6 Trials of Jesus

Sovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

April 9, 2020

Godly Grief Produces Repentance (2 Corinthians 7)

00:00: Alright, guys.
00:00: Well, good morning.
00:03: I want you to take out your Bibles and I want you to turn to Acts 2.
00:08: Yeah, it's not Galatians.
00:12: And I'll tell you why.
00:14: This is Holy Week.
00:17: This is the week that changed the world.
00:19: This is the week that began with Jesus riding into the city of Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and ended with Him coming out of the empty tomb.
00:32: And so, this is a very important week.
00:36: There is not a moment in Holy Week that does not have tremendous significance.
00:42: In fact, all of the Gospels spend a tremendous amount of time giving us a play-by-play of what happened from the moment Jesus came into Jerusalem on the donkey to the moment He came out of the tomb.
00:57: This week is more described than any other time in Jesus' life.
01:04: There is more information about what happened from Sunday to Sunday in this week than in any other time period in the life of Jesus Christ.
01:13: This is Holy Week.
01:14: And so, my goal today is to talk about this subject, the six trials of Jesus.
01:25: Most people, when they think about Jesus and the trial of Jesus, they'll say Jesus had a trial.
01:32: Jesus did not have a trial.
01:35: Jesus had six different trials.
01:39: And every one of them was ungodly and unlawful according to the very standards of the people who were operating the trials themselves.
01:51: So, what we're going to do is we're going to start in Acts 2 and we're going to read from the words of the Apostle Peter and then I'm going to pray and then we're going to go on to our lesson.
02:03: We're going to read verses 22 and 23.
02:10: Men of Israel, hear these words.
02:15: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
02:42: May we pray.
02:44: Father in heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
02:46: I pray that even now, that as I seek to give an exposition of Your Word, Lord, that You would keep me from error.
02:53: For God, I am a fallible man, incapable of preaching error and I don't want to.
03:00: For the sake of my conscience, for the sake of their hearts and for the sake of Your name, Lord, may Your Holy Spirit fill me.
03:08: May He speak through me and may He instruct hearts.
03:13: And Lord, for those who know Christ, I pray that today would be a day of encouragement and word of encouragement.
03:19: And to those who do not know Christ, that today would be a day of challenge.
03:25: And Lord, that they would see the One who was lifted up on the cross is the only One in whom we should set our hope.
03:32: And it's in His name we pray.
03:35: Amen.
03:38: There are few things that attract more attention than the court of law.
03:47: Shows like Law & Order have continued to gather high rankings in television.
03:57: Even years ago, before the more modern shows, Perry Mason and Matlock got attention because people liked to watch the drama of the courtroom unfold.
04:10: There's even a whole station called Court TV where you can go and just watch courtroom dramas.
04:17: And we've all sat and watched different ones like O.J.
04:20: Simpson and Casey Anthony and all kinds of different things.
04:24: And we watched with rapt attention to see what was going to happen to the person who was being accused.
04:31: Well, today we're going to look at a courtroom drama that took place 2,000 years ago.
04:40: And we started by reading Acts chapter 2 where Peter was preaching at Pentecost.
04:46: Pentecost would have been 50 days after the resurrection.
04:52: And there are two things that Peter tells us in Acts 2, 22 and 23.
04:57: The first thing he tells us is Jesus did not die by accident.
05:03: Notice again what it says.
05:05: It says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
05:10: Definite plan.
05:13: Definite plan, meaning God had determined that this was going to happen from the foundation of the world.
05:18: Definite plan, meaning God had determined the cross before He even sent Jesus into the world.
05:25: Definite plan, meaning it wasn't up for debate.
05:29: It wasn't an option.
05:30: It wasn't something that might happen.
05:32: Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
05:35: Never for a moment think that Jesus died by accident.
05:39: Jesus died according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
05:45: The second thing we see in this verse, and this is the part we're going to focus on today, is that the trial and execution of Jesus Christ was a lawless act.
05:59: Notice what it says.
06:01: It says, you, and that is Peter pointing directly at the people of Israel, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
06:17: Lawless men.
06:20: Now, those lawless men are made up of three groups.
06:28: The first group are the Jewish leaders themselves.
06:32: They are the lawless men in view of Peter's accusation.
06:38: The second group of men are those of the Roman cohort led by Pontius Pilate.
06:47: And the third would be the council or the leaders under Herod himself, before whom Jesus was presented.
06:57: So there are three groups of lawless men that are in view.
07:00: The Jewish religious teachers, the Roman representatives, and Herod and his kingdom.
07:13: And so we're going to look at how this all played out.
07:18: Now, can you all hear me alright? I'm sort of shouting because I hear the cars going by.
07:26: I don't have a sound system, so I'm using the Foskey sound system, which is just yelling.
07:32: My children are all very well aware of that.
07:36: So they know I can raise my voice.
07:38: So what I'm going to do, I'm going to give you the six trials of Jesus.
07:43: I'm going to walk you through each one.
07:45: I'm going to kind of do it quickly because there's six of them.
07:47: Obviously, I can't spend a lot of time on each one.
07:50: But if you are taking notes or if you want to take notes, it's important that you kind of know where these come from.
07:57: Because, you remember we have four Gospels.
07:59: And the reason why we have four Gospels is because this is four witnesses to the life of Christ.
08:03: It would be like if you had a car accident and four witnesses saw what happened.
08:07: Each one of them is going to see it from a different perspective and provide information that fills the whole situation.
08:14: It's not contradictory, it's complementary.
08:17: And so each Gospel complements the other Gospel.
08:20: And we can follow through the narrative, which all begins at about 3.30 in the morning.
08:28: Why do we know this? Well, we know that this is after Jesus had had the Last Supper, which was the night before.
08:34: He had gone out into the Garden of Gethsemane.
08:36: He had taken His disciples.
08:38: He had prayed with them.
08:39: And based upon a loose timeline, we can figure this is the early hours of the morning, probably between 3 and 4 o'clock.
08:48: And so we come to the first trial.
08:52: This is after Jesus has been arrested in the Garden.
08:54: All the events that happened with the cutting off of the ear and the healing of the servant of the high priest, and all those things have happened.
09:00: Jesus has been taken.
09:01: The disciples have been dispersed.
09:03: And now in John 18, turn there, John 18, we begin seeing how Jesus goes through the trials.
09:15: This first trial is what I call the questioning at the house of Annas.
09:21: The questioning at the house of Annas.
09:24: Some might say, well, this is not really a trial, but in a sense it is.
09:28: Because this is where the trial begins.
09:31: We see in John 18, verse 12, So the band of soldiers and their captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him.
09:44: First they led Him to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
09:54: Notice right away that Annas is not an authority.
10:01: He is a relative of the authority.
10:05: Notice what it said.
10:06: He is not the high priest.
10:08: He is the father-in-law of the high priest.
10:12: But what we know from history is that even though Annas was not the high priest, Annas held a lot of authority among the religious leaders because he was previously a high priest.
10:25: And he had maintained this level of authority by essentially setting up somewhat of a puppet regime with his son-in-law Caiaphas.
10:34: So Caiaphas was the high priest, but the real mastermind behind the scenes was Annas.
10:40: So it's almost as if you've ever studied anything about the mobsters and mob and the consiglieres that work with the mob.
10:49: When you're in trouble, you go to the main man.
10:54: Not always the man who's out front, but the man behind the man.
10:58: The man who's really in charge.
11:01: Annas is the man who's really in charge.
11:04: He's the man who pulls the strings.
11:05: In fact, history tells us he was probably the one who was in charge of the selling of the goods outside of the temple.
11:15: He probably had his fingers in that.
11:18: And therefore, when Jesus came in and overturned the tables, it would have been Annas whose pockets were most affected.
11:24: And therefore, Annas sees Jesus not as a religious attacker, but as a financial attacker.
11:32: He's attacking my pocketbook.
11:34: And any time you want to upset somebody really bad, you attack their pocketbook.
11:39: And so who's the first person he has to see? He has to see the man who's really in charge.
11:44: But this man, even though he's really in charge, doesn't have the ability to lay down any formal charges against Jesus.
11:54: He just wants to see Him.
11:55: He wants to talk to Him.
11:56: He wants to let Him know who's really in charge.
11:59: But after this, he goes to the house of Caiaphas.
12:02: Look down, you're still in the same chapter, verse 24.
12:10: Annas then sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.
12:20: Remember, this is still the dead of the night.
12:25: There have been no formal charges made against Jesus.
12:29: Caiaphas begins to amass false testimony against Jesus.
12:35: In fact, if you quickly go over with me, quickly turn to Mark, you'll see in the Gospel of Mark what happens at the house of Caiaphas.
12:45: This is Mark 14.
12:57: This is verse 55.
13:00: It says, Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they found none.
13:05: For many bore false witness against Him, but their testimony did not agree.
13:09: And some stood up and bore false witness against Him, saying, We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands.
13:18: Yet even about this their testimony did not agree.
13:22: And the high priest, that's Caiaphas, stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, Have You no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against You? But Jesus remained silent and made no answer.
13:33: Again the high priest asked Him, Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am, and You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with clouds of heaven.
13:43: And the high priest tore his garments and said, What further witnesses do we need? You have heard His blasphemy.
13:50: What is Your decision? And they condemned Him as deserving death, and some began to spit on Him and cover His face and strike Him, saying, Prophesy.
13:59: And the guards received Him with blows.
14:03: So right there we have, this is Jesus in the house of Caiaphas, and they're saying, Alright, we need some witnesses.
14:14: Alright brother, you come and give a witness against Jesus.
14:16: You gave your testimony.
14:18: Okay, now you come and give your testimony.
14:19: Yours doesn't agree with His.
14:21: Uh-oh.
14:24: Okay.
14:25: You, you come and give a testimony.
14:26: His doesn't agree with either one of y'all's.
14:29: It says in the very text, they knew they had false witnesses because nobody could get their act together.
14:35: Nobody could get their story straight.
14:39: So not only did Jesus' first stop be at the house of the mob boss, but His second stop is in a group of people who are accusing Him incorrectly and unjustly.
14:50: They're trying to find something against Him that they can use.
14:55: Could you imagine if everybody that hated you...
15:00: Just stop for a minute and think about that.
15:03: Because I know a lot of folks hate me.
15:06: Don't be surprised.
15:10: Imagine everybody who hated you was brought into a court of law, and at that moment, the judge says, I've got to find something against this guy.
15:19: Y'all just start talking.
15:23: I mean, honestly.
15:25: Huh? You know what I'm saying? He just said, okay, line up.
15:29: Here's your ex-wife.
15:31: Here's your kids.
15:33: Here's your mother-in-law.
15:34: Whatever.
15:35: Everybody who does not like you is going to start telling all about you.
15:43: The point of the matter is, they didn't have anything really to say against Jesus.
15:47: In fact, it wasn't until Jesus spoke that there was anything that they could really charge Him with.
15:52: And what Jesus said was not untrue, but to Caiaphas it was blasphemy.
15:58: Because He said, are you the Christ? He said, I'm the Son of Man.
16:02: People say, oh, that was just Jesus saying He's just a man.
16:06: No, it ain't.
16:07: If you know anything about the Old Testament, you know this.
16:11: In the book of Daniel, the Son of Man is a prophetic figure who comes on the scene and is the King and is Himself Messiah.
16:22: When Jesus said, I'm the Son of Man, He wasn't saying, I'm not God.
16:26: When He said, I'm the Son of Man, He wasn't saying, I have doubts about my own divinity.
16:30: What He's saying is, I'm the one prophesied about in the book of Daniel.
16:34: I am the Son of Man and you will see me in clouds of glory coming with my angels.
16:41: Why did He say that? Because that's what Daniel prophesied.
16:44: The Son of Man will come.
16:47: It's the book of Daniel.
16:48: I have it right here.
16:50: Daniel 7, 13, and 14.
16:52: Daniel 7, 13, and 14.
16:54: Yes, sir.
16:59: Yeah, I would say yes.
17:00: And again, we're counting each time He's before a group as a trial.
17:05: So the first one would have been the house of Annas.
17:07: This is the house of Caiaphas.
17:08: The next one, and where we're going now, is the Sanhedrin.
17:12: So everybody, you were already in Mark.
17:15: Look down to chapter 15.
17:18: This is the first of the legal proceedings.
17:23: Because even though the other two, I would count them as trials, both of them were done in a home, sort of away from the crowds.
17:29: These were done sort of in the back, trying to develop a case.
17:33: They're trying to build a case.
17:34: Now, in chapter 15, we get to the Sanhedrin.
17:39: It says, and as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus and led Him away to deliver Him to Pilate.
17:52: So, Jesus has already been at the house of Annas.
17:56: He's already been at the house of Caiaphas.
17:59: Now He's before the Sanhedrin.
18:01: The Sanhedrin was the council of Israel, the religious leaders, made up of a group of, I believe it was 70.
18:09: I'm pretty sure I'm correct about that.
18:11: I didn't have it in my notes, so I'm kind of going from memory now.
18:13: It's a group of 70 leaders, and those men are made up of the religious elite, the leaders of Israel.
18:21: And so the Sanhedrin would have had Jesus before them.
18:26: Now, here's the thing that's really important to realize.
18:29: There was rabbinical law that demanded certain things happen if a person was undergoing a capital offense, or somebody was being accused of a capital crime.
18:44: For instance, brother, if you were accused of something that you could be executed for, you'd want people to deliberate about your execution, right? You would want the people to consider the fact that you might not be guilty, and maybe give it more than an hour.
18:58: Right? I want you to hear this.
19:05: This is according to rabbinical law that was in place during the time of Christ.
19:12: When a person was to be put up for execution, the members of the council were required a minimum of one whole day to consider the testimonies that they had heard before they could make a judgment.
19:33: Here's the exact wording of the code.
19:39: Eat like food, drink like wines, sleep well, and once again return and hear the testimony of the accused.
19:46: Then and only then shall you render a vote.
19:51: So basically what's it saying? It's saying this, if you hear someone get accused of a capital crime, go and eat a meal, go and have some wine, have a nice sleep, sleep on it, you've heard people say that, go sleep on it, and hear the accused again before you bring about their final condemnation.
20:14: That's what should have happened.
20:15: What did happen? They drug him in.
20:18: By this time Jesus had already been beaten.
20:21: He's already been pummeled in the head.
20:23: Because from the moment he was picked up by the guards in the garden, they'd been dragging him around.
20:28: He's been drugged to the house of Annas.
20:30: He's been drugged to the house of Caiaphas.
20:32: Now he is standing in front of the Sanhedrin, and they say, hey, we're going to take a day and think about it.
20:36: No! We're going to take him right to the only one who can execute him.
20:40: Because even though they had the power to condemn, they did not have the power to complete.
20:45: They could condemn him, but they couldn't complete the action because they didn't have the legal authority to bring about the death of a prisoner.
20:53: So they had to bring him before the Roman tribunal.
20:57: Now, this takes us back to John 18.
21:00: So if you want to go back to John 18.
21:03: Sorry, we're doing a little bit of Bible drills this morning.
21:07: You guys are used to that though, right? Whew, my voice is straining a little.
21:23: Y'all hear an alarm going off? Okay, alright, yeah.
21:30: In John 18, beginning at verse 29, we see Jesus being brought before Pilate.
21:45: It says in verse 29, So Pilate went outside to them and said, What accusation do you bring against this man? They answered him, If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.
21:56: What a great answer.
22:01: That's right.
22:02: Don't you know that we know he did something? Why, we've got to tell you.
22:18: Okay, so we'll say, In the Roman court, there were four steps to follow for a proper proceeding.
22:29: First was accusation.
22:31: Second was interrogation.
22:34: Third was a defense.
22:36: Fourth was a verdict.
22:38: Accusation, interrogation, defense, and verdict.
22:40: Very similar to our own court of law.
22:43: What's the charges? That's the accusation.
22:45: What's the defense? That's the defense.
22:47: Now, there has to be a verdict.
22:52: Alright, here's the thing.
22:53: All of that happens.
22:55: If you read through chapter 18, and for time's sake, I'm not going to read the whole chapter.
22:59: But if you read starting at verse 29, it goes through all those things.
23:02: You see an accusation.
23:03: Then there's an interrogation.
23:04: Pilate interrogates Jesus.
23:06: Then there's the defense that Jesus makes to Pilate.
23:09: And then the verdict.
23:11: And this is the part that really gets me, is the verdict.
23:13: Verse 38.
23:15: Verse 38.
23:17: Pilate said to him.
23:19: Excuse me.
23:23: It's 38B.
23:24: It's the second part.
23:26: After he said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him.
23:32: So what's Pilate's verdict? Not guilty.
23:38: Not guilty.
23:40: Of all the trials that we've seen so far.
23:44: This is the fourth.
23:45: Of all the trials we've seen so far, the only one that's in any way, in any sense fair, is the first time he's before Pilate.
23:56: Not guilty is the verdict.
23:59: What do you do to people who are not guilty? You set them free.
24:06: Yes, you set free by the sea.
24:10: But what we're going to see, is Pilate does not stand on this verdict, because he is more concerned with political stability, than he is with righteousness.
24:25: Now, very quickly.
24:27: It is politics, but there's something else to consider here.
24:31: Pilate, Pilate was a man, sometimes people read this and they think, Pilate was a good guy.
24:40: Pilate was awful.
24:42: Pilate was a maniac.
24:45: Pilate did things that were constantly antagonizing the Jewish people.
24:50: One of the things that he did, we know about this from the Gospel of Luke, is that when the zealots, which were a group of political anarchists, when the zealots were caught by Pilate, he had them killed in the temple, and their blood mixed with the blood of the sacrifices.
25:05: Just to taint the sacrifices, and to dishonor their death.
25:10: Be like a Muslim now, if you were to kill him and mix his blood with pigs blood, they'd have a very big issue with that, because it would be offensive, right? I mean, it would be offensive.
25:20: Well, in that day, Pilate having them killed and having their blood mixed with the blood of the sacrifice, that was an offensive thing.
25:26: It was offensive to the temple, it was offensive to the sacrifice, it was offensive to the dead person.
25:31: So Pilate had a bad relationship with the Jewish leaders.
25:37: He had a bad relationship with the Jewish people.
25:39: He was representative of a government that was authoritative and authoritarian.
25:45: There were times, according to history, where Pilate was even considered to be removed because of his lack of decorum.
25:55: So I, in a sense, see this move by Pilate as a political move to protect his own interests.
26:05: He's not doing this because he likes Jesus.
26:08: He might be doing it because he's afraid of Jesus, because, you know, there's a part in the Gospel that talks about his wife and how his wife sees Jesus as who he really is and tells him, don't mess with this man.
26:17: So there might be some fear involved, but don't think for a second that Jesus Christ and Pilate are buddies.
26:24: Yes, sir? Decorum meaning right behavior.
26:30: You know, that he has done things that have been considered wrong and against what would be right for a man in authority, the decorum of a position.
26:42: That's how that word would be used.
26:43: Yeah? So he's got a clue here in himself.
26:54: Well, we're not even there yet, because later he's going to wash his hands.
26:56: We haven't got there yet, because what he's going to do now, he's going to try to pass the puck.
27:00: We're going to the fifth trial.
27:02: He says, take him to Herod.
27:03: You know what? I'm not the only person in town with any authority.
27:08: You guys think he's guilty.
27:10: I don't care, because I don't care about your God or your laws.
27:15: I don't see any guilt worthy of death.
27:17: Take him to Herod.
27:18: Maybe Herod will give you the right to do what you want to do to him.
27:22: So the next one is before the throne of Herod.
27:25: Luke 23.
27:26: Everybody run.
27:27: A lot of back and forth today.
27:33: By the way, this is one of my favorite things to teach on.
27:36: It's just such an amazing...
27:38: This is all happening in a matter of a few hours.
27:41: This is...
27:42: Our Savior is going through this for us.
27:46: This is an amazing moment in the history of the world.
27:50: So Luke 23.
27:53: Verse 6.
28:03: 23 verse 6.
28:05: When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean, that being Jesus.
28:11: And when he learned that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.
28:21: When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see Him, because he had heard about Him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by Him.
28:32: So he questioned Him at some length, but he made no answer.
28:35: The chief priests and scribes stood by vehemently accusing him, and Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him, then arraying him in splendid clothing.
28:44: He sent him back to Pilate.
28:46: And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.
28:53: Alright.
28:55: So here's the deal.
28:59: For a moment, think about how exhausted Jesus must be at this time.
29:04: He's not even on the cross yet.
29:08: He hasn't slept.
29:10: He hasn't rested.
29:12: He's been drug in chains from place to place.
29:17: And now, he's in front of a man who basically wants him to behave like a court jester.
29:26: Yeah.
29:27: Hey, I've heard about you, Jesus.
29:30: I heard you could turn water into wine.
29:32: Now that's a guy who knows how to throw a party.
29:36: I mean, I'm just saying, imagine the foolishness of Herod.
29:41: Herod was a man of luxury.
29:45: And so he would see Jesus as entertainment.
29:49: Jesus beaten bloody right before him.
29:54: Show me what you got, Jesus.
29:59: And when Jesus would not oblige him, they took up mocking alongside the others.
30:09: And Herod even placed a robe on him.
30:14: And that robe was intended to be a contempt for him.
30:20: There was no shame in the heart of the king.
30:24: There was no shame in the hearts of the men who were beating Jesus.
30:27: There was no shame in those who were accusing him.
30:35: In fact, they were proud.
30:38: How do we know they were proud? Because it was on this issue that Herod and Pilate would eventually become friends, the text tells us.
30:45: They hated each other up until him.
30:47: Enmity means at war with one another.
30:49: They didn't like each other.
30:50: But they finally found a common enemy.
30:52: There's not much better to bring two enemies together than a common enemy.
30:57: And the common enemy was Christ.
31:02: For Pilate, Christ was a political enemy.
31:05: This guy is going to cause an uproar in my vicinity.
31:08: He's going to cause an uproar in my people.
31:11: For Herod, he's not doing what I want him to do.
31:14: He's not going to be my jester.
31:17: He's going to be as big a thorn in my side as his cousin was.
31:23: Who was Jesus' cousin? What did Herod do to John? Why? Because John preached righteousness even to the king.
31:40: And the king did not like that, but he was afraid.
31:45: Wife weren't afraid to bring his head on a platter.
31:55: Final, final trial.
31:59: We come to the formal condemnation by Pilate.
32:04: Now this one is best seen, and we haven't looked in the Gospel of Matthew yet, but this one is best seen in Luke and Matthew.
32:14: And I want you to think about this from Pilate's perspective.
32:16: Pilate has already judged Jesus not guilty.
32:20: He's already sent Jesus to Herod thinking, boy, I'm glad that's over.
32:25: Whatever they do to him, at least it's out of my hair.
32:29: He sits down, pours him a glass of iced tea, and looks up.
32:39: And here comes that same group of people dragging Jesus back.
32:46: You've got to think for a moment the frustration in the heart of Pilate.
32:50: I just got done with this, and now you're bringing him back? So now he's forced to deal with Jesus.
33:00: The first thing he does is he attempts to lower the punishment.
33:05: Look with me, we're in Luke 23 still.
33:08: Look at verse 13.
33:13: Pilate then called together the chief priests, the rulers of the people, and said to them, You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people.
33:20: And after examining him, behold, I did not find in this man any guilt, or excuse me, I didn't find this man guilty of any charges against him.
33:29: Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us.
33:33: So he's doubly not guilty.
33:37: Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.
33:41: I will therefore punish and release him.
33:43: Wow! I'm serious now, think about this.
33:53: He didn't do anything wrong, therefore I will punish him.
34:00: He's not guilty, therefore he's going to be punished.
34:06: What did I say from the beginning? This unjust court, right? This is a kangaroo court.
34:11: The whole thing from beginning to end is a legal sham.
34:15: He just said it.
34:17: He said he's not guilty, so I'll punish him.
34:22: Let that ride on your mind for a minute.
34:25: Imagine you're before the judge, and the judge says you're not guilty, therefore you're going to prison.
34:31: What? Guys, please.
34:43: I do record these.
34:55: And what is the punishment? According to the text, he's going to scourge him.
35:02: That's the lesser punishment.
35:06: Many of you have probably seen The Passion of the Christ.
35:08: I don't know how accurate it was.
35:11: A lot of people say, isn't that the best movie Jesus ever made? No, because it was a white dude.
35:16: Just so you know, Jesus didn't look like that.
35:20: And so I do have a little issue with the fact that in that movie, they made Jesus look like a 16th century English king, rather than a 1st century Jewish carpenter.
35:31: So I do have a little issue with the mental image provided by The Passion of the Christ.
35:36: I don't think that's what Jesus looked like.
35:38: So I take a little issue with that.
35:41: But the question about the scourging, I don't know that either.
35:45: Do know this.
35:47: Scourging had the potential of itself killing a person because of the loss of blood and the trauma to the body.
35:57: Because a person was beaten with a whip that was interwoven with pieces of shells and metal and rock.
36:06: And each one of those whips, when it would hit the body, it would grab a hold.
36:13: And therefore, when the person would pull back, it would open and expose the wounds of the body.
36:19: And so it would pull apart.
36:23: And so Jesus is being whipped.
36:27: That's the lesser punishment.
36:30: Something that still could have killed.
36:32: He's been up all night.
36:34: He's been drug from kangaroo court to kangaroo court.
36:37: He's been beaten on the head.
36:39: His beard has been pulled.
36:41: He's been spit on.
36:43: And now, he's being beaten because he's not guilty.
36:56: Turn to Matthew 27.
37:00: The story continues.
37:02: Matthew 27, verse 15.
37:08: Pilate, again, trying to assuage the crowd without killing the innocent man.
37:19: He gives a second option.
37:23: First, he said, I'm going to beat him and set him free.
37:25: They said, no, you beat him, but you don't set him free.
37:27: So now, he tries a prisoner exchange.
37:31: Verse 15.
37:37: Sorry, I had the wrong page.
37:39: 27, verse 15.
37:41: Now the feast of the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted.
37:47: And they heard then a notorious prisoner named Barabbas.
37:51: So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ? So I really believe that Pilate thought, if anybody, they're not going to take Barabbas.
38:11: This guy's an insurrectionist.
38:13: This guy's a known criminal.
38:16: This guy doesn't have any friends.
38:20: So he's putting out the worst person against the absolute best person.
38:27: The one who just four days earlier they were calling king of Israel.
38:34: They were singing Hosanna.
38:37: Who do you want? Your king or your criminal? And the total depravity of man was displayed in all of its glory when the crowd shouted out, give us Barabbas, crucify Jesus.
38:56: An interesting note is Barabbas or Barabbas.
39:04: The word Abba means father.
39:07: Bar means son of.
39:10: Therefore, Barabbas means son of the father.
39:17: It was probably a nickname which means he didn't know who his father was.
39:23: Because if somebody knew who their father was, they would say Simon Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah.
39:30: Or Jesus Bar-Joseph, son of Joseph, right? But by calling him Bar-Abba, that was like saying we don't know who your daddy is.
39:38: But it's interesting that the son of the father was substituted by the son of the true father, Jesus.
39:46: He's the son of the father in heaven.
39:49: And Barabbas deserved that cross.
39:55: But Jesus took it in his place.
40:01: There is great symbolism there for what Christ does for us.
40:05: Because I deserved Barabbas' cross and Jesus took my place.
40:17: The last thing we see Herod do is he tries to excuse himself from guilt.
40:23: This is our last verse to look at.
40:26: Matthew 27, 24.
40:30: So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, I am innocent of this man's blood.
40:41: See to it yourself.
40:45: Let me tell you something.
40:46: This washing did not remove his guilt.
40:50: He stood before the King of Glory.
40:54: He found him innocent and had him killed anyway.
41:00: All because of political fear.
41:06: While Pilate did seek to release Jesus, he ultimately killed Him to satisfy a bloodthirsty crowd.
41:15: And therein lies the ultimate injustice.
41:20: The entire story of Jesus standing before the tribunal of man.
41:25: And by the way, this is the judge of the universe on trial.
41:31: The only one who is truly capable of judging all men fairly and all men justly is himself being judged by men and being judged in one injustice after another.
41:51: And I've heard some of you guys joke today about, oh, well, there's corruption and you've been misjudged and everything.
41:57: You ain't never had what Jesus had.
42:00: For a minute, think about this.
42:03: If the world knew how bad we truly were, we have not gotten what we deserve.
42:11: But Jesus didn't deserve a thing.
42:15: He did not deserve to be beaten.
42:18: He did not deserve to be drugged from house to house and from temple to temple.
42:23: He did not deserve to be flogged.
42:26: He did not deserve to be spit upon.
42:28: He did not deserve to have His beard torn from His face and the clothes ripped from His body and hung naked in front of men, women, and children to die a criminal's death.
42:43: But He did it for us.
42:58: There is great benefit to this story.
43:04: There is great benefit to this story for the believer.
43:07: And this is the benefit, and this is where I want to draw to a close.
43:13: This story of the six trials of Jesus stands as a testimony to the sinlessness of our Savior.
43:25: Because in six trials, they could not find even one article to charge against His holy character.
43:40: They could not find one charge to truly find Him guilty.
43:50: All heaven and earth tried to convince He was guilty.
43:56: And He was not.
44:00: The Bible says that He is in every way like us, yet without sin.
44:11: And these trials stand as the testimony of the fact that even His enemies could not condemn Him with any true guilt.
44:25: Why does it matter that Jesus was sinless? Because only in being sinless could He represent us before God.
44:34: Only in being sinless could He offer Himself as the Savior of mankind.
44:42: Only as sinless could He give Himself the sin bearer.
44:48: God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we could become the righteousness of God in Him.
45:02: Beloved, these trials are testimony to the reality of the sinless Savior that calls us all to Himself.
45:12: He says this, All you who are weak and heavy laden, come to Me and you will find rest for your soul.
45:28: You are in one of two conditions today.
45:32: You are either in sin and facing hell, or you are in Christ and He has taken your hell for you and given you His righteousness.
45:47: There is no middle ground.
45:49: There is no third way.
45:52: You either are in Christ or you are not.
45:55: And if you are in Christ, you have a sinless sin bearer who stands before God before you as your substitute.
46:02: And if you are not, you stand before God naked, guilty, and waiting a hell that is as hot today as it's ever been.
46:15: My encouragement to you, if you have not turned from your sins and run to Christ to do so today, for there is no other person, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved, than Jesus Christ.
46:33: Let's pray.
46:35: Father, I thank You for all that Christ endured.
46:39: We often think, Lord, of His time on the cross, but we didn't even talk about the cross today, Lord, because even the time leading up to the cross was horrendous and horrific.
46:48: Lord, may it be that we see He who hung on the cross as beautiful.
46:56: Lord, Your Word tells us it pleased You to strike Him, because in striking Him, You could set us free.
47:04: You are the just and the justifier of the one who comes to You through Christ.
47:09: Lord, I pray for these men.
47:13: For those who know You, I pray that You would bless them with a closer walk with Christ.
47:18: And Lord, for those who do not know You, I pray that You would break them under the weight of their sin, that You would bring them to their knees, and that they would see themselves desperate outside of Christ.
47:32: And I pray all this, Lord, in Jesus' name.
47:35: Amen.