What happens when a Roman governor is forced to judge a Jewish king? Stay tuned for Renewing Your Mind, weekend edition. Welcome to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind with author and teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul. Dr. Sproul is also the Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching at St. Andrews, a Reformed congregation in Sanford, Florida. When Jesus was brought to Pontius Pilate, the last thing Pilate wanted was to get involved in the affairs of the Jews. But as it typically goes in the arena of politics, officials end up doing things they would rather not do when their job or life is on the line. So what did Pilate do when forced to decide between Jesus and Caesar? He did exactly what was given him to do by God. Today on Renewing Your Mind, as we continue our way through the Gospel of John, Dr. Sproul will revisit that historic meeting between Jesus and Pilate to see the hand of providence in the judgment of Pilate. Here's Dr. Sproul. I'll be reading from John chapter 18 verse 39 through chapter 19 verse 16. But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the king of the Jews? And then they all cried again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. And so then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head. And they put on him a purple robe. And they said, Hail, King of the Jews. And they struck him with their hands. Pilate then went out again and said to them, behold, I'm bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. And then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, behold the man. Now therefore, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, You take him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. 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. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid and went again into the praetorium and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. And Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? Jesus answered, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. When Pilate heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation day of the Passover in about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your king. But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. Then he delivered him to them to be crucified, and they took Jesus and led him away. He who has ears to hear the word of God, let them hear. You may be seated. Suppose you were given a choice between two men, between Jesus of Nazareth and Osama bin Laden. That's basically the kind of choice that the Jewish people faced that day in Jerusalem, because as was the custom on the feast for one of the prisoners to be released, the option that the people chose instead of Jesus, when Pilate was giving them an opportunity to do the right thing. Instead, they chose Barabbas. My text that I read this morning simply indicates that Barabbas was a robber. He's mentioned in all four Gospels, and the extent of his crimes is more extensive than we see here in John's bare mention of him. He was a man who committed robbery and murder in the course of a rebellion against Rome. He was a man involved in terrorism. And the chief priests and the scribes had nothing but contempt for terrorists from their own people. And yet when the choice was given them between this notorious terrorist and Jesus, their hostility towards Christ was so profound that they clamored for the release of Barabbas, whose full name, according to tradition, was Jesus Barabbas. And the name Barabbas can mean and probably did mean, literally, son of the Father. Imagine that the people cried for the freedom of this Jesus, Son of the Father, rather than the Jesus who was ultimately the Son of the Father. Well, chapter 19 says that in response to the screaming of the multitude, Pilate took Jesus again and scourged Him. In all probability, what we have here are two scourgings, the lighter one first, as another last-ditch effort of Pilate to keep from condemning a man that he has publicly declared is innocent. And so to satisfy the bloodlust of the crowd, he has him whipped, thinking maybe that'll appease them, and then he can let Jesus go. Look what happens. So, Pilate took Jesus and scourged him, and the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe. And they said, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. Now, the thorns that were woven together into this crown were spikes that reached a length of twelve inches. Foot-long spikes were woven together and then driven into the temples of our Lord. And the whole purpose of this was for the sport of the soldiers to mock Jesus. And they throw this garment across his back with a color of royalty, purple, and they begin to give obeisance to him in their mockery, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! Taking turns slapping him. Whatever was his blind side, the next blow would come. The whole idea here was to make Jesus look not like a king, but like a court jester. And it's in this costume that Pilate once again brings him before the crowd. So Pilate went out again and said, Behold, I'm bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. And then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns, wearing the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, Ecce Homo! Look at him! Behold the man! And we can't pry into Pilate's mind and extract from his brain exactly the intent of that famous phrase, ecce homo, that has come down through church history loaded with such weighty theological import. It could be that Pilate was simply saying to those who were watching this spectacle, Look at his humiliation. How can this one who is now adorned with the crown of thorns and being mocked with the spittle of the soldier sliding down his cheeks, how can that one be conceived by anybody as a threat? Look at him, he looks like a clown. Isn't that enough? Let's be done with this. Maybe that's what Pilate had in mind. But even if he did have that in mind, we can't escape the invisible hand of providence that is working in this moment, which Jesus alludes to a little later and we'll look at when that occurs. But what the theologians have found in the irony here is that what was standing in this costume of the fool was nothing less than the incarnation not only of God, but of perfect humanity. This is what man was created to be. This was the second Adam standing here in front of this crowd. And when Pilate said, behold the man, I doubt if he understood how loaded that statement was. Because what they should have been doing is looking at this and saying, yes, here is man. As God intended him to be, as God designed him to be, the man who has no fault in him. But whatever Pilate's intent, it had little impact on the mercy of the crowd. Therefore, when the chief priests and the officers saw him, now listen, listen to the sequence. Pilate says, ecce homo, behold the man, look at him. The very next verse, and when they saw him, When they beheld him, they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him. By this time, Pilate is beside himself with frustration, and he finally says, obviously in a sardonic manner, you take him. You take him and crucify him. Now, Pilate knew very well they didn't have the authority to take him and crucify him. He couldn't really do that. But he's so flustered, so frustrated, that the mob won't acquiesce to what he thinks should be done. He said, all right, then you do it, because I'm not going to do it, because I can't find anything wrong with this man. And the Jews said, well, we have a law. And according to our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the son of God. Did you hear that? If you remember from the previous weeks at the beginning of this trial, we saw that Jesus was taken to the Romans with the charge of being a pretender to the Roman crown, that He was being seditious, that His crime was political. When we knew all along that what was bothering the Jewish authorities was not the political overtones of Jesus' ministry, but the theological overtones of His identity. It wasn't Jesus' politics that made them hate Him, it was His theology they couldn't stand. But you see, they knew that they wouldn't get the time of day from a Roman magistrate if they brought a theological issue to them. So they trumped up the charge of sedition and all this business of kingship. And now when that doesn't work, they're saying, look, Pilate, we want you to kill him because our law prohibits people from making themselves equal with God, and so you do our work for us. He ought to die. Strange, strange statement next from John. Therefore, when Pilate heard that, he was the more afraid. What's he afraid of? Maybe all this means, all John is trying to tell us is that when he hears this crowd changing gears now, coming up with a different charge, refusing to back off from their bloodlust, that Pilate now becomes more frightened by the power of this multitude and then goes back to Jesus to escape the wrath of the crowd. Perhaps. But remember, he's just spent time alone with Jesus. And he's never had a prisoner in front of him in his life or anything like Jesus. And now Jesus' enemies are saying he calls himself the Son of God. I wonder what Pilate's thinking now. Uh-oh. If this guy's the Son of God, I'm really in trouble. And so he's starting to get nervous. His wife's having dreams we heard about in the other accounts. And he's starting to shake in his boots. And so he runs back in, and the first question he asks Jesus is what? Where are you from? Which indicates to me he really was terrified by the suggestion that Jesus may be more than a man. But Jesus gave no answer. And then Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me? Don't you know that I have power to crucify you and the power to release you? Speak up! Where are you from, I asked you? And Jesus just stands there. Like a lamb before his shears is dumb, he opened not his mouth. He's not saying, do you know who you're speaking to? It's, do you know who you're not speaking to? I have power, I have the authority to have you crucified, and I have the authority to set you free. Jesus says basically, is that right? Actually, Pilate, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above. Here we see the function of Pontius Pilate as a persona publicus, as I mentioned last week. This is why he's elevated in status to be included in the Apostles' Creed, because it was through the providence of God that God ordained Pontius Pilate to be the actor in this drama, and Jesus knew it. It's as if Jesus is saying to Pilate, Pilate, this isn't about you. It's not about your skin, it's not about your status, it's not about your reputation with Rome or your peace with the Jewish citizenry here in Jerusalem. This is about God. Because you have to understand something, sir. Let me tell you how much power you have over me. Zero. unless my Father gives it to you." Again, when we see divine concurrence, we remember the episode between Joseph and his brothers when he confronted the brothers at the end, and the brothers are terrified that Joseph's going to execute them, and Joseph said, don't worry, I'm not going to punish you. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Because out of your wickedness, much goodness will come to the world. This is Good Friday, folks. This is the best thing that ever happened to us. Pontius Pilate has done the greatest service anybody has done with the perception perhaps of Judas. But their intent was wicked. Jesus is saying, Pilate, You're nothing, you're clay in my father's hands. It's been ordained from the foundation of the world for you to do this, what you're about to do, and you're doing it on your own free will because you have a wicked heart and you are a slave to the public opinion and all the rest, but go ahead, do what you have to do because you're just doing what my father has ordained that you do. Go ahead. The one who delivered me to you has the greater sin." We don't know who Jesus had in mind here. Was that Caiaphas? Was it Annas? Was it the Jewish Sanhedrin? Was it Judas? But obviously, he came to his own, we are told by John, and his own received him not. From then on, from that moment on, after this exchange, Pilate had one goal, to release him. From that moment on, from that second, Pilate sought to release Jesus, but the Jews kept crying out saying, if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. To be a friend of Caesar was to be accorded a certain status in the empire. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. Therefore, when Pilate heard that, he brought Jesus out again and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement in Hebrew, Gabbatha, and it was the preparation day of the Passover in about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Eceh, not Ekehomo, behold, your king. And they screamed, take him away, crucify him. Paul said, Shall I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. The ultimate betrayal of the ruling class of the Jews of the kingdom of God. We don't recognize any king here except King Caesar. So he delivered him to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and they led him away. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind, Weekend Edition, with R.C. Sproul, as he takes us through the Gospel of John. Where do you stand in regards to predestination? Did God choose you for salvation, or did you choose God to save you? If each ultimately chose the other, who chose first? Some people have resolved that we can never have a true understanding of predestination. Perhaps you've heard the criticisms and caricatures, but have you actually heard the biblical case yourself? To help in your study of this important doctrine, we're offering Chosen by God, the entire six-part CD series from Dr. Sproul, for your donation of any amount today. To get your copy, give us a call using our toll-free number, 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or visit rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind, and the word offer.com. That web address is for this week's special offer only. In this six-part study, Dr. Sproul proves that without God's sovereign and divine initiative, no one would be saved. He also discusses the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's free will. By virtue of the controversy surrounding the biblical doctrine of election and predestination, this study is sure to initially arouse criticisms. But Dr. Sproul's clear exposition of the scripture will demonstrate the beauty of God's divine initiative in saving His elect. To get your copy of Chosen by God, give us a call at 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or visit rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind, and the word offer.com. We're out of time for this Weekend Edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thank you for being with us. Be sure to join us again next weekend as Dr. Sproul continues to take us through the Gospel of John. Until then, we invite you to join us on Facebook.com slash Ligonier. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition, the listener-supported radio outreach of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida. ["Pomp and Circumstance"]