The Gospel of John: Jesus before Pilate (4)

Well, let's turn in our

Bibles, please, once again to John chapter 19. This is the fourth and final

Sunday that we're giving our attention to our Lord, his trial before Pontius Pilate, the

Roman governor. We've considered that it was in John's purpose to show forth that Jesus was not only experiencing and enduring an unjust trial and cruel abuse, but that in doing so,

Jesus was manifesting a quiet and regal dignity and deportment before this

Roman governor. John recorded this trial before the

Roman prefect, before his readers, showing Jesus Christ as a king over the kingdom of God, a kingdom that would eventually encompass the whole world.

Our Lord's kingdom was secured and demonstrated, of course, by his faithful witness in the manner that he suffered and he died.

And in this way, Jesus conquered and overcame sin, even as he suffered at the hands of sinners, suffering the misery and punishment for sin.

He conquered all his foes through his death upon his cross. But not only does

John record Jesus to have been on trial, John recounts the event in a way that shows that others were on trial while they were trying

Jesus. And it would seem that Pilate was certainly on trial.

Certainly the Jews were on trial, even as they tried Jesus. And this reformed writer put this forth,

I think, quite well. In John's gospel, Jesus's entire life is a series of trials.

Yet the real trial is not the apparent trial. Not Jesus, but the

Jews who were accused and tried Jesus are on trial. This becomes most evident in Jesus's trials and death.

Speaking of his death after his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus referred to his coming hour of judgment on this world.

While the entire world was coming under judgment, that judgment began with the house of God, the people of Israel.

Jesus's interpretation of his approaching death is in the background of the trial in John 18 and 19, where Pilate places

Jesus on the judgment seat before the Jews who renounced

Jesus in favor of Caesar. Pilate too is on trial. But the trial centers on the people who claim to be the sons of Abraham.

By crucifying Jesus, the Jews and the Romans ultimately condemned not

Jesus, but themselves. Flesh's apparent victory was flesh's defeat.

By twisting Torah, in other words, God's law, into an instrument to kill the living word, by boiling the

Torah giver in the milk of the Torah, flesh is self -consumed. In Jesus's death,

Yahweh, that's the personal name of God, Jehovah, we commonly would regard it or say it.

In Jesus's death, Yahweh's persecution of flesh came to its climax.

And so yes, we're reading about the trial of Jesus, but there are other trials going on also.

The trials of the Jews in particular, and certainly Pilate also. We've been here a couple of weeks, but I do want to read the passage again for context.

Here's John 19, 1 -16, which is really the second portion of Jesus's trial before Pilate.

So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe.

Then they said, Hail, King of the Jews. And they struck him with their hands.

Pilate then went out again and said to them, Behold, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.

And Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them,

Behold, the man. Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw him, they cried out, saying,

Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, You take him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.

The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to our law, he ought to die, because he made himself the son of God.

Therefore, when Pilate heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and 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 the power to crucify you and the power to release you? And Jesus answered,

You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given 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 that 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, about the sixth hour.

And he said to the Jews, Behold, your king. But they cried out,

Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king?

The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. And he delivered him to them to be crucified.

And then they took Jesus and led him away. The outline that we've been using for this chapter, this portion of Jesus's trial before Pilate, involved the treatment of the king, verses one through three, the presentation of the king, behold the man, the authority from above, and then fourthly, the judgment seat.

And this is what we want to give our attention to, continue to give our attention to this morning.

So we addressed the first three in detail. Today, I want us to consider this matter of the judgment seat.

Now, you recall last week, we concluded by pointing out that the language of verse 13, of course, every word is inspired of the

Holy Spirit, is quite interesting in that it is not clear grammatically whether it was

Pilate or Jesus that was seated. Now, historically, we would say that Pilate sat upon his judgment seat, from which he passed sentence upon Jesus, but grammatically, it could be understood that Pilate, in order to mock the

Jews, for whom he had little regard and respect, sat Jesus on his seat, as the

Jews mock king. The verb could be translated that way.

And we would say, of course, that although historically, Pilate sat down on his seat, we would argue, nevertheless, the

Holy Spirit moved John to pen it in this way to consider that Jesus was the one who was actually in charge.

Even though they were mocking him, he was really calling the events to take place.

And we mentioned this passage that addressed this last week.

We must remember that we're not interpreting the historical event itself, but the account recorded in a text.

This is not to deny or even minimize the reality of the event, but to suggest that the inspired account may intend to communicate truths beyond what was seen by those present.

For example, Jesus, the man, is also the lamp. In fact, the narrative's nondescript account may be entirely the point.

That is, the narrative wanted to present two coexisting and competing realities simultaneously, namely the authority of both

Pilate and Jesus, which verses 10 through 11 made clear was the central issue between them.

From the narrative's perspective, both were sitting on the judgment seat.

The historical strand of the gospel's plot would suggest Pilate was the one seated, for the seat did belong to his

Roman office. And yet the cosmological, the bigger picture, strand of the gospel's plot just as strongly suggests that Jesus was the one seated, for the seat also belonged to the divine office.

And in order to communicate this, the narrative intentionally makes the sitting of the judge explicitly implicit, so that the scene is presented in the fullness of its historical and cosmological content.

If Pilate placed Jesus on the judgment seat, then he was certainly making a mockery of the

Jews, as he would do again when Jesus was placed upon the cross. Again, referring, alluding to the sign above the cross, declaring him to be the king of the

Jews. But if Pilate himself was sitting on the judgment seat, then the joke was on him, for the place where he sat was given to him by a much higher authority, the very man he was supposedly about to judge.

The bottom line is this, though Pilate was passing judgment, actually Jesus Christ was in ultimate control, passing judgment on Pilate, the

Jews, and indeed the very world for its rebellion and wickedness.

Now, I want to chase a rabbit this morning, OK, because of this verse of the judgment seat.

For I might just say at the outset, a proper understanding of this verse about the judgment seat of Pilate discredits a very popular evangelical view of a future judgment of works of believers after a supposed pre -tribulation rapture in the future.

I'll explain as we work through here. And so let's consider it's an unrelated matter, but I think one that will be found to be helpful.

It's a rabbit trail, granted. There are many Christians who believe the

Bible to be the Word of God that have a popular, but we would say aberrant view of end time events.

They advocate that the second coming of Jesus Christ will take place in two stages, two events, which will be separated by a seven -year tribulation period on earth.

They claim there will be a secret rapture of the church, which will include all believers since the day of Pentecost, not all believers through history, but only since Pentecost.

The church will be raptured, they claim. While a seven -year tribulation period transpires on earth, the church in heaven will participate in the marriage supper of the

Lamb. But first, they say, the members of the invisible church will be called before the judgment seat of Christ in order to be rewarded for their stewardship as to how they lived as Christians upon the earth.

And so it's really a distribution of King Jesus of rewards to Christians.

No sins are brought into view, it's just strictly an awarding ceremony, as it were, the judgment seat of Christ.

And so 2 Corinthians 5 .10 is often interpreted to be this unique judgment of Christ for the rewarding of believers for their good works, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done.

And they tend to stop there and maybe say whether good, but it's the bad too that they don't really take into consideration.

They argue that this judgment seat of Christ is not to be confused with the judgment of the wicked.

There's a series of future judgments, they say, where we would advocate the Bible teaches one general judgment of all mankind at the end of history.

And so they believe that this judgment of Christians should not be confused with the judgment of the wicked that Jesus will convene at the second stage of his second coming at the end of seven years when he physically returns to the earth.

It's claimed that judgment will be of those who survive the tribulation on earth. And they also say that this judgment seat of Christ will take place in heaven, not on earth.

It's not also to be confused with the great white throne judgment, they say, that's going to take place a thousand and seven years after this judgment seat of Christ.

They have a number of future judgments. Rather, they claim that at this judgment seat of Christ, Christ will not take or give an account of the sins of his people, but only the good that they had done while on earth living as Christians.

And so for dispensationalists, those who hold this view, there's really no sense of having to stand before Jesus Christ and give an account of your life, whether good or evil, as showing forth evidence that you're a true

Christian, but rather this is just a judgment to distribute rewards to his faithful people.

And so they argue that this is a separate judgment only for Christians, only believers since the day of Pentecost up until this future rapture of the church.

Now one of the main arguments they use to set forth this doctrine of the judgment seat of Christ is to use the

Greek word for judgment. They claim that the Greek word specifies and distinguishes this judgment from those judgments in which

Christ judges the wicked. The Greek word for judgment seat is the

Greek word bima. You've probably heard of that, the bima seat of Christ. They say that the

New Testament speaks of the bima seat of Christ, which was used to depict the seat of judgment of an official at the

Olympic games who did not adjudicate matters of justice, determining guilt or innocence, and to sentence a criminal for punishment.

But this judge sitting on his bima seat would bestow awards upon those who successfully competed in the games.

And so below or in your notes, you have a few statements of those who advocate such a view. This is what

Charles Ryrie argued, being a classical dispensationalist, and these are his comments on the expression, biblical expression, the judgment seat of Christ.

The bima, that's the Greek word, judgment seat, was well known to the Corinthians. Believers will be judged in a review of their works for the purpose of rewards.

They limit and define the judgment only for rewards and only of believers.

Here is the understanding of the New Schofield Reference Bible. The judgment of the believer's works, not sins, is under discussion here.

His sins will have been atoned for, but are remembered no more forever. But every work must come into judgment.

The result is reward or loss of reward, but he himself, the Christian, shall be saved.

This judgment occurs at the return of Christ for his church. Now that's how the

New Schofield Study Bible reads. I compared with the original

Schofield Bible this note, and I found something interesting. The editors of the

New Schofield Bible changed Schofield's words, because Schofield said this judgment will take place after the coming of Christ, in other words, the second coming.

They changed it, said no, this will occur after the rapture, in other words, during the seven -year tribulation.

So there's a difference between the New Schofield and Old Schofield Study Bible about this. And then this is the view of a writer named

Paul Benware. He's written a book that's quite popular among dispensationalists, and he sets it out, the position out quite clearly.

Immediately after the church is removed from the world at the rapture, the judgment seat of Christ will take place.

What is this judgment seat? The Greek word bima is used by the Apostle Paul to describe this judgment.

A bima was a seat or raised platform where a judge sat as he made his decision regarding a case.

Now, he acknowledges it can be used by, say, a criminal judge.

This word was also used in connection with the platform on which the umpire or referee sat during the

Olympic Games or the Isthmian Games at Corinth. This was the place where the winners of the various events received their rewards.

The Apostle Paul seems to have this idea of reward in mind as he speaks of the judgment seat of Christ.

This, then, is actually a place of rewarding, not punishing. So it's a special kind of judgment just for Christians.

When will this judgment take place? The fact that the Lord Jesus rewards his servants in connection with his coming indicates that the judgment seat of Christ will take place shortly after the rapture.

Furthermore, the Lord taught that rewarding takes place at the time of the resurrection, which is an important part of the rapture.

And also, when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth at his second coming with his bride, the church, the bride is already rewarded.

This place is the rewarding of the church sometime after the rapture, but before the second coming.

Again, two stages of the second coming of Christ. It will take place in the sphere of the heavenlies, not on earth, but in heaven.

Who will be present at the judgment seat of Christ? This judgment involves the same people who were involved in the rapture, namely, believers from the church age.

Not Old Testament believers, but rather only New Testament believers, the church, not

Israel. In the context where the judgment seat of Christ is discussed, it is believers who are being encouraged and exhorted.

For example, in the first Corinthians passage, it's clear those who have built on the foundation of Jesus Christ will be at the judgment seat.

This clearly is a reference to church age believers. In fact, the only ones who are said to be at the judgment seat of Christ are church age believers.

This would mean that unsaved people are not part of this judgment. It also means that saints from the

Old Testament will not participate. That is an incredible statement, those three paragraphs.

We don't have the time, and you probably do not have the patience for me to identify and specify the number of faulty reasonings and conclusions that are put forth in these few paragraphs.

It's just incredible to me. But he does express what is most commonly believed and proclaimed by most evangelical

Christians about the judgment seat of Christ. No, the

Bible does not declare that there will be a number of different future judgments each addressing different peoples and for different reasons and ends.

There will be one general judgment of mankind at the end of the age in which Jesus Christ will judge the entire human race.

And at that time, he's going to reward his people too, but it's a single judgment. Again, great emphasis is given to this being a seat of Christ before which

Christians will only receive their rewards for their faithful service and stewardship while in this life.

The problem with this view is that it is unbiblical to narrowly define and compare the

Bema seat of Christ to the official who arbitrates Olympic games. Here in John 19, 13 and 14, in which we have read that Pilate brought

Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat. The Greek word is

Bema. Thirty -five years ago,

I read this verse. Wait, wait, wait. Pilate condemned Jesus and he was sitting on the

Bema seat. It doesn't appear that the Bema seat is only a judge hanging out rewards at the end of a race.

Pilate was executing a judgment of execution upon Jesus.

But they are arguing the Bema seat should be regarded as not a judicial proceeding punishing people, but rather it is an award ceremony as it is.

Pilate upon his Bema seat did not judge Jesus in order to award him for success in competitive games, but from his judgment,

Bema seat, Pilate pronounced a death sentence upon Jesus Christ. And at the future

Bema seat of Jesus Christ, we read that Jesus Christ will judge all the world in righteousness, separate his sheep from the goats, the metaphor of all those who die in unbelief toward Jesus the

Lord. Yes, at the same judgment, Jesus will reward his people for their faithful service to him and to his people, but it should not be understood as a different event separated by a period of time.

And besides, the scripture specifically and directly set forth both the judgment of the wicked and the rewarding of the righteous to take place at the same occasion of judgment.

Here's Revelation 11, 18, and notice it conflates the two as a single event. The nations were angry and your wrath has come the time of the dead that they should be judged and that you reward should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints.

Notice includes Old Testament believers and New Testament believers, by the way, and those who fear your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.

And so here we see one judgment, the wicked and the righteous, the righteous being awarded or rewarded, but the wicked also being condemned.

There's one future judgment, not a series of future judgments. And the argument that somehow

Christians will not stand in judgment of their works one day is just not taught in the scriptures.

And yet there are so many Christians, so many believers who think, well,

I'm not going to have to stand before God and answer to how I lived. I'm only going to have to stand there and be rewarded for the good things

I've done. I don't mind passing by and maybe forfeiting a few rewards in for a little fun now.

That's the attitude. I've heard it said, people have declared that to me over the years.

And that is serious, serious error. The Bema seat is a judgment seat and Pilate judged

Jesus and condemned him on this seat. And the future Bema seat of Christ is the judgment of the world.

And that's what the scriptures teach. And so that's our rabbit trail. Now, let's look at the passage itself again within context, the judgment seat.

From then on, Pilate sought to release him, Jesus, but the Jews cried out saying, if you let this man go, you're not

Caesar's friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought

Jesus out, sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement and in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

Now, it was the preparation day of the Passover and about the sixth hour. And he said to the

Jews, behold, your king. But they cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him.

Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar.

And then he delivered him to them to be crucified. And then they took

Jesus and led him away. Now, again, we read in verse 13,

Pilate brought Jesus out, sat down in the judgment seat that is called the pavement and in Hebrew, Gabbatha.

I didn't put this in the notes, but this suggests that John was probably writing to Gentiles explaining to them the

Hebrew language, you see. We have before described the

Roman fortress Antonio that sat on the, I believe, the north east side of the temple mount, higher than the temple wall.

So the Romans could look down on the temple grounds and everything that took place. And it was a really a cause of consternation to the

Jewish people. The situation of this fortress was a cause of great problems and difficulties for the

Jews. Interestingly, archaeologists back in 1933 discovered a rather large area of paved stones within this fortress, about 3 ,000 square feet in size.

Now, there's some conflict in some of the details. I read another account where it said it was 2 ,500 square meters.

And another, it said 3 ,000 square yards, not square feet. I don't know what's accurate or what's true.

If we assume that this trial of Jesus took place before Pilate in the fortress, this is probably the location in which

Jesus was formally sentenced, just beside the temple precincts. The pavement, as the place was called, may indicate that the place was paved with mosaic tiles, and that was very common, even on exterior floors.

It was an official setting where Pilate would make his declaration of sentence upon Jesus. John also gives the name of the place in Aramaic.

Now, it says Hebrew, but it's using Hebrew here as kind of a family of languages. Aramaic was the language spoken by the

Jewish people of the first century. And so, although the English text says that Gabbatha was in Hebrew, it was actually

Aramaic. That was the language of the Babylonians. When the Jews were in exile, they forgot the

Hebrew language and adopted the Aramaic language, and that's what they brought back, and that was the language of the day, except for the rabbis, they had retained

Hebrew themselves. Interestingly, Aramaic and Hebrew have the same alphabet, but they're different languages, and an analogy would be like German and English, we have the same alphabet, but clearly two different languages.

And so, there are portions of the Old Testament that were written in Aramaic, and if you and I looked at those pages, we wouldn't necessarily be able to tell the difference, because it's all in Hebrew script.

There is one interesting, I don't know if I can get off into this, but there is one interesting observation that you can make, even a layperson can make, about the

Aramaic script, is that it had this tendency to begin, commonly, words with the initial

Hebrew letter Aleph, and so you can actually look at the page of Aramaic, and it's distinct from the page of Hebrew, even though it's the same alphabet, because you see this preponderance of alphabet, of the alpha letter in the

Hebrew alphabet in Aramaic, and there are a number of chapters in the

Old Testament that were written in Aramaic, rather than in Hebrew. And so, here we have the personal representative of Rome offering his judicial decision on the one who alone is the promised

Messiah, the one to whom the Father himself entrusted all judgment. We next read in verse 14, now it was the preparation day of the

Passover, and about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews, behold your king.

Now remember, he brought Jesus out before them earlier, and he said, behold the man, and now he brings out

Jesus, behold the king. Same language, actually, but instead of man, he's declared as king.

And so, here is the time of Pilate's official pronouncement. We read that this was the preparation day of the

Passover, and with this statement, it brings into view the dating of the events as recorded in the four

Gospels. The accounts in the Synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, set forth

Jesus as having eaten the Passover meal the night before, with his disciples, when our

Lord instituted the Lord's Supper. But here, it says that the day that Jesus, or that Pilate passed sentence upon Jesus was the day of the preparation of the

Passover. And so, there are those who argue that John sets forth the day after his gathering with his disciples as the preparation day of the

Passover. And so, it appears there's a conflict here. When was the

Passover? The day before, according to the Synoptics, or this day, or the following evening after the preparation, according to John.

And so, the common assertion, therefore, is that while the Synoptics have Jesus eating the Passover lamb on the day before the crucifixion of Jesus, John records

Jesus being crucified on the day of the Passover at the very time the slaying of the

Passover lambs was taking place in the temple. It is believed, therefore, that John set the

Passover meal, stated the Passover meal must have been eaten by the

Jews the very night our Lord was crucified, not the night before. And by the way, liberal critics of the

Gospels would always point to that as a contradiction between the

Gospels, and therefore, they're not historically reliable. And we would say that those scholars were not reliable in their assessment of matters.

Another matter that arises because of these details is identifying what day of the week Jesus was crucified.

The traditional view is that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday. But a minority view, held by some good reformed guys, by the way, believe that the

Gospels record Jesus being crucified on Thursday of Passion Week, not Friday. D .A.

Carson set forth the issues involved. The precise referent of the day of preparation is disputed.

If this refers to the day before the Passover, in other words, the day in which one prepares for the

Passover, then John is presenting Jesus as being sent to execution about the same time the

Passover lambs are being slaughtered. That would mean that the meal Jesus and his disciples enjoyed the night before was not the

Passover supper, and that in turn brings us into sharp contradiction with the synoptic witness, which makes it clear that Jesus and his disciples ate the

Passover. The attractiveness of this theory, despite the clash with the synoptists, rests in the assumption that John introduces this time factor here as a symbolic way of saying that the true

Passover lamb was none other than Jesus himself. He was sentenced to be slaughtered just as the slaughter of the lambs began.

And if this were the case, by the way, just trying to draw a picture, Jesus is outside on this pavement being sentenced by Pilate even as the bleeding of the

Passover lambs could be heard over the wall in the temple courts. However, I think that took place the day before myself.

So how are these matters to be addressed? Well, William Hendrickson, a respected reformed commentator, argued that this preparation for the

Passover was actually the weekly preparation for the Sabbath day. Friday, every week, was referred to as the preparation day with view to the

Sabbath. Therefore, this is a reference to Friday and that it's not in conflict with the accounts of the synoptics.

And so here are his comments on the word, now it was the preparation of the Passover. This does not mean it was the preparation for the

Passover, as if John wanted to indicate that Jesus was sentenced before the day of the Passover.

Such a day of preparation, cooking the food to be used on that day, preceded Sabbath, not feasts.

The expression simply means that it was the Friday of the Passover week. One finds a very clear commentary in Luke, and it was the day of the preparation and the

Sabbath drew near. And in Mark, the preparation that is the day before the

Sabbath, John in complete harmony with the other Gospels, teaches that Jesus was sentenced and crucified on Friday, which was the day of preparation for the

Sabbath. In this particular case, it was a day of preparation of Passion Week.

Herman Ritter, boss, very good reformed theologian and commentator, agreed with this position.

There is also significant difference of opinion connected with the dating of the Passover in John, concerning the time reference in verse 14, now it was a day of the preparation for the

Passover. We take preparation to be the fixed name of the day before the Sabbath, hence Friday.

The addition of Passover then makes this a reference to the Friday of the great feast of liberation itself, and is meant to be understood in that context.

In other words, the day of preparation during the Passover week. Verse 14 introduces another difficulty in that the timing of the sentence of Jesus to die is set forth as occurring in the sixth hour.

By the way, if you ever read the accounts in the four Gospels of the arrests and trials of Jesus, there are a number of, we might put that in parentheses, difficulties that you have to figure out.

And here's a big one. John reads that it took place in the sixth hour.

This is when Pilate passed sentence. Again verse 14, now it was the preparation day of the

Passover and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, behold, your king, if the time of day is reckoned to have begun at sunrise, then the sixth hour would be about noon.

However, we read in Mark 15, 25, this detail. Now it was the third hour they crucified him.

So you see the issue. Where John declared Jesus was sentenced at the sixth hour,

Mark has had Jesus already hanging on his cross for three hours, or so it seems.

And again, I could point out Bible higher critics who point this as another instance of a contradiction, and therefore the gospel accounts are not reliable.

We take a different view. J .C. Ryle commented on the difficulty of this matters, on the words about the sixth hour.

He wrote, this expression raises a grave difficulty, acknowledges on the surface it appears a problem.

And one in which every age has perplexed the minds of Bible readers. The difficulty lies in the fact that Mark in his gospel expressly says it was the third hour they crucified him.

While John in this place says our Lord was only condemned at the sixth hour. Yet both evangelists wrote by inspiration, both were incapable of making a mistake.

How then are we to reconcile and harmonize these two conflicting statements? And the solutions of the difficulty suggested are many and various.

And Ryle spent about three pages in his commentary on John, addressing each one of these.

He then wrote these words. The difficulty is one of those which will probably never be solved.

God has been pleased to leave it in scripture for the trial of our faith and patience, and we must wait for its solution.

We must not think that we have answers for everything. The authority and reliability of scripture is not dependent on my ability to defend it.

There may be things, questions and issues that I can't answer. Doesn't mean that they're deficient, it means

I'm deficient in perhaps my understanding of matters. And by the way, if you search long enough, you find answers that are quite reasonable that explain these matters.

Questions of time and date like this are often the most puzzling, from our inability to place ourselves in the position of the writer and from the widely different manner in which measures and points of time are expressed in the language of different nations and in different ages.

This very difficulty before us perhaps presented no difficulty to the apostolic fathers.

They didn't write about it being a problem. Perhaps they possess some simple clue to its solution of which we know nothing.

It is our wisdom to be patient and to believe that it admits of explanation, though we have not eyes to see it.

So again, those who are unbelievers and hate

God and hate his word will throw these things at you. And through my seminary studies and whatnot,

I can say I basically heard every challenge that's ever been leveled in a scholarly way against the biblical record.

And I have absolute confidence and assurance it's the inerrant word of God and that it's interpreters that have the problem.

The scripture, as Jesus said, cannot be broken. And we embrace that.

Personally, I think that the explanation that makes most sense is that whereas John was following the

Roman manner of counting hours of a day, beginning with midnight, which would place Pilate's sentence taking place about 6 a .m.,

Mark's account followed the Jewish manner of reckoning of time. Hours began at sunrise.

This would place Mark's third hour to be about 9 a .m., three hours after Jesus was sentenced.

Pretty simple. By the way, when we normally think about Good Friday, we consider our

Lord hanging upon his cross for how long? Three hours, right? There was darkness over the land for three hours, from noon to three.

I can remember growing up in Northern California, all the businesses closed on Good Friday from noon to three.

That was back in the 50s and 60s. However, Mark's gospel shows

Jesus hanging on the cross for six hours, not three hours. And so here's

Mark 15. Now it was the third hour they crucified him. So he's hanging on the cross, third hour.

And the inscription of his accusation was written above the King of the Jews. And then we dropped down a few verses. Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

There was only darkness for the second half of the period that Jesus was hanging upon the cross.

That's a detail that Mark gives that the other gospels don't give, by the way. When Pilate had presented

Jesus to them earlier, he declared, behold the man. Now he presents Jesus before them, behold your King. But again, when

Pilate declared this, behold your King, this is just one other instance of irony in John's gospel.

These words may have been spoken in a bitter irony, anger and contempt. Behold the man whom you accuse of setting himself up as a king and being an enemy to Caesar.

Behold this bleeding, weak, humble, meek, helpless prisoner, this wretched, harmless person you pretend to be afraid of and want me to crucify.

You wish your own king to be put to death. This I am to understand is what you desire.

Look at him and say. And so Pilate, you know, mocking

Jesus, mocking them. But it was ironic, an ironic declaration, behold your

King, because that's exactly who he was. And so Pilate made an ironic declaration, behold your

King. And, of course, that reflects, in our view, a very sincere declaration that Jesus Christ is

King. And we should focus with regard to his kingship on his suffering and death on the cross.

Now we often emphasize his exaltation and his enthronement. We're doing that in Sunday school with Revelation 5, and that's a truism.

And yet the gospels present, John's gospel in particular, emphasize the glorification of Jesus taking place on his cross.

And so even as Jesus stood there in his shame and pain, in his humility and acquiescence to his tormentors, we proclaim widely and loudly

Christ on his cross as our King. And we are to proclaim his death to be his glorious display of his regal, kingly authority.

The Holy Spirit will use this message of Jesus on the cross to inform minds and melt hearts and subdue wills to his royal scepter.

Now again, and I do all the time, I emphasize the exaltation and the sitting down of Jesus next to his father receiving a kingdom.

And yet the emphasis in the scriptures is presenting Jesus in his kingly authority hanging on the cross.

And I came across this passage of Spurgeon, and I actually took,

I read this sermon and I thought it was so good, I should never read one of his sermons after I get my notes done.

I think I may as well fold them up and call it a day, man. But anyway, if you get my notes via email,

I attach this entire sermon at the end of your notes on your email this morning. And here

Spurgeon emphasized why we ought to be emphasizing the crucifixion of Jesus and how this,

God uses this to convert people. Listen to this. Missionaries have gone forth to win the heathen for Christ and they have commenced with the uncivilized sons of sin by telling them that there is a

God and that he is a great and just and the people have listened unmoved or have only answered, do you think we don't know this?

Then they have spoken of sin and its punishment and have foretold the coming of the Lord to judgment but still the people stirred not but coolly said, tis true, and then went on their way to live in sin as before.

And at last these earnest men, missionaries, have let fall the blessed secret and spoken of the love of God and given his only begotten son and they have begun to tell the story of the matchless griefs of Emmanuel.

Then have the dry bones stirred, then have the deaf begun to hear. They tell us that they had not long told the story before they noticed that the eyes were fastened on them, that the countenances were beaming with interest which had been listless before and they have said to themselves, why did we not begin with this?

Yes, why indeed? For this it is that touches men's hearts, Christ crucified is the conqueror.

Not in his robes of glory does he subdue the heart but in his vestments of shame.

Not as sitting upon the throne does he at first gain the faith and the affections of sinners but as bleeding, suffering, and dying in their place.

God forbid that I should glory, said the apostle Paul, save in the cross of our

Lord Jesus Christ and though every theme that is connected with the Savior ought to play its part in our ministry, yet this is the master theme.

The atoning work of Jesus is the great gun of our battery. The cross is the mighty battering ram to break in pieces the broad gates of human prejudices and the iron bars of obstinacy.

Christ coming to be our judge alarms but Christ the man of sorrow subdues.

The crown of thorns has a royal power in it to compel a willing allegiance. The scepter of reed breaks hearts better than a rod of iron and the robe of mockery commands more love than Caesar's imperial purple.

This is nothing like it under heaven. Victories 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 have been achieved by him whom

Pilate led forth to the multitude. Victories distinctly to be ascribed to the crown of thorns and vesture of mockery.

Are they not written in the book of the wars of the Lord? In other words, the history of the Christian church, there will be more such as he is more frequently set forth in his own fashion and men are bid in the man of sorrows to behold their king.

That's beautiful. Well, then we read the

Jewish crowds response to Pilate who called behold your king.

They cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, shall

I crucify your king? And the chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. Jews cried out with great indignation, away with him.

This reveals not only their contempt of Jesus, but their maliciousness toward him. Away with him.

This displays their wretched unreasonableness and the abject spiritual blindness and hardness of heart that lies not just in their soul, but in the human soul.

Does it not? In your soul, my soul, the manner in which these

Jews regarded and treated the Lord Jesus testified to the gravity and enormity of the sin in each of us.

I found these words of Arthur Pink, the general neglect and contempt which the

Lord Jesus experienced among the people afford a very humbling view of what our fallen human nature is.

But the awful depths of human depravity were most plainly evidenced by the scribes and Pharisees, the priests and elders, though well acquainted with the prophets and though professing to wait for the

Messiah with desperate and merciless malignity, they sought his destruction. The whole course of their conduct shows that they acted against their convictions that Jesus Christ was the

Messiah. Certainly they had full knowledge of his innocence of all which they charge against him.

This is evident from the plain intimation of the one who read their hearts and who knew that they were saying within themselves, this is the heir, come, let us kill him.

They were as untiring as they were unscrupulous in their malice. They or their agents dogged

Christ from place to place, hoping that in his more unguarded fellowship with his disciples, they might more readily trap him and find something in his words or actions which they could distort into a ground of accusation.

They seized every opportunity to poison the minds of the public against him and not content with ordinary aspersions of his character and heard that he was ministering under the immediate inspiration of Satan.

What was the source of such wicked treatment of the son of God? What but their corrupt hearts?

They hated me without a cause, declared the Lord of glory. There is nothing whatever in either his character or his conduct which merited their vile contempt and enmity.

They loved the darkness and therefore hated the light. They were infatuated by their evil lusts and delighted to gratify them.

And again, you know, even as we point to them and their wretchedness, they're just reflecting what's in here apart from grace, from God's grace.

We would have been with them. Paul was a little later, wasn't he, before he was converted. The Jews cried out, voicing their total rejection of any thought or claim that Jesus was their king.

Matthew Henry saw in these few words of Pilate here in the crowd to fulfillment of scripture, of Old Testament scripture.

They cried out with the greatest indignation, away with him, away with him which speaks disdain as well as malice,

Aron, Aron, take him, he's none of ours. We disown him for our kinsmen, much more for our king.

We have not only no veneration for him, but no compassion. Away with him out of our sight.

For so it was written of him, he is one whom the nation abhors. That's a prophecy in Isaiah 49 of the servant of God.

And they hid as it were their faces from him, away with him from the earth. And here's the passage in Isaiah 49, 7, that I think

Matthew Henry rightly says was fulfilled here. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their

Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to the servant of rulers, king shall see and arise, princes shall worship because of the

Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and he has chosen you. In closing, let us recognize and affirm that what happened to the

Lord Jesus is what should happen to every one of us. It also shows us how we are to regard and treat our own sins, by the way.

Again Matthew Henry wrote, this shows first how we deserve to have been treated at God's tribunal.

We were by sin become odious to God's holiness, which tried away with them, away with them, for God is of pure eyes and to behold iniquity.

We were also become obnoxious to God's justice, which cried out against us, crucify them, crucify them, let the sentence of the law be executed.

Had not Christ interposed and been thus rejected by men, we had been forever rejected of God.

And secondly, it shows how we ought to treat our sins. We're often in scripture said to crucify sin in conformity to Christ's death.

Now they that crucified Christ did it with detestation, with a pious indignation we should run down sin in us, as they with an impious indignation ran him down who has made sin for us.

The true penitent, or one who repents, cast away from him his transgressions, away with them, that is our sins, away with them, crucify them, crucify them, it's not fit that they should live in my soul, amen.

And then his trial, the trial before Pilate concludes and the Roman prefect acted.

We read in verse 16, then he delivered him, Jesus, to them to be crucified.

And they took Jesus and led him away. John shows Pilate delivered Jesus to them, that is the

Jews. He delivered Jesus to them. Now we know the Roman soldiers took him and crucified him, but there's an effort of John to show the culpability of the

Jewish priests principally and their guilt. John has continued to express a theme throughout this gospel, even to this end, that the

Jewish people crucified their promised king, the son of David, the son of God. And so of this trial of Jesus by Pilate, Donald Carson, excellent commentator, top rated commentator of John's gospel, wrote these words.

Even so throughout this degenerating series of exchanges, and he's referring to Pilate and Jesus, the trial between Pilate and the

Jews. It is the Jewish authorities that are always in view, sometimes explicitly, the chief priests and their officials, as here, the chief priests, and sometimes implicitly.

This part of early Christianity is most important apologetic, especially in the evangelization of Jews.

Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, had to explain to Jews how it came about that so many

Jews, especially the Jewish leadership, did not accept Jesus, and how this understanding under good

Christians claimed to be the true locus of the people of God. Writing as a Jew for other

Jews, John is concerned from the beginning to the end to present the condemnation of Jesus, the true king of Israel, as the greatest betrayal by the nation by its own leadership.

And that's true of John's gospel and also Luke as well, and the book of Acts as well.

And so the trial of Jesus before Pilate. May the

Lord help us to see the glory of Christ in his suffering and his death. That's where his throne was earned by his obedience unto death, and that's how salvation was wrought, obtained for us, when he, of course, stood in our place.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word and for the blessed accounts we have of the suffering of our

Savior. And we thank you, our God, that you've exalted him, and he is our king, he is our

Lord. Help us, our God, to believe on him more fully, confess him more openly, and may you enable us to go forth from this place serving him.