Matthew Pt. 104 - Jesus Before Pilot

So remember, I'll give, I'll give my quick recap again, we

have, we've come through Holy Week and Holy Week is, you know,

seven days ago. Of course, it's taken us a lot

longer to get through it. But seven days ago in this, in

this narrative, Jesus came into Jerusalem.

Big parade, big to do, big announcement.

Everybody knows who Jesus is. Come, no matter what you've seen

in TV shows and in movies where it kind of looks like there's

like 7 or 8 people or like 25 people following Jesus, that's

not the case. There are thousands upon

thousands upon thousands of people who gather when Jesus is

preaching, when Jesus is moving. And now this is the culmination.

This is the finale of his ministry.

He just raised Lazarus from the dead very publicly.

And so now his fame is spread even more and he comes into

Jerusalem at the Passover. Everybody's excited, all the

crowds, all good Jews have gathered for a Passover to

celebrate. Everybody celebrates Jesus,

everybody knows Pilate, who is the Roman governor.

Remember Romans, they came in, they conquered the Jews and now

they're like, all right, we'll still let you kind of do your

little thing and have your subculture as long as you don't

do anything to dishonor our culture, as long as you don't do

anything that opposes the Roman Empire.

So Pilate is the governor who's been put over this region.

This is not a a great area to be.

Pilate's not super excited about it.

So Pilate doesn't live in Jerusalem.

He lives by the sea. Forget the name of the city

starts with AC. I don't think is it Caesarea for

sure. OK, I know there is a Caesarea.

I couldn't remember if that's where he lives.

So I think Pilate lived. We're going to blame Isaac if

I'm wrong, but I think Pilate lived in Caesarea by the sea.

But for big festivals and big feasts, he would come into

Jerusalem so he could oversee more.

So there was a place he would stay in Jerusalem.

He's like, OK, let me get even closer to the action and oversee

things. Let me show the Roman presence

as the Jews are gathering. Let's remind them who owns them.

Let's remind them who controls them.

And let me be there in case there's any kind of uprisings,

because if it was going to happen, now's the time.

So pilots in the city during this time, it's been a busy

week. Jesus has been absolutely

torching the Pharisees. He has been torching the

hypocrites. Jesus hates hypocrisy.

Jesus does not hate religious leaders, as it is often been

said. Jesus hates the religious

leaders. No, he doesn't.

Jesus hates hypocrisy. That's why Jesus went after

those religious leaders, because they were hypocritical.

I'm a religious leader. Jesus doesn't hate me.

Why? Because I'm not a hypocrite.

But if I was then I would be on Jesus bad side.

You mess with the bull, you would get the horns.

That's what they were experiencing all week long.

Jesus was humiliating them. They wanted to stone him and

kill him. Jesus doesn't let anyone just

kill him. Jesus is not a victim.

Jesus is not a hostage. Jesus chooses the way.

Jesus is going to die. Jesus lays down his life.

No one takes it from him. He gave his life to you because

he loves you. He wasn't murdered and beat up

by some Jews and some Romans who are having a bad day.

Did some Jews and some Romans murder him?

Technically, yes, but all according to His plan.

Because he loved you and because before the foundation of the

world, he was the Lamb who was slain, and God always intended

to forgive you of your sins. That is why Jesus goes to the

cross. So Matthew, remember we're

reading the book of Matthew. Matthew.

Who did he write his Gospel to? It was to thank you, man.

If you hadn't gotten that right, I was going to cry because I've

told you all that many times. Matthew wrote his gospel for the

Jews. So the different gospels had

different, the different gospel writers had different audiences

in mind. Matthew was saying, I'm going to

write a gospel for the Jews and I want the Jews to see, hey,

guys, you know how you're waiting on the Messiah?

And they're like, yeah, yeah, we're waiting on him.

He goes, I've got great news for you.

Jesus is the Messiah. And Matthew hits it hard right

out of the gate in Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Remember in Matthew chapter 1, you open it and you're like, oh,

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

this is boring. This is a genealogy.

So and so had this kid, and so and so had this kid.

So and so had this kid. Remember good news, The Bible

isn't boring. You're boring.

We saw how the genealogies are awesome because it shows how

Jesus is king, and that's what Matthew has been emphasizing

throughout his Gospel all the way through from chapter 1.

Here we are in chapter 27. He's going to do the same thing

in chapter 28, in a few days time after the crucifixion and

after the resurrection, Matthew consistently emphasized Jesus is

king. How so?

By calling him the Son of David. That was a royal title.

Then in Matthew chapter 2 verse 2, the Magi, they come and ask

Matthew 2:2

where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

Then in Matthew 21, Jesus enters Jerusalem as the King fulfilling

the prophecies. And now after all that build up,

Matthew brings us here before Pilate and once again the

kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ is front and center.

Matthew 27 verse 11. Now Jesus stood before the

Matthew 27:11

governor and the governor asked him, so this is Pilate, are you

the King of the Jews? Jesus said, you have said so,

but when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he

gave no answer. Then Pilate said to him, Do you

not hear how many things they testify against you?

But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that

the governor was greatly amazed. Lord, thank you for the kingship

of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for His perfection,

for his wisdom, for his goodness, for His strength, just

for his awesomeness in every situation, maintaining control,

staying sinless and focusing himself on the cross so that he

would receive the wrath of God, so that we could escape it.

Jesus be glorified through the preaching of your Word today and

I pray that you would open up hearts and minds that as the

Word goes in deeply that it would also be received humbly in

Jesus name, Amen. So this kingship issue, this is

not just one theme among many in Matthew.

This is the main thing that Matthew is focusing on and this

is the the issue that every human being has to reconcile in

his lifetime. Who is Jesus?

Who do you say that Jesus is not just with your mouth, but with

your life? What you really believe always

shows up somewhere. If a man believed that the world

was about to end in the next 60 minutes, and he believed it with

all of his heart, wouldn't that affect the way he functioned for

the next 60 minutes? Wouldn't it affect the way you

function for the next 60 minutes?

So this makes the point I was making earlier.

I believe this, I believe that, I believe this, I believe in

Jesus. The demons believe in Jesus.

They know Jesus exists, the Scripture says, and they tremble

because of it. So at least they have an

appropriate response. They don't just say, Yep, he

existed, Shakespeare existed, but how does that affect your

life today? I believe in Jesus.

What do you mean when you say you believe in Jesus?

Because what Jesus means when he says believe in me, he means

follow me. That's what he's saying.

He's saying if you believe in me, that is to follow me.

That is to trust me not to just go, I believe in you Jesus. 2

thumbs way up for Jesus. Five star review on Jesus.

I got nothing against Jesus. I believe he existed.

That's not belief in Jesus according to the Scriptures.

That's a modernized version. It's a confused version.

It's an Americanized version, but it's not the same believing

of in Jesus that Jesus is talking about.

So the man with 60 minutes, the man who knows that the world

ends in 60 minutes, or the man who knows he's going to die in

60 minutes, he's going to live differently because of his

belief. So if you believe in Jesus the

way the Bible means believe in Jesus, it affects the way you

live. It's not just a mental

acknowledgement of Yep, Jesus does exist.

Or even still, even for a person who says I still believe Jesus

does exist and I still believe Jesus is coming again, that's

great news. I'm I'm so confused.

Why does your life not show anything?

Why aren't you following him? Well, you know me and Jesus have

an understanding. Well, this is the understanding

he left with everybody. This is the understanding

everyone has with Jesus. There's not a different

understanding than anyone can have with Jesus apart from this

understanding. So if I believe in Jesus that

that cannot merely mean I believe he exists.

Satan believes that. The issue is not just bare

acknowledgement. The issue is whether your belief

leads to surrender, obedience, worship, and submission to the

King. The Jewish leaders here, they've

already made their decision about who Jesus is.

But Matthew writing his gospel, he wants everybody to have

clarity. This is who Jesus is.

And over and over in his gospel, he goes, hey guys, remember this

prophecy? And every good Jew reading his

gospel, we're like, Yep, the Messiah is going to fulfill

that. Matthew goes, and then you're

not going to believe what Jesus did next.

And he fulfills the prophecy that he just reminded them

about. And they're like this Jesus is

fulfilling all a lot of these prophecies.

I know, right? Wait.

There's more All the way through.

Up through chapter 28. Matthew didn't have chapters.

We added those later. But those are just markers for

us to help find our way around. But Matthew does that over and

over. See this prophecy juice?

None. Yeah.

It's for the Messiah. He goes.

Check this out. Jesus did at night.

Wow. It's pretty amazing.

Yeah. I know.

Over and over and over again, Jesus the king has been rejected

by the Jewish leaders. They've made their decision.

They denied the facts. They've denied the truth.

They denied the king standing right in front of them and they

have delivered him up to Pilate. Because remember, they're not

allowed to kill anybody. That's one of the things Romans

did when they would come and take over.

They're like, hey, you can punish people, but you can't

kill anybody. We do the killing, which fair

enough, killing, you know the that kind of punishment, the

death penalty is something that the Lord actually has given to

governments to execute, not for tyrannical purposes, not for

wicked purposes, but for the purpose of punishing the wicked

and rewarding the righteous. That is one of the roles of the

government. The state of Virginia years ago

held up the middle finger to God and said we're not going to

execute anyone any longer. And the Lord said, I created

your office for the very purpose of punishing the wicked and

rewarding the righteous. But the state of Virginia and

our wicked leadership at the time said we think this is more

compassionate. So often times people think

they're more compassionate with God.

They come up to all kinds of foolish conclusions.

But there's a time and a place for things.

The church has jurisdiction over the truth.

The church tells the whole world what the truth is.

The church tells the world what is right and what is wrong.

But the church doesn't have full authority over the government.

The government's responsibility is to punish the wicked and to

reward the righteous. But the church, But the

government doesn't have full authority over the church.

And there's one more sphere of authority in the earth.

It's the household. The household has the authority

to care for children and to have the care for one another.

And this is where marriage and households are established, and

they don't have authority over the other spheres.

There's some overlap between these three spheres.

But in our modern moment, many people ignorantly believe and

have been ignorantly trained even in churches, to think that

the government is final and it's not.

Jesus is final. Jesus is head of the government.

Jesus is head of the church. Jesus is head of the household.

I thought the husband's the head of the household.

No, that's not what the Bible says.

Jesus is the head of the household.

The Bible says the husband is the head of his wife.

It's a different thing, different story, different

conversation. So Jesus is head over everybody,

which means everybody should submit to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our government should submit to the Lord Jesus Christ and go

what would please the Lord? Well, I don't think the

government's supposed to be the church.

It's not. And yet the government should

focus on its role of how can it punish the wicked?

How can it reward the righteous? Would you say, is it fair to say

that our government has, has, has expanded somewhat beyond

those responsibilities? Well, it's because I, I, I, I,

I, we didn't say that there wasn't need.

We didn't say there wasn't problems.

We didn't say there wasn't opportunities.

But it's not your job. It's not your place.

What if the church wanted to start executing people?

How would you feel about that? What if Salt Church said, hey,

you know what? We believe so and so needs to be

executed and it's not our place. Everybody, it's insane, right?

I just want you to feel that same insanity for our

government. That is why massively

overstepped the authority that the Lord has given it.

You're supposed to punish the wicked and you're supposed to

reward the righteous. That's it.

That involves a lot of laws because our world is a complex

place and there's lots that could go along with that, but

that's their job. That was all for free.

None of that was in the notes. You don't have to pay any extra

for that. back-to-back to the point, the Jewish leaders have

made their decision about the King.

They've denied him, and now Pilate has his moment.

This is Pilot's moment to make his determination.

He must decide who Jesus is and what that means for him

personally. That part is often overlooked in

this passage. Everybody's thinking about

pilots handling the public side of things.

Pilot is standing before the most powerful being ever.

Always. He's standing before the one who

has all authority in heaven and on earth.

What Pilot should do is fall down on his knees and worship.

But pilots too busy thinking about Tiberius back in Rome and

thinking about how do I maintain my power just like the Jewish

leaders did, How do I maintain my control?

This is just another Jewish issue that Pilot has to do with

these people. OK, what do you got?

And he's sniffing out what's going on.

He's like, I've heard a lot about this.

Pilot knows who Jesus is, by the way.

He's in his region. He would have, he would have

sent scouts to get research. What's up with this one rabbi

who's drawing these crowds of many, many, many thousands of

people? OK, He's got no threat.

He teaches about loving your enemies.

Pilot. Good.

Praise the easy day. I don't know if he said praise

the Lord. Praise the false demons that we

worship and, and Pilate would have been relieved because this

rabbi is not taking up swords to kill people.

They have what, 2 swords? I think among the disciples, I

think it was 2 literally. So they had two swords.

So, so he's like, alright, this guy is not going to be a huge

problem for me. He's he's doing something

different. So Pilate knows who he is.

In verse 11, Pilate has him. He asks, are you the king of the

Jews? He's cutting straight to the

point that Pilot cares about. Look, dude, I I don't, I don't

care about all them. I don't care about all this.

Is this a, is this a rebellion against Rome?

That's what he's got to get to because that happened all the

time, by the way, all the time. There were uprisings.

There were Jewish people who would go, we're going to stick

it to Rome. And people like, yeah.

And then they would just smack him down and they would crucify

him. They would kill him.

They would do all kinds of awful things to try and show the might

of Rome and try and convince everybody, hey, don't fight

against us. And the Jews of all the regions

gave them a lot of problems because the Jews were actually

trying to follow the one true living God for a while until

they rejected him entirely through his son.

But up until this point, the Jews would rightly be like,

we're going to do the right thing by God.

So they gave an extra amount of problem that a lot of people

globally did not give as the Roman Empire expanded because

other people, they're worshipping demon gods as well,

just so they're like, sure, we can bring in the Roman gods and

mix them with our gods because who cares?

It's all the same. But the Jews are going, no, no,

no, no, no, there's one God and we will not, we won't follow

yours, we won't obey yours, and we will fight you on it.

So pilots, trying to clarify, do I have a political threat?

What kind of problem do I have on my hands today?

Because if Jesus were merely a political threat, it's an easy

day for pilot. If he goes, are you the king of

the Jews? And if Jesus goes, yes, I am,

Pilate can go, all right, we can crucify him.

This guy is going to create some kind of uprising.

But Jesus is wise. Jesus is perfect.

Jesus is still going to be crucified, but he's going to be

crucified because he chose crucifixion, not because Pilate

chose crucifixion in all of his brilliance and in all of his

glory. He doesn't let Pilate be like,

well, then I'm the one who gets to say Jesus is being crucified.

Notice how he gets crucified. The Jews don't have the power to

crucify him. If they did, they would.

And Pilate says, says I don't want to crucify him and later

washes his hands of it. You don't have the power to.

You don't want to, and still he gets crucified.

Why? Because God sovereignly willed

it. God is getting his way here and

nobody else does. Nobody else gets exactly what

they want in the way that they wanted it today except Jesus.

So notice the wording when Pilate says, are you the King of

the Jews? He doesn't say, are you a king

of the Jews? Are you the king of the Jews?

Why? Because the Jews have had many

kings in their history. King David most famously the

best king of Israel. But now the true king of Israel

is standing in front of him. But not just the king of 1

nation, the king of the whole world.

Pilot already knows, like we said about Jesus, he knows the

stories of the miracles, the crowds, the healings, even the

reports of the resurrection have spread throughout this region.

He knows Jesus has not been gathering military might.

He knows there's something different about this man.

He also knows that these religious leaders are jealous,

like Pilots, a very political, very clever mate.

He sees what's going on. He goes, y'all hate this guy.

So on one sense he's like, this is kind of funny to me because

Pilot hates the Jews and the Jews hate Pilot passionately,

deeply. Pilot and Herod hated each

other. Luke interestingly tells us that

Pilot and Herod became friends on this day.

They became friends over the crucifixion of Christ somehow.

Didn't explain how, but Luke says they became friends from

that day forth. They hated each other.

Hating Jesus is something that unifies people, unfortunately.

So there's something different about this man.

He knows they're jealous. Pilot understands these

political games. He knows how men protect their

power, their position and their influence because he's doing the

same thing. So he's trying to get to the

heart of the matter. Is this man really a threat to

Rome or is this just an envy driven setup by men who hate

them? What does Jesus say?

Jesus says you have said so when he said are you the king of the

Jews? He goes, you've said, so it's

not much of an answer. Or is it actually turns out to

be the perfect answer? It's not a flat yes, and it's

obviously not a denial because if you were to deny it, then

he'd be lying, which Jesus was never going to do.

It leaves room for interpretation, but it does not

give Pilot the comfort that he wants.

It's again Jesus being perfectly wise, like Jesus always is.

That's what's happening. Are you the King of the Jews?

I tell him yes, he thinks he gets to crucify me.

I'm getting crucified because I'm going to the cross for

crucifixion. If I tell him no, I can't tell

him no, that's not true. Are you the king of the Jews?

You have said so. Jesus, even though he's in

chains here, has authority over the man he's talking to.

The man who thinks he has the power is not the man who has the

power, which is why Pilot freaks out later in their conversation.

And he's like, you're not doing right.

Usually when people are on trial about to go into the electric

chair, they're eager to speak with me.

Don't you know I have power over you?

And Jesus goes, stop right there.

You don't have any power except that which was given to you from

above. Don't worry, Pilot.

Those who handed me over to you are guilty of the greater sin.

He's like, it's OK, Pilot, I'll let you crucify me.

He's comforting Pilot. Pilot's like, I don't know what

to make of all this because later, of course, Pilot's wife

comes. Why?

Pilot is in the middle of the trial sitting on the judgement

seat. His wife sends word to him and

says have nothing to do with this man's death.

Today I was troubled all night in a dream because of him.

So already Pilot's like I've never talked to a guy like this

and now his wife's like, honey, I know I'm not supposed to like

interrupt the Roman court on the day of Passover and I know this

is highly uncommon. I'm begging you have nothing.

Pilot is spooked out of his mind.

Pilot is freaked out. What is going on?

Who is this guy? It only gets worse for him all

throughout the day. Imagine when darkness overcame

the land while Jesus was hanging on the cross and then the

earthquake at his death. Like the centurion who goes

surely this was the Son of God and how Pilate and everybody's

going. Like people were not ignorant to

what was going on. Jesus the rabbi was not like

some random person who they forgot about being crucified

over there on the hill. Everybody knew everything.

Which is why when Jesus walked with him after the resurrection

and he pretended to not know, he said, tell me what's going on.

They're like, are you the only person around Jerusalem in these

days who doesn't know what's going on?

Everybody knew what was going on, and everybody had to

experience the supernatural events, the natural events that

created this whole circumstance. Jesus is still in charge here.

He is not desperate to clear his name.

He is not desperate to be understood.

He is not panicking before a governor.

He is steadily, wisely, deliberately moving toward the

cross in his perfect obedience to the Father.

What do we do with that? What does it look like for you?

Are you desperate for people to know the truth about you?

Or can you be content for your Heavenly Father to know the

truth about you and let him sort out the rest and his own timing

in his own, in his own way? Or do you have to defend

yourself? Do you have to rise up?

Do you have to vindicate yourself or can you pray?

Lord, you vindicate me. Anybody ever been slandered?

Anybody. Just me.

Oh, OK. Some people have been slandered

in here. So whenever you're slandered,

that's the temptation, right? They believe that about me.

They they believe that. They really believe that.

They really think that's the truth about me.

You got to learn to go to sleep. You got to learn to remember

that there's a God and that there that you can't control

people. But they believe this, and they

believe this, and it's lies. Depending on the context, maybe,

maybe it's worth it. Maybe it's not.

Maybe they believe what they want to believe instead of

actually just entrusting themselves to the Lord.

Lord, you know me, which actually should fill you with

far more fear than what people know or don't know about you.

The Lord knows you. Actually, that's the thing that

should cause you who? If anything's going to keep you

up at night, let it be. The Lord really knows you.

Not all the people think this about me, OK?

And what are they going to do? Well, they're going to tell

other people. Oh no.

And then what will happen? Well, they might tell other

people. Oh no.

And then people won't like me and people will think bad things

about me and people and people and people.

Oh no. And then what will happen?

How will they keep you out of heaven?

How will they keep you out of the Lord's presence?

What will they do? Jesus said, don't worry about

what man can do to you. All man can do, Jesus said, is

kill your body, which doesn't sound that comforting at first.

He says all man can do is kill you.

He says don't fear man who can kill you.

He says fear God who can kill you and throw you into hell.

All right, Jesus, point taken. If Jesus can stand here, the

perfect one who had done no sin, you and I who have done sin, I

think can handle some opposition and we can entrust ourselves

into the hands of God and we can go.

You know, they are slandering me.

But the truth is, I forget which preacher, some dead preacher

said it. He said I'm never bothered by

when people say bad things about me.

He said it doesn't upset me. He said because I'm far worse

than they know. Like what a freedom, what a

freedom, and what a truth. They know this and this and this

about you. You don't know the half of it,

man. I need a savior.

I need the blood of Jesus. You think you got dirt on me?

The Lord had it all and it's all been washed away.

So you're right, my friend. I do deserve the wrath of God.

I do. And thankfully I'm secure in

Him. Jesus was secure in the Father,

and he entrusted himself into the Father's hands and he was

not submitting himself to man. He submitted himself to the

Father. You can do the same thing.

So Jesus here will not lie. He will not deny who He is, but

he will not let Pilate reduce his own kingship to a merely

political category. Jesus is political.

Saying Jesus is king is a political statement.

Jesus is king of everything. Jesus should affect the

household. Jesus should affect the church.

Jesus should affect the governments.

He's king of everything. He's king of everybody,

everywhere. So his answer is perfect wisdom.

You've said so. He affirms the truth without

handing Pilot a category that would miss the glory of who

Jesus really is. And it's wild to see.

Here's this man on death row. He's not begging for his life.

Pilot right now is used to hearing please, excuses,

explanations, scrambling, bargaining, all this

desperation. But not from this man.

Jesus. Full posture, full eye contact,

already beaten, already spit on. Maybe that flim still on his

face from the the Jewish mock trial that happened a couple

hours earlier. And pilots like these guys

really hate you. Are you the king of the Jews?

You've said so. What kind of answer is that,

man? Don't you know that I have

power? Well, that's where you're wrong.

You have a small power, a Roman power.

The Roman Kingdom will end. My kingdom's never going to end.

I will reign and be king forever.

Tiberius is going to die and stay dead.

I'm going to die and be raised from the dead.

Jesus is not like anybody else. And we get a sense that Pilate

can start to understand that. Verse 12.

But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he

gave no answer. Notice the hypocrisy in these

men before the Sanhedrin, when they were together, the charge

they brought against Jesus was blasphemy, right?

He blasphemes our doctrine, He blasphemes against God.

Now they bring him to Pilate and they bring in other things that

Pilate's going to be interested in.

So they just adjust for the crowd.

They switched the charge to something that Rome would care

about. They don't come saying he claims

to be the Messiah. They don't come saying like he

he broke the Sabbath in a way that we didn't like.

They come saying this man is dangerous.

This man threatened Caesar. Caesar, when you hear me say,

Tiberius, that was who the current Caesar was.

This man's a problem for the empire.

But they are liars and they constantly reshape their

accusations to fit their audience.

Remember what Jesus said about hypocrites.

They will strain the gnat, but they'll swallow the camel.

So you find a little teeny gnat in your water and you get it out

and go, oh, don't want that in there.

Meanwhile, you drink the camel. You drink the bigger issue.

You take the huge problem and put, you pretend to be holy by

going. Let me deal with this small

thing. They did this because when

Pilate was at this headquarters that we he was at in Jerusalem,

they would not go inside. And the reason they wouldn't go

inside is because they're such holy men and it was on the

Passover, and they don't want to be defiled and made unclean by

going into this Pagan place on the Passover.

They're straining the gnat while swallowing the camel of

crucifying the Son of God. The Son of God has come into his

Father's vineyard to gather all that belongs to his Father.

And they said, let's kill the Son and take his inheritance.

They're swallowing the camel, but they go, we must not go into

this place today. We can't walk through this

architecture. Like I told you, religious

hypocrisy and fake holiness will make you superstitious.

That's what I mean by superstitious.

Like they focus on this minutiae, these tiny things

like, oh, that's a big deal. That's a big deal.

Like if it's in the word of God, we should obey it, no doubt.

And yet they put things out of order because their hearts are

out of order. One of the lies that they

brought to Pilate was that Jesus said not to pay taxes to Caesar.

Of course, that's false. He literally said to pay taxes

to Caesar. He said give to God.

What is God's give to Caesar, what is Caesar's.

And we walked through that, why it was brilliant, why it was

perfect, why it was wise, why he said whose image and inscription

is on this and how Caesar is even made in the image of God.

So Jesus honored God. Jesus playing 4D chess and these

guys are like playing tic tac toe.

He's out out doing them at every point, of course, because he's

perfect in every way. But Jesus doesn't stop to answer

any of these accusations. Most people think that they were

shouting in because they wouldn't come into the inner

place where pilot was and where he was judging Jesus.

So most think that the Sanhedrin was standing outside, but they

could still be heard and potentially they could even see

through where they wouldn't walk in.

So they're hurling accusations and pilot, pilot, he also this

pilot, also that pilot. And they're freaking out because

they're like, we can't go in. And pilots like, I'm not coming

outside, I'm just standing here. And he brings Jesus inside and

Jesus is in there with him. They're freaking out.

They got to make sure PILOT crucifies this guy.

They've got to get him killed today.

They've got to get him killed. So they're yelling all the

PILOT. He said not to pay taxes.

Jesus doesn't answer any of it. He doesn't go PILOT.

That's not what I said. That's not what I said PILOT.

I actually said it's pretty cool.

I actually said pay taxes, give to God what's to God, and give

to Caesar what's Caesar's. That's what I said, PILOT.

He doesn't clarify any of it. Why?

Because he doesn't answer the slander.

He doesn't answer for any lies. Jesus only answers for the

truth, which is why we see him respond when they press him in

the Sanhedrin. Are you the king of the Jews?

And Pilate asks, are you the king of the Jews?

I'll answer to the truth. Of course I'll answer to the

truth, even though I know you'll use it as a trap against me.

I'll answer for the truth. I will not answer for a lie.

You don't have to answer for every lie.

You don't have to answer for any lie technically, but you don't

have to answer for lies. It's like they said this and

they said that and they said this and they said that Jesus

goes, I can handle all that. And pilots like, why are you not

freaking out? You hear everything they're

saying. Do you hear all these

accusations against them? But he not, he would not answer

him, not even to one of the charges.

Wisdom answers for the truth. Verse 12.

He gave no answer. This reminds us of Him

fulfilling Isaiah 53. Here He was wounded for our

transgressions. He was bruised for our

iniquities. And as a lamb before the

shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

Here we have the suffering servant standing exactly as God

said that He would. None of this is random.

None of this is accidental. The Lamb is moving according to

the prophecy. He's entrusted himself to the

Father. He's not defensive, He's not

insecure, He's not a loudmouth. He doesn't have to answer to the

Jews. He doesn't have to answer to

Pilate. Jesus is King.

He is the wisdom of God. He's fulfilling the perfect plan

that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always intended.

So many think that Christ is being judged here.

In one sense, yes, He is being judged by wicked men.

But in the ultimate sense, he's already been judged perfect by

the Father. What's happening here is not the

exposure of his guilt because he's not guilty of anything.

What's happening here is the continued revelation of Jesus is

perfection. Jesus is goodness, Jesus is

glory, Jesus is greatness. Really.

They are on trial. Today was your day, Jewish

leadership to cast your vote, and you cast it.

Today is your day, Pilot to cast your vote, and you cast it.

Pilot pretended not to. Oh, I don't have anything to do

with this, but he still cast his vote.

The tragedy is that rejection of Christ leaves no sacrifice for

sin. It's Jesus or it's nothing.

It's Jesus or it's nobody. Hebrews tells us that if we

reject the truth after receiving the knowledge of the truth,

there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful

expectation of judgment. And that is what these leaders

are choosing on this day. They rejected the Messiah.

They chose their own way, and they and those who died in that

rejection because they could potentially repent before they

die. But those who died in that

rejection, they do not get later relief.

So if Pilot never turned to the Lord, which we have no

indication that he did, Pilot's been in hell for 2000 years, and

he's still suffering right now as we sit comfortably in air

conditioning. And he'll be there this

afternoon when we're having lunch, and he'll be there this

Thursday. And there is no hope of Pilot

ever getting one ounce of relief or escape.

And before you feel pity for him, remember, you deserve it

too. And I deserve it, too.

Welcome to the gospel. We all deserve that kind of

torment forever. Why did I do anything that bad?

Yeah, because God is that holy God is that just?

God is that perfect That overwhelms me?

Welcome to the good news. Jesus died so you don't have to.

Jesus suffered the wrath of God so you don't have to.

If Pilate had fallen on his knees and worship the one true

living God and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and followed

the Lord Jesus Christ, Pilate would have been saved.

Well, you couldn't have because of yes, I know.

Then we get into the whole confusing thing of prophecy,

fulfillment, the Lord's sovereign will versus Anyway,

bear with me with you today. Pilate's not your

responsibility, but you are your responsibility.

Your soul is your responsibility.

I love my wife and I love my kids and I love you and I love a

lot of people and I do my best to shepherd.

Is it anyone who will allow me to shepherd them?

And yet ultimately I'm responsible for my soul and

ultimately you're responsible for yours.

And that's the most important treasure that you have.

These men threw theirs away as they rejected the Lord Jesus.

Jesus is the faithful son. They think that they're going to

murder him and throw him out of the garden and steal his

inheritance, but they will instead receive their own

portion. And Christ still receives his.

And after his suffering, he's raised in glory, and then he

receives the nation's forever. Another thing to learn from your

master here. You don't need to be quick to

speak. You should be slow to speak.

Slow to speak. When it's time to testify to the

truth, testify boldly. But when it comes to lies and

slander and false accusation, the wisest response is often no

response. A fool gives full vent to his

spirit, Proverbs 2911 says, but a wise man quietly holds it

back. Wisdom answers for the truth.

It doesn't have to answer for every lie.

If you're secure in the Father, you can do what is righteous

without getting dragged into needless drama and false

accusation. Verse 13 when pilot, then pilot

said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against

you? Accusations are flying.

They're going off, piling it all on.

Usually this is where somebody explains and defends themselves,

but Pilot has a different response entirely.

He's never seen this before. Unfortunately, Pilot responds

terribly. Verse 14, we keep going, but he

gave no answer. Jesus gave no answer, not even

to a single charge. So that the governor was greatly

amazed. This word amazed means that

Pilot is actually stunned. Pilot is marvelling.

The idea is that his jaw is dropped and he's going, wow,

this is overwhelming. He's never seen this kind of

strength. This is amazement.

Not that he thinks this man wants to die.

He knows he can sense that there's more going on here.

But Jesus speaks as one with authority.

Jesus isn't afraid to die. But Jesus clearly isn't a

madman. So Pilate is shaken by what he

sees. Something worth noting.

Your church. If Jesus goes silent on you,

that's probably not a good thing for you.

If Jesus is silent for you, then there's probably something you

should inspect within yourself. Pilots finding himself.

Talk to me. Talk to me, Jesus.

If you if you sense that Jesus has gone silent on you, you

should go inward and go. Is there a disobedience that I

need to go back and obey? Is the Lord waiting on me to

obey in something and follow something that I still haven't?

It could even be the mercy of God to not give His warm

fellowship to you so as to call you back to repentance so as to

alert you to his silence. Because wouldn't that be a

tragedy if the Lord continued to affirm you with warm spiritual

experiences while meanwhile you're not walking with the

Lord? I'm convinced that many people

enjoy the experience of church while not actually being Christ

followers because still in the experience of church, you can't

help but sense the presence of God.

So what a comfort it is. And what a good and right thing

it is for someone to want to go be around the body of Christ and

be comforted in the presence of God through the through singing,

through worship, through prayer, and through the preaching of the

word of God and go, wow, I feel so convicted.

But they could also falsely feel safe in their conviction.

Conviction is intended to lead to obedience.

Which brings us back to Jesus's invitation.

It's not just believe in me, it is follow me.

Pilate here. He finds no fault in Jesus.

He essentially declares not guilty, but he still does not

worship Jesus. I'm convinced many people do

something similar. Many people find no fault in

Jesus. I got no problem with Jesus.

He's a good guy. I like him.

I like him. Even my friend, you're not far

from the Kingdom, but you're not in the Kingdom and there's a big

and important difference. Not far from the Kingdom,

unfortunately, is still outside of the Kingdom, so it may as

well be 1,000,000 miles, even though it's only one.

I like Jesus, that's good, but I still haven't seen you bow your

knees to him and submit him and submit to him and worship him.

Well, I don't know if I'm ready to go all into that.

Oh, I pray that you would though.

I pray that you would. I pray that you would really

fully surrender and say Jesus is King, Jesus is my king, Jesus is

the king. Many people marvel at Jesus.

They speak respectfully about Jesus.

They say I got no problem with Jesus.

I find no fault in Jesus. But they never move into

worship, love, submission, surrender and obedience.

And Pilate, like we said, eventually he washes his hands.

But pretending innocence does not make a man innocent.

Yes, the Jews have greater sin, but Pilate is still guilty, and

to refuse the proper response to Jesus is itself condemning.

So where are you with Jesus? And we're closing.

Are you truly surrendered to Jesus, or are you merely

impressed with him? Are you just marveling?

Wow, he's so interesting. He's so different.

Oh, I know it. There's nobody like him.

Go on. You're not far from the Kingdom.

Keep coming all the way into the Kingdom.

Don't stop at respect, don't stop at saying I have no issue

with him, but love him, worship him, submit to him, follow him.

Love Jesus even more as you see him here.

Perfect, sinless, not like us, but suffering for us.

Jesus stood in a corrupt court before a corrupt judge so that

you would not have to stand in a just court before the just

judge. You don't want to stand in the

in the court of God. You don't want to be at the

great White Throne judgment when the Lord will judge perfectly

because He is just. Well, I think the Lord is

merciful. He is.

But do you think that mercy means the removal of justice?

You misunderstand the gospel. The gospel never removes

justice. The gospel is just as perfectly

satisfied. People ignorantly think mercy

means, ah, we'll forget about that.

The Lord didn't forget about anything.

He punished you and crushed you in Christ.

All of your sin, all of the wrath that you deserve was

punished in Christ. God's not unjust.

He doesn't go, don't worry about it.

I'm merciful, He goes. I'm merciful in that I punished

your sin in Christ, but sin was still dealt with.

The books are still clean. God's books are not in balance.

He's like, well, we're just kind of fudged some number.

No, no, no, no, no. Justice was literally perfectly

satisfied. There is a airtight perfect

mechanism for your salvation. This is not a vague religion.

Every other religion is vague or it makes you the hero and it's

not clear. It's not precise.

How are you saved in this religion?

Well, you do this and you do this.

It's not clear. The gospel is explicit and

plain. People are bad and they need to

die and suffer forever. Ouch.

But God, who is rich in mercy, he became flesh, and he lived a

perfect and sinless life. And now he said, I'll put all

the sins of mankind on my Son, and I will judge and punish all

the sins of mankind and the one innocent. 1 And I will crush him

thoroughly, perfectly, and completely.

I will separate from him, I will torment him, and he'll do it

gladly, and in his perfection justice will be satisfied.

How long? How long does it take through

the resurrection? But the justice of God was fully

satisfied, and Jesus swallowed up all the dead.

It is truly erased. Because it was swallowed in

Christ and now. What happens with His

righteousness? Is His righteousness abolished?

No, Jesus is still perfectly righteous, and now He gives His

righteousness to those who believe in, also known as

following, also known as trusting, also known as

worshipping Him. That's good news.

Jesus is the Passover lamb. He was falsely tried and he was

slain, and now he is your advocate before the Father.

He is your defender. He is your explanation.

He's your redemption, He's your resurrection.

Jesus, the one who didn't defend himself, now defends you.

He was silent before his accusers, but for those who are

in Christ, he is not silent for you.

He speaks up to the Father on your behalf and say, Father,

they're mine. My blood covers them.

I have made them new. He is your advocate when the

when Satan. The accuser comes for.

You. Jesus defends you, and he speaks

up to every charge, and he says My blood covers it, my blood

covers it, my blood covers it. He answers every charge against

you. Why would you not?

Worship him. Why would you not love him?

I'm holding on to this awesome sin in my life.

You're holding on to a dog turd that you somehow think is a

treasure, some crown jewel, and it's not.

And he says you're going to hold on to it and it's going to kill

you instead. Follow me.

Well, there's some sacrifice there, yes.

He didn't apologize for it. He made it clear from the get

go. And he says, but I'm worthy and

I'm worth it. People hated the light because.

They love their sin, He. Said Love the Light instead.

You'll prepare the elements for us.

We're going to take communion here in a moment.

Your sin has already been judged in.

Christ, please don't be like Pilot.

Don't pay for it for yourself. It's been said before, You know,

you you come through the cash register at the grocery store

and they said, oh, the person in front of you paid for your

groceries. You're like, I want to pay for

them anyway. Like they're paid for it.

No, I'm going to do it. I got this.

You're an idiot. It's been covered, it's been

paid for. Please receive.

It if you'd like to bless the person.

Behind you you can. Do that, but receive this

blessing and don't pay again. Nobody has to go to hell now,

but everyone will who does not receive the purchase that has

already been made through the blood of Jesus.

So it's what I deserved anyway. So it's fair.

It's completely fair. It's completely just if you

don't receive the payment that was given then you still.

Have to make payment. And you'll do it forever.

I don't. Only I'm not afraid to.

I'm certainly not afraid of the accusation of being called a

Hellfire brimstone preacher. That doesn't bother me or

concern me at all. But I don't ever want.

To preach in such a way. That only makes people think

hell is something to escape or that heaven is something to

gain. I want to preach in such a way

that people want to love and follow Jesus right now, today.

Not just don't go to hell, go to heaven forever.

I want to preach to people who I can say follow Jesus today.

What about my eternity? Oh yeah, that's secure too.

No doubt that's going to be awesome.

But I'm looking for somebody who wants to follow Jesus today.

Today I'll get to go to heaven. Right of.

Course you do. He earned it.

He bought it. He purchased it.

That's the only way. But do you love him now?

Nobody wants to go to hell. Of course not.

And yet that's not the same thing as wanting to love and

submit and follow Jesus. The risen cry speaks on your

behalf. Chris and Kayla, you could

service the elements. Thank you.