Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We are in John chapter 19. Have your Bible ready. I am reading in chapter 19, verse 1, Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him, and the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said unto them, Behold, the man. When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him." Well, we read in verse 1 that Pilate scourged him. The soldiers in verse 2 crowned him with a crown of thorns. They put on a purple robe. What do we have here? Why is everybody acting like they're acting here against Jesus Christ? Well, it's very simple. This is Satan's hour. This is the hour that Satan puts all of his hate on Jesus Christ. Pilate and the soldiers are plainly of their father, the devil. We are looking at sin, the sin for which Christ would die, and prior to him dying, this ugly thing called sin will be exposed for what it really is. In verse 3, they mocked Him, hailed King of the Jews, they smote Him with their hands. And then we read in verse number 4, Pilate said, I find no fault in Him. I find no fault in Him. He says, Behold the man. Probably Pilate's hoping that when they see Christ, he's been beaten and whipped. It was common when they whipped people like this that they would die right there in a whipping post. It was so vicious. They've mocked him. They've ridiculed him. Perhaps Pilate is thinking they'll show some pity now and they'll let him go. But what do we find here in verse number six? When the chief priests, therefore, and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him!" Once again, why are they doing this? Like Pilate, like the soldiers, these religious hypocrites are of their father, the devil, and all the ugliness of sin is being exposed at this moment. Pilate knew that Christ was innocent. In Matthew 27, 18, it says he knew that for envy they had delivered him. Seven times, if you check it in all four Gospels, you will find that he said, I find no fault in him. Luke 23 and 20 says he was willing to release Jesus. Luke 23, 22, he said, I will let him go. John 19 and 20, he sought to release him. Acts 3 and 13 records the fact that he was determined to let them go. And then we have Matthew 27 and 19, where he had the warning from his wife. Here in John 19 alone, in verse 4, I find no fault in him. Verse 6, I find no fault in him. Verse 8, he was the more afraid. Verse 12, he sought to release him. Verse 15, shall I crucify your king? Pilate absolutely knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges. In verse 7 we read the Jews, and of course he's referring to the leaders, the religious hypocrites, answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die. That's it. Plain and simple. He ought to die. We have said so. Why? Because he made himself the Son of God. Well, that's who he was. And that's who he is. Well, verse 8, when Pilate, therefore, heard that, saying, he was the more afraid. Now, we know he's already afraid. Now he's, therefore, the more afraid. Whenever we see a therefore in the Scriptures, we should stop and ask ourselves what it's there for. And it's very plain if we look at it in the next verse. We see that Pilate went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. He didn't ask him who he was. He said, where did you come from? Now, it's interesting that the religious hypocrites out there have just said that he claimed to be the son of God. Now, is Pilate concerned that I have just allowed these soldiers to beat and whip and mock the son of God? Or is it that these Romans, they had so many crazy gods, and they felt that their gods had offsprings, and if they didn't treat them properly, they would be under the curse of the gods. And perhaps it's that Pilate is thinking, have I beaten the son of a God? So he goes in here and he asks him, where did you come from? And verse nine says, but Jesus gave him no answer. This no doubt infuriates Pilate. Pilate saith unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? I have power. Well, the truth of the fact is, Pilate, you have no power at all. You're simply a puppet. You're a puppet in the hands of the religious rulers who are going to blackmail you into turning you over to Caesar if you don't do what they say. And not only that, you're a puppet in the hand of God. God is simply using Pilate to bring about the prophecies that were all given to us during the Old Testament. You see, Pilate was a self-centered, weak-minded hypocrite who chose to ignore God, which made him an available instrument in the hand of God to fulfill prophecy. He chose to ignore God long before this situation came along, We are all free to make our choices, but we are not free to determine the consequences of our choices. And Pilate had been making choices, rejecting God, long before this situation came that he was having to deal with today. And the truth of the matter is, the religious hypocrites who were in charge in Jerusalem at that time were also self-centered, weak-minded hypocrites who chose to ignore God all of their lives. And they're going through the motions here in the temple, acting like they're somebody spiritual while they crucify the Son of God. Verse number 11, Jesus answered Pilate, and he said, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee has the greater sin. Well, these are the last words that Pilate's going to hear from Jesus. Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." The last word that Pilate heard was the word sin. The next time he'll hear from Jesus, it will be depart from me ye cursed into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And that's exactly what Pilate was. He was one of the devil's messengers. He was one of the agents in the hands of the devil because he chose to reject God all of his life he chose to reject God well in verse 12 one more feeble attempt Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out saying If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar's friend whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar and Well, when he heard that saying, it says in 13, he brought forth Jesus and sat down in the judgment seat in the place that is called the pavement. But in the Hebrew, he brought him up for judgment when he heard that statement. What was that? Well, they were blackmailing him with Caesar again. You let this man go. You're not Caesar's friend. We're going to tell Caesar what you did. And this little puppet in the hands of these religious hypocrites. Once again, oh, I got to keep my job. I can't be getting Caesar upset. Well, verse 14, we read, it was the preparation of the Passover. It's about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king. But they cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar." Wow, what a sick bunch of people call themselves religious. They're religious, all right, but they're hypocrites. The Passover's coming. Let's get this underway. The Passover, it's time for the preparation. Kill God. Let's get this on until we can have our religion. Well, you've killed the Son of God. Well, it says in 16, "...them delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified." And they took Jesus and they led him away. That's several times it's referred to here, that they led him away. They led him away like the lamb to the slaughter. Well, it says again, that word, therefore, verse 16, them delivered he him therefore. What for? Well, because they said, we have no king but Caesar. And if you don't get in line, we're going to tell Caesar what you're up to. Therefore, therefore he delivered him to be crucified and he bearing his cross went forth unto a place called the place of a skull which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha where they crucified him and two others with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst and Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews This title then read, many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh under the city and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. Then said the chief priests and the Jews to Pilate, write not the King of the Jews, but that he said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Wow, he's so brave, isn't he? What I have written, I have read it. It's interesting that it says here in verse 20, the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh unto the city some years ago when we were there in the area and we took the tour of the garden tomb. And then the man who was in there, who was our guide, was a Christian. And he was telling us as we stood looking down, where the buses were parked in a parking lot and then looking up to the left of the skull, a place called Golgotha on the hill. And he said that Jesus was actually crucified down here where the buses are parked. We talked about being up on the hill, but they weren't. He said they always crucified their people just outside the city gate where everybody could see that they were being crucified. And there was a lot of crucifixions going on right then because there had been a lot of insurrections. And so, it's interesting to note that it says right here that the place was nigh unto the city. Well, then the soldiers, in verse 23, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garment and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now, the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, which saith, They pardoned my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Everything that was being done was being done in line with Old Testament prophecies. Hundreds of years before that Jesus was crucified, the Bible said that they would gamble for his coat. We read now, there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, Behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home. In our broadcast tomorrow, we'll look at some of the greatest words ever spoken in this world when Jesus said, It is finished. you you