"What Shall I Do with Jesus?" Pilate Asked | Frank Brancato

It's wonderful to be here with all of you today, and we have a

wonderful crowd because you're here.

We have, as has been mentioned, several of our folks that were

sick and recovering and you're here.

And we give God the praise, the glory, and the honor for it all.

As always is the case, I do consider it an honor to speak

concerning the Word of God. And today I want to continue

where we left off last time when Jesus was before Pilate.

The title that's on the screen is the words that Pilate used in

Matthew 27 and 22 to the people when he said, what then shall I

do with Jesus? So the title of our lesson comes

from Matthew's account, but the narrative that we're going to

follow today is going to be found in John's account, just

like last time. But in Matthew 27 and 22, our

introductory text, Pilate said to them, what then shall I do

with Jesus, who is called Christ?

They all said to him, let him be crucified.

You know, after Jesus was tried in Pilots Hall, Pilate had a

choice to make even though he knew Jesus was innocent.

And now as we come down to the historical narrative, we come

face to face with the fact that Jesus Christ is going to die.

He's going to die for the sins of the world.

He's going to die to fulfill God's eternal plan from the very

beginning, as the Bible says, known unto God are all His works

from the very beginning, That it was God's purpose in the very

beginning that Jesus Christ would be God's lamb to redeem

mankind and bring mankind to God in heaven one day.

That was always God's plan. We have a part in that, and we

have to follow our part. But that was God's plan.

OK, so as we come to this narrative, what's happened

already? Well, the religious trial is

over. Jesus was taken to Anna's and

the Sanhedrin in the middle of the night.

As we noticed last time, that was illegal.

Why was it illegal? Because you couldn't deal with a

capital case, or you couldn't examine a capital case unless it

was under the light of day. So you didn't hurry and make a

hasty, hasty decision based on somebody's life.

So again the next morning, to make what they did illegal the

night before legal, they met with Caiaphas in the Sanhedrin

the next morning. What did they say Jesus was

guilty of? They said he's guilty of

blasphemy. But do you remember in the last

verse that we noticed in John chapter 18 and verse 38, Pilate

John 18 · chapter mention

said, I find no fault in him at all.

Pilate tried to get out of his decision of what am I going to

do with Jesus? So he sends him to Herod.

You know what hair it does hair, it sends them back.

It's your problem, you deal with it.

But let's just make a spiritual application here, please.

Pilate tried everything he could to get out of his decision of

what must I do with Jesus? What am I going to do with him?

But God forced him to make that decision.

And you know, God does the same thing for everyone that lives.

Everybody has to make that decision.

God is not going to make that decision for you.

You got to make the determination.

What am I going to do with Jesus in my life?

Look at the examples of the apostles themself.

Look at Judas Iscariot, He had a decision to make.

You know what he did? He betrayed Jesus and he sold

them for 30 pieces of silver. What about the others?

What about the other disciples? The Bible says they all forsook

him and they all fled. I'm not getting into the

reasons. I'm saying they had a choice.

What must I do with Jesus? They all fled.

How about Peter? Peter, when they all fled?

The Bible says he followed Jesus from afar.

Isn't that a picture of what a lot of people do today in their

decision of what I'm going to What am I going to do about

Jesus? Oh, they follow him, but they

follow him from a distance out of convenience from afar.

You know what happened to Peter as a result of following Jesus

from afar? He ends up, what's the end

result, doing exactly what Jesus said.

He denies him three times, even cursing and swearing.

I know not the man. Everybody has to make that

decision. So let's begin.

In John chapter 18 and verse 39, Pilate says, but you have a

John 18 · chapter mention

custom that I should release someone to you at the Passover.

Do you therefore want me to release to you the King of the

Jews? So in an attempt to get rid of

Jesus, he had several failed proposals.

He asked also. He also had one already.

Remember last time in John 18 and 31, what was his failed

proposal? He knows Jesus is innocent.

And what does Pilate say? He said you take Him and you

judge Him yourself. That was illegal.

The right of the sword belonged only to Rome.

Remember Roman law, Roman law said the Jews could have their

law, they could regulate their law, and they could even have

punishments for those that break their laws.

But when it came down to executing somebody or the death

penalty, the right of the sword belonged only to Rome.

And I love this because in the entire time of the ministry of

Jesus, the three years of the ministry of Jesus, Roman law

stated that only Rome could execute somebody legally.

So therefore, it proved that God was ultimately in control.

He had to be lifted up according to the prophecy found in Numbers

21. He had to be hung on a tree as

the Bible prophecies. Jesus would be the Messiah.

It couldn't be a Jewish stoning. It had to be a lifting up.

It had to be a crucifixion. Pilot thought, you know what?

Here's a failed proposal. I don't want to do this.

I want to get out of my responsibility here.

I don't want to make the decision.

You do it. And what did they say?

You know, Pilot, it is not lawful for us to put a man to

death. Here's another one though.

He said I got it. Here's a failed proposal.

He said you have a custom. In other words, it's Passover

time after all. Just a few days before.

By the way, it was Hosanna of the highest.

Just a few days before, when Jesus came in to Jerusalem and

made his triumphal entry on the back of a colt of a donkey.

They said hosanna to the highest, hosanna to the king.

Hold on to that thought. Hold on to that phrase for just

a moment. Let's think about Pilot.

Let's get in Pilot's head for just a moment.

Maybe he's thinking, you know, just a week ago, just a few days

ago, they were saying, hosanna, maybe if I present this as an

alternative, you got a custom that had passed overtime.

I'm going to release somebody. Surely they'll pick Jesus and I

can get out of that decision. Surely the people will overwhelm

the situation and demand Jesus would be released.

So he says this. Do you therefore want me to

release to you the King of the Jews?

And in verse 40, here's the answer.

Then they all cried out again saying not this man, but

Barabbas. This morning, early in my Sunday

morning routine, when I have the lesson, I get up really early.

I I connect my computer to my TV in my office with a PowerPoint,

check all my slides and I go over my sermon in my head.

And you know what hit me? What hit me is this passage

right here. He says, do you want me to

release to you the king of the Jews?

And notice they all cried, not this man, but Barabbas.

And I couldn't help but thinking, didn't anybody cry for

Jesus? Couldn't have been Peter?

Peter just betrayed Jesus three times, the Bible says when he

did so. And the rooster crowed.

The Lord looked at Peter then. Then he pointed this out when I

preached that sermon a couple weeks ago.

He said it says he went out and he wept bitterly.

You ever wept? You ever weep bitterly?

You ever been in anguish so bad that you go out and weep

bitterly? Not just cry a few tears of her

grill. I mean weep bitterly.

He went out and he wept bitterly.

So Peter was nowhere to be insight to cry out for Jesus.

You know why he's out bawling somewhere.

What about the rest of them? They all forsook and they all

fled. There's no one there.

So I got to thinking, what about the women?

What about the precious women? I saw a movie years ago on the

crucifixion and when this scene was going on, Hollywood's

depiction of this scene, when they all cried out Barabbas to

be released, it showed those Marys screaming the name of

Jesus. Is that what happened?

I don't know. I know those courageous women

have the courage and the backbone to be there at the

sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection.

And God chose them to be first hand eyewitness testimony to the

resurrection. Maybe they screamed out, but you

know what the Bible says about all those Jews that were there.

They all cried. Not this man, but Barabbas.

Who was Barabbas? Barabbas was a robber according

to the passage, and in the Greek it means bandit or highwayman.

In other words, it's the kind of man that Jesus referred to when

he gave the parable of the Good Samaritan.

I won't go into the whole narrative.

I'll just point out a couple of things.

Jesus pointed this out about who's your neighbor, who's our

neighbor, and who's our responsibility to our neighbor.

So he tells this story. He said there's a man one time

and he leaves Jerusalem and he goes down to Jericho.

And that was about 15 miles or so, descended some 3000 feet.

It was rough and rocky terrain. It was rife with robbers and

highwaymen. And the Bible says Jesus said

the man fell among thieves. He fell among the kind of man

that's standing next to him. Barabbas, that kind of a man.

And they came and those men on the Jericho Rd. they beat him,

they robbed him, and they left him for dead.

This is the kind of man that Jesus is standing next to.

Look at the irony of that. He's standing next to exactly

that kind of a man. What happened then when I told

you we're going to get back to Hosanna, they said Hosanna the

king, Hosanna the highest. I wanted to confirm the

definition, so I looked it up again this morning.

If you look up the word hosanna in our dictionary or you Google

it because we live in a Google world, I like Google or it's

right there. I don't have to carry a

dictionary. You know, I really like the fact

too, that I used to have to go to Bible studies in the old days

and I bring my Bible out of Concords.

I don't even need that. I need my Bible and my phone.

So it's true that the phone can be a tool of the devil if we're

not careful. And all the other fancy things

we could do with a phone, we could do some bad things too,

but we can do some good things with it too.

And one of the things you can do is you can Google a passage that

you're not, you can't remember what it was and boom, there it

is. So we do live in a Google age.

So I looked up the word hosanna in our modern definition and it

says praise and adoration. So when we look at it, it looks

like they were praising Jesus and giving adoration to Jesus.

But the word you remember, hosanna, comes from the phrase

hoshaya na, which is the Greek form of a Hebrew word to God for

an appeal. It actually means in Hebrew,

Save now we pray, Lord, save us. They misunderstood.

The Jews thought Jesus was going to save them from Roman

oppression, was going to come in as the Messiah and establish an

earthly Kingdom. They missed the whole point when

they didn't get exactly what they were wanting or

understanding about the Messianic Kingdom.

Then about a week later, let's just crucify him.

But you know, get this for just a moment, if you will.

I think it's very typical. It's typical with people.

It's typical. Then it's typical.

Now you know what? When it's Hosanna day, it's

Hosanna. When it's crucified day, it's

crucify him. Let me tell you why that applies

today. Applies today too.

I know people 2 * a year, OK December, 1 day in December and

one day in April managed 3 chairs for Jesus and then the

rest of the year, whatever you want.

There's a lot of people just like that when it's three cheers

for Jesus day. Hey, 3 cheers for Jesus and then

do whatever you want the rest of your life.

It's typical. It was typical back then, too.

Hosanna day. Yeah.

Hosanna crucify. Day crucify.

So what happened? What happened to the people from

the time they were saying hosanna to the highest Hosanna,

the king? Let's go to Mark's account in

Mark 15 and 11. But the chief priest did this,

stirred up the people so that he should rather release Barabbas

to them and not Jesus. They had a chance to do what

they should have done and that was stand up for Jesus and they

failed miserably. They had a chance to pick the

greatest man that ever lived and they chose the worst scum you

could imagine. And you know something, I

thought about this the other day.

We think, well, wait a minute, we would never do anything like

that. We would always have a backbone

and we would have the strength not to do that.

Well, where was their backbone? They chose the worst and it's

typical. Let me just say this, you're

saying, no, I wouldn't have done that.

Well, let me just phrase it like this.

And I do this very respectfully, OK?

But anytime in our Life, OK, when we choose sin over our

Christianity, you just chose Barabbas.

When I choose a sinful path over the Lord, I just chose Barabbas.

If not, why not? So before we get too hard on the

ones that were there, think about art life too.

And many times in our life, we make the wrong choice for

whatever reason. And when we do, when we choose

anything but the Lord, when anything's more important in our

life than the Lord, you know what?

For that brief moment, in that way and in that act, we just

chose Barabbas. OK.

Pilate then had a second proposal that didn't work, so

something else. Then Pilate took Jesus and

scourged him. This was actually an effort to

compromise. And if you look at Luke's

account and Luke 23 and 16, it says that Pilate said before

this, he said I got it. I got what I'm going to do.

What I'm going to do is I'm therefore will chastise him and

then I will let him go. I will release him.

You know, that's the greatest example of a coward I can even

ever imagine. If you know he's innocent, why

are you going to beat him? Why are you going to beat the

Lord? Why are you going to beat Jesus

if you know he's innocent? That's the act of a coward.

To appease the people. I'll pacify them.

And then I'll bring his mutilated body out before the

crowd and they'll look at his mutilated body and they'll say

that's enough. You know why he has a decision

to make. What am I going to do about

Jesus? And he doesn't want to make it.

Let me talk about the Roman scourging for just a moment,

please. A Roman scourge was a thick

stick wrapped with leather. At the end of it were leather

thongs of some length, and in the end of those thongs were

held bits of brass and lead and bone filed to sharp points.

The victim was either then stretched flat on the ground

with his back up or tied to a post hanging or strapped

suspended from the ground. The soldier would thrust the

scourge across his back of the victim, tearing the flesh from

his back. This is called, by the way, a

scourge or a Pflagram. That's different than a cat of

nine tails. You ever heard the phrase cat of

nine tails? That was more like a

superficial. It made superficial cuts to the

skin. This was different.

It had lead on the ends for weight, lead lead piece on the

end, lead balls on the end for weight.

The sheep bone would be Shard and there would be lead spikes

on that too. And they would take the scourge

and they would thrust it across the back of the victim and when

they would pull it back, it would literally take the skin

off of the back. They took the victim and they

suspended him on a pole like that, or they laid him flat on

the ground. Got to make a point here.

Get the number 39 out of your head.

Some people think he was scourge.

So therefore he was beaten 39 times.

And the reason for that is because of the Old Testament.

By the way, the Old Testament. Did you know in the Old

Testament there was no such thing as prison?

Didn't have prisons in the Old Testament?

That wasn't God's way. Do you know what God did when

somebody did something wrong? There was immediate retribution.

There was immediate action, immediate penalty, immediate

punishment, and then it was over.

In other words, they didn't get to go sit somewhere and think

about what they did. They actually paid for their

crime and it was over. And one of the things was

immediate, not capital, but corporal or physical punishment.

And they would have lashes that there would be lashed not with a

flagrant but with leather, and they would take a beating.

And the Bible says under Jewish law, it couldn't exceed 40.

So what they did is it would be 40 less 1.

So it would be 39. So they never would exceed 40 if

they miscounted. That is Jewish law.

Rome didn't have that law. I'm going to tell you something

right now. I believe with all my heart.

They beat Jesus almost to death. And the reason Jesus didn't die

is because God intervened, because Jesus had to go to the

cross, because that's what the Bible says he had to do.

God kept him alive. They beat the Lord almost to

death with a Roman scourge. The torture was so horrible.

No Roman citizen. We talk about this with

crucifixion, but did you also know that no Roman citizen could

ever be scourged? It was illegal and it was

forbidden. What else did they do to Jesus?

And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his

head, and they put on him a purple robe.

I've always pictured it like this.

I've always seen pictures of Jesus, or even statues of what's

supposed to be Jesus on the cross and the crown of thorns.

And we think a crown of thorns must have looked something like

that because that's what a crown is.

A crown goes around the head, right?

I read some historians who said it's entirely possible that the

crown of thorns didn't look like that.

And here was the explanation. By the way, I don't know this to

be true. It wasn't there, but I'm just

going to say what I found and I'll share it with you.

This one historian said it didn't look like that because if

it was like that and they pressed it down on the head of

the victim, they would have stabbed their own self in the

hands. And therefore they didn't have

it that way. The, the in other words, the

thorns had to be on the inside. So one historian said that it

was probably more like this, a helmet of thorns where all the

thorns are on the inside and they put it on his head and

pressed it down on the Lord's head, and then they put on a

purple robe. Verse 3 says this.

Then they said Hail king of the Jews, and they struck him with

their hands. You know, in the Greek

translation if the verbatim, this is how the Greek actually

would read. And they kept saying hail King

of the Jews, and they kept giving him blows with their

hands, punching him in the face with their fists.

That's not bad enough. What about the purple robe?

The Romans had a game they like to play with idiots and

imbeciles, and that's a direct quote, by the way.

Idiot meaning somebody of low intelligence and an imbecile

before the 20th century was a word that was used to describe

somebody that had some form of mental retardation.

I realized, look, I'm getting older and I don't know all the

rules of politically correct. I don't know if you're allowed

to say that anymore. I don't know.

I'm just telling you, that's what people called somebody that

had a mental disorder like that before the 20th century.

They were called an imbecile. What the Romans would do, they

would catch them. They would dress them up so no

one dressed them up like kings, and they would sit them on

places and they would mock them. They would bow down and make

fools out of them. It's a terrible game, but think

about it this way. That's what they did to the Lamb

of God. That's what they did to the King

of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's what they did to the

Savior of the world, God's Lamb. And Pilate allows him to be

abused, beaten, mocked, spit on. And then in verse 4, Pilot then

went out again and he said to them, behold, I'm bringing him

out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.

This is ridiculous. What a coward, Pilot.

So all of a sudden the Lord's been beaten, He's been scourged,

and here comes Pilot. Oh, by the way, I'm bringing him

out to you. So you know that I find no fault

in him. If you found no fault in him,

then why did you beat him, Pilate?

Then Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns in a purple robe

and Pilate said, behold the man. I think Pilate was basically

saying this. Look at the man.

Does he really look like a king? Does he really look like

somebody that's a political revolutionary?

Does he really look like a dangerous man?

I could picture in my mind's eye the blood running down his neck,

pulled with his back and down to the ground.

I don't know how else to put it. A bloody mess.

I'm not trying to be graphic, but truly a bloody mess, A

despicable sight. And brought him before the

people and said, behold the man. I think in Pilot's mind, as a

failed proposal, he said, I'm going to appease the people.

I'm going to have him beaten. And they're going to say that's

enough. OK, good, we're good.

OK, thank you, Pilot. That's good.

That's good. I think that's what he thought.

But notice, therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw

him, they cried out saying crucify him.

Crucify him had no effect at all.

By the way, may I just suggest something?

When hatred is what drives you in your heart, I say you as in

general to people, OK? When bitter hatred is what

drives you in your heart, and you make the determination in

your mind what you want in advance, you don't want justice,

you want it your way. And when hatred is all you can

see, bitter hatred, you're going to be unfazed and unaffected by

circumstances that may alter your opinion.

Here's Jesus, a man that did nothing, came to die for the

sins of the world. He brings them out and he says,

Oh no, crucify him, crucify him, Pilate said to them, here we go,

you take him and crucify him. Here we go, Broke the law again,

still trying to get out of it. He says you do it, can't do it

illegal, trying to get out of the decision and then he says

this for I find no fault in him. Do you know this is the fifth

time you said that he does it 6 total times.

This is number 5. I find no fault in him.

Then they responded like this verse 7, the accused answered

him. We have a law and according to

our law he ought to die because he made himself to be the Son of

God. Remember this, the two things

they absolutely despised about Jesus when Jesus was on the face

of this earth, two things. One, how he handled the Sabbath,

couldn't stand it. Jesus said I can do whatever I

want on the Sabbath. I'm Lord of the Sabbath, I'm

granted on the Sabbath, and he marked the transition from the

Old Testament Sabbath significant day into the Old Law

to the New Testament significant day, the first day of the week.

Jesus, as my father would say, he had all the votes.

You can do whatever he wanted. They hated him for that.

You know what else they hated him for?

They hated him for saying I'm the Son of God.

They felt that was blasphemous. What Jesus was trying to explain

when he preached on the face of this earth is this is not

against God. What he's saying is I do

everything with God and if you want God, you got to go through

me. If you want God, you got to go

through me. Don't let anybody tell you that

Jesus is not the answer. Jesus is the answer.

There's no other way to heaven except Jesus except people say,

well, what about all I don't know about?

I don't know about any of that. All I know is this.

Jesus says no one comes into the Father except through me.

That's all I know. Jesus is the answer.

They rejected him. In summary, noticed in summary,

what were the accusations so far?

Well, the first thing they said is, well, he threatened to

destroy the temple. That wasn't true.

What he says is I'm going to destroy the temple and build it

up in three days. He was talking about himself

being raised on the third day. So that's not true.

Oh, they said he's a bad guy. He's an evil doer.

Remember when they came to Pilate and they said Pilate

says, what evil hath he done? And they said, oh, do you think

we would have brought him to you?

If you want an evil doer, Falsely.

They also accused him of perverting the nation.

That was also false. They falsely said he forbade

paying taxes or paying tribute or taxes to Caesar.

That's not true. Talked about that last time.

What else? They said, oh, wait a minute,

he's stirring up the people. None of these things have any

bearing or any merit to PILOT. What else?

They said he's a political revolutionary.

Again, not true. What else?

Finally he says. Then he makes himself to be the

Son of God. What does that mean?

That means he's a false God, Pilot.

And we don't like those kind of guys, Pilot, And you better do

something about it. Here's an interesting point in

Roman history. They were so superstitious, you

know, they actually believe. The Romans believed.

They believed in multiple gods. There was a God for this and a

God for that and a God for this and a God for that.

All kinds of gods. Small G, by the way, right?

And they believed that there were times when these small G

gods came down to Earth in human form and dwelt among people.

Remember Acts chapter 14? I think they called Paul

Acts 14 · chapter mention

Jupiter, didn't they? And Barnabas, Mercury, they do

it again to Paul in Acts 28. You know why?

Because they believed. It was a custom.

They believed in the superstition that God's actually

come down to the earth and dwell among men.

Pilate is scared out of his mind, thinking, Wait a minute, I

may have just scourged the Son of God.

Notice the next passage. Therefore, when Pilate heard

that saying what saying that saying he was more afraid when

they said He makes himself to be the Son of God.

When he said that he was more afraid that phrase actually

means he was in a frenzied panic.

Let's add it all up. Either heard a lot of stuff

about Jesus. He's heard and seen the

character of Jesus. He's concerned about his own

moral judgment. How about the warning of his

wife who came to him and said have nothing to do with this

man. I had a dream about him.

All of this and Pilate still can't get rid of Jesus.

And now he's scared to death that he just might have beaten

the Son of God. As one said one time, he's

bordering a raving maniac. So this is what he says.

And he went again into the praetorium and he said to Jesus,

where are you from? He wasn't wondering what's your

address over there in Nazareth? That's not what he was asking.

He was asking him, are you from the place where God's come from?

Are you really from that place, or are you just from earth?

That's what he wants to know. He's panicked.

Where are you from? But notice, please.

But Jesus gave him no answer. Why was Jesus silent?

Have you ever wondered why Jesus was silent?

I know you're thinking you're you're thinking you know the

answer. The first one's going to leap

off the pigs. We get it.

But I got a second one to slip in.

OK, the first one is obvious and that's prophecy.

Isaiah 53 and seven, He was oppressed and he was afflicted,

yet he opened out his mouth. He was led as a lamb of the

slaughter and as a sheep before it's shears is silent.

So he opened out his mouth. So first and foremost, Jesus was

silent because the Bible prophetically stated hundreds of

years before the prophet Isaiah said he would be silent.

But I think there's a secondary reason to in addition to that.

And that was because of pilot's heart.

You ever think of that pilot's heart?

You know, there's one thing that Jesus could do that I can't.

Sometimes we try and don't ever do this.

Please don't ever try to think you can judge somebody's heart.

You cannot. You can't read it.

You can't judge it. I know the Bible says by your

fruits you shall know them, but you can't ever really judge a

motive of somebody else. You can't judge their heart.

Nobody can't. Jesus can't.

God can't. Jesus knew Pilate's heart.

In other words, Jesus knew that Pilate was finally at the point

when there was nothing that Jesus could say that would have

mattered in the mind of Pilate. So we said nothing.

And I really think there's something sobering here.

I think there might come a time sometimes when an when an

individual and please hear my exact words when an individual

willfully rejects Jesus, OK, that the Lord become silent.

I didn't say it's impossible for them to change their life down

the road. I didn't say it's impossible for

them to repent, come back, come later on.

Didn't say that because I know a lot of people that have

willfully rejected Jesus for most of their life and have come

back to the Lord. I'm not saying it's impossible.

I'm saying this there does come a point in time and I'm going to

explain what I mean. There does come a point in time

when people willfully reject Jesus and his teachings where

Jesus becomes silent. What do I mean by silent?

Did the Lord go anywhere? No, he didn't go anywhere.

Acts, John 1837. Jesus already said this last

time. Everyone who is of the truth

hears my voice. The word here means to listen

intently and obey. That's what the word here means.

OK, There comes a time in life when sometimes people reject

Jesus and the teachings of Jesus and the Lord become silent.

What do I mean by that? I mean the Lord is no longer an

influence in their life because of their choice.

Give you a great example. Judas Iscariot with Jesus all

that time. Jesus behind those locked doors

instituting the Lord's Supper when they were eating the

Passover feast. Judas is to the left of Jesus.

John is to the right of Jesus. Reclining this way, Oriental

custom was the actual ultimate guest of honor was not the one

to the right, not John, it was the one to the left.

Jesus put Judas in the ultimate position of honor.

He served in first too. And then Jesus said, one of you

is going to betray me. They all began to say, Master,

is it I? And again, is it I?

Finally Judas said, is it I? And the King James says, thou

hast said, do you know what happened next?

Jesus whispers to Judas, Whatsoever thou doest, doest it

quickly. That's what the King James says.

Remember the next phrase? And then Satan entered Judas.

That didn't mean that he was all of a sudden demonically

possessed by the devil. It meant the devil was now the

ultimate influence in his life and not Jesus.

Let me give you an example. Remember, when your kids, you're

young. We're all young.

We have parents. Guess what?

We love our parents. Oh, yeah.

I really respect our parents. They're the loudest voice in our

head, in our ears. We respect them.

We follow them. And sometimes we get to an age

where our friends start speaking louder in our ears than our

parents, and they become, for a period of time, a greater

influence than our parents. What that means is when we're

listening to our peers and our friends, and that's the greater

influence in our life. When we're doing that, guess

what? Our parents are silent.

And that's what happens when people choose to follow worldly

things, the devil things, the pure things, simple things, and

not listen to the Lord. Lord didn't go anywhere.

His message is still as powerful and as strong as it ever was.

The difference is the heart of the recipient has now turned.

And I believe Jesus knew Pilate's heart was turned.

So he was silent. Then the response when he was

silent, then Pilate said to him, are you not speaking to me?

Do you not know that I have the power to crucify you and the

power to release you? Notice the response Jesus

answered. You can have no power against me

unless it had been given you from above.

In other words, I love this. This is not you, Pilate.

You think you got control? You wouldn't have this power.

You wouldn't have the authority, You wouldn't have the control if

my Father in heaven did not give it to you.

Wow. Then he said this.

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

Who's that? Who's the one that had the

greater sin? Not Judas, who had the greater

sin? Caiaphas and the religious

leaders were the ones that had the greater sin.

Why is that? Now Pilate's sin is pretty great

here in it. It's going to crucify the Son of

God. The ones that delivered Jesus to

Pilate had the greater sin. Why?

Caiaphas and the religious leaders had no legal authority

or right to do what they did to Jesus.

They had no right to lay hands on him.

They had no right to bind him. They had no right to have him be

led to Pilate to have me crucified.

Jesus said you wouldn't have this authority over me unless

God gave it to you. And therefore the one who

delivered me to you has the greater sin.

Wow. Now when you understand that

that somebody could have actually had a greater sin than

Pilot, then we understand the guilt of those that were

screaming for the blood of Jesus.

Let's take a step back. Please let me ask a question.

Answer this to yourself. Could anybody today be that

guilty? Is it possible for anyone to be

that guilty? Today, as the ones that scream

for the blood of Jesus Christ back then, the answer is yes.

When when somebody knows the truth of the word of God and

rejects it. According to Hebrew 6 is guilty

of crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an

open shame. Men today are just as guilty as

the people who scream for the blood of Jesus when they

willfully reject the Lord. Now I got to say a couple things

here. Tune in TuneIn tight.

Maybe in your life you've drifted.

Maybe you're drifting now. Maybe you've had struggles in

your life. Maybe you're struggling now.

Maybe you're sitting here and you're saying, not me, I've

never drifted. I've never struggled.

Well, if that's the case, then I have just to say to you,

congratulations. But for the rest of us that are

not perfect, let me just suggest this.

Sometimes people struggle, all of us.

And sometimes when we struggle, we drift.

Who are we drifting away from? Not the club.

Sometimes people talk, treat the church like it's a club.

You're drifting away from the club, you're drifting away from

the Lord. And sometimes people drift.

So let me just say, if you are going through a time of struggle

and you're drifting some right now, let me just implore you,

make sure you don't drift so far that you forgot where you came

from and you can't remember how to get back.

Perfect example. I preached a sermon, I don't

know, seven or eight years ago in Oklahoma at a young people's

meeting, and I used this illustration.

I'm going to use it again. A number of years ago, I held a

meeting in Texas. I was staying with a brother and

sister. I'd never been there before,

wasn't familiar with the area. 1 morning, I felt really good.

I was, you know, decided to go for a run.

I went out and started running. I ran 45 minutes to an hour in

the opposite direction, going up and down streets.

I felt so good. I was kind of like Forest Gump,

man. I was running and running.

You know what happened? After about an hour, I realized

something very startling. I am lost.

I ran away from my destination for one hour and I ran so far

and so long I couldn't remember how to get back.

I had to call a friend of mine who gave me the address so I can

get back. Spiritual perspective.

If you're struggling, if you're drifting, reach out.

Reach out to somebody that can help you find your way back.

I'm going to tell you something. We have a tremendous

responsibility as a lighthouse. You ever consider yourself

somebody saying, well, I'm not? Yeah, you are.

Well, I'm not. Yeah, you are.

Yeah, you're important. Yeah, you are.

There's somebody in your life that needs you as a lighthouse

to find their way when they're drifting out at sea.

You have that kind of an impact on somebody in this life.

And when they're drifting, they need to see the lighthouse.

There it is, way out there. Don't you see?

We are the light. Jesus says you're the light of

the world and the salt of the earth.

That's what you are. We're not the light.

Jesus is the light. We're luminaries broadcasting

the light of Jesus to the world. And you know what?

We can be that light. You know what we do sometimes

somebody struggles at cross them off.

Don't do that. Don't you dare do that.

Reach out, reach out, help them see their way back.

You know what it's called? GPS, God's provided solution.

What is it? It's the Word of God.

If you're struggling in your spiritual life, the Word of God

is the solution. If you're a Christian and you're

the light broadcast in the light of Christ, you can reach out and

have an influence and an impact on helping somebody find that

solution and get right with God. If they're not, then verse 12.

From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried

out saying if you will let this, if you let this man go, you are

not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king

speaks against Caesar. This is ridiculous because they

had they hated Caesar. Come on, he couldn't stand

Caesar. They hated the oppressive thumb

of Caesar. And they're saying we don't have

anybody but Caesar. And if you don't do this,

Pilate, you're not Caesar, friend, we're going to tell on

you. So Pilate had to choose between

his neck and his soul. Then in verse 13, what happened

then? Pilate therefore heard that

saying what? Saying what he just said.

We're going to tell on you, Pilate.

He brought Jesus out and sat him down in the judgement seat in a

place that is called pavement, but in Hebrew.

Gabafa verse 14. Now it was the preparation day

of the Passover in about the 6th hour.

And he said to the Jews, Behold your king.

But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king?

The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Then in Matthew's account, Pilate said, What then shall I

do with Jesus? They said, let him be crucified.

What shall I do with Jesus? They said, let him be crucified.

Doctor John's account, John's 19 and 16.

Then he delivered him to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus and they let him away.

What next? Well, now it's on to Golgotha

and that's what we'll pick up probably next time.

On to Golgotha. Why is it called Golgotha?

The word Golgotha in Aramaic means skull.

It's also called in the scriptures, Calvary.

Why is it called Calvary? It it's called Calvary from a

Latin calva meaning bald head or skull.

Now I got to tell you, be careful when you read

commentaries because one commentator said it was called

the place of the skull in the Scriptures because many people

were crucified there. So there was a lot of dead guys

and a lot of skulls there from the all the crucifixions.

That's not why it's called the place of a skull because it's a

skull shaped hill in Jerusalem. That's what it is.

That's Mount Calvary, a skull shaped hill in Jerusalem.

Again, I don't live there. I wasn't there.

I don't know, but this is, I pulled this up.

I googled this too. They say look, maybe something

like that. I don't know the place in the

skull. It looks like a skull, like a

face. Entirely possible it was there.

Jesus was crucified, He was taken down from the cross and he

was buried in a rich man's tomb. And on the third day, so

thankful he rose again. And because of that

resurrection, we have the hope of a resurrection too.

These are lessons that are coming up.

Thank you for your kind listening.

I'm finished this morning. What did we learn though?

What did we learn? What did we learn from all this?

We learned this. Everybody, no matter who you

are, no matter where you're from, no matter what your

background is, has to make a decision about what you're going

to do with Jesus. Let me just suggest, when you

hear the teaching of Jesus Christ and you hear the teaching

of what you must do to be saved, obey it before the Lord is

silent. What does Jesus say about that?

In the parable of the sower, he said the seed that fell by the

wayside, what happens? The birds are going to come

before it can go down into the ground and pluck up those seeds

and carry it off. Luke's account says of that

narrative, it's the devil. Don't let the devil take it

away. And then the Lord is silent.

How do you become a Christian? It's very simple.

The first thing you got to do is hear the word of God.

Romans 10/17 So that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the

word of God. After you hear the word of God,

you got a choice. You got to believe with all your

heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.

Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to

God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those

who diligently seek Him. Then what?

You got to repent of your sins. All that means I got to make a

change in my life. Acts 17 and 30.

Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands

all men everywhere to repent. Then what you got to be willing

to say the greatest thing you will ever say, confess Jesus

Christ as the Son of God. Acts 837 Then Philip said, If

you believe in all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the

Son of God, but then you must be baptized for the remission of

sins. That's the point of salvation.

Mark 1616 He who believes in his baptized will be saved, but he

who does not believe will be condemned.

Is it necessary, and does it actually save us?

First? Peter 321 This is the King James

here the light figure where to even baptism doth also now save

us, not the putting away the filth and the flesh, but the

answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection

of Jesus Christ. That those are the steps that a

person must take in order to be saved.

If you've never taken those steps of obedience, we can

assist you in that right after services today and you can

become a child of God. You can be saved today.

Maybe you have taken those steps.

Then what do you do? You got to repent of your sins,

confess it to God. Do that today.

We'll pray with you and for you, and God will forgive and

restore. If you want to be your class,

come forward while we stand.