Walking from there to here made me just all of a sudden think about, y'all remember the old Lucy show with Lucille Ball? And she was in court, and she was supposed to be her own lawyer, and she would jump up in the witness stand and sit and wait, and then she'd jump over here, like she was a lawyer in ASTRA, and she'd jump back over here in ASTRA. That's when I used to have good TV. All right, turn with me to Mark chapter 15, if you would. Mark chapter 15, and we will read the first 20 verses. Mark chapter 15 in verse 1. Mark chapter 15 verse 1 and it says straightway in the morning the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council and bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered him to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered and said unto him, Thou sayest it. And the chief priest accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? Behold, how many things they witness against thee! But Jesus yet answered nothing, so that Pilate marveled. Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. And there was one named Barabbas which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. But Pilate answered him, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him. 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 Praetorium. 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. Now, we have this word to begin this chapter that we've read so many times in the book of Marker Straightway. Once again, it means immediately after the mock trial that the Sanhedrin I don't even want to call it a trial, that they brought Jesus before the Sanhedrin had tried him. It says immediately in the morning, they had the trial at night, which was illegal, having a capital crime trial at night. And so Jesus, the next morning, it says it straight where immediately the chief priest held a meeting with the elders and the scribes and the whole council, it says here, the entire Sanhedrin. There was a reason for having another meeting that morning. It was Jewish law that in a capital crime, it had to be held over more than one day, at least two days. So what they did was they illegally tried him at night, and then when it got morning time, they just jumped out there and went through the formalities just to be able to technically say, oh, he had his two trials. And the other reason, I'm sure, was that they was going to bring him before Pilate, so they wanted to get their ducks in a row. As we spoke about last week, they had accused him of blasphemy, was the crime against Israel, but that wouldn't fly with Rome, so they was going to accuse him of insurrection when they came up with this plan. Now, the Jews didn't have the power to execute people. That was within the hands of the Romans. They allowed them to have minor chastisement, punishment, but they didn't allow the Jews to execute people. Now, sometimes they didn't obey, just like with the stoning of Stephen. It was vigilante justice. They went ahead and stoned him, killed him, without the approval of Rome. But with Jesus, this was a little bit too high profile. He was too popular. He was too big. They couldn't just go out and murder him. So they was going to try to go through, and I'm using this word loosely, the proper channels. They were going to bring him before Pilate. Pilate was the Roman governor of the area. And once again, they would accuse him of being guilty of insurrection. They would bring him here to this Roman governor. Now, Pilate normally lived in Caesarea along the Mediterranean coast, but because it was Passover, he was staying in Jerusalem for the simple reason it was a Jewish high holy day, and he wanted to make sure the order was maintained. He'd be on site if something happened. I'm suspecting the Bible doesn't say anything about this, but that he had heard about Jesus in Caesarea. You know this man had to have his intelligence officers his ears and eyes out around the kingdom to know what's going on. And you know that Jesus was way too big to be a seeker, what had happened. I mean, he had probably heard about Jesus' boldness, how he just stood up to the authorities and spoke the truth regardless. His teaching, it was like no man had ever taught. the miracle, the raising of the dead, all the things. Once again, this wasn't being kept secret, I'm sure, so he had heard of Jesus most likely. And whenever he arrived in Jerusalem, I'm sure that he probably heard more when he was on site. Now, the fellow that the Sanhedrin brought before Pilate was probably not what he was expecting. They brought in a man who was dressed as an ordinary man, and he had been beaten until his face was unrecognizable. Swell face, bruised up, and covered in blood, I'm sure, from all the torture that he had endured at the hands of the Sanhedrin, the beatings. The prophet Isaiah said, Isaiah 53 and verse three, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. So when they brought this battered, bloody man before Pilate and had accused him of insurrection and saying that he was the king of the Jews, when Pilate asked him this, It was probably in disbelief. You're king of the Jews? Really? And Jesus answered him, thou sayest it, or you said it. It's true. In John's account, in John 18, and as I said, a couple of times probably along this area of our study. Brother Robbie just went through this and John, we're not gonna spend a lot of time on some of these details because he's already covered them thoroughly. But I do feel like that we need to give justice to the scripture. What Mark recorded, we're not just gonna skip over. And sometimes we're gonna look over into the other gospels or refer to them because they give us light as to what's going on in the situation at hand. But in John 18, Pilate starts to question Jesus. He's been accused once again of insurrection, and he asks him about his kingdom. And Jesus explains to him, I don't have a political kingdom. I don't have any, I don't have a standing army. We don't have weapons. I don't have any political power. My kingdom is completely spiritual. It's religious. That's all it is. And Pilate listens a minute and says, you're no threat to the Roman Empire. You're a spiritual leader. You're a religious man. You're a holy man. I found no fault in you. Now, during this trial, all during it, it says that the Jews accused Jesus according to many things. It says here in Mark, according to Luke, He gives a description of the things he was accused of, and it was perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ the King, stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Jewry. And Jesus was innocent of all these charges. I mean, what lies? refusing to give or forbidding to give tribute to Caesar. We just studied here a few months ago when he was shown when Jesus asked for the coin, and it says, whose image is there? Caesar's. Well, render unto Caesar. When he was asked the question about taxes, render unto Caesar's things that are Caesar's. He didn't teach insurrection, sedition. When the Roman soldiers asked Jesus, you know, can I still remain a soldier in the Roman army now that I'm a Christian? Jesus didn't try to make or have a mass exodus from the Roman ranks. He told them, sure you can. You just operate as a Christian should. You do it in good conscience, and you do what you're supposed to, and you can remain in your job. You can still be a soldier for Rome. Just do it in a manner a Christian should. He never taught insurrection. He never taught an uprising against the government. But whenever he was accused of these things, Jesus said nothing. He just sat there, just like he did in the first trial. And Pilate was amazed. He asked him, he says, answerest thou nothing? It says that Pilate marveled or was amazed, and he couldn't believe that this man would sit here and allow himself to be accused of all these things and not even give an answer. And when you think about it, why would Jesus give an answer? The only opinion that mattered right here was whose? Pilate's. Pilate was the judge. It was within his hands to whether he would face capital punishment or not. And Pilate had already said, he's innocent. I can't find anything wrong with him. He didn't have to convince these Jews. He wasn't going to. He'd been down that road one time. So what would have been the purpose for answering? And also, Jesus knew that this is what he came for, was to die on the cross for the sins of his people. So why put up a fight? Now, Pilate didn't really want to have to punish this innocent man. He knew he was innocent. He didn't want the responsibility on his hands of having to punish an innocent man, but he didn't want to incite the Jews to a riot either. So he found out that Jesus was from Galilee. And he said, I got it. I'll pass him off. I'll get rid of this hot potato. You had this Edomite that was the Jewish representative, Herod, who was their governor in Galilee. I sent him to Herod. I let him take care of it. So Pilate sends him, according to Luke's account, over to to Herod, and Herod, he really didn't care. It says in Luke 23, in verse eight, that he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. The entertainment value was all he was concerned with. I learned all these things about you. Here, do a trick for us. And Jesus ignored him, or so far as we know. So after mocking him for a while, Herod grew tired of it and he sent him back to Pilate. Now, scripture tells us that Pilate and Herod didn't like each other very much. Probably considered themselves to be rivals, although Pilate had the upper hand. He had the power of Rome behind him. But I'm sure there was a lot of disagreement, kind of like a city and a county government arguing back and to. They had had their disagreements and arguments, but it says, after this, they became good friends. Now, it was customary for Pilate to release a prisoner to the Jews at Passover. Don't know where this started, if it originated with Pilate, if it was something that he came up with to try to ingratiate himself to the Jewish population, or if this was a tradition that went further back. I've never been able to find out. But we do know that it was a tradition. Every year at Passover, he let them pick a prisoner, and he would release them. So he reminded them of this, And you know what's on his mind. If I tell them this, Jesus is so popular with the common people, because like I said, you know he'd had his feelers out, his intelligence officers. He knew how popular he was with the common Jew. If I tell them this, they're going to ask for Jesus' release. I won't have to deal with this. I won't make anybody mad. There'll be some mad, but the general population won't be mad. And I won't have to punish this innocent man. Pilate, once again, he knew Jesus was innocent. He had questioned him. He couldn't find anything wrong. And he was a little afraid to lay his hands on him. Now, he probably considered him to be a divine being. In Matthew 27 verse 19, during this whole trial, Pilate's wife had sent him a note. And he reads the note and the note says, his wife had said to him, Matthew 27, 19, have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. His wife said, whatever you do, do not harm this man. I had a dream. She said she'd suffered a lot. I had a nightmare. And that thing has bothered me. Don't. Don't harm him. You know, Brother Robbie, when he touched on this, whenever he was going through the Gospel of John, this part of John, he said something I never really thought about. Pilate probably didn't recognize Jesus as the true and living God. But what he probably thought, being a Roman, being a pagan, that this was one of the gods, the mythological gods that the Romans worship, come to earth as a man. He had heard about the miracles he performed. I mean, he knew a man couldn't do that, but this was big in their mythology. Their gods would come down and pose as a man, father children many times, do all kinds of things. This could very well be Apollo, or this liable to be Jupiter, or any one of the gods. I might better leave him alone. But as afraid as he was of harming Jesus, he was equally afraid, if not more, into inciting a riot. He didn't want to make the people mad. Pilate's time as the governor had been filled with a lot of hostilities with the Jews. If you read in history, you find out more than once they had had their run-ins. And there was one thing that Rome didn't like, and they didn't put up with, and that was a lot of disturbance. If you couldn't do your job and keep rebellion down, the riots down, you didn't have it long. And he was afraid, I'm sure, that if there was an uprising with the past history, that he was history, that Rome would remove him from his office. He'd lose his job. So we get back to the original thing, releasing the prisoner at Passover. Scripture tells us that there was a man named Barabbas. And at this point in time, Pilate had him locked up, or the Romans had him locked up. Surely it happened before Pilate ever even came to Jerusalem. But this Barabbas was guilty of an insurrection against Rome, and he was locked up with his co-conspirators. There were other men in there, more than likely the two men that was crucified on each side of Jesus. And it says that he committed murder in the insurrection. When they was planning this rebellion, when they carried it out, they obviously killed somebody. And they had stood trial and was gonna be executed on the cross. Now, the cross that Jesus was crucified on was probably prepared for Barabbas. These three men were probably, these insurrections were gonna be executed together. But we all know what happened. It says here that the multitude, which is an interesting word. It means rabble or riot. a mob had gathered there. This is no longer just the Jewish leaders. They were the leaders in this, but they had convinced many of the common people, the common Jews, to start raising sand, to cause a riot. You can't start a riot with just a few men. And they shouted out to this mob, to Pilate, yeah, we want to continue the tradition of releasing the prisoner. And you know Pilate's thinking, this thing's working out just like I planned. And he asked them, will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? Just makes sense. They want to go on with the tradition. They want me to release a prisoner. How about Jesus? I mean, he's your king. That's the logical choice. You want me to go ahead and release him? The reason that he was sure, I'm sure that he figured this, that they was going to name Jesus. Once again, he knew what was going on. He knew what had been happening there. And surely he had heard what we read back in Mark chapter 11 when Jesus entered the first of this week. entered Jerusalem. You remember? Hosanna, Hosanna. They laid down the palm branches. They threw down their coats for him to ride in on the donkey. And they said, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom of our father, David, that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. So you could understand Pilate's expectation when he says, do you want me to release the king of the Jews? Because he knew how popular he was. Surely that's who you're going to say, right? And not only was this an appeal to the people, Pilate didn't like these Jewish religious leaders. And he tried to needle them at every chance we could see that in scripture. It says that he knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. This was a dig at them when he called him the king of the Jews. He knew that the only reason that they was after him because they were jealous of him. You think about it for a minute. Jesus had took away some of the chief priest, the high priest actually, former high priest, profit. We talked about it here just last week or a week before whenever Jesus went into the temple and turned the money changers tables over and ran the animals out that they were selling. And we talked about how this was known as Annas's Bazaar. They cut into their money. Sounds kind of familiar. You don't like to get exposed and lose money. happens with the government sometimes. And not only that, but people were leaving the the Jewish leaders to follow Jesus. They had taught the law, and they had legalistic ideas, and they were so hard on the people in this cold, uncaring, ceremonial religion that they had. And people were being saved by Jesus and realized, this is freedom, this is liberty, this man comes to deliver our souls. got no use for that no more. And they didn't like it. And as Pilate said, they were envious, or Pilate knew. They were not, these religious leaders, were not going to allow Jesus to be released without using ever tool in their kit. They was going to turn the people against him. And it seems like it's working here, because like what we said earlier, this rabble, this riot, this mob. It says here in our text that the chief priest moved or stirred up the people that he should rather release Barabbas under them. Once again, we've moved on to the general population. They're being affected by these religious leaders. The choice we have here is between a completely righteous, innocent man, the only perfect man to ever walk the earth. You got a choice between him and a murdering rebel. I mean, the choice would be easy, right? Well, you know, you know what they chose? They chose Barabbas over the Lord Jesus. Why should we be shocked when we see things that are a whole lot less ridiculous than this happen? That doesn't make any sense. Why would anybody go in his direction? Because of sin, and that's exactly what went on here. They chose Barabbas over Jesus, and Pilate asked, what will ye then and I shall do unto him ye call the king of the Jews? He said, look, What am I supposed to do with him? He's your king, he says once again. What am I supposed to do with him if Brabus is the one that I let off the hook? They cried out, seemingly for a second time, crucify him. And Pilate, he tried to reason with them. He says, what evil has he done? And they cried out more exceedingly, crucify him. Give me something to go on. Give me some proof. Give me evidence that the man is worthy of death. What has he done? Crucify him. No logic, no reason, no justice. They just want him crucified. Matthew, his account tells us that when Pilate realized that he couldn't persuade him. He symbolically washed his hands of being innocent of Jesus' blood, and he says to him, you see to it. No problem, you're the one that wants him crucified, you do it. And their response is one of the most chilling statements that has ever been made. Every time I read this, it just goes to my bone. In verse 25 of our text, excuse me, that's back in Matthew, it says, his blood be on us and on our children. They had no idea what they asked for. You do it, I think he's innocent. You let us worry about that, we'll take the blame. Let his blood be on us and on our children. Do you think that maybe when the events took place that we talked about back in Olivet discourse, when they was inside Jerusalem and the Roman armies was surrounded the city and they were starved to death and they was resorting to cannibalism and the stench and the smell of the bloating bodies in the street and the dogs eating them, and the cost of fighting. Do you think any of them ever recall this? His blood be on us and on our children. Well, that's exactly what you got. How many is gonna stand before the judgment seat on judgment day, before Christ, the eternal judge, and he's gonna remind them, you said that my blood would be on you and your children, and it was, and it is, for all eternity. I can't imagine, I can't imagine making a statement this cold and this foolish. Pollack was attempting, it says here in our text, to content or satisfy the people by releasing Barabbas. He's thinking, okay, they want this, maybe if I give them this. Maybe if I just punish Jesus' son without having to actually put him to death, maybe this will pacify him. Maybe this will appease him. So he carries him out to be scourged. Once again, we won't go into a lot of detail here because Brother Robbie covered it very well. But we will say scourging, when there was a terrible beating with a whip, had multiple ends on it. These ends would have had a bone or metal wove into them to where when it hit and pulled, it pulled hard back. When a Jew, when the Jews gave a beating, it was limited how many times because God said so. This is just how merciful our God is. Even in punishment, there was mercy. 40 lashes was the maximum that a Jewish beaten could be administered. But they lowered it to 39, because you know how much of a stickler they were, in case the counter miscounted and you won't go over. So we limited it to 39. But under Roman law, there was no limit. The number of lashes that you received would just be according to how much the administrator wanted to administer. They could go on for hours. Well, they don't know how long it took, how long Jesus was scourged, but he was beaten, he was scourged. As Brother Robbie said, and we've all heard probably multiple times, that the beating would take place when the metal or the bone in the ends of the whip would pull the hide away and the, entrails, the organs, would be exposed. And many people died from a scourge of the lung. Now, after the beating, the Roman soldiers put a purple robe on him. This was probably an old soldier's robe. And purple was the color of royalty, so this was a way to mock him. And here's a king. Look at the king that just got to taking his beating. They took the crown of thorn and put it on his head as a joke of a crown. And his black brother Robbie said, you know that the thorns just dug into his head and blood poured down his already beaten and bloodied face. They humiliated him, they tortured him. And they began to mock him by saying, hell, king of the Jews, this is the Roman soldiers. Hell, king of the Jews, you really look like a king, don't you? It says they beat him over the head with a reed. This reed is a cane or a stick. They spit on him just like the Sanhedrin did, another sign of contempt. And they jokingly bowed to him in worship. Well, they was probably hollering, hail king of the Jews. They would get out and they would probably look at one another and laugh. What a joke this man is. Pilate is still trying to convince the Jews not to put this man to death. He brings him out, probably to appeal to their mercy. I'm sure he brought him out, he's bloodied, he's beaten, and he's thinking, surely these people's gonna look and they're gonna have some pity and say, that's enough, that's enough. But the chief priests led him into chant, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate still, still tried to stop it. He still resisted. But the Jews threatened him with something that he couldn't go back on. In John chapter 19 and verse 12, it says, they told Pilate, if thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend. Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. You turn him loose, you ain't no friend of Caesar's. This man's an insurrectionist. If you're his friend, you're an insurrectionist. That was it. That was it. The resistance went out of pilot. He was not going to take the chance of being, first off, being accused of being disloyal to Caesar and taking the chance of losing his position as governor. If this got back to Rome, that's about what would have happened, could have happened. They might have had to prove it, but he wasn't gonna take this chance. So he had the purple robe removed off of him, and it says that they led him out to crucify him. As bad as it had been, it's fixing to get worse. Now, in a way of application, we look at this, these, these actions by this diverse group of people. You got a lot of different kind of people involved in this. With this condemnation, this kangaroo court that was supposed to be a trial for Jesus. And we find that these people would take sides with anybody or anything over Christ. They were part of the anything with Jesus movement, and it still exists today. His message was in direct opposition to what they treasured, what they desired, what they liked, what they loved the most. And as different as they were in a lot of things, they all agreed, we'll resort to anything to get rid of you. And their message was just as clear as it was in the parable of Luke 19, where the citizens had rebelled, and they said, we will not have this man to reign over us. It was just that clear, that's what the parable pointed to. They all agreed, we're not gonna let him be in charge, no, we will not bow to him. Once again, it's strange how diverse they were, but how united they are in opposing Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 12 verse 30, he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters abroad. Anything but Jesus. The first group we're gonna look at here were the Jewish religious leaders. They're the most obvious. These were the ones that were the most violently opposed to Jesus. And these were the ones that were responsible for his arrest and his mock trial and his crucifixion. But these are also the ones that you would expect to have been Jesus' most faithful followers, wouldn't you? I mean, these men were the Jewish religious leaders, and Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. You would have thought if anybody's gonna be an Esai on his side, it'll be these men. They were part of the right group, you would think. They were on the right side, you would think. But sometimes being a part of the right group doesn't make you right. And sometimes the right group can be so far off that Jesus becomes the enemy instead of the God that they worship. saying the right things like these Jews did with the law, and claiming a pure pedigree. We're children of Abraham. That doesn't ensure that one's a follower of Christ. Same way today. We might be what we consider to be a true church. Does not mean that we're always right. And many, it seems, I say many, and some, I'm sure, the Jews did Lord. Like these chief priests and these scribes, When following Jesus disagrees with one's agenda, he can become our antagonist. Now, the second group, the second group, This was Pilate and Herod, completely different to these Jewish religious leaders. Neither one is a Jew, neither one is particularly religious, if you can call what these scribes and elders were. They were what you would call casual enemies of Christ. You know, a common enemy creates strange friends. These two had been at odds for some time, and now they're friends because they agreed they had a common goal. We just want to be rid of Jesus. Now, neither one of them had the hatred for him. We don't read they hated him like these Jewish leaders did. But they just really did not want to be troubled with him. He was more of a pestilence, a bother to them than anything else. Now Pilate's common sense, his superstition, and probably his contempt for these Jewish leaders caused him to defend Jesus' innocence for a while. Until, until his position was jeopardized. He ain't worth that. He ain't worth me losing my governorship over. I just want him out of the way. He's a bother. Herod, Herod really didn't care, as we said earlier. Herod was, all he was interested in was the fact that Pilate was recognizing him as an authority figure. He thought all he was trying to do was pass him off. And the fact that he wanted to see Jesus do a trick. It was the entertainment value. That was it. He really didn't care. But after Jesus wouldn't do a trick, he got tired of him, sent him on back to Pilate. There are many that really don't have an ax to grind with Jesus, but they'll side with anything to get him out of the way, to get him out of their lives. They become even more tolerant to things that they hate, people that they hate, just to make sure, to ensure that Jesus doesn't interfere in their lives. Now, the third group, this is the general population of the Jews, the common Jew. These are the ones that should have loved him the most. but they joined in with these leaders to oppose him. The common Jew, you think about how many people had been fed by Jesus out of nothing hardly. How many had had themselves, or maybe family members, and some of these may not have been involved, we don't know, but I'm sure somewhere or another they were connected, they knew about, they had seen the demoniacs healed, and the lame could walk, and the blind could see, and all these things, they had benefited from Jesus' presence, not to mention his preaching, but yeah. They turned their backs on him. When the chief priest and the elders said so, they followed suit. The Hosannas, as we talked about earlier, earlier in the week, had become crucified. And once again, this happened within a week. This isn't something that took place like we see in the political world sometime where you got this candidate that's riding this wave and then something happens and they hit bottom over a period of months or years. This happened within a week. And they wound up choosing a murderer over Jesus at the urging of these leaders. Now, Many claim to follow Jesus, but when they face pressure from their peer groups, particularly the leaders, those with prestige, they'll quickly learn to oppose him. Think about this for a minute. How many people do you know that name the name of Christ, maybe say entire churches, yet when the right ones push abortion, they'll agree with it. At the very best, they won't oppose it. because there are those within their peer group, those that are on top, those with prestige, don't oppose it, they support it. Same thing could be said for sexual immorality, this whole transgender thing. I think it's wrong, but you know. So and so, this person of authority, they say it's all right, so I'm gonna go along with it. Any form of ungodliness that is approved by those that they have respect to, don't go along with it, and they become the enemies of Christ. The fourth and final group was these Roman soldiers. These are pagan Romans. They did not have a dog in the fight. Jesus had appeared to the Jews. He preached to the Jewish people. You had an occasional Gentile that was saved, the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. But for the most part, the Romans had nothing in this, no stake in the matter. Yet, these same soldiers were the ones that beat him and mocked him and spit on him. Why? They had no reason to hate him. Everybody probably remembers at some point in time in your childhood, there was this unpopular kid, and nobody liked him. And most couldn't even tell you why they didn't like him. The reason they didn't like him was because everybody else didn't like him. And they just joined in. Because you didn't want to be associated with an unpopular kid or you'd become unpopular. This is exactly what happened here. This was the thing to do at the time. They're thinking the Jews don't like him and Pilate don't like him and Herod don't like him. I don't like him either. So I'm going to spit on him. And I'm gonna debate what they were doing under orders, which didn't excuse it, but all these different things they did, so mean to Jesus, just because it was the popular thing to do at the time. They didn't know why they was doing it. Many are this same way today. If the opinions of the intellectuals and the cool people are to reject Jesus, because you know religion is the opium to the masses is for ignorant people according to the intellectuals. So if I want to be one of them, I got to go along with that. This is what these Roman soldiers did. Many people, like I said, don't even have a true opinion of him, aren't bothered by Jesus, but just a thing to do, to hate him. Now, if at any time we ever develop an anything but Christ mentality, we should fall to our knees immediately and ask the Lord for forgiveness. Some of these people, we don't know If they had made a profession of faith, we don't know if they were seekers, followers of Jesus or what. But they needed forgiveness. I promise you if they went with this, saved or lost. If we haven't, if we haven't fallen to that, and I pray we haven't, we ought to be thankful, so thankful the Holy Spirit freed us from this, that he strengthened us, that he's not allowed us to be a part of this, because if not without the power of the Holy Spirit, we'd everyone be doing these same things that we've looked at this morning, and we just, we find so distasteful. Anything but Jesus, how terrible that is. Keith, if you would, lead us in a word of prayer, please.