The Dream Of Pilate’s Wife

THE DREAM OF PILATE’S WIFE

Matt. 27:11-26

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: THE AGGIE’S LAST REQUEST

1. Back in the Old West three Texas cowboys were about to be hung for cattle rustling. The lynch mob brought the three men to a tree that hung over the Rio Grande River.

2. The idea was that after each man died, they'd cut the rope and he'd drop into the river – saving them the trouble of digging graves. They put the first cowboy in the noose, but he was so sweaty and greasy he slipped out, fell in the river and swam to freedom.

3. They tied the noose around the second cowboy's head. He, too, oozed out of the rope, dropped into the river and got away.

4. As they dragged the third Texan, an Aggie, to the scaffold, he resisted, "Please! Would yaw'l tighten that noose a little bit? I can't swim!"

B. TEXT

11 [Pontius Pilate] asked Him...“Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.” 15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. 16 And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 Therefore...Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.” 20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” 23 Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!” 24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising....26 he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.

C. THESIS

1. Out of the thousands of Roman governors who served the Empire over a thousand years, only one is remembered by millions today, as they recite in the Apostle’s creed of how Christ “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Pilate lives in infamy!

2. Pontius Pilate was a rich and worldly-minded Roman statesman, who had a sense of justice when it didn’t conflict with his own self-interests and aims. He had no fixed principles except his own climb to power and influence.

3. We find Pilate already in deep trouble. He’d inflamed the Jews by moving the standard of Caesar into Jerusalem and a gold shield with the names of deities on it – both he was forced to remove again, the 2nd by the order of Caesar. He took sacred money and used it to build an aqueduct & caused a riot. He slaughtered Galileans & mingled their blood with his sacrifices (Lk. 13:1).

4. And at the very time Jesus was brought before him, a new complaint was on its way to Caesar, and Tiberius wasn’t happy with complaints. Pilate was trying not to inflame the Jews further. Yet at this crucial moment, a warning comes from the hand of God!

I. THE NATURE OF THE DREAM

A. ITS SUPERNATURAL CHARACTER

1. Normally dreams are caused by:

a. what you eat or drink;

b. stress/ cares: “multitude of business” Eccles. 5:13;

c. condition of the body (health, position);

d. Noises around the person.

2. But this WAS A DREAM FROM GOD

a. God routinely tries to keep us back from sin. He sometimes uses dreams to restrain us. (Ex. God warned Laban not to harm Jacob).

b. Pilate’s wife was so fearful & startled that she hurried to interrupt the Judge on his bench. Her request was stated in the form of a pleading command. She considered it deadly serious.

B. ITS TIMING

1. The drama of Christ’s sufferings were moving to their climax: Jesus had been betrayed, arrested, tried before the Sanhedrin, and shuffled back and forth between Pilate and Herod.

2. Christ now stood before Pilate for final judgment. At the very moment Pilate was vacillating, the pressure came. He offered the Jews the choice between Barabbas and Jesus. Pilate at last sat on the official judgment seat – it was at this moment that the hand of God sent warning to him!

3. After he left home that morning his wife had gone back to sleep (“a dream this day”). When she awoke, she immediately sent a messenger, who arrived just as Pilate was about to pass sentence! Q-Has God’s hand of warning ever come to you?