WWUTT 2236 Jesus Before Pilate (Mark 15:1-15)

It was by the providence of God that he brought together both Jews and Gentiles to put the

Son of God to death, for Jesus would die not just for Jews, but even for Gentiles, when we understand the text.

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Thank you, Becky. My voice is a little weak for this one. We'll see how far we get. We're up to Mark chapter 15 today, and this is the chapter where we read about the crucifixion of Jesus, but first his trial before Pilate.

That's at the start of the chapter, so I'll begin by reading the first 15 verses here out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes in the whole

Sanhedrin immediately held council, and binding Jesus led him away and delivered him to Pilate.

And Pilate questioned him, Are you the king of the Jews? And he answered him and said,

You yourself say it. And the chief priests began to accuse him of many things.

Then Pilate was questioning him again, saying, Do you not answer? See how many accusations they bring against you.

But Jesus made no further answer. So Pilate marveled. Now at the feast, he used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested.

The man named Barabbas had been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection.

The crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them. And Pilate answered them, saying,

Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he was aware that the chief priests had delivered him over because of envy.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.

And answering again, Pilate was saying to them, Then what shall I do with him whom you call the king of the

Jews? And they shouted, Crucify him. But Pilate was saying to them,

Why? What evil did he do? But they shouted all the more, Crucify him.

And wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them. And after having

Jesus scourged, he delivered him over to be crucified. So when it says at the very start here, early in the morning, this would be after sunrise.

And it would have been whether you hold the view that it was on early Thursday morning, he was crucified

Thursday afternoon, buried, and then he's in the tomb, Friday, Saturday rises again

Sunday, or you hold the view that it was Friday on which he was crucified. That's the traditional perspective, of course, being on Good Friday.

This would have been early Friday morning that these things are taking place. So remember that Jesus has just been accused of blasphemy because it was asked of him.

Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed one? And Jesus said, I am. And you shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven, equating himself with the

Messiah that was prophesied about in Daniel chapter seven. So the high priest tears his garments, he has declared blasphemy, you've heard it yourself.

This man needs to be put to death. But the Jews could not put anybody to death simply because they wanted to.

They were not allowed to have their own system of law. Capital crimes such as this had to go before the

Romans. The Romans had to give approval to an execution. So they're bringing

Jesus before Pilate, the Sanhedrin, which would include all the elders, scribes, the chief priests, it would include both

Sadducees and Pharisees. Finally, they get along on something. The Sadducees and Pharisees did not always get along on things.

So they're bringing Jesus to Pilate for him to be crucified. Now, it's amazing.

And by the providence of God, by his for ordination, in fact, that all of these things are set up in exactly this way so that Jesus is going to be crucified by both

Jews and Gentiles. The occupation of the Romans who are living in Jerusalem.

Pilate even has a house in Jerusalem. There was Herod's palace. But then Pilate also had a place where he resided since he was the proconsul of that region.

He was the governor of the region. So he's got his own residence there. And that God would arrange all of these things to happen so that Jews and Gentiles are conspiring together to put to death the son of God.

This is not just the Jews who are committing Jesus to murder, but it is the

Gentiles, even, who will put him to death. Jesus being crucified, being put to death unjustly by both

Jews and Gentiles, but then also at the same time dying for Jews and Gentiles.

The Apostle Paul spends Romans 1, 18 through 320, bringing all men into condemnation, summing it up in Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And there he's talking about Jews and Gentiles because he's brought Jews and Gentiles into an understanding of sin and judgment before God.

Neither one are innocent. Everyone completely guilty. And if not for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we all would perish.

But because Jesus suffered and died, because he lived a perfect life for us, becoming that perfect spotless lamb for us and suffered and died and rose again for our justification, even as it said in Romans 4, because Jesus did this, both

Jews and Gentiles who believe on his name will be saved. Consider what is said in Acts 4.

This was after the apostles had been apprehended and questioned and then released because they couldn't find a charge against them.

They were trying to get them to be quiet and not share the gospel. So at least on this particular occasion, they let them go and the apostles get together with the other disciples.

And here is what we read, Acts 4, beginning in verse 23. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

Now, remember the same chief priests and elders that would have put Jesus to death just a few weeks before this. This included some of the same men that had crucified

Jesus. And when the disciples heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said,

Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father,

David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the

Lord and against his anointed. For truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant,

Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

So here God had arranged that the greatest Gentile nation on earth at this time and the

Jews would conspire together to put the son of God to death. But this had happened.

To bring about the salvation of mankind, for if not for the death of Christ, we would not be saved.

It is the greatest sin, as I had talked about, I believe it was last week, the greatest sin ever committed by mankind, putting to death the son of God.

And it was Jews and Gentiles who did it together. I know there's different narratives out there saying that the

Jews put Jesus to death. The Romans just did what the Jews wanted them to. There was one time on social media.

I can't remember if this was Twitter or Facebook or where I did this, but I made two different posts. I had put one post that said the

Jews put Jesus to death, and I did another post that said the Romans put

Jesus to death. Guess which one of those statements got more attention and more likes from an audience.

It was the statement that the Jews put Jesus to death. There were more people that like that.

We have a reason and excuse to hate Jews. I mean, anti -Semitism is a real thing. That word is kind of silly because there's a lot of different people, a lot of different categories of people that will fit in that term,

Semite, anti -Semite. I mean, it's anti -Judaism, but it's a real thing. People outright hate

Jews, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that it was from this people came the

Messiah. That really is, whether or not a person would say it, but that is the source of their animosity toward the

Jews because they hate Christ. Now, of course, Orthodox Jews today, those that practice

Judaism, they're not Christians. They're unsaved. They don't believe the gospel. They have to put faith in Jesus Christ.

But most Jews today, there are Messianic Jews, of course. There are those who are Jewish by their heritage, perhaps, or in their ethnicity, and they have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

I have known Messianic Jews in my life. I worked for one once. In fact, my boss was a

Messianic Jew, so I've known them. They're real, genuine Christians. But of course,

Judaism itself is not. In fact, it's rather, or it can be, kind of atheistic.

I mean, you don't even have to believe in God at all and still call yourself a Jew and go through the traditions because you like them.

It's your heritage or something to that effect. I've seen that before as well. So modern

Orthodox Judaism is not really Orthodox. It is heresy.

These persons do not know Christ if they don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that the Father has sent, if they have not put their faith and trust in him, he who was crucified, who rose again from the dead, who ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God.

If they have not put their faith in him for the forgiveness of their sins, then they are under the wrath of God.

It doesn't matter what their ethnicity is. Remember, I had said this, oh, it was

Becky and I's conversation on Friday when we were critiquing that awful Paul Harvey letter.

But anyway, it was in John chapter 8 where Jesus said to those Jews that you are of your father the devil.

Just because they were Jews did not mean that they were saved. They did their father's desires.

They did not believe that Jesus was the Christ. If Abraham had truly been their father, then they would know who

Jesus was because Abraham knew who he was. But that was not who their father was.

They may have been descended in the light of Abraham, but their real father was Satan.

When we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into the family of God. And our heavenly father is our true father,

Jesus even being referred to as our older brother. He is, of course, God, but that's the nature of the relationship.

That is the spiritual connection that we have with Christ in this adopted family of God, in this spiritual household that we have been made a part of.

No one is saved unless they put their trust in Jesus Christ. No one is saved because of their ethnicity or who they are descended from or their family heritage or otherwise.

It is only by faith, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Everyone in the history of the

Bible, whether you're talking about Old Testament or New, all are saved by grace through faith.

Those in the Old Testament were looking toward Christ who was to come and would be crucified and rise again.

Those in the New Testament are looking back, even to this day, as we are

New Testament believers today. We are looking back at what Christ accomplished with his death on the cross.

As said in Colossians 1, Ephesians 1 says this as well, that God is reconciling all things to himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1 20, making peace by the blood of his cross. And so God had ordained that both

Jews and Gentiles would do this, that they would come together and conspire against the holy one of God who was sent to lay down his own life.

Remember the theme verse for the gospel of Mark, his Mark 10 45, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

The people who killed him, the Jews and the Romans are guilty of murder.

We've read that right there in Acts chapter four. Peter says this also in Acts chapter two, talking there at Pentecost, you put the son of God to death.

He was put to death by the hands of lawless men. So they were guilty, even though Jesus had the authority to lay his life down and take it back up again.

Those who took his life were guilty of this great sin. And there were thousands of people there at Pentecost cut to the heart and said, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter says, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the holy spirit for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off.

Everyone whom the Lord, our God calls to himself, that statement of your children and all who are far off, that's

Jews and Gentiles. The message of salvation is for you. And it's for those who will come after you.

And for those who are far off the Gentiles, everyone whom the Lord, our God calls to himself here, what we're reading about are the

Jews and Gentiles together conspiring to put Jesus to death and pilot questioned him.

Verse two, are you the king of the Jews? Now, as we had read about this in Matthew's gospel, there was a little bit more context to that question, because this goes back to the beginning of Matthew's gospel in chapter two, where there were

Magi from the East who came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the

Jews? So this conversation about Jesus being the king of the Jews had been going on throughout his entire life, not just at this moment here, where he's been brought before pilot and pilot asks him this question.

Now, Mark doesn't provide that kind of context, of course, but we know that has been the case. So when pilot questions him and says, are you the guy that has all this ruckus has been stirred over when, when

I hear whispers of the king of the Jews is here, are you that guy? And of course,

Jesus has been beaten. He has been spat upon. He's had chunks of his beard pulled out when the

Sanhedrin found him guilty and, and, and began to persecute him. So he's standing before pilot bloody and bruised pilot, certainly not impressed.

You're the king. Really? This is you. And Jesus answered him and said, you yourself say it.

Now, there are skeptics out there, of course, who will claim that Jesus didn't actually answer the question in the affirmative.

He didn't say that he was the king of the Jews, but this statement, you yourself say it is to say what you have said is true.

It's the same thing. Now, the wording is slightly different in Matthew's account, Matthew 27, 11.

Pilot asks him, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said, you have said so wording is slightly different, but it still means the same thing.

What you have said is true. And the chief priests began to accuse him of many things. And pilot was questioning him again, saying, do you not answer?

See how many accusations that they bring against you. But Jesus made no further answer.

And so pilot marveled. First Peter 2 21 says for to this, you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds.

You have been healed for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Now we have this sort of Mark and appendix once again, where Mark kind of goes off for a moment and explain something that is about to happen.

Now at the feast, pilot used to release for them any one prisoner whom they requested.

And the man named Barabbas had been in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the insurrection.

And the crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them.

And pilot answered them saying, do you want me to release for you? The king of the Jews, for he was aware that the chief priest had delivered him over because of envy.

They were envious of him pilot even knew that they hated Jesus because the crowds would listen to him and go after his teaching instead of theirs.

So pilot is aware Jesus is gaining more fame than they have. And that was part of their motivation for wanting to put him to death.

So if that is the Pharisees motivation, then he's going to put it to the crowd.

Well, what do you say? Who do you want me to release? The king of the Jews or do you want to release? Do you want me to release to you

Barabbas? Because if he puts it to the crowd, then maybe they're going to come up with a different answer since the crowd has a different motivation than the scribes and Pharisees have.

But the chief priests, it says in verse 11, stirred up the crowd to ask him to release

Barabbas for them instead. I thought that was funny. It kind of felt to me like a

Southern Baptist convention annual meeting and how the platform will stir the crowd to their side, even when they vote on something just absolutely ridiculous, like critical race theory or wokeness or something else.

And the platform is able to sway the crowd. It kind of has that feel, looks like that.

It's a much milder form, of course, in the Southern Baptist convention than what we're seeing here.

Verse 12, and answering again, Pilate was saying to them, then what shall I do with him whom you call the king of the

Jews? And they shouted again, crucify him. But Pilate was saying to them, why?

What evil has he done? Pilate even recognizes there is there's nothing about this guy that makes him guilty.

He hasn't done anything. He even recognizes himself that there's no charge that can be brought against him.

Remember at Jesus trial before Caiaphas, the high priest, they brought witnesses and tried to accuse

Jesus of something, but they couldn't come up with anything. And now here you have a Gentile leader acknowledging the same thing.

Guy hadn't done anything wrong. The man is sinless. He is without fault above blame.

And yet Pilate will put him to death anyway. They all shouted all the more crucify him and wishing to satisfy the crowd because Pilate fears man rather than God.

Pilate released Barabbas for them. And after having Jesus scourged, he delivered him over to be crucified.

And we'll pick up there tomorrow with Jesus mocked and the crucifixion heavenly father.

What we have read here is a reminder of what Christ has done for us, that he gave his life as a ransom for many.

We have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, our sins forgiven atoned for by Jesus sacrifice.

And we've been bought and purchased to be a people for his own possession. Zealous for good works as talked about in Titus 2 14.

And so may we remember again, the great sacrifice that was needed for us to be forgiven our sins and made right with God.

And now in fellowship with you, we live our lives in such a way to be a demonstration of the holiness of Christ that we have been clothed in forgive us our sins, lead us in the upright path that we are to go in obedience to Christ, following his example, even suffering in such a way that we give glory to God in heaven.