went down to caesarea they followed him down there a whole mob followed him down here protesting said you have to remove these things he became so exasperated he decided to call their bluff and he said all right i'll talk to you about it tomorrow out in the open square and i'll hear your case meanwhile he told his soldiers to arm themselves dress in common clothes mingle themselves among the protesters and when he gave the signal to execute them so pilate went out there and they're protesting now on the sixth day saying you've got to take these images out of jerusalem and he said if you don't stop i've got my soldiers there and they're going to execute you all i'm fed up with this protest and the jews according to josephus they laid down and they bared their necks and they said take our lives we are not going to accept idols and pilate thought oh man do i just slaughter all these people in cold blood he gave in to the request he took the idols out but it really made him mad that they did that on another occasion he said well i can't i won't bring idols in but i'm bringing the roman shields into jerusalem so he brought these roman shields in and they really had no images on them but they were roman shields and they were ascribed with tiberius his name to honor tiberius he put him in the palace of herod and they said you got to take the shields out and he refused and finally he did have a revolt where he slaughtered several people hundreds were slaughtered and they were stabbed some were wounded word reached tiberius the jews complained to diapers you've got to know the back story to this why he was afraid when they said you're not a friend of caesar tiberius gave him his job and they sent a delegation said this man is causing rebellion he put idols none of the other governors put idols tiberius wrote a scathing letter to pilate and said immediately what are you doing why are you trying to cause problems take the shields out of herod's temple in jerusalem bring him down to caesarea and he wrote a scathing letter to him so he was already on tiberius's uh blacklist when all of this was happening and then finally he was so upset because of this incident with the shield one of his servants came to him and said the 16 men that had instigated this problem and had signed the letters to tiberius they are all in the temple and most of them are from galilee they are also refusing to pay taxes they're saying by we in even in the days of jesus what do they ask jesus should we pay taxes to rome or not it was a big dispute they said it's got a roman god on there on the money we're not supposed to worship them we shouldn't be paying taxes to the romans and of course you know jesus say render the caesar the things that are caesar's the god the things that are god's well the galileans the ringleaders that would not pay the taxes they were worshiping in the temple one of pilot servants told them he sent his soldiers in and while they were offering sacrifice they were slaughtered in the temple commingling their blood with the blood of the lambs they were offering that report was brought to jesus this really angered herod herod said i am responsible for galilee not you pilate and there was a big dispute between herod and pilate see what's going on in the background here because these things will come up later in the bible all right little history now you might wonder did pilate really live i've got up on the screen a picture of they call it the pilot stone we were just in israel a few months ago the bermudas were here they were with us we went to the museum of we went to museum israel we went to caesarea there's a picture of that stone they found when they were excavating and it talks about pontius pilate that's dedicated to tiberius they still have some of the bronze coins that were stamped by pontius pilate he designed himself they're not worth much there was a little bronze coin but he wanted his name on a coin and so there's really no question that he lived he's mentioned in history of course he's mentioned many times in the gospels he's mentioned in the book of acts several times so now jesus is brought to pilate let's look at the seven easy steps to being lost if you want to follow pilate and be lost like him this is what you do obviously it's what you don't do christ is brought to pilate and i want to read something to you from desire of ages page 7 24. pilate looked at the men who had charge of jesus and then his gaze rested searchingly on jesus he had to deal with all kinds of criminals that never before had a man bearing marks of such goodness and nobility been brought before him on his face he saw no sign of guilt no expression of fear no boldness or defiance he saw a man of calm and dignified bearing whose countenance bore the marks of not a criminal but the signature of heaven christ's appearance made a favorable impression on pilate his better nature was roused he had heard of jesus in his works his wife told him something of the wonderful deeds performed by the galilean prophet who cured the sick and raised the dead now this revived as in a dream in pilate's mind he recalled the rumors he had heard from several sources he resolved to demand the jews that they're that they clarify their charges against the prisoner so when he saw christ he's impressed he was upset early in the morning pilate had no problem many times the philo the philosopher the historian who lived during the time of pilate he said pilate would execute people put him to death for no cause at all but something about jesus struck him and it spoke to his conscience so pilate had to stifle his conscience to be lost first thing is he didn't want to deal with a decision what do i do with jesus you've got a face-to-face private interview with jesus how many of you wish you could have a face-to-face private interview with jesus he had like three or four hours where he could talk with jesus and what did he do with that opportunity well he wanted to dodge the decision to recognize jesus as lord step number one if you want to be lost dodge the decision think i just don't want to deal with it i'm not going to address it and the pastor presses the decision i'm going to say no not today what does jesus say if you're not with me you're what you're against me there is no middle ground during world war ii everybody wanted to go to switzerland because it was a neutral country surrounded by countries at war there is no switzerland you can flee to in the battle between christ and satan you are either with him or you're against him pilate this is john 18. now i'm going to give you the respective verses where these are found then he went out to them and he said what accusation do you bring against this man they said just trust us if he was not an evildoer we wouldn't have brought him to you pilate said you take him and judge him according to your law i don't want to deal with it but that wouldn't work second step transfer the responsibility to someone else now this has long been popular in luke 23 verse 4 so pilate said to the chief priests in the crowd i find no fault in this man but they were more fierce saying he stirs up the people teaching throughout all judea beginning in galilee that was the key word that pilate keyed in on galilee i'm not responsible for galilee when pilate heard he was from galilee he asked if the man were a galilean as soon as he knew that he belonged to herod's jurisdiction he sent him to herod who was also in jerusalem at that time they see what he's doing herod's upset with pilate because pilate did not recognize herod's jurisdiction and pilate killed the galileans you'll read this in luke 13 1. then there were present of that season some who told jesus about the galileans whose blood pilate had mingled with their sacrifices they said did you hear about what happened it was big news pilots slaughtered these men who were galileans because they wouldn't pay taxes up in jerusalem and you know what jesus said do you think they were sinners above other people unless you repent you'll all perish so pilate thinks you know maybe i should send him to herod i'll recognize herod i know this is your district i apologize i didn't recognize it before here's a galilean there's a problem can you take care of it and they became friends over that you notice the pharisees and the sadducees could not get along but they could agree when it came to crucify jesus some people think is jesus a republican or a democrat all i can tell you is when the time comes they'll probably both agree when it comes to persecuting god's people so don't be fooled by the religious part of the political parties it was someone else's fault i'll have hair a deal with it i don't want to deal with it i'm not responsible so many people think i don't have to deal with jesus because it's not my fault the reason that i've got a bad temper is because i had an irish mother it's not my fault the reason i'm sloppy is because my father was sloppy i'm a victim you ever heard the victim mentality i just can't surrender to jesus i can't overcome i can't because someone else it's like when god said to adam and eve what have you done adam says to god the woman it's the woman you made it's your fault god it's not my fault it's a woman's fault he says the woman it's it's the husband you gave me you know it's the serpent it's always somebody else you know we can't be blaming other people everybody's gonna have to make their own decision pilate tried to offload the decision to someone else someone can't make that decision for you you need to make it or i've met people they say um i'm gonna surrender everything to follow jesus but you know i'm waiting on my spouse or you know maybe when my family does it you got to do it yourself amen and the big one that he made was compromise if you want to take those simple steps to being lost compromise your convictions notice how he he just really had his black belt in compromise he said i find no fault in him what evil has he done i'll therefore chastise him and let him go what he said he's innocent so i'll beat him he said look you want him dead i don't think he deserves anything meet you halfway i'll whip him with a roman cat of ninetales and the maximum you could do was 39 stripes and that was that was a you know the bible not only said jesus would be crucified jesus says he would be scourged and crucified part of christ's suffering was this terrible whipping we think about the cross but jesus in foretelling his death he said it won't just be the cross it'll be scourging and death because the roman scourge was a whip that had like nine you've heard a cat of nine tails had little leather tongs it might be five or seven or nine of them they would beat into the tongs or tie little strips of metal or bone so when the end of that whipped at the speed of sound and hit a person it really tore the flesh and it was extremely painful jesus received that twice so pilate says look i know i know that uh he's innocent and no you want him dead i'm not going to kill him but i'll beat him you shouldn't do anything as soon as you they saw that he was willing to make concessions and once the devil knows that you're willing to start compromising your faith you'll go all the way and you'll sell out jesus verse 19. i'm sorry verse 1 of john 19 then pilate took jesus and scourged him matthew 20 verse 19 jesus had foretold they will deliver him to the gentiles to mock to scourge and to crucify the third day horizon the scourging was foretold by christ as well now after he scourged pilate brings him out again he says and behold i'm bringing him out that you might know that i find no fault in him why did you whip him and jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe originally given by herod and pilate said behold the man now at the feast they were used to releasing someone and this is when he says look i'll show pardon this helps me get in good with the locals as i show mercy on one of their criminals which do you want barabbas they took the most the hardened criminal he said look i i got this guy in jail i've actually had three of them in jail i've got barabbas and his two accomplices in fact we've got crosses ready to crucify them i'll bring out the one that everybody knows he's guilty of murder he's a thief [Music] and and see they'll see the contrast between jesus this notorious luke calls him a notorious prisoner and he stands them two before the people now this is really a spectacle here you've got barabbas what is what does barabbas mean bar the word bar whenever you see in the bible like bar to me is barnabas it means son of something um abba when you read where paul says we pray to jesus abba father alba means papa father barabbas means son of the father so here you've got the genuine divine son of god and you've got the human counterfeit son of the father and the crowd together decide which one do we want barabbas was a rebel because he said by mere might through works i am going to save the nation through my own pride through stealing through law breaking i am going to save the nation he is the antithesis of jesus he's the opposite of jesus and pilate sets him for the two people said which messiah do you want and what does the crowd do and look at the contrast one is scarred hardened criminal he's got guilt written all over his face he's had a dark life and they can see it and then they see jesus the picture of innocent majesty purity the son of god and pilate is shocked when he says who do you want well you know the priests had been circulating among the people and demons were inspiring them the devil was in that crowd that day and they said give us barabbas give us barabbas and pilate is number five he's trying to compromise he thinks i'll negotiate and i'll get what i want through compromise as soon as you start going down the road if you don't stand for truth and say no he's innocent let him go free he's innocent but because he wanted to do that he started down the road of compromise you know if you're ever tempted to give in a little bit and lower the standards of truth just remember what happened with pilate as soon as you're willing to compromise with the devil and lower the standards of truth you know everything changes just that one little step down the wrong road pretty soon you'll give up everything as he compromised pretty soon he sold jesus up to be crucified then the other fourth mistake he made is total neglect of the evidence god had given evidence mark chapter 15 verse 10 for he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy he had heard about jesus and his wonderful works he knew the people were flocking to jesus you don't think pilate was aware when he's responsible for jerusalem that there was a big throng that had welcomed jesus through the golden gate in this triumphant entry a few days earlier he knew about that he knew that would make the religious leaders angry he heard that he had evicted the religious leaders from the temple and chased them all away and pilate probably laughed under his breath he said yeah they really were turning that into a flea market and stealing from the people so i think he kind of liked what jesus had done he knew the evidence and then god gave his wife a dream i heard one pastor in preparing for the sermon i read different commentaries and one pastor said oh that just was you know she had heard these things in the news and it was a bad dream and there's nothing divine about it i don't think so i think that that was a supernatural dream that other pastor thought because she was a pagan god couldn't give her a dream did god give the pharaoh a dream did god give nebuchadnezzar a dream i think god gave pilate's wife a dream by the way it says that desire of ages a message from god warned him from the deed he was about to commit in answer to christ's prayer which prayer in answer to christ's prayer the wife of pilate had been visited by an angel i'm quoting from desire of ages 7 32 in answer to christ's prayer the wife of pilate had been visited by an angel from heaven and in a dream she had beheld the savior and conversed with him pilate's wife was not a jew but she looked upon jesus in her dream she had no doubt of his character as mission she knew him to be the prince of god she saw him on trial in the judgment hall she saw his hands tightly bound as the hands of a criminal she saw herod and the soldiers doing their dreadful work she heard the priests and the rulers filled with envy and malice madly accusing she heard the words we have a law and by our law he ought to die she saw pilate give jesus to the scourging after he declared i find no fault in him she heard the condemnation pronounced by pilate she saw him give christ up to the murders she saw the cross uplifted on calvary she saw the earth wrapped in darkness and heard the mysterious cry it is finished still another scene met her gaze she saw christ seated on the great white cloud while the earth reeled in space and his murders fled from the presence of his glory with a cry of horror she awoke and at once wrote to pilate words of warning she had had this vision this terrifying vision of what was coming and what was going on god wanted to save pilate you know jesus would not talk to herod because herod had his chance jesus did talk to pilate there was hope even for that unjust judge there was hope god is so merciful he's so patient but there's an end to his mercy therefore when the chief priests and the officers saw him they cried out crucify him crucify him pilate said i find no fault in him the evidence was that he was innocent he neglected the evidence has god given you evidence that jesus is who he says he is and then he dismisses the truth this is step number five pilate said to him are you a king jesus said you rightly say that i'm a king for this cause i was born for this cause i've come into the world that i should bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears my voice instead of pilots saying tell me what is the truth he sarcastically says what is truth i can't listen to your answer right now because the crowd is clamoring for my attention i've seen so many religions in romans so many fractions and sections of the jewish religion who knows what the truth is have you ever heard anybody say oh there's so many religions who can know everyone says it's this it's that there's so many religions they all argue religion just causes war you ever heard that before who knows what the truth is that is true there's been a lot of wars in the name of religion in reality though more war has been caused by governments than religion a lot more people were killed by hitler and stalin and that was not religion that was political and just because there are wars fought in religion does that mean there's no truth or should you dedicate yourself to find the truth you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free why are people destroyed my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge he says i'll also reject you we are not only responsible for following the truth that god reveals we are responsible for the truth we could know if we would crack the pages of the bible some people will be destroyed not just because they didn't know because they didn't want to know pilate said what is truth and he walks away how sad jesus is the embodiment of truth if you were going to say what is truth incarnate the word became flesh the word of god the truth he said i am the way the what the truth and the life and he looks at jesus the truth and he says what is truth and he turns away friends nothing is more important than truth the whole purpose of your life depends on the truth what you do from day to day your direction your choices are all based on what is truth and if you don't value that above everything else so one of the ways that you and i can easily be lost is to reject the truth second thessalonians 2 verse 10 with all unrighteousness of deception among those who perish why because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved and if you don't receive the love of the truth listen to what happens for this reason god will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie they'll be sincere but they're believing a lie because they did not love the truth that they might be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness you know something else is happening here as you look at what's going on between the conversation with pilate and jesus it's it's almost like who's the one on trial here is it jesus or is it pilate james stewart in his book the life and teachings of jesus he writes everyone who studies this narrative about pilate has a strange feeling that the tables are being turned before their very eyes and that they are seen as not jesus on trial before the crowd but pilate is on trial before jesus in fact as pilate stands with the son of god in these hours it is as if christ's searchlight is probing his soul revealing his true character for all the world to see but every soul stands where pilate stood at some time in their life face to face with jesus in the place of decision i chose this message today because we're all kind of like pilate we're all in the story in that pilot says what will you have me do with jesus and we all have to answer that question what am i to do with christ and then he makes another big mistake point number six he put his career before christ he was more interested in his earthly ambitions in his job john 19 12 from then on pilate sought to release him when the jews saw that they cried out saying if you let this man go you are not caesar's friend whoever makes himself a king speaks against caesar we're going to send word to cedar this man was starting a rebellion he claimed to be a king and you let him go and pilate realized boy they're going to trump that up and what will happen to my position what will happen to my job you know when they turned in jesus even the high priest said what's going to become of our nation if we don't stop jesus we're going to lose our jobs everybody's worried about their job you know i'm a seventh-day adventist christian and of course we keep the seventh day and every now and then we run into people that say what if i keep the seven-day sabbath you know i might lose my job and they're willing to sacrifice eternal life for a job and what's really says some people are willing to do it you know a job at taco bell or walmart and think you know it's not even a good job so yeah but that's my income i had nothing against taco bell and walmart i become a customer but i mean i can't believe it people say what god understands i mean i've got to provide for my family you know i love the bible it tells stories about people like shadrach meshach and abednego and they had to make a decision do we bow to the graven image and break god's commandment or do we lose our job and our lives they were going to not only lose their lives they're going to lose their jobs too weren't they they were willing to lose their jobs and their lives rather than disobey as was daniel so what profit is it if you get the best job in the world and you lose your soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul pilots don't know me not this because i could lose my job all right and that was sort of like the death blow for him at that point he said mark 15 15 wanting to gratify the crowd the crowd's out there saying crucify him crucify him and in order to please the crowd how many people are going to be lost because they wanted to be crowd pleasers which is going to be the bigger group when jesus comes christians are the lost crowd the bible says follow not a multitude to do evil if you want to be a christian you can't follow the crowd you can't do what everybody else does you have to think for yourself wanting to gratify the crowd how many people have given in to trying to please the crowd he delivered jesus after he had scourged him there's the second scourging because it was customary before crucifixion there was a scourging to be crucified pilate licked his finger he put it to the wind like a politician he thought what will be the best political decision for me to make what profit will it be now every one of us has to make a decision are we going to crown jesus as the lord of our life are we crucify him you say well i'm not ready to surrender to jesus and make him my lord well i'm not going to crucify him i'd never do that well it's one of the other if you do not make him your lord you are in effect doing the same thing pilate did that's the point that some people don't get you either crown him or you crucify him there is no third option finally the seventh thing believe you can reject jesus and remain innocent pilate then says when he could not prevail but rather a tumult there was going to be a revolt was rising he called for water and in front of everybody he washes his hand before the multitude saying i am innocent of the blood of this just person no you're not innocent you're the judge that's why they brought them to you you are the judge you have the power to make the decision and you need to risk yes whatever the consequences i'm going to be a just judge but he was willing to be manipulated by all these different circumstances he thought well even though i am giving out an illegal judgment i'm going to go through the the spectacle of washing my hands to say it's not my fault it's your fault no pilot sorry yeah the people are guilty but it was your fault so sad he said i'm innocent of the blood and the people said his blood be upon us and our children now you only find that in matthew but that's that makes you shudder to think about it and you wonder when jerusalem was destroyed 40 years later if that was the fulfillment of that prayer they prayed they said we have no king but caesar and his blood be upon us and our children and it was ultimately the romans they seemed so loyal to the romans that 40 years later destroyed their temple destroyed their nation destroyed their priesthood and it all i think traces back to this event niagara falls could not wash away the guilt he washed his hands in front of the people we're all accountable for following the truth you know one of the saddest things about the story of pontius pilate is it is one of the greatest lost opportunities in history now i don't know about you but every time i read this story you know i listen to the bible all the time on tape when i'm driving and when i'm flying on my iphone and whenever i hear this story i get caught up in it emotionally and maybe i've got a fertile imagination but i i always transport myself back it happened again this week and i think if i was pilot i could think of a dozen different ways to try to save jesus i always want to do something to save jesus i think okay pilot i understand you're afraid of the mob you're afraid of the crowd you could have said all right look it's a we're about to have a religious holiday we don't want to muck things up right now we're going to go ahead and we're going to put them in prison we'll deal with it monday procrastinating then let them go i mean this i could think in all these different ways you could get out of it and save jesus somehow could you save jesus well you know jesus wasn't looking to be saved jesus knew that he was going to lay his life down this was the mechanism by which it happened some people were guilty along the way but christ was a willing sacrifice so that you and i could be saved but pilate had an opportunity to be saved that day i don't know how god would have done it and how things would have played out judas could have repented when jesus washed his feet but he didn't he said well then who would have betrayed him don't worry god would have worked it out pilate could have declared him innocent and surrounded him with soldiers and there would have been some other way that god would have fulfilled his word what an opportunity to have jesus right there with you and to appeal to you and say i am the truth and to be able to ask him questions and instead to hand him over to the crowd you know all of us have opportunities all of us have an opportunity to respond to jesus in some way i remember hearing a story where this young man in scotland he went out to collect these very valuable bird eggs on the edge of a cliff and he secured the rope to the tree he had strong arms and he lowered himself down quite a ways to where this ledge was and he had to kick his way over hanging onto the rope you know he had to propel his way over at an angle with the rope to get to the ledge and when he got to the ledge as he was going to try and secure the rope so he could get the eggs he let go of the rope and the rope swung away from the ledge well you know how pendulum works it swings out and it'll swing back and it'll swing a little more a little less a little less a little less pretty soon it's hanging straight he knew in an instant that when that rope swung back he had one chance to jump and get that rope or it was never going to swing close enough again for him to get the rope and he couldn't think about it he had to leap in everybody's life we have an opportunity pilot had a golden opportunity and he missed out you might want to know the rest of the story a couple of nice things i might say about pilot i don't want to be too hard on them you know even lost people can do a couple of nice things do you know that you think lost people are always just bad you know some nice lost people they came back to pilate and they say you put on his cross this is the king of the jews change that don't say this is the king of the jews say he said i am the king of the jews finally pilate grows a backbone and he says what i have written i have written i admire him for that and then later joseph of arimathea comes to pilate says will you give us the body so we can give him a decent burial and he does but pilate's life didn't end very well because he missed that opportunity near as we can tell well we do know from history that eventually he he got upset with some samaritans they were going up to mount garrison to try to look for artifacts and he thought it was a rebellion and he slaughtered several of the the leaders and word was sent up to tiberius and tiberius called pilate back to rome to answer for these accusations and on his way back to rome tiberius died before he even got there and a crazy emperor named claudia caligula came into power and he did not reinstate pilate he basically stripped him of all of his position and from there the story gets sketchy some say that he became a hopeless alcoholic and just about everybody in history josephus and philo and others the early church fathers usabis they agree that he killed himself some say he threw himself in the tiber river others say that he was thrown in the tiber river but he most likely died of suicide and many believe that he could never erase the events that it took place don't you think pilate got word after he heard that jesus was cr who had been crucified was resurrected that was all over jerusalem don't you think that would have made him shudder a little bit to wonder if at any time he might walk around the pillar and there was christ probably haunted him the rest of his days he missed his opportunity i heard about a king true story and he was putting down a rebellion in saxon and he went up to the remote edges of his kingdom and he was able to put down the rebellion and he thought i'll give an opportunity for the rebels to come into line so he took a large candle and he put it in the archway of the castle where he was bivouac during this he was camped during this campaign and he said if anybody is willing to swear allegiance to me in the kingdom before the candle burns down you will be forgiven if not you will be judged and executed but you've got one candle to make your decision all of us in life have one candle your life is that one candle you and i your life is a vestibule for eternity it's the staging area where we're deciding what door we want to go through and the story of pilate is there as a pretty strong reminder that christ he wants to have an encounter with you but while he's near you need to answer that question what will i do with jesus i hope you'll make that decision today to invite jesus to be your lord to crown him and not to crucify him we're going to sing our closing song i want to invite our singers to come up it's five six night past me not a gentle savior and after the second verse i'll just tell you now i'm gonna make an appeal let's stand together as we sing five six nine [Music] yes [Music] today [Music] is [Music] save yourself [Music] oh you know periodically i think it's a good idea to just give people an opportunity in some cases maybe to return and renew a relationship with jesus and there may be some here who all your lives maybe even have gone to church you've never really surrendered and said lord you are my king i want jesus not barabbas i want christ not caesar and you need to make that decision is there some area of your life that you have not surrendered or maybe you're compromising and you decide lord i want to be 100 for you i want to follow the truth while we sing verses 2 and verses 3 if you have some special need or if that's the desire of your heart or maybe for the first time you've never accepted jesus as your lord and savior and you want to do that now come as we sing these last two verses and we'll have her together [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] is [Music] amen you know just before i close with prayer if there's anyone else there may be some here you've been coming to church you've accepted jesus but you've not made a decision to join the church you say i want to be part of christ's body part of his family and his army you come now we'll pray with you so maybe you've never been baptized you've accepted jesus but you realize you need to make that decision come be part of this and we'll pray together let's bow our hands father in heaven lord we thank you for these very important sober but beneficial warnings in your word from the life of pilate in this experience lord i pray that you can help us learn from this terrible accident that we don't repeat those mistakes we want to take the steps of salvation and not the steps to destruction and lord i pray that you be with those who've responded to the invitation just reveal yourself to them in a very special way i pray you'll fill them with your spirit we praise you for the promise that jesus died he was scourged he was crucified that we might be forget forgiven that he took our penalty and our suffering that we might have eternal life lord we want to embrace fully that that opportunity bless this church every family that's here and i pray you'll help us be ready when christ soon comes we ask all of this in jesus name amen you may be seated and some who have responded this morning if if you'd like to know more about what it means to be part of this church family

Channel: Daily Hymns

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Length: 64min 31sec (3871 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 20 2021