Mark 15, you want to take your Bibles and turn there. We are going to quickly go over last week's portion of Scripture. And I do this not because I like preaching two messages on Sunday morning, but I do this because, in my experience, it's so easy to forget what we've learned from week to week. And I want to give us a context for what we learned this week, so it's good to go back and to consider what we learned last week. And last week you know that we were studying Peter denying Jesus, Peter denying Jesus. And the way I framed that was to focus on the fact that Peter was described in verse 54 as following Jesus at a distance. So using that as the figure of him being distant from the Lord, both physically and spiritually, this is what happened to him. And it is when we are distant from the Lord that we often fall. What we saw in the life of Peter is that he collapsed despite God's word, despite God's warning. We all know that Peter was told beforehand that this would happen. And Peter had had a history of not listening to God's word, whether it was the fact that he didn't want to say, He didn't want to say no to himself back in Mark chapter eight, where Jesus said that he was committed to do the Father's will, which included suffering and death. Peter was not so committed. He wanted to do the things that are normal for people, which is achieve and pursue pleasure and avoid pain. So that was not something Peter wanted to do. That's why Peter rebuked Jesus instead of listening to Jesus. And Jesus said to Peter, to follow me, you actually have to deny yourself. And then again, when Peter is told that he and the rest of the disciples would fall away, Peter says, not me. He rejected the idea that he ought to think less of himself than he thought of himself. It's okay to think less of other people, but I have to uphold my esteem and my confidence. So Peter is not listening to Jesus. And even when Jesus is telling him in Gethsemane to watch and pray, Peter's sleeping. So when it comes down to these opportunities that Peter had to speak for the Lord Jesus Christ, when he's rubbing shoulders with people, he doesn't. He doesn't affirm his association with Jesus Christ. And he doesn't do that under minimal pressure. That's what we see in the fact that he denied Jesus Christ to a servant girl. No one particularly significant, just a simple question, a simple girl, and he says, well, no. And then as more and more people ask him, he again and again and again denies the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I said before, it's not specifically that you and I need to be afraid that maybe one day we would use those same words and deny Jesus. Perhaps that'll happen to us because of persecution in this nation. But any time that we act, think, or speak in such a way that doesn't show Jesus is our Lord, we are denying him as our Lord. Our life is always supposed to manifest the fact that he is our Lord. And in this moment, it wasn't the case for Peter. And in the same way, it might not be the case for us. But the good news, the focus of the text was going down to the last verse, which is verse 72. That's where all the gospels come together and say, this is how the story ends. Other details were different, but this is how the story ends. Peter remembers the words of Jesus Christ, and that's the good news. Whenever God brings his word to our minds, that is what he uses to convict us by his word. It's through that conviction that we realize we're wrong, and we look to him for cleansing from our sin. So I wanted us to be mindful of the fact that any time we remember the words of God, that is a wonderful thing that God brings those words to our mind. So put his word in your mind, that's the first part. Second thing is value when he brings his word to your mind. Because we're not trying to advocate the kind of religion which is basically, well this is what religion is so just get used to it, get into the habit of doing it. No, what we're trying to do is thoughtfully respond to the word of God from day to day. We're not machines, but instead, as the God leads us through his word, we thoughtfully respond to it in obedience. And it was that thought that came in the end that grasped Peter and didn't allow Peter to fall, as we would say that Judas fell away totally and completely. God did not allow that for Peter, and he doesn't allow that for us who are his children. And that's just a great encouragement. Now, we're going to go on to chapter 15, and we're going to consider two paragraphs there, verse 1 through verse 15. And this is where we find the Jews getting rid of the king. That's how I've entitled the message, Getting Rid of the King. Jesus was handed over to Pilate to be sentenced to death. So let's do that today, my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. Let's consider getting rid of the king. Father, as we consider this passage, encourage our hearts with the truths that are set forth for us today. May it be clear to us, may it grab our attention, and may it cause us to bow our knee to you in humble submission and humble obedience. Father, we ask for that in Jesus' name, amen. I was driving my son to the dentist the other day, and I ran into a detour. And I followed the detour, and when I did that, my GPS began to say to me, when possible, make a U-turn. When possible, make a U-turn. And as you could imagine, I immediately turned off the GPS. And in that moment, what I was demonstrating was the fact that people don't put up with the things they don't want. And I didn't want the GPS to tell me where to go at that moment, because where they were telling me to go, I couldn't go. That's what people do. People don't want things, they turn things off, they throw things away, they bypass things, they vote against things, and the list goes on and on and on. And that mentality seems to be right. We ought to do that. But we especially think that because we live in a democratic nation. We believe having a choice is part of living here. It's a right. That desire for a choice, that desire to have a say is often brought into religion. Religion can be run like the nation. Religion can be run for the people and by the people. And that's what we find among the Jews in Mark chapter 15. We find the Jews sitting in judgment upon Jesus. They were sitting in judgment upon the one who was and is the ruler of the entire universe, the Messiah, the Son of God. With Jesus sitting before the Sanhedrin, the high priest asked the council, in chapter 14, verse 64, he asked them, what is your decision concerning Jesus? And they all condemned him as deserving death. In short, they decided to get rid of Jesus. In chapter 15, our section today, through verse 15, tells us how they did that. So you look at your Bibles, at the first verse, the end of verse one, and it says, they delivered him over to Pilate. And look at the end of the passage of verse 15. It says, and Pilate, he delivered him to be crucified. So in the course of this passage, the Jewish leaders secure their henchmen to get rid of Jesus. This scene is about getting rid of Jesus, it's about rejecting Jesus. And there's a reason we know that. It's because in Acts chapter three, Peter is going to interpret this event as rejection. So let's turn forward, perhaps to a cross-reference in your passage there in Mark. If not, please write it in, but Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three, and we have an inspired commentary on the passage before us, and we read in Acts three, verse 13 and 14. So Peter preaches and says this. In verse 13, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. So from the inspired commentary on the passage before us, we realize that the Jews denied Jesus, they rejected him, they disowned him, they refused to allow the God of their religion to rule them. And that same sinful mentality exists today. And here's the point, it exists to some extent in every single one of our hearts. While many people in the world reject Jesus Christ outright, even we, his people, battle giving him complete control of our lives. There is a daily battle, moment by moment, where we face the decision of whether or not we will acknowledge and obey the King of kings and Lord of lords. Or will we get rid of him? Now as we look at the text back in Mark chapter 15, what is truly amazing in the passage before us is to look at Jesus. Whether the people in this passage believe it or not, Jesus is the sovereign ruler of the universe. There's nothing that is outside of his control. Yet Jesus is going to allow himself to be handed over to Pilate and then to be handed from Pilate to the soldiers to be crucified. And we might ask the question, how can a sovereign, all-powerful God allow such a thing to happen? Why didn't he stop it? Well, there's the truth. He didn't stop it because he chose this path. as he had predicted and determined, Mark 8, verse 32, the Son of Man must suffer many things. And there's our term, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. So this scene is not only showing us the fulfillment of Jesus' prediction, but it shows that Jesus was determined to fulfill the redemption's plan. And this is it coming right before our eyes. The king submitted to this sentence of death. Why? So that we might have forgiveness of sins. It's amazing to behold our king here. Let's see how this happened. There's two parts to the passage before us. The first paragraph, verses one through five, we learn that the king was accused as one worthy of death. The king was accused as one worthy of death. Those who accused him were the Jewish leaders led by the chief priest who wanted to dispose of Jesus. Let's look at verse one. And as soon as it was morning, the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and the scribes and the whole council. So what this is, this is the official meeting. There's actually sunlight outside when they're allowed to have these kinds of meetings. They've already met in the middle of the night. That was unofficial, but now they're meeting together, a whole council, so they can bring forth a verdict, and this is what they do. They bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. Why did they do that? Why did they hand him to Pilate? What was because they didn't have the authority to execute Jesus, which was their end game. They wanted Jesus dead. But they realized that only Rome had that kind of authority, and they knew it. You could write in the cross-reference John 18, verse 31, where it says that explicitly. The question then is, since they're gonna deliver Jesus over to Pilate, well, why is Pilate gonna execute? Jesus, why would Rome do that? Remember that when Jesus was charged with his great sin, he was charged with blasphemy, chapter 14, verse 64. But that's a sin, it's not a crime. So the Jews are gonna have to figure something out here. So what they do is they twist the charge of blasphemy into treason. Instead of Jesus claiming to be the Son of God, they're gonna tell Pilate that Jesus claimed to be the King of the Jews. And we know that because of verse two, which seems to us to be an out-of-the-blue question. Let's read it, verse two. And Luke 23 tells us that is what they charged him with. The Jewish leaders wanted to get rid of Jesus, and now what Pilate is gonna do is investigate whether he ought to get rid of Jesus. The question is, is Jesus really a king? Because if he truly is a king, then perhaps he's a threat to Rome. So Pilate's trying to figure this out. But what is Jesus going to do? Because as we saw Jesus on trial in chapter 14, sometimes Jesus answers, and sometimes he does not answer. In chapter 14, Jesus was silent until the right question was asked, which comes up in verse 61. Are you the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus gave an answer to that question, but the other ones he refused to answer. Is he gonna answer here? He is. He answers Pilate's question. Verse two, he answered him, you have said so. Now we read Jesus' answer and we think, that doesn't seem to be as clear as what Jesus said before when he told the high priest, I am. There's no getting around that one's clear. But Jesus was saying yes, but his answer was to say yes, but in a way that was perhaps different than what Pilate was asking. Jesus was saying he was a king. But I want to ask us, as we've been studying through Mark's gospel, Is that what we've learned about Jesus? Did the text tell us that there's a king and his name is Jesus? Well actually as you go back through the gospel of Mark, you're only gonna find that there's one king mentioned and his name is King Herod. Comes up three times in Mark chapter six. But this is the first time in the gospel that Jesus is Seemingly claiming to be the king. Seemingly. Because it's not the first time that he is demonstrated to be the king. Now if we all go all the way back to chapter one, from the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, remember what he preached. Mark 1, verse 14, 15. It says, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. From the very beginning, Jesus taught that he was the king. He's the King of kings. But in regards to Pilate, he's not a threat to Pilate. We know that because John's gospel makes that abundantly clear because Jesus' kingdom is of a spiritual nature. But even though we don't have before us in Mark's gospel those little details that Jesus explained how it's not really a problem, we know from three details in the text that Pilate didn't consider Jesus a threat. Here they are in reverse order. Mark chapter 15, you look at verse 14, and you realize that Pilate is going to later ask the people what Jesus did wrong. What evil has he done? So he didn't believe that Jesus was committing treason by claiming to be a king. That's why he has to ask them, well, what's the problem with him? The second reason is Pilate knew that Jesus was a threat to the Jewish leaders and not to him. Verse 10, they delivered him over because of envy. The third reason is, are the actions that immediately follow Jesus' answer. Let's look at those. Instead of Pilate thinking Jesus is a threat, he finds that he's not a threat. So that means the chief priests better get another accusation, and they do. They begin to dump charges on Jesus. Look at verse three. The chief priests accused him of many things. Treason doesn't stick, so they hurl accusations at him. Is Jesus gonna answer those? Not at all. Not at all. He answers Pilate about being the king of the Jews, and then he goes silent. And if you have a red letter edition of your Bible, you realize that Jesus is going to be silent, according to Mark's gospel, until chapter 15, verse 34, and Jesus is on the cross, the ninth hour. He's silent, no other words from Jesus. So he chose not to answer any other charge. He's like a sheep before its shearers. Look at verses four and five. And Pilate asked him this. Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer. So Pilate was amazed. Pilate is, he is impressed with Jesus' silence. He didn't see any problems with Jesus, but the chief priests are working overtime to get rid of Jesus, to make sure that he gets the sentence of death. And Jesus isn't putting up a fight to any of this. This isn't a little issue, this is life and death. Who does not fight for his own life? Jesus isn't fighting for his own life. Why isn't he fighting? because he was determined to give his own life, because he wanted to offer us forgiveness of sins. That's why he didn't fight. He was determined to let the scriptures be fulfilled. Of course, Pilate's not aware of that, but we are. So Jesus is ignoring all the lies about himself, and what he has done is defend the truth about himself. He indeed is the king. He doesn't care about the charges. He actually cares about the charge that was given to him of his father, John 10, verse 18. No one takes it from me, that is my life. I lay it down of my own accord. This charge I have received from my father. That's what Jesus was concerned about. That's why he didn't answer. because he was determined to give his life. The Jews have accused him so that he's gonna be sentenced to death because they wanted to get rid of him, but the charges are not working, and they've failed to prove his guilt before Pilate. It seems that they're at an impasse, and perhaps they're afraid at this point that all of their hard work and their schemes are gonna fall apart. Things aren't going the way they expected. Now Mark is not gonna tell us, but from the other Gospels, we realize that there are a lot more details and there are a lot more, it becomes clear that they're at an impasse. Mark is giving for us really a Cliff's Notes version of the episode. He doesn't tell us that the chief priests, are accusing Jesus of crimes, and in the course of that, they mention Galilee, because it's at the mention of Galilee that Pilate says, oh, Galilee. Well, that's not my jurisdiction. So he plays that card, and he says, well, if the problem is in Galilee, then you need to stand before Herod, who just so happens to be in town. So Jesus is sent to Pilate, or he's sent to Herod, and it's there that the high priests accuse him vehemently. Jesus doesn't answer a word. Then it tells us in Luke 23 that Herod with the soldiers mock Jesus and return him to Pilate. The problem is for the chief priests that he's still not sentenced to death yet. So it seems that their plans, they have delivered Jesus over to Pilate so that he will be sentenced to death. It's not happening, it's not working. But God's plan of redemption is going to move forward. It just so happened. that there is a standing tradition that the Roman ruler would release a prisoner each year during the Passover. And that tradition was a goodwill gesture on the part of the Romans who have subdued the Jews. And Pilate has participated in that tradition as long as he has been in power, and it is through that tradition that we don't know anything else about than what the text gives us. that the king was substituted for one worthy of death. Verses six through 15. The king was substituted for one who's worthy of death. Let's read it, verse six. Now at the feast, he used to release for them one prisoner from whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. So at some point, a number of people rebelled against the Roman government, and in the course of the rebellion, they had all committed murder. Now on this day, they were in prison. Seemingly, they were waiting to be crucified. And we might assume that based on what happened in the rest of the passage, that there were three people that day who were slated to be crucified, one of which was Barabbas. Reading on in the text, it says, and the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. This was Pilate's custom to grant this request. We don't know where the crowd came from. We don't know whom they came for. We do know they are Jews who are making this request. And it is this request, in Pilate's mind, that is the solution to the situation with the Jewish leaders. Let's look at verse nine. Pilate answers them saying, do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? Matthew's account says that he gave them the option of either Barabbas or Jesus. Barabbas obviously is the one who's guilty of murder, everyone knows it, and Jesus isn't guilty of anything, everyone knows it. And Pilate, he doesn't think Jesus is a problem, he wants to release Jesus. And all that has to happen for that to take place is the people just have to ask for Jesus. But the Jewish leaders want Jesus gone. And Pilate knew that. He knew that was the only reason why they had delivered him over. Look at verse 10. Pilate perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. You see, in the minds of those Jewish leaders, Jesus had become too influential, and that, to them, was unacceptable. Remember those differences between jealousy and envy. Jealousy is wanting what someone else has. Envy is not being okay with what other people have, or their situation. It's not wanting it, it's being able to say what they have ought not be the case for them. It's unacceptable. They delivered Jesus up out of envy. Well, what had Jesus done that was no good? Remember what has happened the whole week. Jesus, at the beginning of the week, cleared out the temple. And then when the high priests and all those folks came to Jesus to question Him and to put Him in a bind and to belittle Him, Jesus had stumped them at every question they asked Him, so they've been humiliated before Jesus, and Jesus is a threat in their minds to their position in society, so they reject Him. And that same thing happens through the ages, year after year. Let me give you an example. You and I share the gospel of Jesus Christ to other people. And as we do that, we display to them the glory of the King of Kings, that He made all things and that all things will give an account to Him one day for the things they've done in this life. We tell them that there is salvation in Jesus Christ alone. We invite them to seek the mercy of Jesus Christ. But then they resist. And perhaps we often wonder in our own hearts, why do they resist? They were with us the whole time. They agreed that Jesus is God. They agreed that Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life. And they agree with the fact that they haven't been as perfect. But then they resist. Why? Well, they admit that if they're gonna become a follower of Jesus Christ, they're gonna have to change a lot of things in their life. They realize that following Jesus means giving up the right to choose what they want. Following Jesus is gonna crimp their style, change their lifestyle, transform their identity. They see that following Jesus is giving up control and they can't stomach that choice. So they refuse to be saved from their sin and instead they get rid of Jesus. Not like they did in the text here, but they ignore Jesus. They get rid of him, put him out of their mind. I can't stomach that one. Now dear friend, if you don't know the Lord, you may be able to get rid of Jesus today by ignoring him, but he is the king. And once you have spent your days in this life, you will stand before him. You will no longer be able to ignore him. And he will sentence you to death because you have not bowed your knee to him. He said from the very beginning, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Can you ignore Jesus Christ today? Can you reject him today? Absolutely. When you step through the door of death, you will no longer be able to ignore him. So as Jesus said, today is the day to repent and believe the gospel. As we look at the text, Pilate had a way out of this Jewish power struggle. The people had before them a murderer and they had a king. It seems that they had a very obvious choice to make. We read in verse 11 that they chose the murderer. Verse 11 says, and the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have him released for them Barabbas instead. So a sinner is released, and Pilate is shocked by this. His plan to release Jesus is backfiring. Verse 12, it says, Pilate again said to them, then what do I do with the man you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, crucify him. Now, Pilate hears that and he's thinking, well, how can that be a just thing to do? So you hear him ask, verse 14, why? What evil has he done? The text says, but they shouted all the more, crucify him. And it was at that point that Pilate realized that reasoning with this crowd is not going to work. The only thing that can be done is just to give them what they want. Verse 15, so Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him up to be crucified. So the king is sentenced to death. The king took the place of a murderer on death row. And the passage says he is scourged, which was a whipping so cruel that at times it was fatal. Now Mark doesn't elaborate or romanticize this in great detail as the modern movies do, so I'm not gonna romanticize it either and tell you all about it. But it was brutal. And Jesus, the innocent divine Messiah, is sentenced to death. But notice this. Jesus was not condemned for his own sin. What was his sin? He had none. but Jesus was condemned for my sin and for yours. That's why we sing in the song, in my place, condemned he stood. Jesus was condemned in the place of a sinner, and that is the gospel message that we are to proclaim, that Jesus Christ was condemned so that we wouldn't be condemned. He was condemned so that we might have forgiveness of sin. And the question for every single one of us is this, in verse 12, from the words of Pilate, what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews? What will you do with Jesus? Now every day you and I encounter things that we don't like, such as a GPS who tells you to make a U-turn. And we may be able to silence those things and get rid of things like that that we don't want in our life. And in many times, in many ways in our life, when we have a problem, it is okay and fine to do that. but it's not okay for us to get rid of the king because Jesus is the king. He is the maker of heaven and earth and every single one of us will stand before him once we have passed through this life. The question is, what are you going to do with Jesus today? Let's pray. Father, whether everyone here knows you or does not know you, the only thing for anyone to do is to submit themselves to you wholly and completely. Whether that is today to call on your name, to be merciful to us, a sinner, because you took our place and we need forgiveness of sins, that may be what one needs to do today, or a number of people. But Lord, if it's not that and it's for your people, what we must do today and every day is bow our knee to the sovereign Lord who truly is the King of Kings. So Father, give us the grace to do that and help us to marvel at the fact that Jesus didn't answer the charges. He simply declared the truth of who he was so that we would know who he is And then he showed such determination to accomplish redemption's plan by being substituted for a sinner. And oh Lord, we just rejoice in the fact that Jesus Christ was substituted for me. because I am a sinner and we identify with that individually and personally, Lord. And what joy it is to know that our sins are forgiven. May you allow your people today to rejoice in the fact that you were substituted for each one of their sins. Cause us to sing in Jesus' name, amen.