Thanks Ben, and get this thing to work for me here. Well, it's been said that John spends more time on the trial and the arrest of Jesus than all of the other Gospels combined. And we've been spending the last two weeks on the trial and arrest of Jesus. We're spending this morning on it. We'll spend next week on it in total of four weeks that it will take to cover the trial and arrest of Christ. And all along, We have seen that Jesus through it all is in control of everything. There's nothing outside of his control. And things are moving not according to the timeline of sinful man, but according to a sovereign God. And as Jim said last week, those who put Jesus on trial find out they themselves are the ones on trial. When Jesus was arrested and brought before Annas and then Caiaphas, they were searching for a publicly credible reason to kill Jesus Christ. But they struggled to find such an answer. In fact, John doesn't record them ever even finding an answer. We have to read that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke where they finally Ask Jesus, are you the son of God? And Jesus answers that he indeed is. We see this recorded in Luke chapter 22, verse 70. And then they all said, are you the son of God? And so he said to them, you say rightly that I am. And they said, what further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. The problem though that now they face is Rome could care less about some Jew who claims to be the son of God. And so how could the religious leaders find a way to get Rome to kill Jesus? This is the dilemma that we find the Jewish authorities in at this point in John. They had managed to get the Rome to help them arrest Jesus, but could they get Rome to now kill Jesus for them? And so that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. So turn to John chapter 18, if you're not there already, and we're going to begin in verse 19. and go through the end of the chapter. I'm going to skip around just a little bit as Jim stated last week. John has interwoven the trial with Peter's denial in there. I'm just going to read the text that pertains to the trial though for us this morning. So we'll begin in verse 19. Then the high priest asked Jesus about his disciples and his doctrine. And Jesus answered him, I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues and in the temple where the Jews always meet, and in secret I have said nothing. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Indeed, they know what I said. And when he had said these things, one of the officers who stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Do you answer the high priest like that? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. But if well, why do you strike me? Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest. Let's jump down to verse 28. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium and it was early in the morning. But they themselves did not go into the praetorium lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, If he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you. Then Pilate said to him, You take him and judge him according to your law. Therefore the Jews said to him, It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death, that the sayings of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke, signifying by what death he would die. Then Pilate entered the praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered him, Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore said to him, Are you a king then? Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate said to him, What is truth? And then he when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him at all. But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the king of the Jews? Then they all cried again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning in desperate need for you to be at work in us that we might understand the text before us. And so we pray, Lord, that you, through your spirit, would be at work through your word to accomplish that which you desire to accomplish in all of our hearts for your glory and for our good, that we'd love you more and love each other better. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, it's interesting to note that John does not record anything of what happens in front of Caiaphas. In fact, he records nothing of that conversation at all. We can look to Matthew and Mark and Luke for that, but John does not include it. It's not that John discounts it, but I think what John is doing here in this text is he seems more concerned to show us the interaction between a Gentile earthly ruler and a heavenly ruler, Jesus. And so I think that's why John does not include anything in front of Caiaphas. And so our first point on our outline here is Jesus is to be cursed. Jesus is led from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, which would have been the headquarters for the governor. Now normally the headquarters for the governor was located in Caesarea, but at this time, these feasts, then the governor would move his headquarters, his praetorium, to Jerusalem in order to be able to oversee the mass amount of people that would come into Jerusalem for these feasts as the population would balloon. We learn from this text that it was early morning, meaning it was probably between right after dawn, probably between 6 and 7 a.m. This would have not been unusual. We shouldn't look at this and say, well, this is odd. No, this is when the Roman rulers liked to do their business, so to speak, their legal proceedings and their rulings. They liked to be done by 11. And so they wanted everything done first thing in the morning, which probably is part of the, well, a big part of the reason why so much of the trial of Jesus occurred throughout the night in the Jewish court, so to speak. If we're watching here through John, we've been noticing all through the book just these ironies. John loves ironies, and he brings out these ironies all the time. We're going to see several in our text this morning, but this one is really probably the most blatant. We read here, that, verse 28, they themselves, meaning the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders, did not go into the praetorium lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. If they would have went into the governor's headquarters, the Gentile room, that would have prevented them from eating the Passover feast. And the irony here is most obvious. They won't go into the praetorium for fear of defilement, but they have no problem manipulating the judicial system to kill an innocent man. Or another way we could look at it is they won't miss the Passover meal, but they are fine killing he who fulfills the Passover meal. D.A. Carson puts it this way. He says the Jews take elaborate precautions to avoid ritual contamination in order to eat the Passover. At the very same time, they're busy manipulating the judicial system to secure the death of him who alone is the true Passover. And John here wants us to see this irony. They're concerned about defilement. They're not concerned about murder. What we see here is a great disconnect, obviously, between theology and practice. It is looking at a little thing, a detail, and missing the big picture. And while we should not say that these religious leaders here at this point are saved and are going to heaven, we can still use them as a warning to guard against inconsistencies that might arise in our own lives as we see here. I think of a man I know who claims to be a Christian. He served in leadership in several churches and yet he's the type of person that I would call a spiritual bully. If you don't agree with him and his positions on various things, then he will do everything he can to try to run you over. And then when that doesn't work, he slanders and maligns. In fact, one Sunday he showed up here at our church and sat back over there and I just knew him from reputation and I just happened to be in my sermon, had a point on that particular issue. Needless to say, I labored longer on that point than I had in my notes. I wanted him uncomfortable here. You see, we sometimes have inconsistencies in what we claim and in how we live. And so some questions that we could ask ourselves is, are there inconsistencies between your claim to rest in the mercy and love of Jesus and how you treat others? Do you focus on staying away from one particular sin while at the same time engaging in another particular sin? Or do you give a show of godliness in public and then function worldly in private? See, we always have to be on guard against inconsistencies within our own life. We need to be watchful. Well, now we're introduced to the person pilot. We read, verse 29, Pilate then went out to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? Now, we know quite a lot about Pilate, not just from scripture. We actually know a lot from just historical sources also. We know that that Pilate was not a good leader. He was not a strong leader. He was a man, it's said, of weak moral fiber. How did he get into leadership? Well, he married into the emperor's family and consequently was given this post as governor in the region, Roman province of Judea, where he reigned there or ruled from 26 AD until 37. He reigned there for 11 years. He ruled there for 11 years. And he was known for not liking the Jews. In fact, he would go out of his way to antagonize them. and taunt them and insult them. He was known to be a morally weak man who hid behind violence and brutality. There are many stories, mostly from historical sources, that describe the brutality of Pilate. On one account, he went into the Jewish temple and he took out all of the money for the temple and used it for his own building purposes, to which then the Jews rioted and were gathered outside the praetorium and protesting what Pilate had done. And so Pilate took his soldiers, dressed them in plain clothes and sent them out to mingle with the crowd. And then at his signal, he had them stab as many protesters as they could find. We also read on another occasion in Scripture that He mocked the Jews by killing them and mixing their blood with the blood of their sacrifices. That is a huge mockery. Jesus engages with this trouble in Luke 13. There were present at that season some who told Him, told Jesus, about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He was a savage man. This is the kind of man that he was. It's important to know that as we look at this trial. It gives context for us. Here at this point, Pilate concedes in a sense to the Jews and goes out to them, which knowing his character is a little bit surprising, and their response to him indicates their surprise. He asks them, what accusation do you bring against this man? And they are caught off guard by that. They assume that Pilate will just take Jesus and kill him without further ado. After all, this is kind of the man Pilate was, and he had given his troops to go and arrest Jesus. So he knew some of what was going on, a charge worthy at least of sending troops. But now to the irritation of the Jews and likely just to antagonize him, he says, all right, we're gonna have a new trial now. We're gonna start this over. And their response is one of exasperation. Verse 30, if he were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him up to you. This is yet another ironic statement by John. They are saying that if Jesus would have been innocent, they would have never brought him to Pilate. Now, the reader of John's Gospel knows Jesus is innocent. Thus, the Jews are condemning themselves in this statement. They are revealed here to actually be the ones who are the evildoers because they are delivering up an innocent man. Pilate is not going to play along with them. When they kind of try to push back on him, he pulls the power card here. You take him and judge him according to your law. Now Pilate knows they want to kill Jesus, and Pilate knows they cannot legally do so. They are under Roman rule. And so this is another dig at them. This is to enrage them, to remind them, you are under my rule. You can't do anything without me. And their response is one of frustration. It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death. Now, right here, their motives are revealed, isn't it? They're not interested in a trial. They're not interested in justice. They're interested in Jesus being killed. That's what they want. And they want Pilate to do it for them. Now, what's interesting here, is that they had really wanted to. They probably could have done without the Roman troops, used Judas and the temple police to go find Jesus in the garden and drag him off in the darkness and kill him and roll the dice that Pilate wouldn't do anything about it. It's likely what happened with Stephen in Acts chapter 7. Why didn't they just do the same with Jesus? Well, the answer to that question, I think, comes on two levels. Why do the Jews so badly want Rome to kill Jesus? I think the answer is on two levels. The first is that Caiaphas, the high priest, didn't want Jesus just dead. He wanted Jesus publicly shamed as not being the son of God. He wanted Jesus to actually be revealed as cursed by God. Remember what sealed the deal and the trial before Caiaphas was Jesus affirming he was the Son of God, to which Caiaphas tears his clothes and says, Blasphemy, what farther charge do we need? You see Caiaphas wanted all to know Jesus was not the Son of God and he was indeed cursed for his blasphemous claims and the only way Jesus could be shown to be publicly cursed was if Rome killed Jesus because Caiaphas knew they would kill him through crucifixion. We see this in Deuteronomy 21, 22 through 23. If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree. You shall surely bury him that day so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. And this is the key part. He who is hanged is accursed of God. You see, the Jews knew in their law that one who was hung from a tree was cursed by God. And here is yet another irony. And the second reason Jesus was not just secretly killed. God wanted Jesus hung on the tree and wanted Jesus to be shown as cursed. It's fascinating Caiaphas and God are in a sense wanting the same thing. And Jesus knew this was the plan of God for he stated it several times in John. In John 3.14, early in Jesus' ministry, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Likewise, John 12, 32, the end of Jesus' ministry, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. This he said signifying by what death he would die. You see, Caiaphas wanted Jesus hung on a tree to show him to be cursed by God. to dismiss him. God wanted Jesus hung on a tree to show him to be cursed by God in the sense that he would be the Savior of the world. It's only because Jesus was cursed in our place that we are saved. Jesus, the perfect, sinless Son of God could take the penalty for our curse that was pronounced to Adam and Eve and all humanity. Through Jesus taking the curse for us, we who have believed in him will not perish, as Jesus says, but have everlasting life. Paul puts it this way in Galatians 3.13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree. Notice Paul right there is connecting to Deuteronomy 21. That the blessings of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. You see, there is a curse on you and there is a curse on me because of our rebellion against God Almighty, our Creator. And the only way that curse can be removed is through Jesus Christ. The cross is no accident. John is showing us that Jesus is no victim of circumstances here. Jesus said early in his ministry how he would die, and he repeated it near the end. He knew he was going to the cross to be cursed by God in the sense that the sins he carried would be cursed, so that the sins of God's people could be forgiven. So John is showing us Jesus' words throughout the book of John are being fulfilled. Well that brings us to the second point this morning, the king of truth. Pilate is unimpressed by these apparent trumped up charges against Jesus. He goes back into the praetorium and he meets Jesus there and asks him this question, are you the king of the Jews? Now what's interesting is all four Gospels record this as the very first question that Pilate asks Jesus. This is of primary importance to Pilate. Is Jesus a king? There's emphasis here, actually, kind of an incredulous statement. You? You, a king? Almost a mocking shock. But Pilate has to know, because if Jesus is indeed attempting to be a physical earthly king, then Pilate will have to deal with him as a threat to Rome. But as we've seen so often in the trial of Jesus, Pilate himself becomes on trial as Jesus asks him a question instead of answering his question. What Jesus is doing here is he is challenging Pilate to narrow down his thoughts regarding Jesus. As we'll see, in a sense, Jesus is trapping Pilate. What does Pilate think about him? You see how Pilate answers this question is important. If Pilate himself thinks Jesus is a king and he has come to that conclusion himself, then Jesus will indeed be a threat to Rome and Jesus must be put to death. He would be an insurrectionist, a rebel worthy of death. But, if Pilate is just going off of what the Jews said about Jesus, then he knows, Pilate knows, Jesus is innocent and not worthy of death. Because Pilate knows, and Jesus of course knows, that the Jews would never give up one who they thought was genuinely the coming king. They would never give him up to Rome to be killed. Because they were looking for the king to come to lead them out of Roman oppression. And so if Pilate answers this question, affirming that Jesus is the King of the Jews, is what the Jews are saying, it will reveal that Pilate knows Jesus is innocent. And so this is kind of a trap in a sense. Jesus is not just playing games, by the way. But this is kind of the trap that Jesus sets for Pilate. Because if Jesus just, or if Pilate just says, well, the Jews say you're a king, Then Pilate knows Jesus is innocent. And if Jesus is then put to death by Pilate, it reveals Pilate to be evil as well. Just as the Jewish leaders are. This causes a strong retort from Pilate, verse 35. Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done? In other words Pilate does not think Jesus is the king. And thus Jesus then does not answer this question. Isn't it interesting? Pilate says, what evil have you done? Jesus does not answer that question. He goes back to the earlier question of being a king. He wants to press into that. And he says, verse 36, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here. The word Jesus uses for kingdom does not refer to territory or province or boundaries, but rather instead to rule and reign. So there's a contrast here that's going to be further developed. A contrast between an earthly kingdom, such as the Romans, and a heavenly kingdom, the kingdom of God. There's a kingdom of greater value than Rome that supersedes Rome. Earthly kingdoms will do what earthly kingdoms do. But Jesus is referring to the kingdom of God, and he is laboring to bring about the kingdom of God. And so, friends, let's be reminded here of what kingdom we're to truly be living for. What kingdom were ultimately to fight for? It's not the earthly one, but a heavenly one. Everything, if you're following Christ, if you're a Jew following Christ at this time and point, everything seems to be lost right now. The Jews have turned against Jesus and delivered him to Rome. Rome has the power to kill Jesus. It seems like everything is lost. But Jesus reminds us here that our hope and focus needs to be on the kingdom of God, the kingdom that is not from here. As Jesus says, the kingdom not of this world. And again, we just need to be reminded of this as election mudslinging season is in full force right now. Keep reminding yourselves of these truths. Even if Vladimir Putin were to win the presidency of the United States on a random write-in vote, God's kingdom is not altered, and nor is your status in it. God's kingdom would not come crashing down. Our hope is not ultimately in the kingdoms of this world. And for many Christians, these last years have revealed unhealthy hopes and expectations placed upon earthly kingdoms. So let's be reminded from Jesus here that our hope is not in an earthly kingdom and our hope is not lost when earthly kingdoms collide or crash. Right here, Jesus seems to be the victim, right, of an earthly kingdom. But Jesus is not living for the earthly kingdom. Our hope then is in a kingdom that will never fade and is full of eternal glory. Our hope is in a king who will never, ever fail us. A pilot responds to Jesus. By essentially saying, you are a king, then is kind of the emphasis there. And note Jesus' response. He doesn't just say, yes, I am a king. No, actually, he puts it back on Pilate and he says, you, you are saying that I am a king. But he also is saying it in this sense. You, Pilate, are speaking rightly. I am a king. Unwittingly, Pilate has affirmed what the Jews deny. But Pilate in no way takes Jesus' claim seriously. And he also knows Jesus is no threat whatsoever to he or to Rome. Jesus goes on. He says, for this cause I was born and for this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate said to him, what is truth? Now, we need to come back to what Jesus is saying here. Jesus says, I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. The truth here that Jesus is referring to here is the truth of a heavenly kingdom set in place by God Himself brought about through the work of He Himself, Jesus Christ. He is, Jesus is saying, the true King through whom which all must enter the kingdom of God. Jesus is not just here speaking of truth in general, like one plus one always equals two, or gravity is pulling us down. He's not speaking of just truth in general. When John talks about truth in the Gospel of John, he is talking about the truth of the Gospel. So we could think back to John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is speaking of the truth of the word come flesh. The reality of salvation and the reality of judgment and that he the king has come to deliver his people so they could enter God's kingdom. He left his throne to take up a cross. He left honor to take up a curse. He left glory to take on shame. This King gave himself for us. That is the truth. And John seems to be going out of his way here to help us understand Jesus is the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is not simply just the King of the Jews. He is the king of all creation. He is the king of all of God's people. Richard Phillips puts it this way in his commentary, the point is that Jesus Christ is a king. This man standing as prisoner before the worldly governor, brought in as a criminal, bearing no emblems of worldly power, is a king. And the fact that Jesus connects his being king with truth and obedience to that truth points to the fact that his kingship is not just for the Jews. Jesus really is the true and final king. He really is the king in the line of David. The king of all God's people who will reign for eternity. God promised David this in 2 Samuel 7, 16. And your house, again he's speaking to David, and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne will be established, shall be established forever. And we need to remember the Jews knew this. They knew this to be true. They knew that the Messiah was the king. We read this in Luke 23 verses 1 and 2. Then the whole multitude of them arose and led him, Jesus, to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king. You see, they knew the Messiah was also the King. D.A. Carson put it this way, in Jewish expectation, the Davidic Messiah was necessarily the promised King of Israel. And this is why they rejected Jesus' claim to be the Messiah. Because they knew the Messiah must also be the king, and they did not see Jesus as being a king. And so they reject him as being a Messiah. He's not the king they were looking for. And yet, Jesus is the Messiah, and he is the king. And there is a day coming where all mankind will know it, and will bow before him. We read about this in Revelation 19. Now out of his mouth, speaking of Jesus, goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations. And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's Jesus. He is the King. And John wants us to see that Jesus is the King of all of God's people, and He's our King as well. He's not an earthly ruler who will come and go like the leaves on the trees. He is the final ruler who rules now in heaven and will rule for eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. Or we could put it this way, Jesus is the king we will joyfully serve under for all of eternity. He is the king who executes perfect justice and brings about perfect peace. He's a king who perfectly leads God's people in God's ways for all eternity. He is the king of truth. Psalm 2, we should note here, Psalms are not laid out randomly. Psalm 1 speaks of the importance of being built on the foundation of God's word. Psalm 2 speaks of the coming king, Jesus. God is speaking here. He says, I have or six. I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today, I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. This is Jesus, the king. Now if you've been doing the Bible reading in a year and you're at least within a week or two of where we're supposed to be at this point in time, you will have been experiencing a lot of kings right now, right? And what's hard is as we progress the kings just get more wicked. And it's a wicked king and a wicked king and a wicked king and then suddenly we get a good king like Josiah. And it's just like a breath of fresh air. It's like, oh, it's like when the smoke clears and we see the mountains around us again, right? And it's like, oh, good king. And in our reading, it's almost like we can just relax. And he follows the Lord and he took away the high places and he broke down the altars and he led the people in the ways of the Lord. But then a wicked king comes. And we're like, oh, dang it, here we go again. But there's a day coming when there will be no more kings. And there will be no more groans. Because the only king will rule and reign. And he will perfectly lead his people. And we will joyfully live in his shelter forever. Pilate doesn't want to hear any more of this gibberish talk. He responds with a phrase that is famous throughout the world, it seems. What is truth? And again, I don't think Pilate is saying that kind of the postmodern view, well, what is truth? No one can know truth. I think Pilate knows Jesus is talking about a truth. It's a specific truth. And Pilate thinks it's rubbish. He doesn't want to hear any more of Jesus's truth. And here we find another irony. Pilate looks at Jesus, scoffs and says, what is truth? While looking in the face of truth. He wants nothing to do with Jesus' understanding of reality. Which brings us to the third point, exchanging death for life. Look at verse 39. Actually, the back end of 38. When he had said this, Pilate, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him at all. But you have a custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the king of the Jews? Then they all cried again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. So Pilate goes out to the Jews and simply states, I find no fault in him at all. There is nothing in Jesus that Pilate sees as a threat to himself or a threat to Rome or should even involve Rome. In fact, this should have been the end of it if Pilate was a just man. D.A. Carson makes the right observation when he says, if Pilate had been stamped with integrity, his verdict would have ended the matter. Jesus would have been released and the Jewish authorities dismissed. So again, we see Pilate is being shown to be a wicked man, in a sense, representing Gentiles. He then refers to a custom Rome had of releasing a prisoner at Passover and asked them if they want him to release the king of the Jews. And again, this is another dig at the Jews. He is antagonizing them again. At this point, the whole crowds are gathered. They had accused Jesus of trying to be the king of the Jews. And Pilate knows that if he was really, Jesus was really the king of the Jews, if he was really trying to be an earthly king, Pilate would never release him. But likewise, Pilate also knows that if Jesus really was the king of the Jews and really was guilty of being a king, the Jews would have never delivered him up. Thus, this is Pilate's way of communicating Jesus is innocent. And he likely hoped they would concede to his offer for Jesus' release. As we read through the progression of the trial, and not only John, but also the other Gospels, it becomes clear Pilate grows increasingly uncomfortable and fearful with Jesus and wants nothing to do with this situation. We have to remember his wife was also deeply disturbed. In Matthew 27, 19, while he, Pilate, was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him saying, Have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him. It's interesting to note that John records Pilate saying three times, I find no fault in him. Yet, he will still kill Jesus. Thus showing that there's no middle ground with Jesus, which we talked about a couple weeks ago. You can't say, I think Jesus is a good man, and not surrender to him. The Jewish leaders, though, they're determined to have Jesus crucified. They wanted him hung on the cross, shown as proof he was cursed by God. And so they demand the release of Barabbas. Interestingly, Barabbas' full name was Jesus Barabbas, and his name meant son of a father. While Jesus Christ is the son of the father. We learn from the Gospels that Barabbas was a zealot who led a rebellion against Rome. He was a robber, he was a thief, he was a murderer. He was, on moral accounts, a wicked man. And so here then is yet another irony John is showing us. The Jews demand the release of a man who is guilty of what they falsely claim Jesus was trying to do. There's deep irony there. Barabbas did indeed lead a revolt against Rome, while Jesus did not. And yet they are delivering Jesus up, essentially saying, Jesus is doing the same thing Barabbas was doing. We want Barabbas. This irony is not lost on Pilate. He knows what's going on. And when they demand the release of Barabbas, a true rebel against Rome, he knows Jesus is not guilty of rebelling against Rome. Pastor and theologian Kent Hughes has an interesting perspective that I think is worth bringing up here. What if Barabbas could have kind of heard what was going on from his cell, which is likely? What if he heard his name shouted? And what if he heard the chants, crucify him, crucify him? What if when he heard the guards coming towards his cell and the clink of the keys in the door, his heart skipped a beat and began to beat furiously and sweat beaded out on his forehead? What if as he's being led out of that cell into the sunlight and the chains are clinking around him, he is realizing that the nails are about to be driven through his wrists and driven through his feet and he would be left writhing on a tree to die. But then to his shock, the guards remove the chains and shove him out into the crowd. And he looks over his shoulder and sees Jesus being led away in his place. The reality is, we're all Barabbas. We're the true rebels. We're the true sinners. We are the ones who should be cursed. But we look and see Jesus hanging on the cross in our place. Did Barabbas take this to heart and turn to Christ in faith? We don't know how he responded to this. But the greater question is, what is your response to this? Donald Barnhouse puts it this way. He says, Jesus Christ took my spiritual place. For it was I who deserved to die. It was I who deserved that the wrath of God should be poured upon me. I deserve the eternal punishment of the lake of fire. He was delivered up for my offenses. He was handed over to judgment because of my sins. This is why we speak of the substitutionary atonement. Christ was my substitute. He was satisfying the debt of divine justice and holiness. He concludes saying this, that is why I say Christianity can be expressed in three phrases. I deserved hell. Jesus took my hell. There is nothing left for me but his heaven. And we're reminded of first Peter, chapter two, verse twenty four, who himself, Jesus, bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseers of your souls. Here's what John wants us to see, I think, in this section, Jesus. is the true King. He is God's King. He is the King who took our place and took our curse so we could enter His kingdom and dwell with Him for eternity. He the true King. Let's pray. Lord God, we are humbled by what we see this morning as we see the true king, the innocent king, the king of glory. Suffering. Before pilot. Surrendering himself to be hung on a tree as cursed. Knowing full well that to be hung on a tree was a sign of God's curse. And yet knowing full well. That the curse was laid upon him. In order. That we might be cleansed and we might be forgiven. And God, we thank you for this incredible, glorious plan that, if we're honest, makes us very uncomfortable. It's very uncomfortable to think of Jesus being cursed in our place. And we want to think that we should be able to pay for that or to measure up to that or or contribute something to that. But as Paul. Prayed earlier, it's all of grace. It's all God's grace. We add nothing. Jesus Christ became sin, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, that we might be set free from sin. He gave us his righteousness and took our sin. And Father, we praise you for this incredible truth. And Lord Jesus, we praise you for going to the cross for us. knowing all along that you are going to the cross and willingly going to the cross, suffering shame. And you are now seated at the right hand of God reigning as king, and we thank you that the earthly kingdoms will rise and fall, earthly kings will rise and fall. You never will. You are the king who reigns forever and ever. And there is a day coming when you will return. And as we read in Revelation 19, you will return in glory and majesty and power, and all will see what is written upon you, King of kings and Lord of lords. So Father, help us to put our hope in Jesus the King, and may we live faithfully unto Him. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.