Chapter 19 Verse 1 • Now understand the Jews had brought Jesus to Pilate and demanded that He not be tried…but rather that He’d be put to death. We know that because back in Chapter 18 verse 31 Pilate tries to release Jesus back into the hands of the Jews and what did they say to him, “don’t do that, we don’t have the right of capital punishment”…in other words, “we can’t put Him to death.” And so death is what they wanted… • But Pilate found no fault in Jesus. We know from the other gospels and even the accounts given in the Book of Acts of this night that Pilate actually tried no less than seven times to release Jesus. Acts 3:13 tells us that “Pilate was determined to let Him go.” He was even urged by his wife, (according to Matthew Chapter 27 verse 19), not to sentence Him…to not even have anything to do with Him because she had had a dream that had freaked her out about the whole situation… • And so understand what Pilate is trying to do here…the same thing he has tried to do over and over again…by ordering the scourging, Pilate is actually again trying to release Jesus. What’s that? How’s that? • Well the Jews…they were ravenous, insatiable and they were not ok with Pilate simply finding what they already knew to be true…that this Man, this Jesus was truly without fault! • We see continually, several times…that Pilate found no fault in Him. Annas had found no fault in Him. Pilate had sent Him to Herod and Herod had returned Him. The simple truth is that they were blood thirsty and nothing was going to dissuade them…and Pilate knew it. So notice, he did not order the execution of Jesus, instead He ordered Him to be scourged. • Scourging was a form of interrogation. A terrifying form. A shocking and horrendous sentence. The tool of scourging was a cat of nine tails. A leather whip with multiple extremeties lined and embedded with little bits of glass and lead, designed to rip the flesh. The sentence carried a penalty of 40 lashes but in the Roman’s twisted view of mercy, they only would administer 39. • One was enough to kill a man. As they would lay a stripe across the back, the prisoner would cry out a crime that he had committed. And every time he would call out a crime, the next lash would be a bit less severe. But for every stripe with which a crime was not called out, the next would be more severe. Progressively more intense and forceful. • This was a very effective sentence for exacting a confession…and so Pilate intended to satisfy the blood thirst of the Jews while also hopefully exciting their compassion for Him as he expected a confession. The confession however had already been given to Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you a king?” Jesus confessed, “I am.” There was no more confession to extract and so Jesus silently and without a word…without a defense took all 39 lashes. • Why? 39 progressively harder stripes across His back…He would have been stretched by chains or chords so that the pain and injury would have been terrible yet He took that loss. Why? For you man…for me. Because He is good. Because His love is so ultimately unstoppable. Man…and if you think upon His lashes, meditate upon His love man and the penalty that He paid to set us free…the Bible says by that you are healed. • What do you mean healed? Well look, how close can I get to sin without being burned, Matt? Wrong question! The right question is help me understand what my sin cost! Show me the penalty man…the price paid for this bottle of Beam that I can’t seem to put down…the price paid for this illicit relationship that I can’t break off…the price paid for this hateful heart, this bitter and unforgiving attitude that in my weakness, I can’t change… • I heard a story this past week…a fictional story but interesting in its precept. The story goes that Jesus engaged Satan in a conversation. Satan had a smug smirk on his face and Jesus asked him where he had come from. Satan responded, “I just caught the entire world of people…set me a trap and caught ‘em, all of ‘em.” “What are you going to do with them?” Jesus asked. Satan replied, “oh I’m gonna use them. I’m going to teach them how to marry and then divorce, how to hate, how to envy, how to insult…how to use drugs and drink and curse and destroy themselves. I’m gonna teach them how to use the earth to create guns and bombs and sharp edges and then I’m gonna teach them how to use them against eachother.” Jesus asked him, “and what will you do when you have done all of those things?” “Oh, I’ll kill them,” Satan glared proudly. • Jesus asked him, “how much do you want for them?” “Oh noooo, you don’t want those people. They ain’t no good. Why you’ll take them and they’ll just hate you in return. They’ll spit on you, curse you, beat you and kill you!!! You don’t want those people!” • “How much,” He asked again. Satan looked at Jesus and hated Him…he sneered back at Jesus, “All of Your tears, all of Your strength, all of Your life, and all of Your blood.” Having named his price, without hesitation, Jesus answered, “Done!” • If we really believe…if we really truly believe to the point where we can place ourselves there that day, this day…as Jesus took lash after lash…as He was mocked, as He was punched and eventually as nails were driven through His body and He was lifted up to die…If we really believe that He loves us that much to pay that price for us…then how can we continue to toy with sin? How can we continue to ask how much this little sin will cost me or how much will that big sin cost me in the eternal bank of business…we can’t man…to understand the terrible price paid, to understand the lashes He endured is to be healed man from the power of temptation and transgression. His goodness is the only power that can fuel you to turn from sin for real…turn from the trap of evil…and then once you do…you’re free, you’re healed! • Isaiah 53 says (written 700 years before the birth of Jesus!), “They wounded Him for our transgressions, they bruised Him for our sins, He endured, He suffered the punishment for our peace, and by His stripes…we are healed.’ • Those stripes, each one, bore the weight of my sin. My hand holds the whip…and yet He doesn’t condemn…He doesn’t plead His case…He doesn’t even stop me…He simply loves and so He takes it, and takes it, and takes it…39 times…until the Bible says He was injured worse than any man in history…man Jesus, for real, this Man…Jesus Christ…He is my Hero! He is strength! He is love! He is compassion! He is Truth! He is righteous! He is God and man I long to be more like Him. • I don’t serve Him for what I can get man…I serve Him because He’s legit! He is worthy! He is the King of all kingdoms and the Lord of all authority and eternal life! And when I follow after my flesh, when I just walk in and out of sin like its nothing then the Bible says that I walk right away from Him. I deny all of those things that I just said… • We look at our lives and we wonder why things are so hard or so warped or so broken or so not where we want to be and we wonder how God would allow this to happen…while as a people for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government, get out of our entertainment, get out of our decisions…man to just get out of our lives. You know, just let me live my life! And being the gentleman that He is, look He has no choice but to back out! He cannot force His love and His mercy and His promises upon us!! And then we call out for blessing…how can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone? That is the very demand we scream to the heavens as we dance in and out of sin! Chapter 19 Verses 2 – 4 • Pilate is dumbfounded. He is in awe. He’s never EVER seen anything like this Man. 39 stripes…no words. And even now, as a crown of thorns is shoved into his forehead…Jesus stands. What manner of man is this? One stripe cripples the mightiest of men and here this One stands…no words, no defense! • Have you ever heard stories of miraculous strength? Like maybe that a mom and her kids were in a car accident and one of the children was pined under the car so the mom just grabs the car and lifts it off of them to free her child? I think we all have right? Something like that…well imagine 7B of your children are trapped…You see His strength…everlasting, immeasurable right now…why? Because His love is the same…and Pilate witnessed that first hand. • And so he goes back out to the Jews, “behold I’m letting Him go!” • And look at this crown given to Him. The King of righteousness the King of sinlessness…was given a crown of…sin. Sin? Yes throughout the Old Testament the thorn is a type, a picture, a result of sin. God handed to Adam his curse in Genesis 3 and said “for your sake the ground is cursed and shall bring forth thorns”…none until then apparently in the Garden of Eden…and even in the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, thorns are mentioned 11 times in connection with the transgression of God’s people but then, the final time its mentioned (and the only time thorns are mentioned beyond chapter 40), God says in Isaiah 55 that the thorns shall be replaced with the cypress tree! A picture of peace and beauty. • And here is that type displayed. That punishment of Adam fully paid as they prepare Him for His execution by crowning Him not the King of Kings but the King of sin! Wow…I wonder how you handle an unfair crown of thorns? When you’re mistreated, when you’re accused or mocked…when all that you’ve done may even be righteous yet they crown you not with the crown of respect but with the crown of reject. Do you defend? Do you throw the crown in their face? Or, do you stand in strength and endure the blows for the sake of the Father’s glory? Quite telling in those times whose glory you are most concerned with… Chapter 19 Verse 5 • And so we see Pilate’s heart. “Are you a king?” “Yes Pilate, I am King of all Kingdoms and Lord of all Lords...” Yet Pilate brings Him out and announces Him as…man…tragic. Chapter 19 Verse 6 • Again, Pilate tries to release Him…and it’s interesting here that Pilate goes on record and verifies the perfection of Jesus. He says “I find NO FAULT in Him.” Not “I find that He is innocent of the charges,” no he says “no fault.” And that’s intriguing because that statement, that fact has never been disputed by any historian, any cynic, any atheist on record. They’ll deny Him, but you never hear them deny His flawlessness. So cool. Chapter 19 Verse 7 • Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA! They knew it all along! See that! So many times Jesus was so very clear yet they denied…they played dumb…they turned a deaf ear…but oh the truth, they understood…”He made Himself the Son of God!” • Jesus never claimed deity the cultist insists. God has no Son the Koran states…but here it is clear and plain…the people of that time, as He walked among them, as He taught in the open air, as He performed wondrous miracles and as He loved, man…they knew…they understood clearly…that is why they killed Him… Chapter 19 Verses 8 – 11 • So Pilate snatches Jesus back into private and filled with fear He demands of Jesus, “Where are You from?!” And Jesus simply remains silent…bloody, beaten, crown of thorns…man this must have been quite a nightmare for Pilate… • And then He says, “Jesus, don’t you know that I have power over You?” And I love how Jesus responds. “Son, that power you have, what you think you’re doing…has very little to do with You…It’s My Father’s will, therefore I will rest!” • And notice Pilate’s so-called “power.” According to law, if he found Jesus to be innocent, he’d have to release him. If he found no guilt in him, per the judicial code of Rome, then he was to be set free! But what does Pilate say? “I find no fault in this Man!” And yet here, “I have the power to crucify You!” Oh Pilate, your power is smoke and mirrors. • In truth, you’re a pawn. You’re controlled by the ravenous masses. The law means nothing now. Only your own neck. You call that power? Jesus doesn’t. Here Jesus stands, innocent yet offering His own neck…THAT is power. Pilate should have said, “don’t you know that I am so full of fear that I’m going to have to crucify You unless You do something!!! I mean float or levitate or wipe these Jews out or something…” • But Jesus was not there to be released. He was there to release us man and so He, just for a moment, comforts Pilate…Pilate, the one who delivered me to you has the greater…or the elder sin. • Now Jesus is not saying that one sin and another sin are any different in penalty…because James 2:10 is clear and many other parts of the Bible are clear, that if you do not keep the whole law, if you break just one of God’s commandments then you are guilty of the entire law. One sin doesn’t condemn you to hell while another is allowed…that’s preposterous. And that’s not what Jesus is saying here at all…what He’s doing is speaking to Pilate’s heart. • Pilate, I know you are afraid and that you have tried to release me seven times…I see your heart…the one that delivered me to you, the one that put you in this position…Judas…Caiphas…their hearts are black and full of death…I see you Pilate… • And I believe this later caught up with Pilate. Because we have record that says later in life, Pilate committed suicide (Josephus describes his removal by Tiberius while Eusebius records his suicide…legend however tells of a horrific scene before Tiberius which resulted in Pilate’s suicide and burial first in the river Tiber, then in the river Rhone which is called “Via Gehennae” or “Road to Gehenna.”) • But notice this is Jesus’ last testimony before the nails. His last statement to Pilate, to you, to me, to eternity and all of the heavenly host before carrying His own cross to His own crucifixtion…and what does He say? God is on the throne and His will is absolutely everything! • Pilate I have divine authority to judge the hearts of men…as I speak to the very sin in your own heart…the sin of fear and as I speak to the sin in their heart…the sin of blasphemy and hate…yet the purposes from above, the authority of My Father, the sovereignty of His will…is not now and will never be overturned by some man or some nation that believes they are something… • And now notice, the last word of our Lord before accomplishing our release from eternal hopelessness…sin…in the Greek “hamartea”…violation, offense, betrayal, wrong…mistake…He calls out the name of our failure and then carries it to its grave!! Chapter 9 Verses 12 – 16 • As Pilate sat down on that judgment seat to make this decision, the irony is that he himself was being judged on the basis of his response to Jesus Christ. So too, some of you will sit back and say, “I’m going to analyze, scrutinize, and evaluate Jesus Christ.” When in reality you’re not judging Him, but your reaction to Him is judging you because He is the King of kings regardless of what you decide. • He’s going to have His way whether you get on board or not. You see as you wait to decide whether you are going to choose Him or not, follow Him or not, place your life in His hands or not…the judgment seat you’re occupying right now is that of your own judgment. • He would say to you today…choose Me and in so doing…choose life…see what I’ll do in and through you and ultimately…I’ll see you forever, in eternity…in My Father’s house…