The 19th was the last time we were in John chapter 18, and we ended somewhere around verses 39, 40. So what we'll do is we'll pick it up in John 18 verse 33. We'll read verse 33, but we'll pick it up in verse 36. And I'm reading from the English Standard Version. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord or did others say it to you about me? Verse 35. Pilate answered, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Verse 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. Okay. What I suggest to you, which I don't know if I did the one in December, but between verses 32 and 33, right about that time was when Jesus was sent to his second Roman trial. Remember that Jesus had, he had three Jewish trials, all of them illegal. He was, He was sent to Annas' house earlier in verse 12. He was led bound to Annas' house, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, and Caiaphas was the legal high priest at the time. And so then at the end of a verse, at verse 24, at the end of Jesus being questioned and slapped in the face at Annas' house, he was sent to Caiaphas' house. And that's how it lines up with Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Now he's at Caiaphas' house, it's still dark, it's still nighttime. There we recognize that according to both Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that he was beaten He was mocked, he was beaten, he was spit upon. They put a cover over his face and then pummeled him with their fists instead of just being slapped. And so that means he took the full force of the punch in the face because he couldn't see it coming in order to deflect it or in order to dodge the punch. And so he was beaten up pretty well there. And then they just transitioned it They just transitioned the third Jewish trial from Caiaphas's house to the Sanhedrin. And it does say, I want to point this out here, it was early in the morning, verse 28, it says, then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters. John says the house, but they would have had to legally condemn him. And it says in verse 28, it was early in the morning, or in the Old King James Version, it just says early in the morning. Then they went to the governor's headquarters. They went to Pontius Pilate's headquarters at what was called the Praetorium. At that particular point they were doing this early in the morning and see the Sanhedrin as the council of the Jewish leaders to make a decision upon this case. They normally meet at nine o'clock. And one of the reasons for meeting at nine o'clock in the morning, the third hour of the day, is six o'clock is really when you're waking up and getting breakfast, but nine o'clock and three in the afternoon are when prayers are offered at the temple. That's when the morning and evening sacrifices are being made. The morning and evening oblation, day by day, is commanded by the Lord. And the incense is burned also at that time, nine o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon, the morning and evening sacrifices. The prayers are going up. This is when anyone who is the devout Jew is in the temple area and they're praying as the incense is being burned, believing that the Lord God, Yehovah Elohim is going to hear our prayers because this is the time that he has commanded that we should be praying. And so the Sanhedrin meets at nine o'clock because with prayers going up, that they should be able to make much wiser decisions. But since they were railroading Jesus in the first place, they had already believed him to be guilty before they found any evidence bringing in false witnesses and so forth. You know, they had these kangaroo courts and even the Sanhedrin met illegally before nine o'clock in the morning in order to condemn him to death. They should never have met at night, as I mentioned before, because as a capital crime, the Lord in the law of Moses says that if there is somebody that is guilty of death and the charge is brought in the evening or in the afternoon, Leave it there until the next day so that you don't make a hasty decision by lack of sleep. Oh, it's almost time for us to punch out on the clock, so let's just find them guilty and go home. God says don't do that. get up the next morning while you're fresh and be merciful. That's why even the Jews had a tradition that if somebody was to be stricken with 40 lashes that they would only strike them with 39 just in case they miscount and they didn't want to go over in order to break the law. Yes? Well in Isaiah it says he was taken from prison and judgment and who shall declare his generation. Is there something about He should have got up and read something about his genealogy. No, because it also said that as far as that who shall declare his generation in Isaiah, in Isaiah 53 it says that as a sheep before the slaughter he remained silent and he opened not his mouth. So in order to justify himself for to not go to death, which he wasn't deserving of death, for him to justify himself would And since He was representing us, as far as going to the cross, He represented us and our sins. This is why He was silent. So any guilt that was placed upon Him, even if it was false accusations, He remained silent for that because He was taking on those sins as well. I'm just saying, it shouldn't have been declared even by the court. They should have got up and said, this is Jesus. the son of, you know, and they should have declared who he was, and they didn't really even do that. No pedigree, no information on that. Well, they actually probably should have, because the, what Brother Mike is talking about is they have this place that was right outside of the, right outside of the Court of the Jews that was called the Court of Ewan Stone. Actually, it was inside the Court of the Jews, I believe. It was a court of ewen stone. This is what we read about in Luke chapter 2 when the Lord Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day and Mary's sacrifice of two pigeons was given, being in the temple, and that his name was registered on that day, on the eighth day his name was registered. Yeshua shall save. His name was registered there and it would have shown his genealogy through through Joseph, who was a descendant of David through Solomon. Mary was a descendant of David through Nathan. Luke 3 shows that genealogy. And yes, there would have been somebody, as far as the pedigree, should have been able to be there. But since all three trials that he had were kangaroo courts in order to put him to death. that never came up. They were even, which John doesn't cover, they don't cover the false witnesses that came up against him. And the false witnesses didn't agree. And so according to the law, the scriptures of the Bible, that should have been thrown out immediately because two false witnesses coming in cancels out the entire charge. according to God, but they didn't do that. They waited until he finally said, when they asked him, declare, we adjure you by the name of Yehovah Elohim, are you the anointed one or not? He says, from now on you'll see the Son of Man coming in the clouds. That's all they needed to know. He's committed blasphemy because they had determined two and a half years before then that he was not the Messiah and they were going to start conspiring to put him to death. They'd already determined that two years before, not two and a half years. At any rate, verse 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from thence." Yeah, between verses 32 and 33, Jesus meets with Pilate. He's sent to Herod when he finds out that he's a Galilean. When he's sent to Herod, he's beat up there by the Herodian guards. They do pretty much the same thing. They cover his head. They beat him with fists and with rods. all over his body. They mocked him. They put a robe on him. It's found in the other gospel accounts, Matthew and Mark, I believe, as far as for going to Herod. It's being sent to Herod. Then he comes back, and this is where we pick it up, and as Pilate's questioning him, he says, so are you the king of the Jews? He says in verse 33 and verse 34, he says, are you saying this of yourself, or did somebody tell this of you? And he says, well, am I a Jew? Your own nation has delivered this, I'm reading it from the Old King James Version. Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? And Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from then. So that I don't have to put two Bibles here. I took my notes and put the King James Version there. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of a spiritual kingdom then. He says it's not of this world. It's not worldly. It's a kingdom filled with the Father's love. As 1 John chapter 2 and verse 16 says, that for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And so those things are set straight by the Lord Jesus. We have a kingdom that is not worldly. His kingdom certainly exists now in the world because we're part of that kingdom as His church. but it is not connected to any geopolitical entity. Christ's kingdom is a kingdom set apart from sensuality or impurity, that's lust of the flesh. It's set apart from covetousness and idolatry, which is lust of the eyes. And it's set apart from self-exaltation, self-advancement and self-satisfaction, the pride of life. And the cost of the true discipleship opposes such when Jesus taught in Matthew, but also in Luke chapter nine and verse 23, he says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Denying self is shunning the pride of life. Taking up the cross is shunning the lusts of the flesh, impurity and so forth. Sensuality. And following Jesus is to shun idolatry, because anything that's equal to or greater than Christ is idolatry, the chief of sins, second commandment. Pride is just self-idolatry, as you know. So in verse 37, where it says, then Pilate said to him, so you are a king, questioning Jesus. And Jesus answered, well, you say that I'm a king. For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." The King James Version, thou sayest that I am a king. In other words, I guess in the Greek you could almost say, well, you said it. There's a term that they had in the 50s, if somebody said something, so they would ask a question, well, are you a king? You said it. I remember this from the old Popeye cartoons, because they used that expression in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. And when he said, you said it, you're saying the truth. comes from your lips, basically. And as we break this down, we see that when he asks, are you a king then? And Jesus says, you said I'm a king, and he is a king. The Lord Jesus is king. And this is where I'm going to break out these things that the Jews call prayer shawls or tallit or tallis, which is not a word that's in the Bible, as I've said before. These things are called from the Bible, biblically, they're called a Beged, which means a garment, or Kanaf, which also means wings, but that's because this one's a real big Beged, Beged Gedol. Jesus says, you said I'm a king. And in this verse here, we see Jesus makes pronouncements of his ministry as prophet, priest, and king. This here is a small prayer shawl. Sister Vicki asked, how do you put this on? In modern days, it has this little thing up here that says, well, that's the top. And so around your shoulders like this, and they say it's a prayer shawl so that when you're praying, you pray with it. Some people will cover their head with it, but we know from the New Testament, it says that we shouldn't pray with our head covered. The Lord is our prayer covering. But since they have no atonement, And that's where they go with that. This is just a short one. Numbers has two verses concerning this. These are called the Tzitzit, and in the corners, this ribbon, the blue, it's called Tachelet. And when you start to look at this, this covering that's upon you, I'll pass this around this way. And I'll pass this one around this way. And then we'll have, yeah, it's all static electricity. Cause I haven't been wearing them. Maybe I shouldn't put it, I use it to cover my printer. And so this is a longer one, which is really what the Jews would have worn. It's an outer garment. This is the, you know, they wore like a tunic that had a hole covering in it. And then they wore this to keep warm. And this, This one here has a particular embroidering on it where it says, it's basically one of the, like the set prayers that the Jews, modern Jews would have today. It says, Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu, Melech ha'olam. And then it goes on and it says, you know, that it is given our holiness, the commandment of the tzitzit. And in Numbers it says that when you look at that, you're supposed to be reminded of the commandments of God, the commandments of the Lord. And certainly we're commanded to pray, and that's where it comes up with the prayer shawl, but we should be reminded of the word of God. The thing about from Jesus's day, this sometimes would have had their lineage on there, on both the top and on the bottom. And in Revelation 19, it speaks that when Jesus comes riding in on a white horse in Revelation 19, that he's wearing a robe and He has a new name written upon the robe and upon his thigh, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It's Revelation 19 verse 16. And so what'd be interesting about this, let's say if this were longer and it says, you know, blessed are you King of the universe or King of eternal, and it's on the top and on the bottom. And if Jesus was wearing this, riding on a white horse, the bottom piece that would have his pedigree on it, his name, that he is the king of the Jews, would be upon his lap. upon his thigh, which is really neat. This one actually says, it actually says Melech, which is king. It says Baruch Hata, which means blessed are you. And they don't spell out Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, Yehovah, Eloheinu. Then it says Melech, which is king. You know, blessed are you, Adonai Eloheinu, the Lord our God, the king, Haolam, the eternal king. And I believe that it will be written upon his garment and it'll be on his lap. So you can see this and this would stretch all the way across, excuse me, all the way across here with that writing on the top and on the bottom. Take a look at that and pass that around that way and you all. So Jesus Christ is king and then he says in the second part of it, to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world. I better grab my Bible. And that suggests that he's the priest. For this reason he came into the world. He's our great high priest. He represents God to the people, and certainly he's going to the cross, and he is the sacrifice as well. But as our great high priest, what God says in the law is that the high priest represents the people before God, And when he goes forth from the Day of Atonement and comes out, he represents God to the people. And this is what Jesus is doing, representing God to the people and the people before God. He's the perfect mediator, which we have written right up there. He is the mediator. He'll be the eternal sacrifice hanging between heaven and earth to please and to appease God and to plead for the pardon of sinful men. 1st Timothy 2 verse 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So the purpose for Christ coming into the world was, as Ron Hamilton wrote in his hymn, as we did sing tonight, he was born to die. So he is the king and he is the great high priest and then he's also the prophet because he says here that I should bear witness of the truth. that I should bear witness of the truth, Jesus Christ being the prophet, the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 fulfilled in the law of Moses. The Lord Jesus told his disciples the night before he was arrested, So the night before this trial right here, the way that he said that he was the way, the truth and the life in John chapter 14 and verse six. And he fulfilled the law and the prophets, according to a sermon on the mountain, Matthew chapter five, verses 17 to 18. Think not that I've come to destroy the law and the prophets. I've not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Verily, heaven and earth shall pass away But not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law until all is fulfilled. And he fulfills the prophecy of Moses in Deuteronomy 18, that a prophet will be raised up like unto you, Moses, like unto me, Moses is telling the people, him you shall listen to. And so we see that every word Jesus spoke was the true word of the father and every written word of scripture testifies of Jesus as the truth. from the Father, the Incarnate, Crucified, Resurrected, Ascended, and Eternal Truth of God." So he's prophet, priest, and king just by that statement there. And then he says, at the very end of this, he says, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. That's in the English Standard Version. In the King James Version he says, everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. The only difference there is the word heareth and hears. But I've heard it said from some preachers that anyone who wants to hear the truth will hear Christ's voice. But that's not what Jesus said. Let me read it again. He says, Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice or heareth my voice. Anyone who is of the truth. This goes all the way back to John chapter 3 and verse 3 when he told Nicodemus, unless you are born from above, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You cannot hear the truth unless you're born again. And this explains why in verse 38 Pilate said to him, What is truth? He cynically says, what is truth? And doesn't even wait for an answer thinking that, you know, because he's not hearing from the truth because he's not born of the truth. In the old King James version, 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 in him no fault at all. So Pilate's cynical rhetorical comment on the Lord's words testified that the Roman governor was not of the truth and therefore couldn't hear the truth. And then in the second part of this, as he comes out and he says, I find in him no fault at all, in the old King James Version, he says, I find no guilt in him in the English Standard Version, As Pontius Pilate is Tiberius Caesar's, Tiberius Caesar went from 14 AD to 37 AD. And so being 32 AD, this was, he would have been Caesar at the time. And Pontius Pilate was Caesar's representative in Judea. And as the legal representative of the emperor of the civilized world, he was declaring the Lord Jesus Christ faultless. He was declaring him without guilt. Pilate's words by Roman standards and edicts was as if Tiberius Caesar himself was declaring this Jew innocent by all means. by everything, but he still went through the motions and still he was executed under Roman law. In verses 39 to 40, it's in verse 39, but you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? And then verse 40, they cried out again, not this man, but Barabbas, now Barabbas was a robber. So in verse 39, where it says that they had this custom, when the custom started, they, I can't find anyone that knows, and the only one brave enough to say something is the Puritan commentator, Matthew Poole, who says, most probably from the Roman, this custom came from the Romans, who in some honor of this great festival of the Jews, and in humor of them, granted them the life of any criminal whom they desired. End quote. And that was from Matthew Poole, the Puritan commentator. And then in verse 40, where they cry out for Barabbas. Barabbas, according to Mark 15 in verse 7, Barabbas was an insurrectionist and a murderer. You know, he was an upstart trying to overthrow the Roman government, and he murdered people. He has an interesting name. It's Aramaic. Ben is the word for son, and Abba is the word for father. Ab is the word for father, but Abba is the word for my father, so Bar is the Aramaic or the Chaldean word for son, and Abbas is the Aramaic for Abba. So Barabbas means son of the father, So while the son of wicked earthly fathers, that's Barabbas, is released, the son of the heavenly father is sent to death. And do you see a picture somewhere in the... So, is there a scapegoat in here anywhere? Brother Mike, I was going to ask that question. Where in the Old Testament do we see a picture of this exchange? Oh, in the scapegoat, Leviticus chapter 16, on the Day of Atonement. Wow! Astute! The scapegoat in modern day has come to be known as the guilty party. And the scapegoat is the guilty party if you think about it from the day of atonement, which I'm going to explain to you here. Leviticus chapter 16, on the Day of Atonement, in two places it says that the high priest changes his garment. So remember, I've told you this before, but I want to re-emphasize this. The high priest, he wears the garments that have the bells and pomegranates around the hem and, you know, the breastplate that's jeweled and it has the names of the tribes of Israel. He wears that every single day, 360 days a year on a Hebrew lunar calendar, 365 days a year if you want to call it on a solar calendar. He wears it every single, or 64 days. He wears it 359 days on a 360 day calendar. There's one day there's an exception. Well, he still kind of wears it on that day, but he changes those clothes, those single garments that he's wearing every single day for the one day that he works, because all the other Levites are doing the work, his sons are doing the work of the offerings and so forth. But the high priest, the one day of the year that he works is on Yom Kippur, on the day of atonement. And he goes in and he washes him, he takes off those priestly garments and he puts on linen garments just like every other priest, all the priests that... that are not the high priest, they wear these cotton white linen garments. He puts those on and then he goes in and offers sacrifices. In verses 8 through 10, they cast lots with two goats, two young kids of one year old at the most. And they have two. One is called La Jehovah, or La Yahweh, but La Jehovah is the sacrificial goat. The one that's called La Zazel, La Zazel is the term that we have used as the scapegoat. They would take out the Urim, the Urim and the Tamim, those two stones that are supposed to be behind the breastplate. Anyway, they're in the hands and they put them on the heads of the goats. And one is, I don't know which one would be which, but one would say that one's for sacrifice. And then the other is to be let go into the wilderness. In verses five through 19, the instructions of Leviticus 16, the instructions are given for the sacrifice, the sacrificial goat. And the high priest is in there all by himself. So there isn't this erroneous tradition of him having a rope around his waist or a rope around his ankle in case we hear the bells tinkle because he's not even wearing the bells. So that doesn't exist. And he is supposed to foreshadow what Jesus is doing. And so the goat is sacrificed first, and then in verses 20 to 22, we have what is called the scapegoat, lazazel. Now, what he does is he confesses the sins over the scapegoat that is, over the scapegoat, he lays his hands upon the goat, and then sends it into the wilderness after he confesses the sins of Israel upon the head of this goat, and then sends it into the wilderness. The goats represent two things of what the Lord Jesus is doing by his sacrifice. One, he sheds his blood for the sacrifice of our sins, but also that his sacrifice is so sufficient that he represents the other goat, the goat that has gone away into the wilderness, carrying away the sins, carrying them far away for those who have believed and whose sins are atoned for by the goat sacrifice. But even in today's terminology, as Brother Mike was bringing up, that the scapegoat means somebody who has guilt upon him. He's the guilty party. Likewise, that is seen here in this picture, because Barabbas is the guilty party, but he goes away. He is set free. But Jesus is the sacrifice, is the one who is sacrificed. Brother Mike. Well, you know, the scapegoat nowadays, he's the guy that gets dumped on, you know, because the big cheese isn't going to have to, you know, take the... Take the rap. And so that actually is a picture of Christ too, because he is both in technically, Barabbas is really only showing a picture, because the actuality of what's going on is Jesus is both goats. He is both the sacrificial goat, and since he takes our sins upon himself, he bears our iniquities, it says in Isaiah 53. and elsewhere. Since he is bearing our iniquities, he's also the scapegoat taking our sins upon his head. And so both of those pictures exist with this through Barabbas. Then in chapter 19, which we'll pick up next time because I've gone far too long, it's 715 now, but then Jesus is taken and being flogged. Pilate seems to be a person who's trying to appease the Jews at any rate. And now when Jesus is flogged, he's going to be on top of everything else. At this particular point, he's already been beaten up. by five trials. Now he's being, at this sixth trial, he's going to be flogged with a Roman scourge. And we'll just pick that up next time because by the time we get into those details, it's going to be long. Any questions or comments? Sister Keely. So we were talking about the two false witnesses who were brought to testify in Christ. And I know It says by the mouth of two or three witnesses in Deuteronomy. So two of them, but the corroboration of the witnesses, if you have two witnesses, they must agree. As soon as you have, as soon as you have witnesses that are contradicting one another, the charges should be dropped. you do have a hung jury and because of the false witnesses and in fact bearing false witness carries with it the penalty when a witness is brought in according to the law the penalty of a person who brings a false witness should suffer the penalty of what they were bringing the charges against the person so the false witnesses weren't brought to death because they were bringing false witness to charge him for blasphemy, which is punishable by death. But nothing was done with them. They were illegal to the core in everything that they did, showing the depravity of their sin. Good question, by the way. Thank you. Anything else? All right, well, let me close it in prayer. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you, Lord, for our opportunity to take a look at the Gospel of John. As we prepare to see the cross next week, we ask, Father, that you'll prepare our hearts for Just the depth of the sacrifice and which our beloved Savior Has gone to in order to save our wretched souls. We love you and thank you and and ask you to Continue to minister unto us and through us in our continued fellowship. We'll in Jesus name and for his sake we do pray. Amen