Listen, this morning we rather quickly surveyed, I hope it made some sense, the Passion Week and this evening. I'd like to focus in, and I talked to you about this this morning, on the man pilot. Well, I'm gonna start in 1 Timothy 6. And this is what got me thinking about this some years ago. I was just reading through Timothy and I was struck by this statement in chapter six and verse 13. This is Paul. writing to Timothy in Ephesus and giving him instruction and so on. And 1 Timothy 6, Paul is concluding the epistle and he says this. Oh, I'm sorry, I should be there. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 13, he says to Timothy, he says, I adjure thee by the living God and by the good confession that Jesus made, it's right here, by the, I adjure you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things before Jesus Christ, and then this, who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate. And when I read that, I thought, It's just kind of a passing reference, and it seems like in Paul's mind, the good confession of Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate was so instructive and so well-known that he could simply rather offhandedly say to Timothy, in the name of the way Jesus conducted himself before Pontius Pilate, I adjure thee. And I think what Paul is saying is, go to school on that. And as I thought about it, I was not able to, I couldn't appreciate, because I just hadn't spent enough time with it, and so I decided to spend a little time with Jesus' good confession before Pilate. Now let me give you a little background. Number one, we talked about this this morning, but early on Friday, Jesus was arrested, actually sometime probably before midnight on Thursday night. He was taken, first of all, to the Jewish authorities, villa of the high priest Caiaphas, and there he was tried, I say tried. The Jewish authorities did not have the authority to put Jesus to death, and that was what was at stake, and so all they were trying to do was find an indictment. Now I mentioned to you this morning real quickly that Jesus, everywhere he went, He made two claims, he claimed to be the Christ and he claimed to be God coming to flesh. But, and this is another way in which Jesus proves himself to be wise as a serpent. Interestingly enough, he is very careful not to take the title Christ to himself. He avoids it carefully. And there's one time in his early ministry before he turns to preparation for the cross, where he takes that title to himself. You remember where that is? It's fascinating, it's the woman at the well. And she says, I know that the Jews believe that the Christ is coming. And Jesus says in the privacy there with that woman in Samaria at the well at Sychar, he says the one standing before you is he. But otherwise, now this is what he does. Okay, because I'm saying on the one hand he makes the claim to be the Christ, on the other hand, He avoids the title. How can that be? I'll tell ya, it's so clever. What Jesus does again and again, it's really fun to watch, what he does is take to himself Old Testament pictures and titles and passages and so on that to a Jewish ear could only mean Messiah, but would be meaningless or innocuous to a Roman ear. Does that make sense to you? As a matter of fact, what's Jesus' favorite title for himself? 81 times he refers to himself as son of man. Now that's right out of Daniel chapter seven, that glorious passage where after the four beasts, you remember, Daniel sees the ancient of days take his throne and one like unto a son of man comes and is dispatched to establish a fifth world kingdom. So son of man is a clearly messianic title. But on the other hand, if Jesus' enemies go to the authorities, Pilate, and say, this guy's dangerous, he claims to be the Son of Man, what's Pilate gonna say? Me too, you know, aren't we all, for heaven's sakes? And that's exactly what's going on. So I'm saying that Jesus was very careful to avoid the title, and that's why Messiah. And again, Messiah means king, means a lot of other things. Actually, in the Old Testament, Messiah, Moshiach, anointed one, is not a real important title of Messiah. It's used nine times, but it's not real important. During the intertestamental period, quite clearly, That became the one title that just summed everything up that the Jewish were waiting for. So clearly, Messiah means a lot, but it means king. When Messiah comes, he establishes a kingdom. Well, the point is, remember how that the Jewish authorities, when they got him there in the middle of the night on Thursday night, early Friday morning, they couldn't find a witness. They had to bring false witnesses. They were trying to find somebody who could credibly say, I heard him claim he was Messiah. And that's why they were frustrated, but that's when Caiaphas, I talked about this morning, put Jesus under oath and said, tell us, are you the Christ, the son of the living God? And Jesus said, I am, and therefore they brought him to Pilate. So it's about, now I'm gonna suggest, here's what happens, I'm telling you too much, but this is important background. the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrinists. Now, both Pharisee and Sadducee, because they were enraged with him, the Pharisees, because they had given orders that he was to be taken, and he rides into the city, and the whole city welcomes him on Sunday, and then the Sadducees, they ran the temple, and Jesus had taken over the temple for two days, and so they're enraged with him, and so they gather, In the middle of the night, they're trying to come up with a charge. They finally do. Now here's the thing, I mentioned this in passing, but we're gonna see it. They're doing that in the middle of the night. There are a number of very, very important canons of jurisprudence right out of the Old Testament that the Jews lived by very carefully. That is, there were protocols and laws by which they conducted civil trials. And one of the most basic was you can't have a trial between sundown and sunup. Why? Because in the mouth of two or three eyewitnesses is every matter to be established. jurisprudential canon. And in that culture, I'm telling you, this is a culture where when the sun goes down, you go down, okay? And so you can't get witnesses in the middle of the night. Well, they had done this in the middle of the night, and they were afraid that Pilate might just throw the whole thing out. And so what they did is they waited until, as I said this morning, just the first blush of dawn, the first when the eastern horizon begins to grow a little bit light. And they brought him back, they had held him for a time, asking the same question, are you the Christ, the Son of the living God? And ultimately he consented to it. So now they could go to Pilate and insist that they had done this after sunup. Does that make sense to you? This is a very, very thin legal facade that they're putting on the face of this. I have sat up on a rooftop in Israel at that season of the year, it's about 4.30 in the morning. So I would say that Jesus was brought to Pilate. Now remember, this is all about getting Jesus arrested, that happened last night in the Kidron Valley, tried and sentenced and on his way to execution before the city wakes up. The Jewish authorities and Roman authorities are very much afraid, very good reason, that there will be a huge riot. So all of this has to happen under cover of night. All right, with that, so now Jesus is in fact brought to Pilate. And it's about 4.30 in the morning. Jesus is going to be turned, and why do I say 4.30? Again, because it's after the first blush of dawn. Both Matthew and Mark make that explicitly, and Luke fleshes it out a little bit. So the point is, about 4.30 in the morning, John 19.14, Jesus is gonna be turned over to be crucified at six o'clock. It's explicit, John 19.14. So you got about an hour and a half, this whole drama with Pilate, and there's a lot going on, a lot to sort out. Now, I was going to read the passages, but I think I'll just take my word for it. Matthew and Mark tell almost the same story. It all fits together very, it's an interesting harmonizing exercise, but we'll not spend time with that. And then Luke gives us a little bit more. Let me just take you to Matthew to begin with, because Matthew says this. immediately in the morning." Now that right there means right as the dawn was just beginning to break, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and the whole council and they delivered him to Pilate. Now watch this, Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? And he answered, it is as you say. All right, now that's Matthew's very accurate but very succinct telling of the first interview between Pilate and Jesus. This is gonna be fleshed out by John, this is where I'm taking you. And then it goes on to say that, I want you to see one other thing. And Pilate says, the chief priest accused Jesus of many things and he answered nothing. And Pilate said to him, do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify, but Jesus answered nothing. Listen. through this entire trial. And it was a trial. It was a legal trial. Pilate was a duly authorized official. And Rome had every reason to fear sedition. And that's what he, Jesus, is being accused of. During this entire thing, Jesus never speaks, except when he's alone with Pilate. That's where I'm taking you. But anyway, notice it goes on to say that, of course, it was the custom to release a prisoner, and Pilate had agreed to Barabbas, but he offered them Jesus and so on. But notice, Pilate answered them saying, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd and they said, no, all right, I better leave it at that. Let me take you to Luke just real quickly, because Luke gives us a very interesting element of this story. Folks, let me just tell you where I'm taking you. I gotta hurry. The fact is, Pilate is almost universally regarded as the primary villain in the crucifixion of Jesus. I absolutely reject that. And before I rejected it, Jesus rejected it. He could not have said it more explicitly. But I'm going to go a little further. I think Pilate is stunningly noble in this entire narrative. And I can't find anywhere other than the scourging. I'm going to talk about the scourging. That's not insignificant. Wreck every bit of the record. has Pilate just stunningly noble, but I'll come back to it, I don't wanna get ahead. But notice the way Luke describes it. He says, Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, this is after the initial interview, and he said to them, you've brought this man to me as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things which you accuse him. No, neither did Herod. This is after Pilate had sent Jesus off to Herod Antipas. and Herod Antipas had sent him back. And he says, for I sent you back to him, indeed nothing, listen to this, indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will therefore chastise him. And of course, they get very upset and insist that, well, I'll just leave it at that. But notice down here, then he said the third time, what evil has he done? I have found no reason for death in him. Folks, let me tell you something. It is unspeakably important that the duly appointed official, judge, after careful examination, insists again and again against every influence. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Pilate to say, oh, go crucify him. He refuses to do it. It is stunning, and there is so much to learn from it, but above all, it's this, that Jesus is innocent of what he's accused of. Listen, you're gonna hear, and develop a little antenna. You're gonna hear, especially at Easter time, we're thinking about these things, you're gonna hear somebody say, and in many cases this is just carelessness, but you'll hear somebody say something like this, that Jesus died having been convicted of sedition. Folks, he died having been so thoroughly and dramatically and repeatedly exonerated of sedition by the only one who was qualified to speak to it, it is stunning. Now, you gotta sort this out, and I'm gonna come to it in a minute. But Jesus did, now hear me, I said, The proposition that Jesus died having been convicted of sedition is dead wrong. Ah! But it is accurate to say that Jesus died the death that was designed for a seditionist. And that's being lifted up. And we talked a little bit this morning about why that's important. That make sense to you? Sort that out. All right, well, let me do this. Let me go to John and just pick up the story. I'm going to do one other thing here. I want to take you to just a little bit of a PowerPoint here, very short. This is a map, a rough map. This is a map that I got from Barwitz, but it's a map of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' death, and it charts. Now, there are two, how many of you have been to Jerusalem? You've been there? All right, did you talk about Jesus' death? Did you? I'm sure you did, but there are two places which are suggested as the site of Jesus' trial before Pilate. The one, and it's dead wrong, is what's called the Fortress Antonia. By the way, okay, here is Golgotha. Now, it's one of the most thoroughly remembered, it's the archeological and the historical and the traditional, it's so strong, there's no question, Golgotha is right there. That's where the cross was. The one contending, and this was the Crusaders, they made this up in the 12th century, the Fortress Antonia. On the other hand, there is a spot down on the western wall on Herod's Palace, which, let me just show you. This isn't gonna be too much help, but I just, I love it. So let me just take two minutes. This is the spot in the upper left-hand corner. That is today's western wall of the city. Not the western wall of the temple, that's something different, that's the Wailing Wall, but this is way on the western side of the city, the Hinnom Valley is behind us here. Interestingly, now you can't see this very well, and I can't make it any bigger, but right there, can you even see that? That's an arrow slit. And part of the wall where there's a, place behind where you can shoot the arrow. Well, up until the late 70s, early 80s, there was dirt piled up all along here, and an archeologist was given the responsibility of digging it away. And when he did, and I have a friend, he's an archeologist over there, his name is Shimon Gibson, I mean, he's kind of a friend, I've spent some time with him, and he was a boy. He had come from England, and he was a boy, a young teenager, and volunteered to be a part of it. And interestingly, he told us, because he stood there and described this to us, he dug this out, and he told us that that's where he'd put his lunch every day. When he'd come to work, he'd put his lunch in that arrow slit. When they dug it away, and for whatever, they knew that somewhere, because Josephus talks about somewhere in that western wall, there was a gate that had never been discovered, and they discovered it right here. And it was a monumental gate and there's a picture of it below here, reconstructed. And I'll just, if I say, this right here, right here, can you see that at all? Those are those two bordering walls right here that go up. Then there was a stairway, you see it right there, that was in between there. There was an outer wall and an inner wall and a courtyard in between and a raised, Bema seat, and I can take you there and show you a physical evidence of that Bema seat, judgment seat. So the point is, I would argue that this is precisely where Jesus was tried before Pilate. Now, very few people are aware of it. It was, Shimon Gibson did some extensive digs in the mid-2010s. It hadn't been officially published, but I love to go there and talk through the event because this is actually as it stands today. All right, so I'm just gonna leave that alone. I'll get myself in trouble. So let me take you to the Scriptures once again. All right, let's go to John. All right, now I'm gonna make some sense here for a minute. Understand this, that Paul tells Timothy Go to school on the good confession of Jesus Christ. The Gospels are quite clear that Jesus, as a lamb before the sheep, was absolutely mute. He never spoke. except for two times when Pilate took Jesus alone in the praetorium. Now, the praetorium is the Roman word for the personal domicile of the senior official, Roman official. It usually had to do with the battlefield. Pilate lived in Caesarea Maritima. There was a beautiful palace down there on the Mediterranean Sea. That's where he lived. But at special times he would come up to Jerusalem. Herod the Great is a dead guy by this time. He died when Jesus was being born. Herod the Great had built palaces all over the place, and one of them was down there at Caesarea Maritima, but his home palace was right here. It was mammoth. It was a fifth of a mile long, had two huge structures, scores and scores of beautiful room, every luxury. He loved to import plants and animals to keep there and so on. And that's where Pilate undoubtedly would have stayed. Now, as a matter of fact, when Herod built that, because he had to be, I mean Herod the Great's such a fascinating guy and such an absolute wretch, but he always traveled with his own personal guard, the Praetorian guard, and he built the beautiful barracks inside his palace, so that was there. And so there was this gate that was, as always the case in a gate system, there's an outer gate that gets you into a courtyard. And then beyond that, there's a set of steps and then a massive inner gate that actually gets you into the Praetorium. the domicile, the courtyard of this vast fifth of a mile long palace. There is a set of steps that can be recovered there even today, which rise to this Bema seat. So this is what happens. Matter of fact, maybe it'd be fun just to do this. All right, here is the, the place as it stands today. And I would argue that the place where Jesus had been found guilty of sedition by, in other words, the place where the hearing was held by the Sanhedrin was just a few feet away. So now they bring him into this gate right here. Here is the bema seat up here. There is this massive, these two massive bordering walls and then this outer wall. I don't know if that makes any sense. I can picture it, but right here, There's a set of steps, and right here would have been the gate into the Praetorium. All right, does that help at all? Of course not, but all right, stay with me. Pilate is sitting up here on the Praetorium. Jesus is brought, and as we have in John 19, Pilate says, what is the charge? And the Jewish authorities say, if he weren't a malefactor, we wouldn't have brought him, just crucify him. Pilate says, I'm not gonna do that. And you go, and they say, you know we can't crucify him. Well, we talked about that this morning, but then, look at John 18, in verse, right here, eight. When Pilate heard that, no, no, no, I'm in John 19. I'm in such trouble here, I'm sorry. John 18, here it is right here. So the Pilate's, the Jews say here in verse 31, you know that we can't put anyone to death. Now, stay with me, watch this. Then Pilate entered the praetorium again and called Jesus. So if you don't mind, Pilate comes down off his bema seat and goes into the praetorium. courtyard of Herod's palace there, and he calls Jesus to him, and you have the first of two private interviews. Now I'm gonna say again, this has to be what Paul has in mind when he says, when he talks about the good confession. This is the only time in the record that Jesus speaks. And it's stunning. Now, notice what happens. He called Jesus to him and he said, are you the king of the Jews? Now think, the problem with that question is, and remember, this is a trial. And by the way, in a Jewish trial, because they were bound by the laws of the Old Testament, it was wrong to interrogate the accused, not in a Roman trial. This is perfectly legitimate in a Roman trial, especially given that Jesus is not a citizen. And so he says, are you the king of the Jews? Now, what you need to understand is this is a cripplingly ambiguous question, because Jesus is on trial as a seditious. That's what he's been officially accused of. And now the stated judge says, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus, you see, it could be that Pilate is asking, are you the long-awaited Messiah of Israel? Well, what's the answer to that? On the other hand, it could be that Pilate is saying, are you guilty of what you're, are you a pretender king? Are you a threat to Rome? What's the answer to that? See, the answer is no, and it can't be confused. Jesus has to be so careful. Now listen, I'm gonna go back to what I mentioned this morning, just in passing. This is a place where you have to take very seriously the genuine humanity of Jesus. There are times where the Spirit of God ministers to Jesus to know supernatural, like the woman at the well. If the Spirit had enabled Jesus to know, to read the mind of Pilate, perhaps he wouldn't have asked the next question, but the Spirit didn't. And so Jesus, because he is so zealous and careful about the truth, and he wants the record to be absolutely truthful, he asked Pilate. Pilate had said, are you the king of Jews? And Jesus answered him, and he said, are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning me? What's he saying? He's saying, Pilate, are you asking me from your heart whether I'm the king, the Messiah, or are you asking me whether I'm guilty of what others have said? That's exactly what Jesus is asking. And by the way, you may say, oh, it's silly to think that Pilate was asking if Jesus, well, give it, just wait just a second. Because, and Pilate responds by saying, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you to me, what have you done? So Pilate has made it absolutely clear. He is asking, are you guilty of what they're accusing you of? Now, Jesus' answer is magisterial on about three levels. But it is one of the most abused verses in the Bible. And I'm gonna get myself a little whipped up over this, okay? But honest to goodness, Jesus replies. Now what is the question, folks? You can't be picking a verse out and just trying to do what your theology suggests. What is Jesus saying to Pilate on that early morning in the praetorium? He's been asked the question. It's a legitimate question. Pilate has a right to ask this question. Are you a seditionist? What have you done? Are you guilty? And Jesus' reply is right here. I love this. He says, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I would not be delivered to the Jews, but now my kingdom is not from here. Now folks, I think I'm probably pretty much on safe ground. saying this, but I am a fire-breathing premillennialist, okay? I am so committed to the reality that God keeps his covenant and that he is He's going to keep his covenant with Israel and so on. But there is a community of brethren, there are brethren, I think they're a little confused, matter of fact, rather significantly confused, who believe that, now, they're called Amillennialists, if this doesn't, don't worry about it, if it's new to you. But I'll tell you something, I got a lot of Amillennialist friends, I swear, any one of them, accidentally drop his Bible, it's flopping open to that verse, right? This is where they spend their time. My kingdom is not of this world. Well, there you go. Even though in the Old Testament the kingdom is clearly a physical, literal kingdom, Jesus redefined it. Now, folks, what is the likelihood that at about about 4.30, 4.45 in the morning, on trial for his life, accused of sedition, alone with a Roman prefect in the praetorium, Jesus seizes the opportunity to deliver himself of a one-sentence lecture on kingdom theology that totally unsays everything the Old Testament ever said. I don't think that's what's going on. All right, so that's absolutely bogus, and if you wonder what he means when he says, of this world, my kingdom is not of this world, read the next phrase. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, but, that I may not taken, but my kingdom is not from here, my kingdom doesn't come in this way. Now, folks, this is why I love this verse. Here's the amazing reality. It's so clear in the record. After this moment, Pilate is going to, just shortly after this, he is going to go out, and I love to picture the scene. He's gonna walk up there to the bema seat. Of course, the Sanhedrinists are waiting. He's gonna turn them over to be crucified. They're all ready to go, and Pilate's gonna turn to them and say, for the first of five times, I find no fault in this man. Now, here is the question. And by the way, again and again, I said it before, but against every pressure, every influence, putting his life and his career at danger, Pilate is going to stunningly persist in this persuasion and this insistence and the official decision. The man is not a seditionist. Here's my question. How came he to that conclusion? How did he come to that conclusion? The only answer available is right here. And to misuse this verse, to miss what's going on here, this is an airtight legal argument. Think about what's going on. Pilate says, are you a seditioner? What have you done? Are you guilty? Jesus says, listen, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. Now listen, the Romans knew a whole lot about Jewish sedition. It happened rather regularly. It always looked the same. Some pretender messiah, some pretender king would gather a little militia, he'd find a fastness down in the Jeshimon, the wilderness by the Dead Sea. He'd get a little militia, he'd fall on some caravans, he'd fall on some Roman outposts, gather their weapons and so on. and they would fight, and that's how it always happened. Pilate didn't live in a cave, for heaven's sake. Pilate This man, the Nazarene, has gone up and down the countryside for over three years. He has never incited the first hint of rebellion. Not one of his followers had ever, by the way, by the way, this is why, one reason it was so important for Jesus to say to Peter the night before, put your sword away. He needed to be able to make this argument later in the morning. And Jesus did. But do you see what I'm saying? Pilate, I think Pilate probably stands and strokes his Roman chin and thinks, man, that's true. It's not like Jesus just appeared on the scene. And Pilate realizes, on the basis of Jesus' argument, that it is ludicrous to suggest that this man, there is all sorts of evidence to the contrary, and it is basically this, that in all the months of his ministry, in no sense, at no time, to no degree, did Jesus ever incite any sort of the kind of seditious activity with which the Romans were so familiar and the Jews were so adept. Does that make sense to you? That's what's going on. You gotta ask yourself the question. How came Pilate to the persuasion that he's gonna stick to and put his life on the line over? Okay, now, Pilate goes on, and this is what's really stunning. Because then, verse 37, Pilate said to him, well, are you a king then? Folks, see, honest to goodness, I think Pilate is something of a seeker. Why does he ask this? It has nothing to do with the legal proceedings. And he just says, well, okay then. If you're not a citizen, are you a king? That's a stunning question and oh. I love Jesus' answer. Oh my goodness, I love. Jesus was a premillennialist. He said, you say rightly that I'm a king. It was for this purpose that I was born. It was for this purpose that I came into this world to bear witness to this truth. Now, there is much me to this because the definite article, the truth, It has demonstrative force. It has innate demonstrative force. But I don't think he's just saying generically, I'm gonna bear witness to truth about this. He's saying this truth right here. I am a king. And, oh, I could go on and on, but I, listen. You are not bound for heaven. Now, temporarily stop over some of us, you know, but you are bound for a kingdom. fall in love with the idea of a kingdom on this earth when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is the Christ to the glory of God the Father. We are bound for a kingdom and Jesus is saying that's exactly right. Well, now verse 38, now I got to be done. Pilate said to him, Oh, he goes on to say, I want you to remember this, to bear witness to this truth, everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Now, everybody you ever read is going to say that when Pilate says, what is truth, he's being entirely cynical. I can't find it there, everything about the conversation, I think it's frustration. I think Pilate knows he's got the ultimate hot potato here, he's gonna have to deal with it, and I think he probably claws at his head, what is truth? But what does he do? I'm gonna be quick, he goes out, he announces that Jesus is innocent. I find no fault in this man. The Sanhedrin are upset, they began to say, no, he's trouble ever since Galilee. Pilate, who is desperate not to crucify Jesus, once out of this, he hears the, The word Galilee, he says, that's not my domain, that's Herod Antipas', Herod the great son, he's here in town, sends Jesus to Pilate, nothing comes of it. While Jesus is gone, as they take him to Herod Antipas, and I'd love to talk to you about that, but as they do, Pilate comes up with a stroke of genius. Because what happens is, I think Pilate sits there and thinks, I don't know, this is a hot potato. I got the Jewish authorities, I got the... So he decides, every year at Passover, we allow a prisoner to be released. We've kind of decided on Barabbas, but after all, I know that this city loves Jesus. Because they welcomed him as king on Sunday, and they cheered him on Monday and Tuesday. So I'll go right over the heads of the Sanhedrin. What are they gonna be able to do? And so sure enough, they come back. By this time, the city is waking up. It had been sleeping, but can you imagine with what wildfire speed the news would have spread throughout this slumbering city that this Nazarene, whom we welcomed as king, is now on trial for his life. And so the city is waking up, it's clear. And Pilate, because of the arrangement of that gate, he can speak to the crowds outside. Josephus has about six different really interesting events that happen at that gate, and it includes all of this later, it's after Herod. But at any rate, so Pilate, probably standing from his elevated bema seat, looks out at the people, gathers, you know, they're quiet, says, who would you have me give you, Jesus or Brab? I'm offering you Jesus. Oh, this is the cleverest thing. And the Bible says the chief priest persuaded the people to demand Now, this is a function of that decision to which Jesus drove them on Tuesday afternoon. Remember that? Me or the Pharisees? But they do. Pilate is aghast. He says, what? What would you have me do to Jesus, who is the Christ? You welcomed him as that. And they say, crucify him. And Pilate continues to try, matter of fact, I haven't got time to sum it all up, but what happens is, Pilate has Jesus scourged. Now I could talk a lot about scourging and its connection to crucifixion, but clearly this particular scourging, it was violent, it was awful, but the Bible says explicitly he was trying to placate the people. He was trying to, and as a matter of fact, Jesus is taken into the barracks, he is scourged, he comes out, by now he has the crown of thorns, the scarlet robe, he is beaten awfully, and Pilate stops him and stands him before the people, and he says, remember this? Behold the man. What is he saying? Look at him. You're telling me this man is a threat to Rome? Have you had enough? But they began to cry out, crucify him. And he said, I'm not gonna crucify your king. And they said, no, crucify him. And finally, John 19, verse seven, I mentioned this before, the Jewish authorities said, by the way, time out, John uses the word Jews very often, not exclusively, to mean the leadership. And he certainly means that here, it's not the common people. But the Jewish leadership said, well, we have a law, and he ought to die because he made himself the son of God. Now watch this, with this we're done. Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and he went again into the praetorium. So there are two times. The first one is, are you the king? What are you talking about? My kingdom is not of this world, but I am a king. This is the second time. It is fascinating. Now again, by now, the city is waking up. You gotta factor this in. that Pilate, honestly, is facing the most incendiary situation he could possibly imagine. Pilate had been appointed prefect of Judea. He arrived in 26, he's going to be there till 36. The Roman officer, any Roman officer assigned a precinct, a province, whatever you call it, by Rome had two jobs, and only two. The big one was collect the taxes. The second was keep the peace. Israel, the little land of Israel, did not have a large contingent of soldiers. The large contingents were up in Damascus, but they had about five legions, and he couldn't control This is, it's unspeakably incendiary. And I'm gonna say again, the easiest thing for Pilate to do would be to just say, yeah, crucify him, quick. But he doesn't. He calls Jesus in a second time. And after they had said, well, let me just read it. The Jewish leaders said, we have a law, according to that law, he had to die because he made himself the son of God. Notice here, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid. It was bad enough before. So he went again into the praetorium and he brought Jesus. And he says, now I love this, he says to Jesus, where are you from? You hear what he's saying? Who in the world are you? What is going on here? Now think about it from Pilate. Sunday, the whole city welcomes you as king. You possess the temple, they love it, and now No matter what I say, they insist, where are you from? Now, that is, who in the world are you, but watch this. But Jesus gave him no answer. And Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me, now watch this, do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? And then Jesus says, verse 11 in the red letters, I'm going to put a spin on this that is gonna be strange to you, but I'm asking you to consider it. Jesus says, you would have no power at all against me unless it had been given to you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. All right, now universally almost in our circles, the from above is taken to refer to the Father in heaven, right? So Jesus is saying to Pilate, and he's kind of patting him on the head, you know, and saying, come on, don't take too much to yourself. You wouldn't have any power except my father gave it to you." Well, quite frankly, number one, I don't think that's an appropriate way to respond to a duly appointed judge. I really don't. I don't think Jesus would have spoken that way. Number two, if he means from the Father above, how do you make any sense of the therefore? How can you say, Pilate, you're only here because my father providentially put you here, and the one who turned me over to you is Caiaphas, okay? Therefore, Caiaphas has the greater sin. How does that follow? I am persuaded, and this is a strong opinion, I am, on the part of the commentators and so on, I am persuaded that when he says from above, what Jesus means is from Roman authorities above you. So Jesus is saying, Pilate, You wouldn't be sitting on that Bema seat, you wouldn't be conducting this trial except for the fact that you have been assigned this province by Roman authorities above you. In other words, you didn't seek me out, you didn't chase me down, you're only here because you're in this office. Now it makes all the sense in the world for him to say, therefore, the one who turned me over to you has the greater sin. That make sense to you? I'm persuaded that's what Jesus is saying. You chew on it. But even if you allow me that that's what Jesus is saying, we still got a big question. And that is, what's Jesus' point? I believe that Jesus is giving permission, Pilate permission to go ahead. Now, you think about the very real dynamics of this scene. Jesus has to go to the cross. Pilate has discovered a reserve of character that not very many people would have expected of him. And I think Jesus is just saying, Pilate, it's not your fight. Now, what's going to happen, I gotta be quick, is Pilate's gonna go back out and try more carefully to release Jesus, and the Jewish authorities are gonna play their trump card, and that is, if you don't crucify him, we're gonna tell Tiberius Caesar. And as I said, Pilate knows that he's used up all of his coupons back in Rome. He probably won't survive that. And so, and this is, I think, the scene. I think with Jesus' words ringing in his mind, the greater sin belongs to Caiaphas. This is not your fight. But I think what happens is Pilate goes up there, sits down in his Bema seat, calls for a bowl, rather ceremoniously washes his hands very carefully, comes down, I picture him maybe turning into that big gate and maybe taking that towel and handing it to one of the soldiers and looking back over his shoulder and saying, you do with him what you will. It's six o'clock in the morning, Jesus is turned over to be crucified. Now, two points and we're done. Number one, there is almost universal persuasion that pilot in history, in extra-biblical history, was a rogue and a thug and a tyrant. I'm not going to get into it. There are only two voices. They are Philo and Josephus. In both cases, they have an ax to grind. They have a reason to paint the worst picture they possibly can of the various Roman officials. Many Roman historians, historians of that period, say that what Philo and Josephus do to Pilate is character assassination. There is every evidence that he was a careful, he was prefect for 10 years. Usually they were for two or three years. He was for 10 years, he was a very, now, there is a tradition that Pilate became a believer. He is a saint in the Coptic church. Very early Christians remembered him as a believer, for what it's worth, but here's In John 19, you have the story of the titulus. This is where we're gonna close. But let me make sure you understand where I'm taking you. I'm not interested in rescuing Pilate's reputation for the sheer sake of Pilate. I think what you have in this remarkable element of the passion narrative is a stunning, a gripping representation of the spirit and the winsomeness and the carefulness of your Savior. Because the way he handles himself before Pilate clearly impacted Pilate. And now what's gonna happen is, Pilate is going to make, now, in the Roman system, there was not always, but it was pretty common that when a man died on a cross, there would be a banner, a titulus it's called, and it would specify the reason for which he had been crucified. Pilate wrote out a titulus. He wrote it in three languages. And it said, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. And the, Jewish authorities came and they said, right here, the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, don't write, matter of fact, let me go back, because first of all, we're told many of the Jewish leaders read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, it was right out of a gate, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, it didn't have to be. And they came and they said, don't write the king of the Jews, write, I am, but I am the king of the Jews. In other words, what the leaders are saying is, don't write that he's the king of the Jews, write that he was a seditionist, that he's being crucified because he claimed to be the king of the Jews. So Pilate had ample opportunity to consider exactly what he was saying. And he said, what I've written, I've written. Now folks, you gotta understand, Pilate is putting his life and career on the line. But do you understand the enormity of this? That even as this Nazarene, who is accused falsely of sedition, having been exonerated and exculpated again and again by the only one capable of doing so, and that's Pilate, and now even as Pilate sends him off I think reluctantly, by the way, Acts 3 in verse 13, Peter remembers this. And he says to his listeners there in Acts 3, he says, you crucified Jesus when Pilate was determined to let him go. That's what Peter says. Pilate was determined to let him go. There's no, this is not the work of a cynic or a, so my point is, Pilate gives this stunning testimony. Jesus of Nazareth, by the way, I think Pilate, as he wrote that, was probably remembering what Jesus had said to him in private, in the Praetorium, just a few hour and a half earlier, when Pilate had said, are you a king? And Jesus had said, absolutely I'm a king, and anybody who is of the truth hears my voice. And now Pilate publicly declares his confidence, I think, that this is the King of the Jews. That's why I think, Very possibly, we're gonna see Pilate in heaven. This is kinda like Daniel 4, you know what I mean? Much of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar wrote that marvelous testimony that he didn't have to write and so on about it. Well, you've got Pilate publicly proclaiming his faith. So now, I'm just gonna close with that. Let me just encourage you again. You see, I would argue that what you have on display here, and the reason perhaps that Paul said, I adjure thee by the good confession, go to school on that confession. And you know what, folks, just real quickly, we may very well stand before very hostile authorities. And I would suggest you'll never find a better model of how we ought to conduct ourselves when that day comes. And I'm impressed that Jesus, number one, was zealous for the truth. That's why he asked, what are you saying, Pilate? I need to know. Are you asking this? He was zealous for the truth. He wanted the record absolutely pure. I think it's fair to say he was zealous for his father's purpose, because he actually encourages Pilate, as I see it, to go ahead with it, because Jesus has to go to the cross. So Jesus loved the truth. He loved his father's purpose. I'll tell you something else. Jesus loved Pilate. And the way he handles them here is, I think, just stunning and effective. Does that make sense to you? Chew on it. All right. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you again for this marvelous narrative. We stagger at it again and again. There is so much here. But Father, I would ask that you might excite in us a determination to press ourselves into this marvelous mold of our Savior. And even in this specific way, the way he conducted himself in a horribly difficult situation and and handle the situation with such grace, such maturity, such selflessness, and such zeal for the truth while also caring for the one who confronted him. Father, I'd ask that you would enable us to that end. Father, make us effective as we seek to set the truth before a dying world, the truth of your Son. Thank you for the confidence we can have in you. In Christ's name, amen.