Men of the New Testament: "Pilate" by Jonathan Garret - Part 6

Not sure.

There it is. Good evening.

If you're visiting with us, welcome. If you're normally here,

thanks for coming back. Just a brief catch-up

as to this class and series that's going on.

This is the New Testament Characters summer quarter.

We're talking about men who loved and served, preached God,

as well as some who fought and opposed him.

Up until this point, we've talked about John the

Baptist, Apollos, Barnabas, Aquila,

and Timothy. And I think we can all say that

Those men loved and preached God's Word.

And tonight we're going to talk about Pontius Pilate.

What type of man was Pilate? Was he

a follower or an opposer?

So who was Pilate?

Roman governor.

So I kind of cheated a little bit. I thought about putting

out a questionnaire randomly and

just seeing what people's answers would be, but instead I used AI to generate

answers. It come back and I think it's pretty

close to what probably would have come back if I'd put out questionnaires.

So the first one came back, the Roman governor who sentenced

Jesus to be crucified.

The man who washed his hands of Jesus.

The man who asked, what is truth?

The Roman official who couldn't find Jesus guilty but gave

in to the crowd. A villain in the crucifixion.

A weak politician.

I know the name, but I don't remember who he was.

Wasn't he the one who condemned Jesus?

And I'm not sure.

So tonight we're going to look at Pilate according to the Bible.

So the Bible shows that he was a Roman governor who—

with authority over Judea,

a judge who repeatedly declared Jesus innocent,

A man caught between justice and political pressure,

someone who spoke directly with Jesus about his kingship and truth,

and the official who ultimately ordered the crucifixion despite believing

Jesus had committed no capital offense.

So Pilate's found in the Bible in Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John, and all of those are the accounts of the

trial of Jesus, and then in Acts and Timothy.

And tonight I'm going to read Matthew's account and

then look at some of the passages that aren't found in the other accounts,

and then we're going to look at those other accounts

shortly to see the differences

between them.

So Matthew 27:1-2,

Matthew 27:1–2

when morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted

against Jesus to put him to death. And when they had bound him,

they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

Matthew 27:11-14,

Matthew 27:11–14

now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him,

saying, are you the King of the Jews? Jesus said

to him, it is as you say. And while he was being accused

by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.

Then Pilate said to him, do you not hear how

many things they testify against you? But he answered him not

one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.

Matthew 27:15-26,

Matthew 27:15–26

now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one

prisoner whom they wished. And at that time they had

a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.

Therefore, when they had gathered together,

Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release to you,

Barnabas or Jesus who is called Christ? For he knew

they had handed him over because of envy.

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.

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes that they should

ask for Barnabas,

and destroy Jesus. The governor answered

and said to them, Which of the 2 do

you want me to release to you? They said,

Barabbas. Pilate said to them,

What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?

They all said to him, Let him be crucified.

Then the governor said, Why, what evil has he done?

But they cried out all the more, saying, Let him be crucified!

When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a

tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before

the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just

person: you see to it. And all the people answered

and said, His blood be on us and our children!

Then he released Barabbas

to them. And when he had scourged

Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Matthew 27:27-31,

Matthew 27:27–31

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium

and gathered the whole garrison around him. And they stripped him,

and put a scarlet robe on him. When they had twisted the crown

of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand:

and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying,

Hail, King of the Jews! Then they spat on him,

and took the reed, and struck him on the head.

And when they had mocked him, they took the robe off him, and put his

own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified.

Matthew 27:57-65,

Matthew 27:57–65

now when the evening had come, there came a rich man from

Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had become a

disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and

asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to

be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped

it in clean linen cloth, and laid it in a new tomb which he had

hewn out of a rock. And he rolled a large stone against

the door of the tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene was

there, and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb.

On the next day, which followed the day of preparation,

the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate,

saying, Sir, we remember what he— while he was still

alive, How that deceiver said, after 3 days I will rise.

Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the 3rd day,

lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and

say to the people, he is risen from the dead, so that the last deception

will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them,

you have a guard. Go your way and make it secure as

you know how. So that's

Matthew's account of the trial of Jesus.

So we see in this first account,

I want to go back to Matthew 27:18

Matthew 27:18

just for a second.

So when he's dealing with the Pharisees

and the multitude, Pilate asked,

or Pilate knew that he

had handed— they had handed Jesus over because of envy.

So he knew that Jesus was innocent,

but he didn't do anything. And then

the next verse, verse 18,

says, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him,

saying, have nothing to do with this just man. For I

have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.

So even his wife tried to warn him that

Jesus was innocent, and he still

did nothing.

Then I'll drop down to verse 24,

Matthew chapter 27.

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

And when Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather a

tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the

multitude, saying, I am innocent of his blood,

of this just person; you see to it.

So, at this point Pilate is trying to

play it off like he didn't do anything.

He is basically saying that the people crucified

him and it was their choice, not his.

And then the next verse, the multitude answered and said,

his blood be on us and our children.

So they're saying that they were going to take the responsibility

of Jesus' crucifixion. And there's a little

bit of irony in that statement because the blood

of Jesus is what saves us. It's what washes away our sins.

So now I'm going to jump over to Mark.

Mark 15,

starting at verse 6.

Now at the feast he was accustomed to release one prisoner to them.

Whomever they requested. And there was one named Barabbas,

who was chained with his fellow rebels, and they had committed murder in their

rebellion. Then the multitude, crying aloud, began to ask

him to do just as he had always done for them. But Pilate answered,

saying, Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?

For he knew the chief priests had handed him over because of envy.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he should

rather release Barabbas to them.

Pilate answered and said to them again, What then do you want me to do

with him who you call King of the Jews?

So they cried out again, Crucify him!

And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done?

But they cried out all the more, Crucify him! So Pilate,

wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas

to them, and he delivered Jesus after he was scourged— after

he had scourged him— to be crucified.

So again, we see that Pilate didn't seem

to want to do what the crowd wanted, but he ultimately folded

and allowed them to make that decision and force

him or allowed them to make his decision to crucify Jesus.

So now I want to jump over to Luke 23,

starting at verse 6.

When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man was a Galilean.

And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent

him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at the time. Now when Herod

saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for a

long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him,

and he hoped to see some miracles done by him. Then he questioned

him with many words, but he answered him nothing. And the chief

priests and scribes stood violently

accusing him. Then Herod and his men of war treated

him with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in gorgeous robe,

and sent him back to Pilate. That very day Pilate and

Herod became friends with each other, with each other, for previously

they had been in opposition with each other. So,

In a sense, Pilate tried to pass the buck.

He thought that he would let Herod deal with it and

then that would get him out of it. But Herod

found no fault in him and sent him back to Pilate to

let Pilate deal with it again.

So then in the following verse 13,

Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and rulers and

the people, said to them, You have brought

this man to me as one who misleads the people. And indeed,

having examined him in your presence, I have found no

fault in this man concerning these things which you accuse him.

No, neither did Herod, for I sent him back to him. And indeed,

nothing deserving of death has been done by him. I will

therefore chastise him and release him.

So again, Pilate states that

he has found no fault in Jesus.

And it sounds like he wanted to release him, but he just

couldn't get the will of the people, and he wanted to please them

more than he knew what was right.

Now I want to jump over to John. I'll start at

chapter 18, verse 28.

Then they led Jesus to the Praetorium,

and it was early morning, but they themselves did not go into the Praetorium,

lest they should be defiled. But that he might eat

the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said,

What accusations do you bring against this man?

They answered and said to him, If he were not

an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you.

Then Pilate said to them, You take him and judge him according to your

law. Therefore the Jews said to him, It is not lawful for

us to put anyone to death, that the sayings— saying

of Jesus might be fulfilled which he spoke,

signifying by what death he would die.

Then Pilate entered the praetorium again,

called Jesus, and said to him, Are you the King of the Jews?

Jesus answered him, Are you speaking for yourself about

this, or did others tell you this concerning me?

Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and

chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done?

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that

I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom— now

my kingdom is not from here. Pilate therefore

said to him, Are you the king then?

Jesus answered, You say rightly, rightly that

I am king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I

have come into this world, that I should bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

Pilate said to him, What is truth?

And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said

to them, I find no fault in him at all.

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

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

And then they all cried out again, saying, not this man, but Barabbas!

Now Barabbas was a robber.

So in this illustration and

account that John has written, We see Pilate

going in and out of the Praetorium,

talking with the people, and then going back and talking to Jesus.

And it's almost like he's trying to convince himself

that Jesus didn't do anything wrong, and he knew he hadn't done anything wrong.

But again, the people continued to pressure him,

and he was was weak and went

with what the people said.

So I'm going to jump over to John 19:8.

John 19:8

Therefore, when Pilate had heard— let

me back up for a second. I'm going to start at

verse 7. The Jews answered him,

We have a law, and according to our law he ought to die, because he

has made himself the Son of God. Therefore when

Pilate heard that saying, he was more afraid. And he went again

into the praetorium, and said to Jesus, Where are

you from? But Jesus gave him no answer.

Then Pilate said to him, Are you not speaking to me?

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

release you? Jesus answered,

You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given to

you from above. Therefore the one who delivered me to you has the

greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to release him,

but the Jews cried out, saying, If you let this man go,

you are not Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a

king speaks against Caesar. When Pilate therefore

heard this saying, he brought Jesus out, and sat down in the judgment seat

in a place that is called the Pavement, but in Hebrew,

Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation day of

the Passover, and 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 Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests

answered, We have no king but Caesar. Then they delivered

him— then he delivered him to

them to be crucified. They took Jesus and led him away.

So again, we see Pilate, he knows

the truth, and he continues to go back

to what the people's will is. And we also see that

the chief priests and their willingness to

reject Jesus and how far they would go.

So now I want to go over to 1 Timothy 6:13-16,

1 Timothy 6:13–16

and this is Paul's letter.

I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things,

and before Christ Jesus, who witnessed the good confession

before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without

spot, blameless, until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing,

which he will manifest in his own time. He who

is the blessed and only King of kings and Lord of

lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable

light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom

be honor and everlasting power. Amen.

So Paul's reminding Timothy that Jesus made

the good confession before Pontius Pilate, and he urges Timothy

to remain faithful. Until Christ returns.

So when Jesus appeared before Pilate,

he never denied his identity.

So as Christians, this is our example.

Do we live our lives and

never deny who Jesus is?

He remained calm. I don't know about

y'all, but if I was put in a situation like that, I don't think I

would have been calm at all.

He spoke truth. He entrusted himself

to his Father.

And then Paul points to Timothy, or points Timothy

and to us, that example because faithfulness

is often tested when obedience becomes costly.

And Jesus remained faithful under pressure.

Pilate didn't.

So how are we like Pilate?

We like to pass the bucket times.

Point to other people.

He knew, he knew he was speaking the truth, right? He knew he was

sinless, but he didn't have the courage

to stand up for him. Yeah, so that's— we know the truth, or all

the time we should know the truth as Christians. But sometimes we

don't have the courage to stand up for them. Yeah. He did have

written on the cross, Jesus of Nazareth,

King of the Jews, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

So that's interesting. Yes.

Yeah. So Sometimes

we know the right thing but choose the easier path.

We fear people more than God. Do we worry

about what people think?

Or— I don't think it's as prevalent here, but if

you go overseas, people that speak the truth

about God and Jesus, some of them could be killed.

There's areas in the world where speaking the truth about

God has dire consequences.

Yes. Because God's not standing physically beside

them, they fear people.

Do we allow public opinion to shape our convictions?

Do we avoid responsibility for decisions that we know are wrong?

And do we sometimes recognize truth without submitting

to it?

So Pilate had the authority, the influence,

and the opportunity to let Jesus go.

And he made the decision to have

him crucified.

In Matthew's account, he washed

his hands to try to symbolize that it wasn't

his doings, but it was his doing.

He was the only one that could give that judgment.

Because he was the judge of the trial and

he made the decision to crucify Jesus.

So the washing of his hands didn't take

him out of that situation.

Pilate recognized his innocence.

In each of the accounts, you can see That

he continually talks with

Jesus and talks with the

Pharisees, and he's

trying to get a compromise out of the Pharisees,

but it was his choice.

He didn't need their approval to let him go.

He feared losing his position

possibly as a governor.

I don't think he wanted to

Yeah.

Yeah, he tried to— Pontiphaus,

Herod.

So does anybody

have any examples of today of how

we might know the right thing to

do but we choose an easier path? I think in

religious discussions, when some truth matter comes up

and we may hold a minority position, it's easy for

us to just allow that

position to stand. Somebody wants to know how to be

saved and they're given a general religious answer,

and we know that that's not enough,

that they need to do more than believe that he to be obedient and we

don't say anything. It's easy to get ourselves in that situation because to say something

that might offend the sensitivities of people around us,

we just feel like it's better to go along and get along than to

say something. It's easy to find ourselves in that. Yeah, it's easier

to go along with the flow than to push back.

While I was preparing this lesson, I was trying to think of some examples.

And I don't know why this example kept popping up in

my head, but so everybody

in here was around when the pandemic happened.

And there was authorities

that said that churches

couldn't meet.

And we still found ways to meet

and to praise and worship God. But you've

got to look at that, you know, that hasn't been that long

ago. If there comes a day whenever they

say you can't go to church anymore,

are you going to be like Jesus or like

Pilate? Are you gonna worship God as

he's commanded, or are you gonna fear

the people and follow what they say is right?

Now, the Lord tells us that we are to be

peaceful and live with government and to do what

they ask, but when it's outside of what God wills,

We're not to follow that.

And I appreciate Tommy's lesson tonight.

When you're faced with a situation where you

know the truth— there was

another instance that popped in my mind whenever I was going to this lesson.

If you hold a position And this

happened. I don't remember all the details,

but if you're in a position and you're asked

to give a marriage license and

it's not what the Lord says marriage should

be, do you issue that marriage

license or do you stand up for your religious beliefs

and for what God stands for and push

back on that. And there may be consequences

to that. But at the end of the day,

the consequences that you may suffer on this earth is not going

to be anything like you're going to suffer when Judgment

Day comes.

So I think it's safe to say based on what

the Bible says about Pilate we can officially say that he was not a follower

of Jesus.

Anybody else got any comments?

A couple observations. It's interesting as he went through all this,

I think there were at least 6 trials, maybe 7 that Jesus

went through, civil trials, government trials going back and forth

between Pilate and the high priests and all that.

So that's one thing. But another observation I saw in

Matthew 27:25, and I need to do a little study on that. Pilate didn't

Matthew 27:25

want anything to do with him, that's obvious. Pilate's wife didn't want anything to do

with him. But the people said his blood would be on their hands and

their children. And I can't believe I believe that's a positive

statement. If someone's blood is on my hands,

that means I've done something, you know, in a very negative

way. Yeah. Um, I need to study that a little bit. That just

kind of popped in my mind. It's there. I've been there forever.

Yeah. So they— the people

that were there took it upon themselves and made that statement.

Yeah, they wasn't legally processed.

Yeah. Even though

there was clearly a right and a wrong decision to be made,

he still said— and I think this was also Matthew's account—

he still said, trying to please everybody,

he was like, should I punish him and then release him? He couldn't even

stand on the— he's clearly an innocent man. The right thing to do

would have just been to let him go. But he was willing to go as

far as, I'll still punish him and then release him. He just didn't—

he didn't have any conviction. Yeah, he offered to chastise him

and release him. He was still going to do something to him, but it wasn't

the crucifixion, to crucify him like the people wanted.

But he was still trying to find a way to punish him to

please the people. Jewish leaders stirred

up the crowd. They knew what they wanted. They didn't have the power.

Or the legal authority to punish

somebody with death. So they had to have the Romans,

and they knew that. They had 2 sham trials at night, which wasn't

supposed to be.

And I don't know, in one way Pilate was in between a

rock and a hard spot. He'd already had conflicts with

the Jews, and he didn't need any more, or he going to lose his job.

And he found himself in a place

where to do the right thing was going to hurt him personally.

Did we ever find that? Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

In a lot of ways, sometimes we are Pilate. Yeah.

Yeah, I found it interesting while preparing this lesson and

studying Pilate because I'd never really looked into Pilate, but there's

a lot of lessons there that we can look at today because,

you know, when somebody pushes us,

especially if it's family or friends, a lot of times we cave,

we give in.

Like Tommy said, you know, there's good people out there and

they do some good things, but those good things

don't save them.

They've got to follow God's will.

We've got to follow God's will.

Peter's going to say on Pentecost, the second place,

that with wicked hands they took and crucified him. Acts 3:13,

Acts 3:13

one of your passages you had. This was the eternal purpose of

God. Pilate played a role in accomplishing God's

will for our salvation, but he, he wasn't aware

that he was doing that, nor was he intending to do that. Yeah, how tragic

to have such two great things that he did, and it'd do him spiritually,

eternally no good whatsoever. Yeah, and when he asked Jesus the question,

what is truth? He didn't wait for an answer, or at least the

Bible doesn't tell us that. He turned and went back out. Now,

had he stayed in there and listened and waited for the answer,

maybe he would have made a different decision. But he had many

opportunities, and I thought it

was interesting that, you know, his wife even tried to convince him.

I don't know a whole lot about that time period, but I don't think women

were very outspoken at that time.

And she felt the need to get him a message

while he was on this, and he just ignored it.

Although he— I think in the back of his mind he

was considering everything that he knew He just

ultimately failed.

He did.

He kept finding reasons.

Well, thank y'all for a good class. You're dismissed.