Hello and welcome to our study. We're in John chapter 18. We will begin today at verse 28. Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment. Stay tuned for our broadcast. I am reading in John chapter 18 verse number 28, Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment. And it was early, and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out unto them and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malfactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death, that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done?" What an interesting portion of scripture we have here. First it says, they led Jesus to Caiaphas. Several times you'll find that phrase, that they led Jesus from the garden, from one place to another. And the Bible tells us very plainly that he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. The reason they brought him to the judgment hall was Israel did not have the right to perform capital punishment anymore. That had been taken away by the Romans. And so they're bringing him here, and it says it was early. That is, they were getting there quickly. They didn't want the crowd involved in this. They wanted him put to death, and they wanted it done quickly because the crowd, of course, had just been laying the palm branches down and hailing him as king of the Jews. They wanted to get it done quickly. Well, it says here that they entered not into the judgment hall lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. What a bunch of hypocrites. Eat the Passover? Religion. The religion was the most important thing to them. I've often said I hate religion. People look at me and say, you're a pastor and you hate religion? Yes, I hate religion. Religion is the devil's counterfeit for the real thing. I do not have a religion. I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That is what the Bible is talking about when it's talking about being a Christian. A Christian is a Christ one. That's what the word means. Well, in verse 29, we read that Pilate then went out unto them. and said, what accusation bring ye against this man? Now we're starting a judicial procedure. We need to have a accusation. Well, Pilate had a lot of authority. Remember that he had just given the Pharisees permission to take a band of soldiers out into the garden the night before. Pilate had a lot of authority, but he also wanted to keep those Jews happy. But he had to do this thing correctly, they had to go through the judicial procedure, and so he asked a very simple question, what accusation bring you against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee." Don't worry about the accusations. He's guilty. We have already decided he's guilty. You realize who we are. Do you understand? We are the Sanhedrin. We are the Pharisees. We have already found him guilty. Just sentence him to death and get it done in a hurry before that crowd gets up because they kind of like him. We want to get rid of him in a hurry. And not only that, we've got to have the Passover feast here any minute now. And so we're getting ready for that. So get this done and get it done right now. It's very interesting that these religious hypocrites would have this sway over this Roman governor. But Pilate is very much afraid of these people. We'll see why as we go through this chapter. And so then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him and judge him according to your law. Just go ahead, you do it. Get him out of my hair. Pilate didn't want this problem. And he said, Just take him and judge him according to your law. Well, the Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. It's predetermined. We just want him dead. Never mind a fair trial or anything like that. His whole trial had been a farce all night that they had had during his religious trial. Now they just wanted him to say, put the stamp of approval on him and crucify him. We want him dead. Well, Pilate had just given them permission to go ahead and judge him. You do it. He would have turned his back on this if they had put him to death. Why didn't this happen? Well, it didn't happen because the Bible says very plainly in the next verse that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die. He said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to me. All the prophecies of the Old Testament said he had to be crucified. If he had been turned back over to the Jews, and the Jews had put him to death, we see over and over again when they put someone to death, they didn't crucify them, they stoned them. Well, if Jesus had been stoned, all the prophecies would have failed. That's exactly what the devil wanted to happen here. But, because God is really in control of what is going to happen, we read here that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spake, signifying what death he should die. And even though Pilate said, go ahead, take him, kill him, they didn't do it. Why? Because the prophecies needed to be fulfilled and God is in total control here. Well, we read then in verse number 33, then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews? I think that if you look at this in the Greek and the way it's put together here, it indicates that he's asking this question in contempt. What kind of a king are you? You don't look much like a king to me. Here you are bound. They brought you in here. You have no control. Art thou king of the Jews? Well, if Jesus had answered, yes, I'm the king of the Jews, then he would have been guilty of insurrection and we would have a serious problem on our hands. But Jesus had already said that they should render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's. If he said, no, I'm not a king, that wouldn't have been insurrection, but that would have been incorrect. He was a king, he was their Messiah, and one of these days he will rule the world for a thousand years. And so, instead of just giving him an answer to his question, he answered his question with a question. Verse 34, Jesus answered him, sayest thou this thing of thyself? or did others tell it thee of me?" Did you say this of yourself or did others tell it thee of me? What are we saying here? Jesus simply is saying, where are you getting your information? We are supposed to be having a legal trial here. Where are the required witnesses for this trial? Are you saying this of yourself? Is this something that's coming from the Roman side of things? Or others, is this the Jewish thing? Who are you listening to here? And if you're listening to the Romans, where are the witnesses that are supposed to be here? Well, now Pilate answers a question with a question. Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Well, we read in John chapter 15 and verse number 24 that Jesus had done the works that no other man had done. He could have listed a lot of things that he had done here. However, his answer to the question isn't found in verse 36 when Jesus answered. And notice he uses the word my kingdom three times in this verse. Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I might not be delivered to the to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence." Well, by this time, Pilate is in absolute, total confusion. He has no idea what is going on, and he says in verse 37, Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth, every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. For this cause came I into the world. Jesus had already said this back in John chapter 12 and 17 when he was telling the disciples that he was heading for the crucifixion. And he said, for this cause came I into the world. This is why I've come, he says, so that you could stand here and sentence me to be crucified. Everything, everything here is happening on the timetable that God has so that Christ would die and you and I would have an opportunity to receive Him as our personal Savior. And so he goes on to say that we need to bear witness of the truth. Jesus said, I am the way. the truth and the light. Well, Pilate then asked the question, verse 38, what is truth? What is truth? Did he really want the truth? No, it says, what is truth? And when he said this, he went out. Well, if you want the truth, let the truth answer the question for you. He is the truth. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life, Jesus said. You really want the truth? No. Pilate's just talking in sarcasm. What is truth? We have a lot of that in the world today. People say there's no such thing as truth. There's no absolutes, and you ask them if they're sure, they'll say, yeah, absolutely, I'm sure. It's just so ridiculous. Jesus is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. People just don't want the truth. Well, in verse 38, we read, Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find no fault at all. I find in him no fault at all. I find no fault." Well, then, if you're not afraid of those Pharisees and those religious hypocrites out there, Pilate, just let them go. But no, he can't do that. But he thought, oh, I've got another plan here, verse 39. But ye have a custom that I should release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore that I release unto you the king of the Jews?" Oh, he thought, now certainly they will not take Barabbas. Not Barabbas. Barabbas is a murderer. In fact, if you look in other Gospels and compare it carefully, it says he was a notable prisoner, and he was a murderer. Pilate's thinking, surely they'll let him go now. And so this is the third attempt that he has had to try and get rid of this problem. Of course, the problem being Jesus. In chapter 18 and verse 31, he says to the Jews, you take him, you take him. No, they didn't do it. Then he sends him to Herod and says, you take him, you take him. And he didn't take him either. Now he tries this third thing here. He says, I'll deliver unto them Barabbas. Surely they will not take Barabbas over Jesus. By this time, if you read the other Gospels carefully, you will find that a mob has gathered, and there's a lot of people out there who, like Christ, they've been laying down the palm branches. Hosea, oh, just so happy that their king had come. And this pilot thinks this is going to work. Now, keep in mind, his main purpose here is not to get Caesar upset. He doesn't want to get Caesar upset. I think it's important to have a little bit of historical background here. When Pilate was first put in charge, he came parading in Jerusalem, and he had Caesar's image on everything. Well, the Jews revolted against that. There's only one God, and we will have no other gods before us, and they revolted. Well, Pilate got them all together in a big auditorium and he told those people, if you do not back down on this, I will have you all put to death right now. Well, their answer to that was, go ahead, put us all to death. Well, now Pilate was in a fix. He couldn't do that. This is not going to go over good with Caesar. This is not what you do is come in and take over this area. and then all of a sudden start slaughtering the people, Pilate would have been in serious trouble with Caesar. So what Pilate did was he gave in to the people. At that point, he had to let them go, and he lost the control. Well, later there was a couple of other situations where, once again, Pilate had to give in, because if he didn't, he would lose his job with Caesar. In fact, he could lose his life if he wasn't careful. And that is why we read later on in chapter 19 and verse 12, when Pilate sought to release him, they said, if you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Well, they had Pilate between a rock and a hard place. He didn't want to be in trouble with Caesar, and the only way, once again, he could stay out of trouble was to let these religious hypocrites have their way. Now, if we compare this portion of Scripture in the other Gospels, for instance, in Matthew 27 and 19, at this point, his wife sent a message unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with this just man? I have suffered many things because of him in a dream. Well, this gave a lull in the proceedings here, and we read in verse 20, the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask for Abbas and destroy Jesus. In Matthew 27 and verse 22, Pilate asked, what shall I do then with Jesus? Everyone, everyone listening to my voice, everyone in this world has to answer that question sooner or later. What will you do then with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. One day your heart will be asking, what will he do with me? Tune in again tomorrow. We'll continue this series in the Book of John.