That first Easter, Jesus was rejected by the people. He was taken to Pilate; and Pilate found nothing against Him. So, he asked the people the most important question anyone will ever answer. (READ TEXT)
Instead of answering himself, Pilate looked to the crowd. But the crowd can be wrong. The crowd in America once thought slavery acceptable. The crowd in Germany once supported Hitler. Pilate asked the crowd and they rejected Him. Why? For the reasons many reject Him today.
1. Jesus Claimed to Be God - Matthew 26:59-64
When Jesus talked about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days, He was referring to destroying the temple of His own body, not the physical temple in Jerusalem. And in three days His figurative language would be clear. But what really angered the religious leaders was His clear claim to being God in the flesh, the promised Messiah.
Jesus referred to Daniel and the vision he had of the Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14). In this, Jesus identified Himself as the Son of Man, who Daniel says has an everlasting dominion that will not pass away. What kind of person has a dominion that is everlasting? What kind of a person is given a kingdom and will have all men serve Him? The High Priest, who immediately recognized Jesus’ claim to divinity, tore his robe and declared Jesus guilty of blasphemy.
The religious leaders understood Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh; and they rejected that claim. In deciding what you will do with Jesus, you have to deal with His claim to be God. That’s who He said He was. The title, “Son of Man” is used 82 times in the gospels with respect to Jesus, and each time it is a claim to His divinity.
The people in Jesus’ day understood clearly that He claimed to be God come in the flesh. Again, this is what made them so angry.
“‘I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!’ At that point they picked up stones to throw at him.” - John 8:58-59 (NLT)
“‘I and the Father are one.’ Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ ‘We are not stoning you for any good work,’ they replied, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’” - John 10: 30-33 (NIV)
“Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” - C. S. Lewis
Jesus Christ claimed to be God in the flesh; and proved it through . . .
A. His Fulfillment of Prophecy.
Scholars identify 350+ Old Testament prophecies Jesus fulfilled. What are the odds? Professor Peter Stoner calculated the chances of fulfilling only 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10 to the 157th power!
B. His Uncompromised Character.
Usually, when you get to know someone you become more aware of their shortcomings. But the opposite was true of Jesus. In fact, nobody was closer to him than Peter and John; listen to what they said:
“In Him is no sin.” - 1 John 3:5 (NIV)
“He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth.” - 1 Peter 2:22 (NIV)
Christ’s character gives credibility to His claim.
C. His Miraculous Power.
“The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me.” - John 10:25 (NIV)
Jesus raised people from the dead; He calmed storms; He healed lepers; He opened the eyes and ears of the blind and deaf; He walked on water; and He turned water into wine. All of which pointed to Him being God in the flesh.
Take the water turned to wine. The steward of the feast said it was the best wine served (John 2:10). Everyone knows wine gets better with age. With a word, Jesus by-passed planting seed, cultivating vines, harvesting grapes, processing wine, and allowing it to age. Genesis says God, with a word, spoke creation into existence with a superficial appearance of age. That’s what Jesus did with the water turned to wine!
“This was the first of all the miraculous signs Jesus did. He did it in the town of Cana in Galilee. By this he showed his divine greatness, and his followers believed in him.” - John 2:11 (Easy to Read)
D. His Avoidable Death.
“No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily.” - John 10:18a (NLT)
Jesus could have avoided death by simply saying He wasn’t God in the flesh. But He didn’t, because that is who He was.
E. His Verifiable Resurrection.
“For I have the authority to lay it (my life) down when I want to and also to take it up again.” - John 10:18b (NLT)
F. His Faithful Followers.
When Jesus died, the disciples were afraid. But after the resurrection, they boldly proclaimed Christ’s death and resurrection.
Lee Strobel, atheist turned Christian after studying the evidence, says about the disciples’ testimony: “Most people like me thought it was a legend that developed a long time later. And it generally took, according to A.N. Sherwin-White, the great Oxford scholar, at least two generations of time for legend to grow up in the ancient world and wipe out solid historical truth. But we have - and this was a key bit of evidence for me - 1 Corinthians 15 starting in verse 3 - a creed of the earliest church that says that Jesus died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, was buried and rose on the third day. Eminent scholar James D.G. Dunn says we can be entirely confident that this creed was formulated within months of Jesus’ death. So here we have something that goes right back to the beginning - too quickly to write it off merely as a legend.”
No, the closest followers of Jesus were fully convinced of His Divinity. They not only taught it, but they died for it. Matthew was killed by a sword in Ethiopia. Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until dead. Luke was hanged in Greece. Peter crucified upside down. Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India. Jude, the brother of Jesus, was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. People might die for the lies they believed were true. But no one dies for what they know is untrue. The disciples were so convinced Jesus was God in the flesh that nearly all of them died for it.
There’s another reason why many of the people rejected Jesus:
2. Jesus Didn’t Fit What They Wanted.
The Jews had been looking for the Messiah. They looked for someone to save them from their circumstances. They looked for a Savior to overthrow the Roman government. Many rejected Jesus because He wasn’t the Messiah they wanted. And the same is true today.
Many people like Jesus as long as He is the kind of Savior they want. The people loved Jesus as long as He was making the lame to walk and the blind to see. But the crowds had a way of thinning out when Jesus would say things like, “If anyone would come after Me, he must take up his cross and follow Me.”
Jesus didn’t water down His message in hopes people would accept Him. He didn’t just speak the comfortable truth. He spoke the whole truth. He spoke of sin, and judgment, and the need for repentance and surrender. As a result, many rejected Him because He wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted. And that’s why many reject Him today.
“The time will come when people will not listen to the true teaching. But people will find more and more teachers who please them.
They will find teachers who say what they want to hear.” - 2 Timothy 4:3 (Easy to Read)
Jesus is God and we are not! We don’t have the opportunity to choose a God of our design, but we do have the opportunity to know the God who is! It’s interesting, however, that though the people rejected Jesus because He wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted, He nevertheless was the kind of Messiah they needed. Their rejection led to His crucifixion, where He paid the price for their sins.
Remember, Jesus is God; and as God, He sovereignly used the people’s rejection of Him as Savior to provide for their salvation and ours!
Though they rejected Him, He chose them. You see, the cross is the ultimate symbol of being chosen. Though you may reject Jesus, He hasn’t rejected you. In fact, He accepts and welcomes you. So how will you answer the question Pilate asked? What will you do with Jesus?
Conclusion: One final thought about the people’s rejection of Jesus on that day. They didn’t give Pilate a reason for why they were rejecting Jesus. They just shouted, “Crucify him!” Though we’ve identified some reasons for their rejection of Jesus, it seems the crowd couldn’t articulate why they were rejecting Jesus. The same is true of too many today. Don’t be among them. Instead, let me encourage you to consider the claims of Christ; and once you are convinced that He is indeed, God in the flesh, come to Him, knowing that He welcomes you!
