HoHum:
A Sunday school teacher asked her students to draw a picture of Jesus' family. After collecting the drawings, she noticed that one little boy's drawing depicted an airplane with four heads sticking out of the windows. "I see you drew three heads to show Joseph, Mary and Jesus," she said to the boy. "But who does the fourth head belong to?"
The boy replied, "That's Pontius the pilot."
WBTU:
Pontius Pilate, the Roman official in charge of Jerusalem and the surrounding area, during the time of Jesus Christ, will always be remembered for the miscarriage of justice that sent Jesus to the cross. 3 times in the book of Acts Pilate is connected to the injustice. One of the oldest creeds, the Apostles Creed, that is repeated regularly by millions of people even today, has this: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
During the trials of Jesus, Jesus was mostly silent but he said the most to Pilate. Out of all the people involved with the trials of Jesus, Pilate was the least informed about everything. He knew little of Jesus Christ. Jesus was popular in Galilee and so Jesus did not concern Pilate. Pilate knew little about the Jewish faith. Like many Roman officials who came to Palestine, Pilate was a pagan Gentile and the faith of the Gentiles and the faith of the Jews was as different as night and day. Maybe this is why Jesus spoke the most to Pilate because Pilate was the least informed. Even so, Pilate knew enough to give the verdict that Jesus was innocent. 3 times in Luke 23 Pilate contends that Jesus is undeserving of the death penalty.
I saw the movie Risen and I believe that movie gives an accurate picture of Pontius Pilate. Pilate was concerned about pleasing the Emperor Tiberius. Tiberius wanted no trouble out of the Roman provinces. Palestine was notorious for being a trouble spot and so Pilate was under a lot of scrutiny. Pilate knew that many wanted Jesus Christ dead even though Pilate knew it was wrong to kill him. If he let Jesus go free this could lead to trouble with the leaders of the area and this might lead to unrest so Pilate granted their demands. Mark 15:15 tells us that Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd so he gave the order to execute Jesus. Matthew 27:14 says this: “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”” Pilate allowed Jesus to be executed because he felt like Jesus and his followers were insignificant. ““What is truth?” Pilate asked in John 18:38. Pilate left before Jesus could answer. Pilate needed no reply, because the truth was of no particular concern to him. He was far more interested in what was politically expedient, doing what was the best for himself and Rome. Even today many politicians are unwilling to stand up for Christian causes, even ones they believe to be true, because this might jeopardize their position and their careers.
This is informative but what does this have to do with us? We are not in positions of power or judges in courts that determine the futures of people. True, so what can we learn from Pilate?
Thesis: What can we learn from Pontius Pilate?
For instances:
DEAL WITH PAST SINS SO THEY DO NOT PULL US TO DESTRUCTION
Josephus, a Jewish historian of the time, lets us know some of the background of Pilate’s rule in Palestine. Josephus tells us that Pilate got off to a bad start in Judea. When he first came into Judea he had sent his soldiers into Jerusalem, doing something which no Roman before him had done and that is, taking the standards of the Roman legions that had on them the images of the emperor as a god; everybody else had agreed not to offend the Jews by doing this. But Pilate decided, right off the bat, to show who was boss, so he sends the images of the emperor into Jerusalem. So enraged are the Jewish leaders that they come down from Jerusalem to Caesarea to meet with Pilate and Pilate lets them cool their heels for five days. On the sixth day, he comes out in his open courtyard, takes his seat on the judgment seat to meet with them. He has told his soldiers to surround the group and, if any body gets out of line, to execute them. Then he lets the leadership know that he is not going to give in and he‘s going to let the Roman icons or images stay there and if they don‘t like it, he will put them to death. Whereupon the Jewish leaders bare their necks to the soldiers and said to Pilate, “Then kill us.” Pilate knew that to do that would not set well in Rome—wiping out the leadership of a nation. So he backed off and removed the standards. But already he had compromised and he was in a delicate position, knowing that the leaders of Judea could go to Caesar with a complaint against him.
Another thing he did was to direct funds from the temple treasury, religious funds, and divert them to build an aqueduct. Again, there was an outrage and a mass of people, thousands of people gathered to riot. Pilate simply ordered some of his soldiers into the midst of the unarmed mass of people, dressed as civilians, and they took to murdering people left and right.
We find this in Luke 13 “Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.” We don't have a record in secular history about this. Sounds similar to the last one but this doesn't seem to be the same incident. However, Pilate slaughtered some Galilean Jews on their way to sacrifice in Jerusalem.
After all of this, The Jewish writer, Philo, says, “He was afraid that if a Jewish embassy were sent to Rome, they might discuss the many maladministrations of his government, his extortions, his unjust decrees, his inhuman punishments” (cited by James Stalker, The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ [Zondervan], p. 67). Stalker adds, “There is nothing that so frustrates good resolutions and paralyzes noble efforts as the dead weight of past sins.” If people know things about us, we are afraid to do anything to displease them, for fear that they will use the past against us. Because of his past sins, Pilate did not rule the Jews; they now ruled him. Those sins were sucking him, like a giant whirlpool, toward this fatal decision regarding Jesus Christ.
The only way to break away from the power of past sins is to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ, confess them and resolve to obey God now, no matter what the cost. Yes, we might lose in the short run but we will gain in the eyes of eternity.
SET GODLY GOALS, NOT WORLDLY ONES
Pilate’s goal in life was to hang onto his power and to promote his political fortunes. Jesus taught that our goal should be, “But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well (what we really need).” Luke 12:31, NIV. On one level, this was the best day of Pilate’s life. He patched up a quarrel with his political neighbor, Herod. He satisfied the difficult Jewish leaders and avoided a riot and the certain blame from Rome. He was able to hang onto power for a few more years. But spiritually, it was the absolute worst day of Pilate’s life. Although he didn’t want to do it, he ended up condemning the innocent Son of God. What led Pilate down the wrong fork in the road was his worldly goals.
Many who profess Christ as Savior adopt worldly goals. Like Pilate, they approve of Jesus. They go to church; they call themselves Christians. But the thing that determines their direction in life is the goal of worldly success. If a promotion promises more money, more prestige, a better chance for future advancement, they take it without considering what it will do to their service for the Lord or to their family life. Their goal is success in this world, not success in God’s kingdom. Set godly goals! C.S. Lewis- “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.”
PLEASE GOD EVEN IF IT MEANS ALIENATING PEOPLE
Pilate didn’t want to kill Jesus and he didn’t want controversy with the Jews. He really wanted to be neutral about Jesus and get on with his life. Pilate’s downfall was that he was concerned about pleasing the Jews and pleasing Caesar, but he did not consider pleasing God.
The Bible is clear that if we take a strong stand for Christ, we will alienate some people at least some of the time. We should never deliberately alienate anyone. As Paul says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18, NIV. But both Paul and Jesus had many enemies because they determined to please God above all else. As Paul told the Galatians, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10
Concerning political leadership, Winston Churchill said, “People who are unprepared to do unpopular things and defy clamor are not fit to be ministers in times of stress” (James Humes, Churchill: Speaker of the Century [Stein and Day], p. 275). The same is true spiritually. Determine to please God in obedience to His Word, even in our thought life and private decisions. If that is our habit, we won’t be led astray in a time of difficulty.
DO NOT COMPROMISE OUR CONSCIENCE, EVEN IF WE THINK IT WILL GAIN WHAT WE WANT IN LIFE
In some situations, compromise is wise and necessary. But it is never wise, necessary, or right if it involves violating God’s commands and compromising our conscience. When Pilate declared that Jesus was innocent, he should have stood on principle no matter how loudly the Jews yelled nor what they threatened. Pilate was compromising his conscience, thinking that it would gain the Jews’ favor and Jesus’ life. But what he thought was a loophole of escape became a noose around his neck (Stalker, p. 55).
There are men who will compromise even in the ministry because they think that it will gain them success. They don’t speak out on unpopular issues or confront those in sin, because they’re afraid that people won’t like them. But any success, whether in ministry or business or personal life, that is gained by compromising our conscience is not success with God. If we abandon a clear conscience, we will eventually make a shipwreck of our faith (1 Tim. 1:19).
