Jesus Before Herod and Pilate: Truth and Kingship

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correct, sweetness. Well good, So today we are in Matthew chapter twenty

seven, Mark fifteen, Luke twenty three, and John eighteen. Yes,

and then we're going to go back to Luke twenty or twenty three again.

Okay, so we're going to cover some ground. The last couple ones we've

done only had just a few verses, and now we're reading half the Bible

on this. We're making up for lost time. Buckle up. So this

is Jesus standing before Pilot. This is his first trial against Pilot. So

Matthew chapter twenty seven, verse eleven says, now Jesus was standing for Pilot

the Roman governor. Are you king of the Jews? The governor asked him.

Jesus replied, you have said it. But when the leading priests and

the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. Don't you hear

all these charges they're bringing against you, Pilot demanded, but Jesus made no

response to any of the charges, much to the governor's surprise. In Mark

chapter fifteen, verse two, Pilot asked Jesus, are you the king of

the Jews. Jesus replied, you have said it. Then the leading priests

kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilot asked him, aren't you going

to answer them? What about all these charges they bringing against you? But

Jesus said nothing, much to Pilot's surprise, and in Luke chapter twenty three,

verse one, it says, then the entire council took Jesus to Pilot,

the Roman governor. They began to state their case. This man has

been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the

Roman government, and by claiming he is the messiah, a king. So

Pilot asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus replied,

you've said it. Pilot turned to the leading priests into the crowd and said,

I find nothing wrong with this man. Then they became inconsistent. But

he is insistent, insistent what I say inconsistent inconsistently insistent. That's right,

okay, But they became insistent, but he is causing riots by his teaching

wherever he goes, all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem. Oh is

he a Galilean, Pilot asked, When they said that he was. Pilot

sent him to Herod Antipas because Galilee was under Herod's jurisdiction, and Herod happened

to be in Jerusalem at the time. And then in John eighteen, verse

twenty eight, it says jesus trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of

the morning, and then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor.

His accusers didn't go inside because it would defile them and they wouldn't be

allowed to celebrate the passover. So Pilot the governor went out to them and

asked, what is your charge against this man? We wouldn't have handed him

over to you if he weren't a criminal, they retorted. Then take him

away and judge him by your own law. Pilot told him only the Romans

are permitted to execute someone. The Jewish leaders replied this fulfilled Jesus prediction about

the way he would die. Then Pilot went back into his headquarters and called

for Jesus to be brought to him. Are you the king of the Jews?

He asked him. Jesus replied, is this your own question or did

others tell you about me? Am I a Jew? Pilot retorted, your

own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why what

have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not an earthly kingdom.

If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over

to the Jewish leaders. But my kingdom is not of this world. Pilot

said, so you are a king, and Jesus responded, you say I'm

a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world that testified

to the truth. All who love the truth recognize what I say is true.

And then in Luke chapter twenty three, verse eight, it says Herod

was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus because he'd heard about him and had

been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. He asked

Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. Meanwhile, the leading

priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations, and then

Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus, and finally they put a

royal robe on him and sending back the pilot. Herod and Pilot, who

had been enemies before, became friends that day. So really, there's only

one passage that talks about him going to Herod and then coming back, and

it's only Luke, chapter twenty three, that's correct. So there's only verses

eight through twelve, that's it. So Luke's the only one that covers the

Herod account part of the trial. And even though the other ones say,

like the John said, hey, we're going to send him to Herod,

but Luke's the only one that talks about Herod and that's amazing. And Herod's

just intrigued because he heard Jesus did really cool things. Right, Hey,

come over this. This would be like inviting Chris Angel to your big party

and saying, hey, do some card tricks, dude? Can you levitate?

Yeah? Right, that's what's happening. He's a celebrity that wants another

celebrity coming here. Yeah. Herod didn't even care the fact. He didn't

seem like he cared that he was on Travor's life. No, no,

no, he's just like, ooh sweet, I heard about this guy.

I'm glad you came all way over here, right, which is kind of

Herod was known for monkey boy, Yeah exactly. Herod was known for debauchery

and partying and very hedonistic lifestyle, which is strange. He was Jewish that

had bought his position right his father before him, his grandfather before him,

and they had sold out the Jewish people to be kings. And so at

this point now he's outside of mainstream Judaism certainly, and he's just live in

this wild, crazy, self centered life. And so for him, it

makes total sense that he would see this more as a party favor than anything

else. And then they dress him up like a king in purple robes and

send him back to Pilot, and apparently Pilot thought that was funny. They

became friends that day. Yeah, right. They were enemies because you have

Herod, who is the kind of the Roman face for the Jews, like,

hey, let's have one of them, so he calm him down,

and Pilot being the Roman face of the Romans, and so there was some

tension between these two leaders. But their palaces were very close. If you

ever look a map of ancient Israel or ancient Jerusalem at the time, their

palaces were close. So it's not like it had to get a chariot and

go, you know, back up to Galilee. It happened that one of

Herod had palaces all over Israel, right right. Why it said he happened

to be in Jerusalem that time, but it meant he wasn't just like down

the street, like at the corner market. He just was at his palace

in Jerusalem. Yeah. Well, it's Passover. This is the biggest thing

happening in the whole nation right now. He wants to be seen. It's

like going to Super Bowl. All the people who don't like football, but

they're you know, they're already famous, and then they go buy a suite

and they spend a million dollars on a suite they don't even care about because

they don't care about the game. They just want to be seen. Yeah.

In some cases, yeah, yeah, a lot of times. And

that's kind of I think Herod's thing. It's not that Herod was celebrating Passover,

it was just that this is the happening scene this week. I want

to be there, and he had a palace in Jerusalem, so he went,

and so they pass him off like this. But I think that the

amazing thing is the conversation that's recorded in Luke twenty three that's not recorded in

the rest with regard to it, just says in the others, are you

the king of the Jews? Right, Matthew Mark right? But in Luke

it kind of begins to unpack the conversation. Oh no, no, no,

not Luke, John John right. John begins to say, are you

know only the Romans are permitted to execute someone? Is what the Jewish leaders

say? And then he goes back and he's having this conversation with Jesus,

are you the king of the Jews? And he goes, is this your

question? Did always tell you about me? He gets mad, what do

you think? I'm a Jew? Like I care what the what the Pharisees

and the priests are saying. Right, And then John also talks records more

about the conversation about truth. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's

how it ends. Yeah, and is pilot the second time is that when

he says what is truth? Yes? Right? So they have another conversation

later on sort of like an extend, extended conversation at this beginning one right

here, because uh, because yeah, obviously Jesus is claiming about truth here

and that's the only thing he says in the first meeting. You know,

I I uh, I think that it's very very typical for people to pass

the buck. So, you know, a little sermon within a sermon here

is what's pilot do. He tries to shake off his responsibility, and he

tries to say, oh, he's Galilean. Yes, you know, I

could argue and say this isn't my problem, it's Harri's problem. Absolutely.

Yeah. Oh I don't want to deal with the skeletony yeah, and uh

And sometimes I think that as pastors, uh don't. I've seen you do

this where you actually take responsibility for other pastors wrongdoings. So somebody, so

somebody treats somebody poorly and you're like, hey, I'm not I'm not a

pastor of your previous church, but I am a pastor. I'm sorry.

So I just apologize on behalf of pastors everywhere, and on behalf of the

church. We're you try to step up and you know, try to make

it right just because you don't want to see somebody fall or things like this.

It's the opposite of what a lot of people do. A lot of

people just say, hey that you know, I'm gonna shrek off the responsibility.

This is not my problem. You know. It feels segregated in people's

minds sometimes, but it's not. We're the big church where the big Sea

Church. For every church that believes that the way to heaven is through Jesus

Christ, right, we own we own people's experiences with church and with God

and with religious leaders, and we should try to take responsibility across the board.

Yeah, and each other. You can't hardly blame him that he doesn't

want to touch this. He doesn't want to touch this with a ten foot

poll. He feels like he's getting played a little bit. He sees there's

really nothing to that. Come on, really, Oh, he told people

don't pay their taxes. He doesn't even address that part. That's a big

deal. It's the only reason why Rome kept conquering the rest of the world

was collect taxes, which may mean he already knew that Jesus had said give

the caesar to that, which is Caesar's Maybe right, Maybe he knew that

it happened in Jerusalem when that when that statement came up, it happens in

Jerusalem, So maybe maybe he knew that was a lie. Maybe it was

so common that he's like, yeah, welcome to every Jews. He says

that, yeah exactly, which is why we have a henchman everywhere, because

nobody wants to pay their job. But he doesn't even address that, right,

and then he just wants to know are you really a king? Like,

are you gonna cause me trouble? Right? Are you really? Are

you a king of the Jews? Oh, let me send you to hear

it. You're Galilean. Galilean is the king of the Jews too, right,

But he also after that question, he also says, I find no

fault in this man, right, yeah. So so he's like, come

on, guys, you just you just want to kill him. That's that

you want him kill him, and you want me to do it, and

I don't see any fault. And then he finds out, oh wait a

minute, king of the Jews from Galilee. Oh, Herod's the king of

the Jews. Let's go ahead see if you if you'l And so Jesus never

says a word to Herod not a thing to Herod not and you can just

imagine how infuriating that would be. So boring, But again you can see

how little care Herod puts into his leadership there. He doesn't get angry,

he just starts mocking him and sends him back right, like, you're so

boring. I thought this was gonna be fine. It's not fun. Yeah,

go back over and you know it is fine, and put a purple

robe on him. Yeah yeah, right, and start making fun of it,

and then send him back to pilot. I don't want to mess with

this anymore. And so then he comes back and so over the next day

tomorrow we'll talk about more of that trial and how it finally finishes up.

But this idea of you know what is truth is incredible because Jesus speaking to

him, it's almost you can see Jesus is trying to help him, let

him off the hook. Are you really a king? And he goes,

well, my kingdom's not an earthly kingdom. So immediately Pily goes, this

guy's nuts, right, He's no threat to the Roman Empire. Jesus is

the me that totally lets him off the hook. And then he goes you

know, if it were my followers would fight you. But they're not going

to fight you, which, by the way, he's implying, you know

all of Israel likes me. Right, you want a full blown riot,

I could have given you one. You want a full blown revolt, I

could have brought one if I wanted to, right, And so I think

power to power in that moment, I think Pilot had an understanding and it's

picking up on the fact that Jesus has no intent of doing that at all.

And then he goes, but my kingdom's not of this world, and

he says, so you are a king. He says, you say that

I'm a king. Actually, I came into the world to testify about truth.

You know, I'm the King of truth. That's what I'm here for

you. You want to know what I'm all about. I'm not about you.

I'm not about your power. I'm not about this palace. I'm not

about your empire. I was here. I come from a different kingdom,

and I'm just trying to bring truth to the people. And to a guy

like Pilot. He had to be thinking, I think this guy's lost as

marbles right right, well, because he says, King my kingdom is not

of this world, right, And at the time, like think about like

of this world? Like what are you even talking about? Right? Right?

And and and then and then he goes into this like ethereal, you

know, cerebral, you know, you know, I came to testify of

truth. And I'm sure probably is probably thinking is he talking about the world

of the mind? Right, right? Like what is he talking about?

So who are you saying? Are you saying you're Apollo? Is that what

you're saying, you're saying you're right? Right, that's because a king not

of this world? Really, that's what you're. You're You're a Roman god.

Is that what you're You're some kind of a Jewish god? That that's

the thing. And he had to have thought this guy is crazy. And

so you can clearly see he doesn't want to kill Jesus. And then tomorrow

we'll see again he has no desire to go down this path. I sometimes

to let Pilot off the hook, but I do feel like Pilot got played.

And there is also the fact that I think he just runs out of

gas and doesn't want to engage with this anymore. And what's what is it

to me to kill one more weirdo, right right right. And by the

way, let's not overlook the fact that John is the book here that includes

the conversation, like you said about truth. It's also the one that talks

about uh uh, only the Romans are permitted to execute someone. That's that's

another insightful thing. But John also includes that his accusers, his accusers didn't

want to go inside of Pilot's house because it would defile them and they wouldn't

be allowed to celebrate the passover, right right, right, So so if

going into a gentile's house made them unclean, which it did, right,

So they're they're they're they're wanting Pilot to be their puppet to execute you know,

Jesus for them. And at the same time, unfortunately they can't go

in because if they do go in, by the way, they'll have to

go and cleanse themselves and they'll isolate they isolate themselves for what is like seven

days or three days? Yeah, it depends on what the I don't remember

what the yeah vacation would be, but yeah, whatever the law said,

and they probably have to go into the seat. They probably have to go

into a like the Sea of Galilee first and then isolate themselves for days,

and they can't do that because the passover literally is within twenty four hours and

so, you know, which is obviously on the Sabbath. So yeah,

I just think that that's really interesting. So they're like, come on out

here, which means that these aren't room discussions. This is a this is

a courtyard public conversation. That's what's happening here. It's happening in the courtyard

with everybody around because it's not indoors, right, yeah, so everybody can

see it happening. Right. This isn't the room where it happened, remember

Hamilton, Yeah, the room it happened, the room happen. So the

difficulty for Pilot here is he's confronted with truth and he doesn't know for sure

what truth is, but he does know this truth Jesus is not guilty,

he's not worthy of death, and he rejects the truth he does have.

And so I think sometimes people have are have access to some of God's truths,

but they won't make a decision until they have all the truth, or

they feel like, well there's more. I don't understand it all right now,

so I can't make a decision and Pilot made a decision he didn't understand

at all. I think he thought Jesus little nuts on some of this stuff.

But the truth he did know was Jesus wasn't guilty of anything worthy of

death right, and he rejected that. Even if Jesus is trying to say,

hey, I have a different kingdom, he rejects that idea, doesn't

even ask any more questions about it. He's going to it again. He

just asks about truth and that's it. And then, you know, so

I think that it's really important for us to take the truth that we do

have the words of God, that you do have the access to Jesus,

that you do have, respond positively to that, and then God will continue

to reveal more of his truth to you. And so this is why Pilot

is also culpable in this whole process. And so you have both the Jews

and the Gentiles being culpable in the execution of Jesus. Is he had access

to truth and rejected it. So something you just said reminds me of something.

You know, you've talked with skeptics or agnostics or people who say,

hey, I've refused to make a decision about Christ because I have some questions,

you know, and and there these are my questions. And until I

get those answers, I want to debate. And I'm a thinker, and

all these different kind of things. And I would just say, over the

thirty years i've been a pastor, I've never seen anybody, you know,

intellectually get all their questions answered. And that was their way into heaven.

Oh right, right, somebody doesn't get all the answers and then make a

decision to become a Christian because not everything is going to be answered to everybody's

satisfaction. And if you're a person that's very inquisitive and you want to know

more, and this is you know, if you're the type of person a

project manager who says, I can't go in until every last stone is unturned

and everything is explored, I know every possible angle before I enter into any

project. Which there are people like that, and that's a good thing in

a lot of ways. But when it comes to faith, there are things

that we are required to just you know, take by faith, which,

by the way, even Jesus interacting in the thirty three years that he lived,

there were things that he didn't explain and he just said walk by faith.

Yeah, he never gave people explanations on some things. Well, that's

what we understand, is that we walk by faith and not by sight alone.

Right, And so it comes to both the truth is there, and

the truth is clear, and the Holy Spirit can show you the truth.

But there is a faith moment when you have to just decide to say,

I'm not God and I have to choose to make a choice and a belief.

We do that all the time. You get in your car, even

the best engineer doesn't know every single element. You get in a plane and

you sit down and you lets but you've never even met you didn't even look

at their license, and you let them fly you at five hundred and fifty

miles an hour, thirty thousand feet above the ground, hollow metal tube.

We live by faith all the time. And so it's that level of faith.

I understand thrust, I understand lift, I understand some of those things.

I trust the brand of Delta Airlines. Right, So I've got these

things, and so I'm making an educated decision. I'm taking the preponderance of

the evidence. That guy's wearing gold eagles on his shoulder, he's got a

blue hat. He's standing there greeting me right next to the door. Apparently

he's allowed in. And I've seen Delta work before. I think the plane's

going to get me to Omaha. Empirical evidence, Yeah, exactly, and

so I take the preponderance of that evidence, and the evidence the truths are

enough for me to go okay. All the things I don't understand and know,

I can trust that they do, and then I can place my faith

in that pilot to get me to Omaha or wherever I'm going. It's the

same thing. So you can take the truths either you accept them, a

reject them, take the preponderance of the evidence, and then go okay.

By faith. I can accept the rest while I'm still learning and discovering those

things. Do you fly to Omaha much? No? I know, I

said, Omaha, I'm just trying to go down alright. Well, hey,

we are right at that time. So that's been you know, that's

wrapping up today and we'll pick it up tomorrow. On the bibble gush