Mark chapter number 15. Mark chapter number 15. We've been working our way through the book of Mark, and we're at the next to last chapter, and we're in this crucifixion of the Lord Jesus and His payment for our sins, the cross of Calvary, and some amazing things we uncover and see, especially as we consider the love of Christ and His faithfulness to bear our sins, pay our debt, And what a wonderful Savior. In this passage of Scripture tonight, we're going to see three responses to Jesus. Three responses to Jesus. And Jesus is passing by, and Jesus is working, and Jesus is making Himself known, and is being made known to all of us, but we have to respond to Him. And how we respond to Jesus is very important. It determines the quality of our life. It determines the joy that we have, and it determines our eternal destiny. How are you responding to Jesus? We'll see three responses to Jesus tonight. As I've studied this passage of Scripture, I was reminded of an old hymn. It's entitled, What Will You Do With Jesus? And it's hymn 223. You don't need to turn there, but let me read it to you. And it highlights one of the characters we'll see tonight. It says this, Jesus is standing in Pilate's hall. friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all, hearken, what meeteth the sudden call? What will you do with Jesus?" The Course says, what will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. Someday your heart will be asking, what will He do with me? The third verse says this, Will you evade Him as Pilate tried? Or will you choose Him, whate'er be tied? Vainly you struggle from Him to hide. What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus, neutral? You cannot be. Someday your heart will be asking, What will He do with me? And three responses to Jesus. We look at our text tonight, beginning in verse number 15 of Mark, chapter number 15. The Bible says this, And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorian, and they called together the whole band. And they clothed him with purple, and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshipped him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compel one Simon of Cyrenaean, who passed by coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross." Three responses tonight to Jesus. The first one is Pilate. The second is the soldiers. The third is this Simon, a Cyrenian. And we'll trust the Lord and ask God's blessing on His Word. Father, we pray You'd help us tonight. Show to us Your Word. Teach us of Thee. Help us to respond correctly to Your Son. It's in Jesus' name we pray and ask these things. Amen. Three responses of Jesus. What will you do with Jesus? The first one we see is Pilate. Look at verse number 15. We've talked a little bit already about this verse and about Pilate. Pilate was given a grand opportunity. Jesus would have obeyed and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, because God had called him to do that. But Pilate did not have to be the person that condemned Jesus to death. Jesus would have followed through, and Jesus would have paid the price for our sins. But Pilate, in an act of cowardice, he condemns an innocent man, knowing that he was innocent, to death. The Bible says this in verse 15 regarding Pilate. Pilate, willing to content the people. released Barabbas unto them and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified." What was Pilate's purpose and goal? How did Pilate respond to Jesus? Pilate heard the case. Pilate knew what was going on. The Bible has said in the previous verses that Pilate knew that the Pharisees and the scribes and the Jewish leaders, they were jealous and envious. And because of their foolish pride and sin, they wanted to crucify Jesus. So Pilate's kind of like, you know, you guys are being silly. Why would you ask me to crucify a man because of your pride? Well, they really made a good impression on a lost world about the glory and power, the might of Jehovah God, didn't they? They let jealousy and rage and unforgiveness and bitterness and wickedness make god look awful in the face of a roman ruler named pilot the pilot knew what was going on in pilot he said he he said you guys are just full of jealousy why would you want to crucify him but he keeps hearing the mob he keeps hearing the cry of the crowd he says well instead of just saying No, you can't. We're not going to crucify him. Let's give them an option. Surely these people make a wise decision and they'll choose to set Jesus free as opposed to a notable criminal like Barabbas. He says, all right, here's the deal. I'll let Jesus go or Barabbas. They would rather let Barabbas go, a notable criminal, than to let Jesus go in their pride. Cause them to send Jesus to the cross. But Pilate responded, Jesus came by and Pilate has an opportunity. But he misses it because he wants to content the people. Folks, I'll just have you know something. The fear of man worketh a snare. You know what that means? If you make your decisions because you're afraid of what so-and-so will think, or what she'll say or what he'll do. If you make your decisions based on popular opinion, based on how will they respond, you are going to snare yourself. I don't know if you're familiar with a snare, but I spend some time every winter on a trapline, and a snare is a terrible thing. You catch a coyote in a snare, It's a very unusual thing to come and find a coyote alive that's been hung in a snare. Because the more you pull, the more you fight, the tighter it gets. And before you know it, life is completely choked out. And God wants you to see that picture. If you're raising your children just so you can keep from having a negative reaction out of them, shame on you. Do what's right. Face the consequences now of doing what's right, because later the consequences of doing what's wrong are far greater. It may upset somebody along the way to tell them the truth, but the Bible teaches us to speak the truth in love, yet speak the truth. Guess what? The truth hurts sometimes, doesn't it? There were times, I remember as a child, that my mom disciplined me against popular opinion. But I praise her today for obeying the Lord and doing what was right and teaching me that it was never right to do wrong. Thank you, Mother. Was it easy? No. No doubt it broke her heart to discipline her child. She could have made excuses. It's a broken home. She could have made excuses. He's got a difficult situation. She could have made excuses, but she didn't, and I'm thankful. Was it easy? No. But I'll tell you what's always right to do right. If you live your life trying to please people, guess what you're doing? You're snaring yourself. And the harder you try, the tighter it pulls. And before you know it, you're going to choke the life right out of yourself and anybody you're trying to help. May God help us. You know, it takes patience to raise children and consistency. But parents, by all means, do what's right and not what is easy. You know, it's hard to live a principled life, stand up for truth and do what's right. But please, I beg of you, do what's right and not what's easy. do what's right, not what's easy. Because otherwise you're going to work a snare. Pilate, he was neutral. Pilate was selfish. Why do we do things that kind of please the crowd? Because we're selfish. We want immediate praise. Why do we do things that please the crowd instead of what is right? Because we don't want to have to deal with that. We don't have to be inconvenienced. Oh, I can guarantee you today that Pilate, if he could have it all over to do again, he would have let the whole mob yell, crucify him, crucify him, and he wouldn't have the blood of the Savior on his hands. He's had thousands of years now to think it through and think it over. And the end of sin for Pilate has not changed for us today. The end of sin is death. The end of sin hurts. The end of disobedience brings pain and regret. Old Pilate, you remember his wife said, I wouldn't have anything to do with this. Pilate goes down in history, not as some great leader of Roman descent he goes down in infamy as the man who should listen to his wife. That's going to be all of us guys. I knew what Doris gave me. She gave me a sign. It's on my bookcase. It says, if all else fails, try doing it the way your wife said. And then in fine print right below it, it says mom or Doris also. So those are my three authorities in life. He goes down in infamy as the man that should have listened to his wife. He goes down in infamy, seriously, as the man who, because everybody was yelling crucify him, consented to the death of the most lovely, loving, perfect man that ever lived, the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus. Folks, don't look back on life and say, oh man, I wish I had lived a principled life. Oh, I wish but i don't know what's right being so that i'm not having to suffer the consequences now don't look back at next year you see let me back up you look at your life you say boy i really messed up years ago only courage to do something don't look back at tomorrow evening don't look back at your diet site uh... i wish i'd done what's right just determined i'm going to do what's right no matter what And I want to encourage you, look back at this time next year, look back over this past year and say, thank you, Lord, for helping me choose to do what's right instead of choosing to do what was easy. I can guarantee you Pilate wishes that his response to Jesus, his response to God working in his life, his encounter with Jesus, his response to Jesus, I know that he wishes, oh, if I'd only done what was right. We have an opportunity. The Lord's pricking our hearts and showing us that we are inconsistent, showing us that we care more about the praise of man or pleasing men than pleasing God and doing what's right. And I beg of you, determine in your heart that my response to what God's doing in my life is, I'm going to do right. I'm going to obey the Lord. I'm going to live a principled life that says yes to God, no to sin. What's your response to Jesus? Pilate's response was neutral, selfish, and now it's full of regret. Number two, look at the soldiers. Well, these soldiers are brutal. The Bible says in verse number 16, and the soldiers led him away into the hall called the Praetorium. There's a couple different ideas about what the Praetorium is. Some people believe it's like a barracks. Some people, as I've studied this, believe that it was an area that was kind of private only to the soldiers, and the soldiers took prisoners there to abuse them. Other folks believe it's just a great big hall. Anyway you shake it, this group of soldiers gathered Jesus into this area and the Bible says, they called together the whole band. So there's a bunch of these guys. Verse number 17, the Bible says, they clothed him with purple and plaited a crown of thorns and put it about his head. What'd they do? They got him off the side, and he's supposed to be the king of the Jews, so they've themed their ridicule of Jesus. And here's what we're going to do. They're like, boys, he says he's the king, and these folks were loyal to Caesar. They would say, there's no king but Caesar. And so they've declared their loyalty to Caesar, the Roman king, and now they take and they mock the king of kings and the Lord of lords. And they say, let's put some purple on him. Purple was a color that declared royalty. And let's make him a crown. They made him a crown of thorns. Most people believe that the thorn crown was made out of this thorn that was popular in that area and grew in that area. Thorns as long as my little finger, sharp. They plaited a crown of thorns, placed it on his head. clothed him in purple, plaited a crown of thorns, put it about his head," verse 18, "'and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews.'" Can you imagine their mockery? Here he is, he'd been scourged. A Roman scourging was a wicked thing. They'd taken a whip, a cat of nine tails, and beat him to where he was hardly recognized as a man. And now they've crowned His head. They're mocking Him and they're calling out, Hail, King of the Jews. I've looked at this and every time I read this verse of Scripture, God brings to my mind His commandment, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Oh, they mocked our Savior. They mocked the Lord. The Bible says they smote Him on the head with a reed. His crown of thorns is there, and now they've got a reed. This word, smote, has the idea of being repeated. They, the guys, many times over, are taking this reed and pounding the crown of thorns into his brow. They smote him on the head with a reed, spit upon him. The Bible says, bowing their knees, they worshipped him. It wasn't real worship, it was false worship, it was mockery. They were like, let's treat him like a king. They bowed and worshipped him. The Bible says in verse 20, when they had mocked him, they mocked our Savior. They took off the purple from him and put his own clothes on him and led him out to crucify him. What do these soldiers do? In a lot of ways, I think about these soldiers, I think they're doing what they were commanded to do, what they were taught to do. But they were having an encounter with Jesus. And in the presence of the Savior, they were cold, cruel, loyal to an inferior king. They said, I would never do this. I'll tell you. We become guilty as these soldiers when we declare our loyalty to anything greater than Christ. You say, I wouldn't do that. Oh, yes, we do. There are things all the time that come between us and Jesus. The Lord wants to meet with us. The Lord wants to help us. The Lord wants to use us. But we let things interfere with our schedule and interfere with our relationship with Jesus, and we bow to an inferior king. They were declaring their loyalty to Caesar. Who sees her in the presence of Jesus? Oh, these guys, they go down in history as men who tortured an innocent man. They go down in history as cruel and cold and servants. Somebody who doesn't even matter. What's your response to Jesus? You know, it's sad to me. that we meet these soldiers along Life Road who know about Jesus, who've heard the Gospel message, who've seen Jesus working among people, and they can notice and know the difference between someone who truly knows Christ and someone who doesn't. They can see the glory of God and the lives of people around Him, and yet, with a cold, cruel heart, they reject the Savior. Cold, cruel heart. They choose to believe the world over God and His Word. Oh, may God help us. You may be here tonight and you reject the Lord. You reject salvation. You reject truth. You say, maybe my professor's got it more right than the Bible. Never. Let God be true and all men are liars. Don't bow to an inferior king, the king of education, the king of modern thought, the king of secular humanism, the king of the Antichrist. Don't bow to an inferior king. When you encounter Christ, Trust Him. Trust God's Word. It's stood through the ages. It's true. It's right. It's pure. It's whole. Jesus is the answer for this wicked world. What was their response to Jesus? They said, we'd rather worship Caesar. We'd rather worship Caesar. Number three, I've been So fascinated by this third response. Look at verse 21. The Bible says, "...and they compelled one, Simon a Cyrenaean, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross." Now here's some interesting things. The Bible says that they compelled one. Now this word one is a random word. There's a group of people, no doubt, that's lining the pathway as Jesus carries His cross to Golgotha. There's a group of people there, and there's one in this group who's actually passing by, coming out of the country. He's on his way out of the country. He's random, one, and a Roman soldier with the same soldiers that had been torturing Christ just moments before. When Jesus' body has taken all it can take, he has no more strength to carry his cross, the Roman soldier at random grabs one person and says, here, carry the cross. Roman law required that a Jewish person do what they were told by a Roman soldier. And this man at random, just one guy that was going out of the country, He has an encounter with Jesus. He takes up his cross and carries that cross to Golgotha, following the Lord Jesus. Now, here's the fascinating part. When Mark, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, pens this passage of Scripture, Not only does he know this random man who's on his way out of the country by name, he also knows his children's name. Now here's what I want to present to you. This man, Simon, a Cyrenian, has a chance encounter with Jesus. You know what he does? He takes up his cross and follows the Lord to Calvary. Something happened in the heart and life of this unnamed random man, because when he became a follower of Christ and took up his cross and followed the Lord, he also somehow became part of the church that was there at Rome. The church connected with the church in Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul in the book of Romans salutes Rufus, his child. And I just want to present this thought to you tonight about Simon the Cyrenian. See, he took the cross, followed the Lord, and he became known of Mark. He became known to the Apostle Paul. He became known to the church at Rome. He became known by the church in Jerusalem. And this is not about being known by the church, but it's the mere thought and idea and the thing that we see here is that this man, this random man that met Jesus on the pathway to Golgotha, he took up the cross, followed Christ, became a follower of christ and made a difference in the church such a difference that mark when he tells the story he says that one person that was compelled by the soldiers is simon the syrian and his son's names are alexander and rufus you remember when you met somebody for the first time it ends up being very significant to you this happened to me at walmart the year 2000 in Powell, Tennessee. You know, the first thing you do when you go to college is you go to Walmart. You go to your dorm and you realize everything that you don't have. And the thing I didn't have is I needed a fan to clip on the side of my bed. So Mom and Mike, they had dropped me off. They're headed back home and I hopped in my truck and went to Walmart with my, he would become my brother-in-law and his dad. We went to Walmart and I made my way back to the back of the fan section in Walmart and what do you know, there was this cute little Indiana girl with her mama who needed a fan too. Now, I remember that meeting faintly. I remember seeing her and I thought, she's cute. And I remember speaking to her and her mother, but little did I know that in just over four years she'd become my wife. That's when I met Ruth. So I can look at that story now and I can say, I didn't know her name. I didn't know her name for several weeks after that. I started really kind of liking her because in the big freshman classes, everybody sat in alphabetical order. I was a Sturgill. She was a Thomas. And the first semester, she had a little trouble getting out of bed. She's not here so I can say this. She had a little trouble getting out of bed. So she was always sliding in sideways just in time for class. And her hair would be wet because she'd just got out of the shower. And I remember looking over my shoulder because she was a Thomas. I was a Sturgill. I'm thinking, man, she's cute. I like her. but i can look back at that story that meeting at wal-mart and i can look back at that those moments when we first our first began to notice her and i can tell you now i could tell you the end but i can tell you now that's ruth thomas that was ruth thomas her sons are a m and hudson that was years before Ian and Hudson discovered America, but I can look back at that moment and say, I can look at that Walmart and say, that's Ruth. And she's got a couple boys now, Ian and Hudson. Why? Because she's made an impact in my life. A major impact in my life. Now the Apostle Paul, I'm sorry, Mark, as he pens this gospel record, As he tells this story, the crucifixion of Christ, he says the soldiers who were marching Jesus to Golgotha, they picked one man out of the crowd to carry his cross. We all know him to be Simon. a Cyrenian. You know, he has two boys. They've grown up in our church, Rufus and Alexander. And the Apostle Paul mentions him in Romans 16 and says, Salute Rufus! Anybody Paul saluted was somebody that was being a blessing and being used of God to affect the church. Now folks, here's what I want to present to you. Pilate, he goes down in infamy as a man who made a terrible decision to turn his back on Jesus when he had a moment to stand up for Christ. The soldiers? Cruel, cold, calculated, worshipping and serving an inferior master. But this random man on the side of the street, on his way out of town, on the day that Jesus was to be crucified, when he encountered Jesus, he took up his cross and followed Christ to the cross, to Calvary, and became a faithful follower of Jesus, so much so that when Mark penned this message, he said, that's when Simon, began to follow Jesus. And that man has made a difference in our church. And his children have been raised up in our church family. And they're making a difference for God. And the Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary ever lived, said, Salute Rufus! Now, I just want to tell you this. Simon, his story can be repeated in our lives. If we'll do just what Jesus said to take up His cross and follow Him, I will have an opportunity to do something with our lives that matter. We'll have an opportunity to do something with our existence that will not only affect us and the church, but it will affect the generations to follow. What's your response to Jesus? I said big yes to Jesus when I got saved when I was eight years old. But I've been having daily encounters with my Savior ever since. Some days I say yes, and some days I say no. But I'll tell you, I've never regretted a day that I said yes to my Master, I said yes to the Savior. I've never regretted one day that I said, Lord, today I will take up my cross and follow You. I've not regretted one day that I didn't care what the whole world thought and I followed faithfully my Savior. I've not regretted one day that I swore my allegiance to Jesus and Jesus alone. The end of a Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, it's a good end. It's right. And God is calling us, when we have our moments with Jesus, when God pricks our heart to obey Him, God is calling us to respond to the Savior by taking up His cross and following Him, obeying Him, trusting Him. living for Him. What will you do with Jesus? Neutral? You cannot be. Someday, your heart will be asking, what will He do with me? Oh, may we faithfully follow and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.