The following sermon is by Boyd Johnson, pastor of Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. More information about Treasuring Christ Church can be found at tccathens.org. The two most dramatic moments in any criminal trial are the reading of the verdict, and the reading of the sentence, the handing down of the sentence. The moment the judge or jury declares guilty or not guilty and the moment that the judge hands down the sentence against the guilty. You may have seen video of court cases where the verdict or the sentence is read and as soon as it's read there are gasps or cries or Shouts heard. These are powerful moments. And they're powerful moments because. Regardless of what happens in that moment, guilty or not guilty, or the sentences hand down handed down. They change people's lives forever. And these moments are also powerful because they give us a sense of whether or not justice was done. We believe the innocent should be acquitted and the guilty condemned. Furthermore, we also believe that the punishment ought to fit the crime. Our standards for these things might be different. But we all want justice and we all hate injustice. We're just wired that way. We are wired for justice. We are wired to hate injustice. When those we think are bad are caught, we rejoice. When those we think are guilty are set free, we're outraged, even from childhood. Even from childhood, we want to be treated justly. Every child says the same thing when they sense injustice on the playground. They say, that's not what? Fair. See, they know. They know internally. And their standards of justice may or may not be just. But they know because they're wired. We're all wired this way. We're wired for justice. In particularly these moments when we experience. Injustice not only affect us, but they remain with us. When we've experienced injustice. I vividly remember a time when I was unjustly accused as a young boy, and it changed my life. Early in elementary school, I had a reputation of being a good kid. All my teachers always trusted me. And one day my teacher asked me to run a note to the principal's office for her. during class. This is a privilege that few kids got, but my teacher completely trusted me and knew that I would bring the note to the principal's office and come back and there would be no problems, no trouble whatsoever. And I'd done it for her many times. In the school that I went to, the principal's office was located in another building. And on this particular day, it was a cold day, so on the way out of the classroom, I grabbed my coat It was a blue coat that I put on. And when I entered the other building where the principal's office was located, I noticed another kid walking down the hallway in front of me. No one else was in the hallway, just him and me. And I also noticed that he was wearing a blue coat. As he passed by one of the classrooms in the hallway, the class's door was wide open. And the doors on all the classrooms in this old building were these big metal doors that echoed and reverberated whenever they were slammed shut. A wind could do it. And it just would reverberate down the hallway. They made a massive noise. Every naughty kid in my school was somehow magnetically attracted to these doors. these big metal doors, and when they would see one of these doors wide open, as they passed it, they would sling it shut with all their might, and it would frighten the teachers and the kids in the classroom, and it would just echo down the hallway. They loved it. I didn't know who the kid was in front of me. As far as I know, I never met him. But I found out he was a naughty kid because sure enough, as he passed by this door that was wide open, he slammed it as hard as he could and he took off running down the hallway and into another hallway as fast as he could. I saw the kid do it, but I didn't know his name. And so I just kept walking straight down the hallway and deliver the note to the principal's office and didn't think anything more of it until recess later that day. It was a cold day and so at recess I put on my blue coat and went to play, if I remember right, up on the basketball courts, probably playing basketball or kickball or Nerf football or whatever we were doing at the time. And the teacher on duty at recess happened to be the one whose classroom had been rocked by that kid earlier in the day. And as I was playing on the playground, she saw me and she blew the whistle and motioned for me to come down and talk to her. And so I came down to talk to her, not knowing what that was about. And when I got to her, she accused me of slamming her door shut. Evidently, as we walked past, she must have opened her door and looked out and saw my blue coat, thinking that the first kid who also had a blue coat And the kid that she opened up and saw down the hallway, which was now just me because the other kid had vanished, was the same kid. She'd seen the blue coat and made the connection. And then she realized, I'm the one on the playground. That's exactly the same blue coat. And I told her I didn't do it. And she said to me, you will either admit to me right now that you did it, or you will receive discipline. Now, I was a good kid in school. I already told you that, but it's worth repeating because I had never been disciplined for anything in my school, ever. Never had my name written up on the board. Never had to go to the front where they put that little circle. They don't do this anymore, I imagine. I don't know, do they do this? No, they don't do this anymore, where they put the circle there and you've got to put your nose in there and stand in the front of the classroom for a long time. Never had to do that. Never had to sit out at recess and stand along the wall. You can't sit. You had to stand the whole recess. Never had to do that. Never had to go to the principal's office for a paddling. They did that in my day. They do that in your day? Yeah. You got paddle? Oh, yeah. OK. Anybody else want to confess? Right here. That never happened to me. And so I was scared. I didn't want to get disciplined. And so I said, OK, I did it. And she said, don't ever do it again. And she let me go. But I couldn't let it go because I knew I didn't do it. So when I went home, I went to my mom. And I told her the whole situation. And my mom believed me. And she came to school the next day maybe or at some point. and had a conference with the teacher and told her the whole story and what happened. And the teacher told her I was a liar. Well, it didn't get resolved. We just dropped it. But after that, my mom gave me this advice. Don't ever admit to something that you didn't do. And I never forgot it. And I never forgot what it felt like to experience an injustice, to be accused of something you didn't do. Sticks with me to this day. I can't say for sure that that was the start of my legal career, but it might have been. Might have been. Now, in the scheme of life, that injustice was a minor injustice, though it had a major impact on me. But you have a story that something like that, probably a story of a greater injustice done to you, something not so trivial as whether you slammed a door or not, but something of consequence that has happened to you and you've experienced an injustice like that. And my guess is it's stuck with you. It's impacted you. My guess is it's changed you. We all hate when justice fails. We know that deep down something isn't right when the bad guys win and the good guys lose. And that experience of injustice remains with us and it changes us. When John chapter 19 we've come now in our study of the Gospel of John to the story of the greatest injustice in human history. And the most innocent man who has ever lived was given a sentence he didn't deserve. And for a time it looked like evil had won. It's the story of Jesus. Being accused of insurrection. And even though he was found not guilty, he was sentenced to death anyway by Pilate. It's a story that when you read it, it sticks with you and it changes you. In fact, it changed the whole world. We pick up the story where we left off last week, the moment following the trial of Jesus before the Roman governor, where Pilate is ready to declare the verdict. So we'll start in chapter 18, verse 38. After he had said this, Pilate said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him, but you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? They cried out, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed Him in a purple robe. They came up to Him saying, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck Him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in Him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man! When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, Take him yourself and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have the authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out. If you release this man, you are not a friend of Caesar's. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at the place called the Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king! They cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate said to him, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. Now you'll recall that Jesus underwent two trials that day. From our study, we've learned that Jesus went had two trials against him that day. The first was with the Jews. First, the Jews tried him for blasphemy because he claimed to be the Christ. He claimed to be the son of God. He claimed to be equal with God. He was making himself out to be God. And so they condemned Jesus on the basis of his own testimony and sentenced him to death. But they had no power under Roman law. to actually carry out the execution because they were under Roman law. And the Romans kept that prerogative, kept that power for themselves. They jealously guarded the power of execution. They didn't give that to their subjects, the Jews. Only a Roman ruler could carry out the death penalty. So they brought Jesus to Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman governor over Judea, over the land. who could try suspected criminals and himself impose the death penalty, hopefully at their direction. The problem the Jews had was that they had charged Jesus with blasphemy, which was enough to sentence him to death under their laws, under the Old Testament laws. But it wasn't a charge that Pilate would care about. So they invented another charge in order to try him before Pilate. The charge was the charge of insurrection. That was a charge that Pilate would care about. He wouldn't care about blasphemy. He wasn't a Jew. But he would care about insurrection. If there was one thing that Caesar wouldn't tolerate in his empire, it was a rival. So the Jews accused Jesus of making himself out to be king and stirring up the people. And that's the charge that they brought to Pilate. That's something he would care about. So Pilate agreed to cross-examine Jesus privately in a trial. And during cross-examination, Jesus acknowledged that he was a king, but not the kind of king that Pilate would consider a threat. He wasn't a political king to rival Caesar. He was the king from heaven, whose realm, Jesus said, was not of this world. Pilate was satisfied with his answer. He realized he wasn't a political threat, and that's really the only kind of threat that Caesar cared about. And he came to realize, Pilate did, that the Jews had just made up this charge. So in verse 38, Pilate went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him. Now notice, Pilate's trial of Jesus resulted in a verdict of not guilty. That's what he's just said. I find no guilt in him. In other words, I've tried him, and the verdict is not guilty. There was no evidence that Jesus was an insurrectionist, as the Jews claimed. That should have ended the trial. It should have been done at that moment. Jesus should have been released. That should have kept Jesus from being punished for a crime he didn't commit. That should have kept Jesus from being retried. But this was no ordinary trial, no ordinary trial at all. It wasn't a search for justice. So the guilt or innocence of Jesus didn't matter, because it wasn't a search for justice. This was a plot. The Jews weren't seeking justice, they were seeking blood. That's what they wanted. Not fairness, blood. They wouldn't let a not guilty verdict stand. They had already determined in a secret meeting that we learn about in chapter 11, They had already determined in that secret meeting among the Jewish leaders that Jesus must die. Justice didn't matter. They would do whatever it took to kill him. They would descend the stairs of injustice in order to get the result they wanted. Now, in our passage, John describes this descent into the pit of injustice as Jesus is sentenced to die by crucifixion. even though he was acquitted of the crimes he was accused of. As we study this passage, we'll find that this descent into the pit of injustice follows four steps downward. The first step down into the pit of injustice is that even though Jesus was acquitted, He was detained. He remained in custody. Even though He had been acquitted of finding Him no guilt, he was detained. Immediately following the verdict of not guilty, Pilate should have released Jesus. There was no reason to keep him bound anymore. But as the Jews weren't concerned about justice, neither was Pilate in his own way. He had already expressed disregard for the truth in verse 38 when he replied to Jesus' assertion that everyone who listens to his voice is of the truth. And you remember, Pilate responded with, what is truth? What Pilate meant then was the quest for truth was irrelevant to him. He didn't care about the truth. So a trial that depended on the truthfulness of the claims Wasn't going to result in a fair trial. He didn't care about truth. What did he care about? He cared about remaining in power. That's what he cared about. Remaining in power and that had become increasingly concerning to him during his reign because he had governed Judea so poorly. And it was the Emperor, Emperor Tiberius, who appointed the governors of the land. And Pilate had done a poor job. One Jewish historian, goes by the name of Philo, who actually lived during this time and wrote during this time. He was a contemporary of Jesus, a contemporary of Pontius Pilate. He wrote that on one occasion when certain Jews threatened to appeal. A certain matter to the emperor. Pilot quote feared that if they actually sent an embassy. That they would also expose the rest of his conduct as governor by stating in full the briberies, the insults, the outrages and wanton injuries, the executions without trial constantly repeated. and the ceaseless and supremely grievous cruelty of his conduct. He was concerned in this one uprising that if the Jews actually went to the emperor and told the emperor everything that was going on in Judea, Pilate would immediately lose his position, probably lose his life. So he lived in fear that word might leak back to the emperor of his terrible governance. And so pilot here had a dilemma. How could he appease the Jews on the one hand and at the same time release Jesus after he just said he's not guilty after acquitting him? How could he keep his subjects happy yet carry out? Some semblance of justice without causing a riot. And Pilate had every reason to release Jesus. First of all, he had tried him and found him not guilty. But second, Pilate realized that the Jews delivered Jesus over out of envy, because Jesus was popular with the people, not because he had done anything wrong. Matthew tells us that, Matthew 27, verse 18. But then there was a third reason why Pilate had reason to let Jesus go. And that's that his wife had a dream. And she implored him to have nothing to do with quote that righteous man, Jesus. For she had suffered much because of him that morning in a dream, Matthew 27, 19. So she'd had a dream. Don't have anything to do with him. He's a righteous man and she had suffered in a dream. I'm assuming that means that she had a terrible nightmare. And yet the Jews insisted that Jesus must die. So Pilate was stuck between what the Jews wanted and the verdict that he's given. And so he came up with a plan where he hoped he could release Jesus at the hands of the Jews themselves. And if the plan worked, he might be able to keep the Jews from rising up. And his verdict wouldn't matter either way. So first, Luke tells us that Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people. In other words, he went outside of his residence where he was staying, the fortress, and he called the chief priests and he called the rulers and he called the people. That's new. That's a new group. He called the people who are milling about there for the Passover at the temple. He called them all together. There's a massive audience before him, a massive crowd before him made up of these three groups. He gathered not only the Jewish leaders who are accusing Jesus, but he gathered the Jewish people because he knew that they were attracted to Jesus. And then he made his proposal in verse 39. He says, you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? In other words, what Pilate thought he had done was stuff the ballot box. He knew what the Jewish leaders were going to say. But he thought by gathering the crowd of the Jewish people together, That their voice would overcome the Jewish authorities, he thought he would win the vote. He thought this was a brilliant plan. He knew what the Jewish authorities wanted, he knew that they wanted death. And he knew that the authorities didn't believe Jesus was their king, but he thought that perhaps the people did. Maybe he had heard the way that Jesus had entered into Jerusalem earlier that week, riding on a donkey and people proclaiming Hosanna, Hosanna, glory to God in the highest and treating him really like a king. So perhaps he thought the people thought of Jesus as the king, and he's not really a political threat to us. And so what's the harm? They'll vote for his release. And so he presented with them what he thought was a compelling option. Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? But the Jewish authorities were a step ahead of him. According to Matthew, the chief priests and elders had already gone throughout the crowd and persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. That's the word that's used. Destroy Jesus. They had somehow stirred them up. We're not told how they did this, but however they did it, they were effective. When Pilate put the issue before them, they cried out, verse 40, not this man, but Barabbas. It's as if the crowd with one voice rose up and demanded Barabbas' release. They were united. Now, between all the Gospels, we learn why Barabbas had been jailed. Matthew calls him a notorious prisoner. which is a way to say that his crime was so sensational that everybody in town knew about it. John says he was a robber. Mark and Luke tell us that he was a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder. So he was convicted of robbery, murder and insurrection. I'm sure all those things went together in one big conspiracy against Rome. This was the man the Jews wanted released. They wanted a man released who was get this, who was credibly convicted of the very false charge they accused Jesus of insurrection. They brought Jesus to Pilate for insurrection, and now they want the man who actually had murdered, who actually had committed insurrection, who actually had robbed. Pilate's scheme here to release Jesus through the vote of the people had failed. Had he had any integrity, he would have still released Jesus. But again, this wasn't a search for justice. This was a plot. And Pilate was about ready to become a co-conspirator. So he came up with another plan. And that leads us to the second step down into the pit of injustice. And that's that even though Jesus was acquitted, He was punished. He was punished. John, almost matter-of-factly, writes in chapter 19, verse 1, then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. He thought that flogging Jesus might pacify the crowd. Luke records that Pilate went out to the crowd at this point and said, look, nothing deserving death has been done by Him. In other words, He's not guilty. I will therefore punish and release him. It's kind of a stunning two sentences to put back to back. He hasn't done anything wrong. He hasn't done anything worthy of death. So here's what I'll do. He's innocent. How about I just punish him anyway? And we can be done with this. He hoped that they'd be satisfied if they just saw his blood. And so he brought Jesus back inside his headquarters, and he had the soldiers flog Jesus. The Romans had three levels of floggings. Basically, there was severely brutal, brutal, and a little less brutal. That was the three levels. And they have Latin names. On this day, Jesus was actually flogged twice. His first flogging is the one recorded here in John. This was the less brutal, yet still brutal form of flogging where they clubbed or whipped the victim until they were bruised and bloodied. But they stopped short of killing. Jesus was beaten a second time after Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers to crucify him. In other words, after verse 16, he was handed back over to the soldiers and they flogged him again, this time with the most brutal form. John doesn't record this flogging, but Matthew and Mark do. And I won't describe it because there's kids in the room other than to say it was so severe and merciless. That occasionally the victim would die from the wounds. It was horrible. No wonder Jesus couldn't carry his own cross to go to Golgotha. After the second meeting, So Pilate brutalized Jesus with a flogging here in verse one. And also gave his soldiers free reign to mock him. Verse two says the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. The claim was that Jesus fancied himself a king, so the soldiers dressed him up in order to ridicule him. The crown was probably twisted together from the long spikes of a date palm. A palm tree that would have grown in that area that has these essentially like thorns that grow on it. And certain kinds of palm trees have these thorns and these thorns often can cause, if they stick you, a bacterial or fungal infection. The date palm can have thorns up to 12 inches long. And so they took these thorns and they made a crown and most likely they made a crown that was similar in style to the one that Lady Liberty wears. You know how she's got that crown and it has spikes? It kind of looks like that. The ancient Near East kings in those days wore crowns, not with thorns, but wore crowns that look something like that. Because it symbolized the radiance of deity. It was like the sun's rays, the radiance of deity radiating from them as if the king himself was divine. And the Roman soldiers, of course, didn't think Jesus was divine, but they made him this crown of these thorns to mock him and to hurt him. Because as they pressed this crown of thorns onto his head, it would have penetrated his skull, bloodied him, and disfigured his face as it sat on his head. Purple is the color of royalty. Military leaders wore purple cloaks, so it's likely that one of the soldiers put his own cloak on Jesus to complete the contempt. And then verse 3 says, they came up to him saying, Hail, King of the Jews, and struck them with their hands. The word struck there likely means that they struck him with an open-faced hand. They slapped him. They slapped him repeatedly. They mocked him with the same words that they would address Caesar, but instead of, Hail Caesar, they said, Hail King of the Jews, and they just slapped him repeatedly, which the Jews took as one of the greatest insults to be slapped. Perhaps this was a way for the soldiers who didn't get in on the flogging to get in on the beating anyway. So they all took their turn at Jesus. Now, Pilate let all this go on, ordered all of this because he hoped that it would win the Jewish crowd over to him. They at this point couldn't see what the soldiers were doing, although they might have heard the whip slap repeatedly against Jesus's back. They might have heard his cries of anguish, but they couldn't see it. but it would be plain enough in a few moments. Pilate came back outside to the assembled crowd and said to them in verse four, see, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. His plan was that he would bring Jesus out, who at this time now would be bloodied and bruised and weary and beaten in hopes that this would satisfy their thirst for blood. Perhaps they would think that this was enough punishment and then they would choose to release Jesus. So verse 5, Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man. In other words, here's the accused. Look at this poor man. See, I've beaten him. Haven't you had enough? But once again, his plan backfired. The chief priests brought Jesus to be killed, not to be beaten. They weren't satisfied with mockery. They wanted murder. Verse six, when the chief priests and the officers saw them, saw him, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him. It's like they grew angrier by the moment and began to chant, crucify him, crucify him. Literally, it's just the word crucify. That'd be a simple enough for the crowd to catch on. Crucify! Crucify! Crucify! And the whole crowd as one voice had gathered together with the chief priests and the rulers. They had worked the crowd into a tizzy. Now they were just as thirsty for blood as the leaders were. They signaled to Pilate that they wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than the worst of all deaths. They brought him to be killed. They'd said he's worthy of death, but now they specify what kind of death they wanted. They didn't just want Jesus dead. They wanted him to suffer as he died. Now the Jews were particularly disgusted by crucifixion since the Old Testament says that everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed. It's hard to believe that Jews would ever approve of one of their own to be crucified. But it illustrates just how much the leaders hated him. And even the Romans hated crucifixion. The ancient Roman lawyer, philosopher, and statesman, Cicero, called crucifixion, quote, a cruel and disgusting penalty. Everybody was disgusted by crucifixion. It was universally hated. It was universally feared. It was the worst punishment that they could think of. And that's what the Jewish leaders wanted of Jesus. A charge of blasphemy was actually punished in the Old Testament by stoning, not by crucifixion. They didn't want stoning. They wanted the worst of all punishments because they wanted Jesus to suffer as he died. So when the chance of crucifixion broke out across the crowd, Pilate became disgusted with their callousness. I think even he couldn't believe it He said to them take him yourself and crucify him for I find no guilt in them He knew full well that they couldn't take Jesus to go be crucified because he wasn't going to give them that power He's saying this because he's frustrated, not because he's going to give them permission to do what they ordinarily can't do. And besides, they wouldn't do that anyway, because to touch a dead body would make them ceremonially unclean, which means they couldn't take the Passover, which means that they have to put off the Passover for another month. They weren't going to do that. They're the chief priests. They're not going to admit uncleanness before anybody. But Pilate's frustrated. It was like him saying to them, you brought him to me for my verdict, and I have given you the verdict that you won't accept. If you want him crucified, do it yourself. I'm done with you. And once again, he reiterated that his verdict was not guilty. I find no guilt in him. This is the third time he pronounced a not guilty verdict over Jesus in this passage. Chapter 18 verse 38. Chapter 19 verse 4 and verse 6. He might have ended the trial and the sentencing right then and there, but then the Jews. They said something to him. That struck fear into his heart. He was. likely ready to end the whole thing right then and there. But then the Jews spoke up, and that brings us to the third step down into the pit of injustice. Even though Jesus was acquitted, he was retried. You're not supposed to do that. Somebody who's acquitted. You're not supposed to keep them detained if they're acquitted. You're not supposed to punish them if they're acquitted. You're not supposed to try them over again if they've already been acquitted. Yet we're sinking down into the pit of injustice one step at a time. The Jews responded in verse seven. We have a law. And according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. They were referring to Leviticus 24, 16, which says whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. The Jews weren't even able to keep up their own con. that Jesus was an insurrectionist. They finally revealed to Pilate why it was that they wanted him killed in the first place. They charged him with blasphemy. And again, that wasn't a charge that Pilate would care about. But when they said he made himself out to be the quote son of God, that stopped Pilate cold. Why? Verse 8 says, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He didn't fear beating an innocent man. He might have feared the crowd and what would happen to his power, but he did fear for his own personal well-being. You have to know that the Romans were very superstitious. They believed that some men were divine men. Men who had been empowered with divine power who could also curse in their power. And they believe that the emperor was one of these divine men. In fact, he was called the emperor was called DV Phileas. Son of a God. It's found stamped on all their coins and other things. Emblems. Son of a God. That's what they referred to the emperor as because they thought of him as having been empowered by divine power. And so when Pilate heard that Jesus called himself the Son of God, it struck fear into his heart. He was a king and The Son of God? You have to get inside the mind of a Roman who's filled with mythology and filled with superstition. Perhaps his wife's dream was true after all, and he had just beaten the Son of God. What had he just done? That's why he was afraid. And so he dismissed himself again and went back inside to the fortress to interrogate Jesus. Verse 9, he entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? I think he said that trembling. He was looking for any sort of answer that would prove or disprove the claim that he was the son of a God. It's as if he's asking him, are you from the gods? Where do you originate? What kind of man are you? It's amazing that in Pilate's mouth, he says so many things that are so true. Behold the man. Well, Jesus was a man. Behold the king. Well, he was the king. Now he's wondering, where are you from? Are you the son of God? He's asking the right question. But because he doesn't care about the truth, he'll never get the right answer. And so, verse 9, Jesus gave him no answer. Jesus' silence here has mystified many. Why was He quiet? Why didn't he originate, or why didn't he answer Pilate's question? Because Jesus had answered this exact question over and over and over in the Gospel of John. Over and over, Jesus says, I was sent from the Father. I came from the Father. That's a thread that binds together the entire Gospel of John. You'll see it over and over again. Dozens of references that he came from the Father. He said that repeatedly. Why doesn't he at this moment, right here, say what he said so many other times? Jesus gave him no answer. In fact, the last time he said anything in the story is in chapter 18, verse 27. And that's when Pilate asked him, so you're a king? And Jesus answers, you say that I am king, a king. That was a way of affirming. Yes, I am. For this purpose, I was born. And for this purpose, I have come into the world. Indicating that he originated outside the world. To bear witness to the truth, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. And then Pilate responded with what is truth. Now, after chapter 18, verse 27, after that was said. Matthew tells us that the Jews continue to accuse Jesus. Stepping back in time a little bit. And Pilate turned to Jesus and said, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And Matthew comments, But Jesus gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. How can you not respond to what they're saying? In other words. When Jesus responded to Pilate in Chapter 18. You say that I am a king. Not verse 27, but verse 37. When Jesus said that, that was the last time Jesus said anything. And John doesn't record it, but between verses 38 and 39 of chapter 18, Jesus was actually sent to Herod as well. for another phase of the trial, for another round of interrogation, and Luke records that Herod, quote, questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. So all throughout this stage of the trial, Jesus remained silent. And I'll mention this again here in a moment. But remember, this trial started, John says, early morning, which we take to mean at daybreak. And we're going to find out later that the events that we're talking about in chapter 19 took place at the sick around the sixth hour. So around noon. So in other words, this whole thing is taken all morning, all morning long. Essentially, Jesus hasn't said a word. Why has He stayed silent? Well, I think you've got to remember that Jesus knew what was in man. John wrote that in chapter 2. He knew that neither Pilate nor Herod were interested in the truth. And Pilate had said, words to those effect, what is truth? He doesn't care. And this trial was about political maneuvering, not a search for justice. The truth was not what either Herod or Pilate were after. And so to tell Pilate the truth once again, after he's already told him the truth, after he's already told him the answer would be to no effect. He wasn't Jesus wasn't going to go along with the mockery of the trial and have to testify against himself. He wasn't going to play their game. Now, Jesus is silence mystified pilot in verse 10. You will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? That was a threat. That was a way to get the witness to start talking. I'm going to crucify you. I have that power unless you start talking. He was irritated at Jesus' prolonged silence. He was saying, don't you know that I have power over you? Don't you know that I can sentence you to death? You will do as I say and testify right now. And when Pilate said this, Jesus finally broke his long silence. And these were his final words to Pilate, verse 11. You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. That is, you don't think you don't have the authority you think you have. You think you're totally in control. You've got me bound. You've beaten me. You whip me. This whole situation. Your authority and my betrayal into your hands. Was orchestrated from heaven. It's from above. Everything planned. Pilate had him bound only because God allowed it. And planned for Jesus to die in order to redeem sinners. Pilate was under authority. An authority he didn't even acknowledge. An authority he didn't even understand he was under. Everything was being ordered in this. And Jesus makes sure that we don't feel sorry for Pilate in any way, as if he was caught in a bad position by the Jews and couldn't get out of it. No, Pilate willingly chose the path he chose. He wasn't absolved of guilt in his actions at all. All sin makes you guilty, but not all sin is equal in its sinfulness. There is greater sin and there is lesser sin, Jesus says. He says, the one that handed me over to you, that is Caiaphas, Caiaphas' sin was greater than Pilate's because Caiaphas was the mastermind behind this murderous plot. He had seen the miracles that Jesus did. He had heard the testimonies. He had heard Jesus teach. And based on all that, all these signs that proved who Jesus was, Caiaphas had seen all that light and rejected it in his darkness. And so he had the greater sin. Yet even though Caiaphas' sin was greater than Pilate's, Pilate was still guilty. There is greater sin and there is lesser sin, but all sin makes you guilty. And so there are greater degrees of punishment in hell and lesser degrees of punishment in hell, but it's all punished and it's all terrible. It's all awful. And it's all right and just. And that brings us to the last step down into the pit of injustice, though Jesus was acquitted, he was condemned. Pilate was still convinced of Jesus's innocence. On retrial, he couldn't declare him guilty. Nevertheless, from then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. Pilate was cornered. The Jews had found Pilate's weakness, and now they were pressing him into the corner. They probably didn't know this, but a few years earlier, the emperor deposed Sejanus, who was Pilate's patron in Rome. Having a patron, a man with an audience of Caesar, was really important for your rulership to continue. And Pilate's patron came under suspicion himself that Sejanus wanted to seize the throne of the emperor himself. And so he was deposed. Which meant that Pilate no longer had any cover in Rome. Now that his patron was gone. And Emperor Tiberius wasn't someone you wanted to test. He was known to be ruthless. He was known to be highly suspicious. If he even smelled insurrection, if he even smelled that you might try to take power from him, he would put you down. So suspicious that he lived like a recluse on the island of Capri. And Pilate feared that if word got back to Tiberius that he released the man who claimed to be a king and that this man led an uprising, what would become of Pilate? The Jews had put Pilate to the test. They had put him on trial. Will you choose Christ or will you choose Caesar? Whose friend will you be? The one who was giving a trial had now been put on trial by the mob. And Pilate for sure wouldn't sacrifice himself on behalf of Jesus, verse 13. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, sat him down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Pilate was ready for all this to be over and to issue his final sentence. He was done with the matter. Now, this judgment seat was known as the Bema or the Bema seat. It was a raised platform where the governor would make his official Judgments, John writes in verse 14 now is the day of preparation of Passover is about the sixth hour. In other words, it was Friday sometime around noon. You got to know that they didn't have watches or clocks in those days. Mark records this as being sometime in the third hour, you started counting at 6 a.m. roughly when sunrise, you actually started counting at sunrise, which we'll just say 6 a.m., and there were four watches in the day, each three hours, 12 hours in a day, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Same in the night. And so the first watch of the day would go from 6 a.m. to 9, the next one from 9 to noon, from noon to 3, from 3 to 6. Those are the four. And so when John says it was the sixth hour, it was roughly noon. But you've got to remember that nobody had a watch. You didn't have a clock. How did you judge time in those days? You looked up. You looked at the sun, you looked at his position. And you made a judgment call. And so John says it was about noon, which could have been meant it was closer to 1030 or could have been it was closer to one. But Mark says it was in the third hour is in that time block. So which could have meant it was 1030 or closer to noon. In other words, they agree even if they look at it differently. Nobody's being exact here. But the point is, Jesus' trial started around daybreak, according to chapter 18, verse 28, and this Roman trial had now taken all morning and Pilate was just done. The Roman governors didn't work past mid-morning. They started early and got done at mid-morning. He was done. This is the only trial he's had all day. And so he sat down ready to bring the trial to a conclusion with the sentencing, but tried one more time to get out of this dilemma. He represented Jesus to the Jews, declaring, Behold your king. In other words, this is your last chance to save your king. But verse 15, they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. That was it. That was it. The Old Testament taught that although Jesus, that although Israel could have a king, a king had to be chosen by God and one who would uphold God's law. We read about that in Deuteronomy 17. It was okay for the Jews to have a king, but there were specifications. One chosen by God. That was the first court requirement. But the chief priests of all the Jews, when put to the test, chose Caesar over Christ as their king. We have no king but Caesar. They had charged Jesus with blasphemy, but now they were guilty of it themselves. What came out of their mouths was a true expression of their hearts. Nothing in their lives ever expressed allegiance to the true God. Theirs was a religion of external duty, but no love for God. And they demonstrated it right here, tragically. And Pilate had had it. If they wanted their king crucified, he would give them the crucifixion of their king, verse 16. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. Actually, Pilate handed Jesus over to the Roman soldiers, not to the Jews, to be crucified, since they were the only ones who were authorized to do it. But John phrases verse 16 in such a way to draw out the sense of what Pilate did. He gave Jesus over to the will of the Jews. He handed him over to them, which is exactly what Luke says, that he was handed over to the will of the Jews. Matthew records that Pilate then washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood. He had declared Jesus innocent, but condemned him anyway. And now Pilate was declaring himself innocent. Of this man's blood, that wasn't true, he wasn't innocent. He was guilty for condemning a man he knew was innocent. But when the people, not just the Jewish leaders. When the people, the whole Jewish crowd heard Pilate say, I am innocent of this man's blood. They respond in Matthew chapter 27, verse 25. His blood be on us and our children. In other words, they were willing to take any consequence and even condemn their own children if it were possible in Jesus's death. In other words, everyone. Turned out guilty. Pilate, Herod, the Jewish leaders, and the Jewish crowd. They're all guilty in this trial against Jesus. The sentencing of the king was a travesty. It was a failure of justice. Nothing fair about it. Nothing just. Nothing right. And yet what we've seen throughout this story so far is that God was working behind the scenes in the greatest injustice in human history to make it the greatest blessing in human history. With the unjust death sentence imposed on Jesus, God was meaning for that to redeem sinners to Himself. It wasn't as if Pilate and the Jews caught God by surprise. And he was responding and trying to make the best of a bad situation. That's not the testimony of scripture. That's not the testimony of Jesus himself, who knew what was going to happen and said it was the father's will that he goes to die, including Jesus's will. It's the testimony throughout scripture that it was, in the words of Acts, the hand and plan of God himself in all these things, in the greatest injustice in human history. Now, I wonder if that could change your perspective on the injustices that you face in your life. If God could mean for the greatest injustice for your good, because he blessed you through this, Could he not do the same with any other injustice in your life? Isn't every other injustice, no matter how terrible, petty compared to the injustice of condemning the Son of God? Every injustice in your life compared to that is petty, no matter how big it is. So why not trust God in every circumstance, even when it all goes wrong, even when it seems unfair, that as one loved by God, because you trust in His Son, He is working it for your good. Trust the sovereign ruler of the world that no injustice is ever overlooked, but that all things work together for your good and for His glory. Let's pray. Father, we we have to trust you because some of the injustices that have been done to people in this room are so awful. Are so hurtful. So painful. Where else would they go but to you? Where else would they go? And so, Father, we commit ourselves to You. Into Your hands we commit ourselves, not because You need our permission, but because our heart needs that. We need to say to our own heart, to our own soul, we entrust our souls to You, Father. You who are good. You who are loving. You who are wise. You who are powerful. are working all injustices in our lives for Your good and for our good and Your glory. And so, Lord, give us the faith to believe. Give us the faith to trust, even when it hurts. In Jesus' name we pray. Thank you for listening to this message from Treasuring Christ Church in Athens, Georgia. Feel free to make copies of this message to give to others, but please do not alter the content in any way without permission. Treasuring Christ Church exists to spread a passion for the fame of Christ's name in Athens and around the world. We invite you to visit Treasuring Christ Church online at tccathens.org. There you'll find other resources available to you and information about our upcoming gatherings.