Title: Jesus Before Pilate
Text: John 18:28-40
This morning, we’re going to be looking at John chapter 18, verses 28 through 40. And I want you to keep in mind what I mentioned to you last Sunday – how a lot of what we’ll be seeing in this narrative of Jesus on trial, sounds very similar to the same junk we hear today in our modern day news reports.
Corrupt and wicked leaders are not new. And that goes for political leaders as well as religious leaders. When a person, or group of people stand to either gain or lose a lot of money through corruption, fraud, deceit and deception – this is the kind of thing you’ll see happen, over, and over, and over again.
Like Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
So let’s look at our text together, and we pray that the Lord will bless us and equip us through the preaching of His Word.
(READ TEXT)
Now before we get too far into the lesson here, there’s some confusion about verse 28… We read that and we go… “Wait a second? Didn’t Jesus and the Disciples already eat the Passover?”
Well, you’ve got to understand that Passover wasn’t just celebrated in one night. Exodus 12:18 tells us that Passover was to be celebrated from the 14th day of the month to the 21st day of the month… that would be according to the Jewish calendar, not ours. And when the Jewish people celebrate Passover, they follow the Seder – the order – there’s a particular way you go about doing it.
Everyone would sit around the table – they would eat specific foods, there were four cups of wine that were drank at different times during the meal, they would sing, and pray, and retell the Exodus story, as well as incorporate some other teachings. And that is done the first night of Passover (some families also do it the second night, but some don’t).
There would be specific types of food, the lamb which was the Pascal Lamb which represents the sacrifice. An egg, bitter herbs, haroset (an apple, nut and wine mixture… kind of like applesauce), and Karpas (which is usually parsley). There would be three pieces of matzah, which is a type of unleavened bread that they would use to dip and sop up the food. So, that’s the meal Jesus and the disciples ate, but there are others throughout the week that people will gather for.
But John doesn’t focus on that, so I’m not going to focus on it any more than I already have.
Now what we’re seeing take place here is what John already told us way back in chapter 1. John 1:9-13, Speaking of Jesus John writes- He was “the true Light, which give slight to everyone, and He came into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Now you go back to our text there in chapter 18, and that’s exactly what you see. The world rejects Jesus! And again, understand the kind of evil, wicked, conspiracy that has taken place. The Jews hate the Romans, especially the religious leaders – they despised Rome, and were always pointing to the evils of Rome, and stirring the people up against them. And the Roman’s aren’t really too fond of the Jews. The Romans saw them as troublemakers, and instigators, and rabble rousers. They were always demanding things from Rome, but at the same time, they were always plotting how to get free from them. They were just a constant thorn in the side of Rome.
But here they are together – conspiring against Jesus!
And I say this all the time, but I can’t stress it enough. The world is at enmity with God. The person without Christ in their heart, has a deep seated hatred for God. They may never verbalize that. They may not act on it… but the person without Christ doesn’t love God. They either want to make Him submit to their whims, wills, and desires, and make Him give them everything they want in this life. Or they want to be totally free from Him.
They refuse to acknowledge Him, they do not retain Him in their knowledge. They live as if He wasn’t real… and what’s crazy is that God in one very real sense gives them a taste of what they want.
They say they don’t want God – so He gives them over to their debased minds. He gives them over to their sinful nature. And it’s in direct correlation to the amount that they chose not to retain Him in their knowledge (That’s Romans 1 by the way). And the further they move away from God, the less and less they bear His image. Instead of acting like human beings they act more and more like savage beasts. Instead of agreeing with God saying “He made them male and female” they say, I can be whatever I choose, ignoring reality. They begin to worship the created things instead of the Creator, and so environmentalism becomes their “god”. We think – “Oh all those people from long ago, who worshiped rocks and trees, and volcanos and the sun, isn’t it good that we’ve moved past that now.” But we haven’t – there are still people doing it, and Al Gore has made a lot of money off them.
And so, the world hates Jesus, including these religious leaders of Jerusalem. And I mentioned this on the back of your bulletins, but I want to address it here as well. The hypocrisy of these priests is astounding! They are obsessed with external, ceremonial cleanliness. Their hearts are as black as coal, but they want to appear to be noble, and upright, and righteous. Again, imagine the kind of seared conscious a person has to have here. They know the trial is a sham. They know that Jesus is innocent. They want Him dead because He’s a threat to their bank accounts, their authority, and their comfortable lives and positions. And they’re willing to kill Him because of that. He’s committed no crime. He’s never done wrong. He’s only done good, and spoken the truth. But they don’t care! They’re going to see Him killed no matter what the cost. Even if it means locking arms with Rome. They’re going to see Him crucified. And yet, at the same time they’re like, “We can’t go into the Praetorium because it’s a gentile palace.”
You know what that is? It’s straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel. It’s a heart so hardened, and a conscience so seared that it isn’t moved at all by the fact they have defrauded, and abused, and misused God’s people. That they created a system which allowed them to get rich off of God’s people. You would think at some point they would go, “Oh my goodness, I can’t do this anymore. I can’t pretend to be this righteous person, serving God, while I do such horrible things.” But they didn’t. And what happened? Their sin escalated. It went from robbing God, to wanting to kill Him.
The Bible tells us that evil men will wax worse and worse… and that’s what these evil men did.
Now it’s so interesting, because Pilate comes out to them and says to them, “What are you charging Him with?” And their reply is telling, isn’t it? They say, “Well if He hadn’t done something wrong, we wouldn’t have brought Him to you, now would we?” So Pilate says, “Go judge Him by your own law.” And they say, “We can’t put Him to death. It’s not lawful.”
NO IT’S NOT LAWFUL BECAUSE HE’S INNOCENT!
But that’s not what they mean…
You see; I mentioned this last Sunday I think… but just a few years before this, the Roman officials took the power of execution away from the Jewish leaders. The only way they could execute someone is for adultery or blasphemy, and it was to be done by stoning a person to death. But the Jewish leaders want to appear innocent of this… they don’t want to anger the masses… because a lot of people were initially behind Jesus – remember the Triumphal Entry?
They need Rome to do it. And again, God’s Word will be fulfilled. The Jewish leaders didn’t crucify.
That was Romes method of execution. And Jesus Himself had already said that He would be lifted up. Psalm 22 talks about the nails that would pierce His hands and feet. Zechariah 12:10 says, “They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced.”
Jesus Himself and the Old Testament prophets have spoken by the Spirit of God that Jesus would be crucified. That’s why John says what he says in verse 32.
God always keeps His Word! God always fulfills His Word! Heaven and earth may pass away but the Word of the Lord endures FOREVER!
You may have no confidence in yourself or your ability – but you can have confidence in this (The Bible)! You can stand on the promises of God. And you can know that God’s Word does not return to Him void, but it accomplishes all that He intends it to do.
So Pilate goes back in, and questions Jesus again, and comes back out and says, “I find no guilt in Him.” I find no basis to charge Him with any crime.
Again… what an indictment against the religious leaders who have turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate.
This Roman official… this guy who has no knowledge of God – He’s a Roman… he worships Roman “gods” and the state. He’s even a relativist (we’ll get to that in a second, or maybe next time) … he’s more noble than these religious leaders. He’s like, “This guy is innocent. I can’t find anything to charge Him with.”
So, we have someone here, who is also a sinner. Who is also corrupt but who at least has some dignity… or decency… some integrity when it comes to legal procedure. I say some, because ultimately he gives in and has Jesus crucified, even though He knew Jesus was innocent.
I mean… don’t get me wrong, Pilate is weak and spineless, but he doesn’t have the knowledge and background that these religious leaders do. He’s a gentile. He’s never been taught the 10 Commandments. He’s never probably read through the Old Testament.
What we know about Pontius Pilate is that at one point he was a soldier, and he distinguished himself on the battlefield. He married the emperors granddaughter, which allowed him to be appointed to a position of authority, and he ended up in Jerusalem because he wasn’t the greatest administrator, he had made some mistakes, but with his military background, if an uprising did happen, he should be able to quell it rather quickly.
So, Pilate questions Jesus… and in just reading through it, it seems like it’s a pretty straight-forward line of questioning… but there’s so much there. And since I really want to dig deeper into it, we’re going to stop right here today – yup – you guys get out early, you can beat the rush to the restaurants. Usually, we’re the last ones out… but there’s too much there for me to rush through.
So, I’ll close with this…
What we’re seeing here in our text this morning is the fallenness of humanity, and the sinner’s hatred toward God. But at the same time, what they intend for evil God will use for good! Jesus does this… He endures this sham of a trial… the false charges and accusations. Being accused by the very creatures He has created and allows to continue breathing… He endures it because He is going to go to the cross and die for our sin. He’s going to pay the penalty for our crimes against God. This is the plan of redemption from the foundation of the world. And He does this willingly. He does this because He loves. He does this because it’s the only way to make us right with God and bring us back into a right relationship with Him.
How can we not love Him for this? How can we say, “I value my sin, and this present, temporary world more than the God who has shown me such love.”?
CLOSING
