Jesus, Pilate, and the Crucifixion (John 18:28-19:16)

When I was given this passage to cover the trial and the

crucifixion, I knew that it was going to be a little too long to

read all of Chapter 19 and that last little part, Chapter 18,

unless I keep you here till noon.

But at any rate, what I wanted to do was let you know.

I'm going to focus mostly on this on the first part, but I've

got something for you for this last part as well.

When I was thinking about this, I was reminded of one of my

favorite stories. A man by the name of Doctor

Alexander Papaderos, very popular professor who taught a

course in Greek history and philosophy every summer on the

Isle of Crete at the Orthodox Christian Academy, is very

popular. Hundreds of students would come

literally from all over the world to hear this man.

He's listed even in you can Google his name, very famous.

One afternoon, after he had finished a long lecture, it was

time to close. People were gathering their

books together and wanting to head out to the beautiful

beaches of Crete. A little student in the back

raised his hand and he says, Doctor P, can I ask you a

question? And he said, of course.

And he said, what is the meaning of life?

Well, just as you groaned a little bit there, they had worse

grown because they thought, Oh my gosh, now we're going to be

here for another two hours. But Doctor P said this, let me

explain it this way. And he reached into his wallet

and he pulled out a little mirror.

And he said, when I was a little boy, the Nazis in World War 2

attacked our village. We weren't a big place.

And so only a kind of a squadron of motorcycle soldiers came in

firing their guns and everything, he said.

But the men in our of our village, they weren't going to

put up with this. And they attacked back and they

killed a bunch of them and wrecked all their motorcycles

and ran them, ran the rest of them off as little boys.

We stood on the hill amazed at this battle that went on.

And so then we ran down to the bottom of the hill to see if we

can find something that we could keep.

And so he said, I saw this one motorcycle that was turned over,

an old piece of mirror dropped off of it.

And this is what I picked up. And he said I had so much fun

with it because I discovered that I could take the rays of

the sun and I could point it in my backyard to some dry grass

and it would smoke. Boy, that was cool.

And then I found that I could also catch it and then I could

find a rabbit hole and I could shine light down in the rabbit

hole to see if the rabbit was there and other things.

And then I got a little sneaky and I took it into classroom and

in the late afternoon when the sun came through the window, I'd

catch the rays and shine it in the girl's lights eyes, you

know, and laugh. But the longer I live with that

mirror, the more it came to have greater meaning for me because I

realized that I could shine light into the dark places of

the world, and I actually could shine light even sometimes into

the dark parts of men's hearts and maybe change some.

And he said that my young man is what I discovered is the meaning

of life, is that my life is to reflect truth into the life of

this world. Jesus, that I have come into the

world to be a light, but it is a light of a special kind from a

special source. And John, in this section of the

Gospel, brings this to our attention.

John says more things about this part of Scripture, the trial and

the crucifixion, than any of the other writers because there are

specific things that he wants to highlight that give greater

power to the crucifixion. So if you'll stand with me now,

we'll read this passage of Scripture together.

Beginning in John 18, verse 28, then they led Jesus from the

John 18:28

House of Caiaphas to the governor's headquarters.

It was early morning. They themselves did not enter

the governor's quarters so that they wouldn't be defiled.

Because you see, that night, it was the night of the Passover.

So Pilate went outside to them and said, What accusation do you

bring against this man? And they, the Jews, answered

him, if this man were not doing evil, we would not deliver him

over to you. The Pilate said to him, then

take him yourselves and judge him by your own laws.

But the Jews said to him, it's not lawful for us to put anyone

to death. This was to fulfill the word

that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going

to die. Now I'll pause there.

If there was blasphemy in the Jews minds, you were stoned.

But Jesus had already told them before I'm going to be raised

up. He had already prophesied how he

was going to die. So Pilate entered the

headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you

the King of the Jews? Which they had said earlier in

chapter 18. And Jesus answered, Do you say

this of your own accord, or did others tell you this about me?

Pilate answered, Am IA Jew your own nation?

Chief priests have delivered you over to me, So what have you

done? And Jesus answered, My Kingdom

is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this

world, my servants would be fighting that I might be not be

delivered over to the Jews. But my Kingdom is not of this

world. And then Pilate said, So you are

a king. And Jesus answered, You say that

I am a king, meaning that's correct For this purpose.

I was born 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. Pilate said to him, What is

truth? After he said this, he went back

outside to the Jews and told him, I find no guilt in him.

But you have a custom. I should release one man for you

at the Passover. So do you want me to release

you, the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Not

this man, but Rabbis. Rabbis was a robber.

He was much more than that. It had to be a very serious

crime for someone to be crucified.

And Pilate took and flogged Jesus.

The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his

head, arrayed him with a purple robe, and they came up to him

saying, Hail King of the Jews, and they struck him with their

hands. Pilate went out again and said

to them, See, I'm bringing him out to you, that you may know.

I find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing this

crown of thorns purple robe, and Pilate said to him, Behold the

man. When the chief priests and

officers saw it, they cried out, Crucify him, crucify him.

And Pilate said to him, Take him yourself and crucify him, for I

find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, We have a

law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made

himself out to be the Son of God.

When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more

afraid. He entered the headquarters

again and said to Jesus, Where are you from?

But Jesus gave no answer. So Pilate said to him, Would you

not speak to me? Do you not know that I have

authority to release you and authority to crucify you?

Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all

unless it had been given to you from above.

Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.

That's the Jews. From then on, Pilate sought to

release him. But the Jews cried out.

If you release this man, you're not Caesar's friend.

Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.

So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out.

Set him down at the judgment seat for final pronouncement.

Place called the stone of the pavement in an Aramaic.

It's Kabatha. Now.

It was the day of preparation for the Passover.

It's about the 6th hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold

your king. And they cried out away with

him, Crucify him. And Pilate said, Shall I crucify

your king? The chief priest answered, We

have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over them to

be crucified, and they took Jesus.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

Now before you put your bulletin away, I want you to turn over to

page 11 on the discussion page because I wanted you to see that

the rest of the passage, which would have been another 20

something verses, John gives 8 truths that no other gospel

writer gives. And he's giving it for a purpose

because we know that John states very clearly at the end of his

gospel, I have written all of these things and there's so many

of them. I couldn't write them all down,

he says, But I've written all these things.

So you will truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

OK. And so I've listed these eight

things that he mentions, and this could be 8 separate

sermons. So today you're going to get 9

sermons, all right? But I'm just going to list them

for you because the importance that's here is only amplified by

what the discussion Jesus has with Pilate.

Jesus bore his own cross. Love me, He carried his cross.

He died for us. The placard that was a place

above Jesus head was very clearly said to by John, Jesus

the Nazarene. So we know where he's from, the

king of the Jews. And it was written in three

languages that would have been Hebrew, Greek and Latin.

Now if you take the full meaning of that, Hebrew is the meaning

of religion. So Jesus is king of all

religion. If you put it in Greek, that's

about culture, he's the king over everything that happens in

life. And if you put it over Roman

Latin, that's the language of law and justice, he's the king

who brings justice, amazing truth.

Then the soldiers divided his clothes and he says fulfilling

prophecy 3 times. He says fulfilling prophecy

because he wants us to know the truth of this.

Jesus said. Then he provides for his mother

a wonderful sweet time, because in those days if a wife had no

husbands, you had to rely on her eldest son.

And he's now leaving. And so he asked John, will you

care for my mother? Beautiful thought.

And Jesus said, I'm thirsty. Another fulfilling prophecy.

They gave him some sour wine, which he really didn't take, but

he probably moistened his mouth enough, because now he cries out

with the loudest of voice. It is finished and he gave up

his spirit voluntarily. John is remind us crucifixion

didn't kill Jesus. Jesus gave up his life.

See, because God had ordained it.

The shoulders didn't break his bones fulfilling prophecy.

They pierced his side fulfilling prophecy.

The blood and water came out proved that he was dead and it

likely symbolized the water baptism and the blood of

cleansing. And then he makes very sure that

we understand he had a very wonderful burial by his friends.

The bottom says the Apostles Creed symbolizes these key

points from John 19 by saying suffered under Pontius Pilate

was crucified, dead and buried. Now why is that important?

Pontius Pilate is probably the most famous non believer in the

Christian world. And why is that?

Because thousands of churches every week just like we did

mention his name and it has been mentioned for 2000 years.

Why is that the only other name that's mentioned in the Apostles

Creed aside from Jesus? Why did God want Pontius Pilate

to be this well known? And John tells us because he's

the only one that gives this conversation.

It is a prat. It is a profound conversation

that Jesus has that summarizes really the Old and the New

Testament. The whole picture of the Bible

is summarized in this conversation. 2 kingdoms are in

conflict here. The Kingdom of the world?

That's wrong. The Kingdom of heaven, that's

Jesus. And these two kingdoms were

coming together in conflict. You can't read this story

without the sheer seeing, the sheer majesty of Jesus and the

way he handles this conversation.

He has No Fear. He's not intimidated.

In fact, he treats Pilate with respect and honor and that's led

to Pilot to start having some fear in his life and he declares

3 different times this man is innocent.

This man has there's no guilt in this man, and yet he failed his

own system of laws because Roman law was you didn't execute

someone whom you had declared as innocent, but he became a how

coward and he let the Jews have their way.

Now let's look at these questions that Pilate has five

of them. Two of them are pretty much the

same. But he first of all asked what

accusation do you bring against this man and Jesus?

The Jews had said Jesus was said that he was king of he was king,

he was Messiah. He told them they asked him

specifically the high priest, are you the Messiah?

And he said yes, I am, which meant he was king.

And then later they said he made himself out to be the Son of God

and they consider that blasphemy.

What is John saying here to us? That this accusation is actually

Jesus is clearly being crucified for being God, the Son of God.

And John wants us to see that with great clarity.

Second question pilot asks is, are you the king of the Jews?

But Jesus turns the question on the pilot.

He's in control. And he says, are you saying this

for yourself or just because others told you this?

Now, do you actually see where Jesus is actually being

evangelistic right here? He's actually sharing the gospel

with Pilate. Because you see, it's an

important distinction for two reasons.

If he answers it from the Jewish side, he would have to answer

yes, all right, which meant he would be stoned.

But if he answers it from Pilot's side, from Rome as a

king challenging the Rome's authority, his answer is no, all

right. But Pilot comes back and answers

after he tries to release him. He says, what have you done?

For the Jews have turned you over to me?

And Jesus said here he gives, I would say the picture of the

entire Scripture, and here it is, He says my Kingdom, meaning

there is a Kingdom, is not of this world twice.

It's not of this world. In other words, what God came to

establish in Genesis, which ends in Revelation, is a Kingdom that

will rule over everything. He says for this purpose I was

born. I was born to be the king of the

world. Secondly, he says, and I was

born for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth.

That's why I'm here. And he says everyone who hears

my voice of the truth listens to my voice.

And again, Jesus is actually offering Pilate another

opportunity as if he is saying, Pilate, do you hear me?

Pilate didn't listen. He rejects it, didn't even stay

around for an answer. But he knows he still can't

condemn Jesus for saying that he's witnessing to the truth.

But now John, answer, I think, is the true question for all of

us. What is truth?

What is truth? Pilate didn't believe there was

an answer for him. Truth was only whatever Rome

said. It was the world.

But Pilate again says he sees no guilt.

Twice he tries to release him. So he tries to scourge him in

order to say, look, I punished him, so let's let him go.

No, it fails. And then he goes back in and he

asked one last question, Where are you from?

And how do I understand all of this in essence?

And it says Jesus was silent. Why was he silent?

Because he'd already answered the question.

He'd already said, I'm not of this world.

My Kingdom is not of this world. But pilot resorts to power and

he says, do you not know that I have authority to release you or

crucify you Jesus very, very calmly.

This Pilot, you have no authority over me at all unless

God above gives it to you, and therefore he who delivered me

over to you, which was the Jewish leaders, has a greater

sin. Pilot continued to try to lease

him, but in fact, with all his power, there was nothing he

could do about it. You know why?

Because it was God's authority that prevailed.

You see, it was God's plan for Jesus to die by crucifixion.

Peter echoes that in his sermon at Pentecost.

So what is John trying to bring to our attention again?

He says, I want you to believe Jesus is the Son of God, the

Messiah King, that he has a clear purpose to reveal truth,

that those who listen to him are real of the true followers of

his truth. God alone has authority to do

all of this. That's being done.

And so therefore the crucifixion has been tremendous import

because of why it's being done. It's being done because of who

Jesus is. And then his resurrection proves

it all true, and then we find out what it accomplished.

Now, what does this mean for you and I?

I think John encourages us to ask three questions.

First, is there a source, a final source of truth?

Is there an absolute truth that we can live by?

Or do I live by many truths, the truths of the world?

When someone says something ridiculous like, well, hey man,

the way is at work is you've got to work yourself up the ladder

and get up to the top and make as much money as you can.

That's not the whole truth, is it?

Because that's not so easy and because most people don't make

it to the top of the ladder. And those who do often find it's

leaning against the wrong wall. It didn't take them where they

wanted it to go because they were following the truth of the

world. See, when someone says, while

you have your truth and I have my truth, have you ever heard

that? Ever heard that?

You know, what this does is it shows a very low level of their

discernment about truth, because for them, truth is staying in

the shallow end of life. Because unless you're willing to

move in to the deep, strong truths of this world, if there

isn't a higher truth, absolute truth above us that governs

everything we think and do, then the world's ideas will always be

attractive. But they're not truth there.

And frankly, they're just opinions because they're not

based on anything that will stay.

Why is it in our courtrooms they demand that we get clarity of

truth? What do they say?

Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth?

And then they decided we need to add the whole truth.

And then they decided we need to add and nothing but the truth

don't add to it. Why?

Because they're trying to establish clearly what is truth.

And most people, we'll just stay in the shallow end of life and

not pursue that. Unless you can say with

conviction and facts that what you believe is true, you're only

stating a position, a opinion. I discovered that truth one fall

my freshman year at the University of Texas, which

you've all heard me say, that wonderful spiritual hotbed.

But it was for me, a man set across in a crowded cafeteria

and gave me the gospel. I had heard every part of it,

but that day I heard the voice of Jesus and it became truth for

me and my life changed. It's never been the same since

so much so even my friend said What's happened to you?

As you see, there is an absolute truth that we stand on.

Second question is, can truth be right in one circumstance and

not in another? Many people say, well truth is

relative. That can be true here, but it's

not necessarily true over here. Jesus says I am the truth

doesn't say a truth. He says he's the same yesterday,

today and forever. Truth doesn't change.

And Jesus said I came to bear witness to the truth and his

life and his words proved that He is that source of truth.

As he said, my words are truth. See, truth doesn't resist being

open to discussion. The more you examine it, the

clearer it becomes there's no relativity to the truth of God.

It fits all circumstances, it can be discussed and questioned,

and yet it remains true. And the reason is the stability

of its source, which doesn't change.

He even promises, I will send you the spirit of truth through

the power of the Holy Spirit, who will guide you into all the

truth that you need for life. Even the Pagan philosophers,

Socrates and Plato, his student who wrote 300 years before

Christ, they probably wrote more and spoke more about truth than

just about anybody else. And every class on philosophy

stutters, studies them still today.

But they made this statement. Truth is eternal and it's

unchanging. Isn't that interesting?

They knew it, they saw the purity of it.

And they went on to say truth is for freedom.

Living without truth is not truth life.

It's living death, they said. And they were echoing Jesus as

words that would come later. Who said you will know the truth

and the truth will set you free. When well over a decade ago my

wife died and I was trying to think my way through to

understand what had happened to me and in reading scripture

other people who would explain it, I was led to answer 3

questions. God said, Pete, am I sovereign?

Am I in control of all things regardless of what happens to

you, am I in control of all things?

Yes Lord, you are. You can change anything.

Secondly, am I good? That was harder to answer yes,

for the scripture does say you are good and he said you have to

answer this question, will you trust me with what you don't

understand because God is worth trusting because he's true, it's

true. So the last question I would ask

you how has God changed God's truth changed you as God as

Jesus? Truth changed your loneliness

into contentment. Has his truth changed your worry

into peace? It can.

Has he changed bad habits into freedom?

It can. Has it changed your shyness into

boldness for Christ? It can.

Has it changed your uncertainties and giving you

wisdom? Oh definitely it can.

Promised to do so. Has it changed your distrust and

to love and acceptance? It does.

How does truth do this? I like we see three things here

that John's pointing out to us. First of all, truth that Jesus

brings is confident. It brings us confidence.

It doesn't waver, it doesn't change.

You can stand on it and it's going to always be true.

But secondly, that confidence and that truth encourages trust,

which means you can lean on him and not your own understanding

and whatever it is you're facing that you don't understand, you

can trust him because he's worthy of trust.

And last of all, truth demands action, so you only really

believe what acts. What act activates you.

Truth leads you to make decisions and to act.

Let me make one last statement about Doctor Papadaros.

He said he discovered that light brings truth.

So each day ask the Holy Spirit to bring light into your life

that gives you truth, so that whatever you face, you can face

it with confidence. And then take that same truth

and shine it in the light of other people.

Let me pray, Lord, make us confident to trust You, the

truth that we find in your wonderful life, giving words,

and help us to shine that light of the truth that we've learned

with those with whom we live, with whom we work, with whom we

play, that we might fulfill Your purpose bearing truth to this

world. Amen.