the most significant event in human history. And Christ went there and died. Never were there a more, was a more glorious person coupled with more gruesome death than there on the cross of Christ. And so we've been looking at this theme, we've been drawing from John chapters 18 and 19, and today we're in this 19th chapter. and these verses that Brother Woodson read a moment ago. And we come now to this man Pilate. Now, I hope you, I trust you understand that there's far more in this passage than I'll be able to deal with. There are certain technical things in the gospel accounts of the crucifixion. Things like exactly when did Christ die, the Passover, and the preparation for the Passover, the Sabbath, and all of that. It all kind of gets jumbled up together, and there are certain technical concerns. And it's not part of my purpose to try to relieve for you these technical problems. If you are If you're such a student of Scripture that you're aware of these things, you're a good enough student to wend your way through all of these technical problems and find satisfactory solutions. It's my concern to lift out spiritual lessons as much as I can, powerfully, by the help of the Spirit of God, and apply those to your heart, to your life. And we come to this man of Pilate today, and I want to lift out certain spiritual lessons You know, there are what I would call stained or tarnished names in Scripture. We have stained names in American history. You only have to think of Benedict Arnold. There's a stained name. And that has come to be associated with being a traitor, treachery, that sort of thing. And Scripture has its share of stained names. The first stained name in all of Scripture is obviously the name of Cain. but it doesn't end there. We can think also of this man Lot, described later there in the book of Genesis. And then we come to King Saul, another stained name. Jeroboam comes to mind. We get over here into the New Testament, and we run into this man Judas Iscariot, a stained name. And when you stop to think about it, you realize that these are the names of men who frittered away marvelous spiritual opportunities and embraced passing, fleeting concerns. They squandered marvelous spiritual opportunities and embraced things of a fleeting, passing nature. I should like to suggest to you this morning that out of all the stained names that we have in Scripture, there is probably none more stained, some as much stained, no doubt, but none more stained than this name of Pilate. Here is a man who rubbed up against a marvelous spiritual breakthrough. Here's a man who came so deliciously close to embracing the truth. You can kind of just see him here, tantalizingly close. There he is, teetering, as it were, on the edge of a marvelous spiritual breakthrough, and then he falls off on the other side, and he completely perishes. And so, we're looking at this man's pilot. I was in search of a good title for this sermon, and it might interest you to know what goes on in a pastor's home, at least if you want to know a part of it. And one of the things that goes on in our house is that we talk about sermons a lot. We talk about my sermons, we talk about sermons of others that we have heard, that kind of thing. And I didn't really have a title for this sermon until I had a discussion yesterday in my home. And Marty was able to supply me with a title that I really like, so here it is. The title of this sermon is, A Pilot Who Crashed and Burned. That is an excellent title, A Pilot Who Crashed and Burned. And that really tells the story about this man. Because here he is now, he has a marvelous spiritual opportunity, he has Jesus Christ right there in front of him, and he's got this opportunity to embrace the truth about Christ. But he failed. He crashed and burned. And so all that I'm trying to do in this message this morning is just analyze for you what that thought in mind was. Analyze for you why Pilate crashed and burned. And I have some answers to that. First of all, I would suggest to you that Pilate failed because he did not pursue the question that he raised. Look with me now at verse 7. Here the Jews are involved in discussion with Pilate, and they say to Pilate, we have a law, and according to our law, Jesus ought to die because he made himself the Son of God. Now when Pilate heard that, look at verse 8, he was afraid. How would you feel if someone told you that you had reason to believe what they were telling you was correct? How would you feel if someone said to you, you have in your presence the very Son of God? Pilate was afraid, and rightly so. And so there in verse 9 we find him going again into the judgment hall, and he says to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Now I want you to understand that Pilate raised an exceedingly important question when he asked Jesus that question, where are you from? He's trying to get to the bottom of this thing. Jews have said here, they don't believe it now. I'm talking about the Jewish leaders here, the religious leaders. They don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They're simply relating to Pilate what Jesus himself has claimed to be. And this terrifies Pilate. And so he raises this question, where are you from? In other words, are you really what you claim to be? Are you indeed the Son of God? We have all kinds of questions swirling around us today in this society. Some of them are very important and crucial. Some of them are ridiculous. But my friends, I would have you understand this morning that you'll never ask a more important question than this. Is Jesus Christ really the Son of God? That's essentially what Pilate was asking. And I want to show you how important that question is. Do you have your Bible there in front of you? I hope that you do. And I hope whenever I preach, you always have your Bible open to the passage we're dealing with. Just turn a page or two, whatever the case may be, and look at the last two verses of chapter 20 of John's Gospel. And John is wrapping up here now. He's got a whole other chapter to go, but you know how it is when preachers are wrapping up. It takes a while. And when a preacher says, now in closing, you know what that means. Very little. And so John says, now in closing, and he's got another chapter to go, but look what it says in verses 30 and 31. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written, now here's the crucial thing. These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This is the same issue now that Pilate's dealing with, right? Back there in chapter 19, you all agree? Same issue Pilate's dealing with. Is Jesus indeed the Son of God? And John says, now I have written this book that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I've written it to answer Pilate's question. But now get the connection. Look at the next thing he says there in that 31st verse. And that believing you may have life in his name. And John here is talking about eternal life, because he says back there in John chapter 3 verse 16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him, same thing he's talking about here, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have what? Eternal life, everlasting life. Now, John says, here's how important this question is that Pilate raised back there in chapter 19. Here's how important it is. This matter determines whether one has eternal life. Eternal life is associated with this matter of Jesus being the Son of God. So I'm simply here to say to you this morning, you can't ask a more important question than Pilate asked. And he asked, are you really the Son of God? Where are you from? Are they telling the truth about you? Do you claim to be the Son of God? That's the most important question that anybody can ask, because eternal life hangs on that issue. Is Jesus the Son of God? And so, this morning, this is a very important question. It's life's most important question. Now, what are you fiddling with today that's more important than that? Having eternal life. Coming from where I came from this morning, I'll tell you, I can testify to you there's nothing more important than eternal life. And this is the issue Pilate was dealing with. Now, I want to characterize this question that Pilate raised in another way. I've called it a vitally important question. I also want to tell you that it is an answerable question. Now, there's some who raise this question. They say, well, I wonder if Jesus really was the Son of God. And then, you know, they kind of fall into the trap that is so prominent in this day and age. And they say, well, we really can't be sure. It's just a matter of interpretation. You know, this is what we hear constantly. We hear it right here in Benton. You've heard it in your discussions with your family members and your friends about Christianity. You've heard people say things like this, well, you know, after all, when it's all said and done, it's just a matter of interpretation. Clinton over here, he believes Jesus is the Son of God. Well, I'll fight for his right to believe it, but that's just his interpretation. You can't be sure. and uh and Barry over here he he he doesn't believe it and so that's he's entitled that's his interpretation Amen. And this is how people approach this thing today. They say, well, Christianity, it all sounds good, but it's just a matter of interpretation. Well, I want you to know, my friends, it's not just a matter of interpretation. We can say definitively this morning that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We can say that conclusively. We can say that without hesitation, without doubt, without wavering, because, my friends, We have evidence that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I could parade before you this morning all manner of evidence. I could talk about the miracles that Jesus Christ performed and talk about his own resurrection from the dead. I could parade before you witnesses this morning that attest to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. God himself spoke from heaven. And there's the baptism of Jesus, and says, this is my beloved Son. And God didn't speak from heaven on just one occasion. God spoke from heaven there on the Mount of Transfiguration. He said the same thing, this is my beloved Son. There in John chapter 12, you have him speaking again, just before Jesus Christ entered upon this last week of his life, and God spoke from heaven and said, this is my Son. for God Himself witnesses to the fact that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. And Jesus witnessed to the fact. On and on we could go. I could cite Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, who all say that they wrote their Gospels to present Jesus Christ as the Son of God. I could cite the witness of John the Baptist, who, whenever Jesus stepped there on the stage of his public ministry as it were, John hailed him by saying, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I could talk to you about the thief on the cross there. Do you remember whenever Jesus was crucified, one thief on each side, and they both began by railing at Him and by giving in to the ridicule and the mockery, the one thief stopped and changed, he had a change of mind and heart, and he said, Lord, remembrance enter into your kingdom. He called him Lord. There's the testimony from the feet. What about the centurion who was standing there at the foot of the cross when Jesus died? He said, this was indeed the Son of God. There's the testimony of Saul of Tarsus, this man who was breathing out slaughterings against the church. He became a convinced disciple of Jesus Christ. And we find him saying in Acts chapter 9 that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God. instance after instance, witness after witness. Right here in John chapter 20, where we left off a moment ago, we have there Thomas saying in verse 28 to Jesus, the risen Christ, my Lord and my God. And so witness after witness says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Pilate crashed and burned, folks, because he did not follow through on this question that he raised. He raised it, but he just left it hanging there in the air. He didn't pursue it to its conclusion, its inevitable conclusion. You know, I'm afraid that so many today here, like Pilate, they raise the right question and it hangs there, it lingers there in the air. And then they shrug it off and say something like, well, we can't be sure. We'll just have to wait and see how it all works out. Everybody's got his own interpretation. All my friends, I want you to know, you can't raise a more important question than this. Is Jesus the Son of God? But if you raise it, don't allow it just to hover there in the air. Pursue it to its logical conclusion, and you will say, yes, Jesus is the Son of God, and you'll have life through his name. That's what Job talks about. Let me give you another reason here. the pilot crashed and burned. That is, he feared the wrong thing. Now, we find here in this 11th verse, back in chapter 19, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke a word to the pilot about the supreme authority. When the pilot asked Jesus there, where are you from? The Bible tells us that Jesus gave him no answer. Now, my friends, I can understand that. The silence here has already had Jesus cruelly beaten, and Jesus here gives him no answer. By the way, that is one form that God judges us. Sometimes God judges us by silence, by His silence. You read about the people of Damascus, not a famine in the land for the Word of God. There's judgment involved here. But anyway, Jesus was silent. And then Pilate begins to bluster. This is funny. Here he has one in front of him that he thinks might possibly be the very Son of God, and he begins to bluster. He says, well, you're not speaking to me? Well, don't you know I have power to crucify you? Funny, isn't it? You see some little mortal man strutting around here, talking about how he has the power to crucify one who may very well be the Son of God. And so he's here blustering about his authority, Pilate. And Jesus says, well let's talk about authority. Jesus breaks his silence. And in verse 11 he says, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. That's supreme authority. And that's true today. We have right here in our own nation and in our own community, people who bluster around about God. There are some people today who are so hostile to God, you can't talk about God without them getting upset and going into all kinds of gyrations. People today, many don't like the name of God. I would have you all understand this today. that even the very breath that you breathe, the very air that you use to blaspheme and ridicule the name of God comes from God. You would have no power at all even to lock the name of God. And so, Jesus here says, well, while we're talking about authority, let's just get it on the record. You wouldn't have any authority at all against me unless it had been given to you from above. So Pilate here hears a word about supreme authority. That seemed to make a little bit of an impact on Pilate, because there in verse 12, from then on, Pilate sought to release him. But look, there further in verse 12, now Pilate's about to hear another word. He's heard Jesus' word about supreme authority, but now he hears another word in verse 12. The Jews cried out, saying, if you let this man go, you're not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. So now Jesus has spoken about the authority of God, and the Jews speak now about the authority of Caesar. Lesser authority. And what does Pilate do? Well, my friends, As you read further, of course, the answer is obvious to all of us, isn't it? Pilate caved in to the Jews' word about lesser authority and crucified Jesus. He had here a message about supreme authority, God's authority, and a message here about Caesar's authority, and he chose Caesar. I can tell you, my friends, what Pilate should have done. He should have feared God, the supreme authority. but instead he feared Caesar, a lesser authority. And it seems to me that this same issue comes before all of us today. We have here in the Word of God a message about God's supreme authority, and we have with that message the instruction that we should fear Almighty God. We also have other messages sounding today. Isn't it sad? Isn't it tragic? So listen, when they hear the message about God's supreme authority and how we should fear God, isn't it sad how many people choose to fear something else? I can tell you right now, some of our viewers are afraid to live for God because they're afraid of us. We've got God here, supreme authority. the one who holds the very breath that they breathe in his hand, supreme authority, and then they've got over here little Caesar. What my friends have done, what my friends have suffered, and many of our young people today are choosing Caesar. And in choosing Caesar, you're not only wrecking their whole kind of life, you're also wrecking their health, because lots of times Caesar says, over here, if you want to be If you're not one of the group, you've got to drink. And our kids say, well, I guess I'll have to do what Caesar said. If you want to be one of us, you're going to have to shoot drugs or something like that. Many of our young people are saying today, well, I guess I'll have to do what Caesar said. And so this thing is being replayed even to this very day. This issue of supreme authority and little Caesar and his authority. Pilate made the wrong choice. He appeared at the wrong thing. He appeared at Caesar. I say this about our teenagers because teenagers, I love you dearly, and you know that. And I want to do all I possibly can to keep you from ruining your life here and plunging off into a devil's hell later. I want to flag you down if I can to keep you out of hell. That's what I'm about. But don't think this morning that I've exhausted the application of this by just talking about Teenage is choosing between God's authority and Caesar's. Brother Woodson, there are a lot of adults who do that, too. And you get up into your mid-years, later years, and you think, well, Caesar's supports have died out. Caesar's supports never died out. He keeps talking. And you and I are facing the same thing, often times. Am I going to fear the supreme authority of God, or am I going to shake and rattle in my boots before Caesar's defeat. Pilate crashed the barn, folks, because he feared the wrong thing. Now that brings me finally here and quickly just to say another word as I try to answer this question. Why Pilate failed? We're talking about a stained name here in Scripture. A man whose name will live as long as there is human history. A man whose name will live. as an example of one that has squandered his spiritual opportunity and embraced a mere belief in himself. And I want to give you a third reason that he failed. That is, he thought he could be neutral. He thought he could be neutral. He thought he could have it both ways, didn't he? You know, there are a couple of things that bring this out. One thing, of course, is Pilate keeps bringing Jesus out here before the Jews and saying, here's your king. Surely you don't want to crucify him. He keeps trying to get the Jews to say, no, don't crucify him. He wants to take the onus off himself and he wants to place it on the people. And finally, whenever he recognizes that he can't get by with that, what does he do? Well, you find in the other gospel accounts that he goes in, and he takes a basin of water, and he washes his hands, and he says, I'm in. And his blood seethed and seethed out. And the people, of course, responded, let his blood be upon us and our children. But was Pilate innocent? No. He did have authority. It was granted to him from above. He had the authority to release Jesus, but he refused to do so, even though he knew Jesus was an innocent man. My friends, Pilate stands as a lasting monument to this truth. There's no such thing as neutrality when it comes to Jesus Christ. There's no such thing as neutrality when it comes to Jesus Christ. Now, some of you may be saying today, you may be trying to hide in that rhetoric. You may be saying, well, now, I'm going, I'm not a preacher for Jesus, but I'm not against him either. The pilot tried to have it both ways, didn't he? He's innocent, but I'm going to let you crucify him. And you can't have it both ways any more than he can. Jesus had a word to say about this thing of neutrality, didn't he? He said it like this, he who is not with me or for me is against me. And I just want to tell you, understand today, my friends, that if you don't want to crash and burn, and this is a wonderful analogy, a wonderful illustration, a wonderful way of putting it, because that's exactly what's going to happen to all those who don't receive Jesus Christ. They're eventually going to crash and burn in what the Bible describes as the fires of the fire of destruction. I tell you, if you don't want that, you're lost. You have got to declare war. You've got to declare it. Don't think you're going to hide in this non-existent fortress of traveling. It doesn't exist. You don't believe it. You can't be a millionaire about it. Pilate raised the right question, but didn't pursue it. He feared the wrong question, and then he tried to hide it in a place that didn't exist. All right, Father, we thank you.