Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Friday, May 23, 2014
As we grow in 2PE 3:18, it never changes it gets more and more intensified as we all work together making PVTD.
EXO 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel.
1JO 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
ISA 54:17 “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.
2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
1CO 2:9 but just as it is written, #”Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And {which} have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.
ROM 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
GEN 50:20 “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
DEU 23:5 “Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you.
PSA 46:10 “Cease {striving} and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
EXO 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”
1SA 17:47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.”
Fourth trial = the first trial before Pontius Pilate where Scripture declares that Jesus witnessed or testified an honorable confession,
1TI 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,
First of all, this was the day of the Passover supper which would be eaten.
These self-righteous religious leaders wanted to keep their hands “clean” in order to eat the Passover that night – the Passover which spoke of the death of Christ on the Cross.
1CO 5:7b the Bible says For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
The Jews took Jesus to the Roman governor in an attempt to avoid Jewish Law concerning the Holy Days because the Law stated that they were not try someone in court on a Sabbath or Holy day.
He had observed the majestic Person of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the commotion and shouting, the scrambling and fuss.
The Jews actually pretended that they were very upset by Pilate’s question because they had been unable to frame an indictment.
LUK 23:2 “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”
In the first two trials, they accused our Lord of blasphemy, claiming that He was God.
Because blasphemy was a theological problem which would never hold up before a Roman governor.
The Romans had only one type of worship – Caesar worship. – which was Caesar is Kurios (God), they said.
Had blasphemy been included in the accusation, the first thing Pilate would have said would have been, “You mean to tell me that you people don’t accept Caesar as God?”
Religious people are the worst type of liars because their lies are generally to try and destroy others with their tongue.
MAT 22:21 “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
The high priests and the other religious leaders were the ones who were always trying to get around paying their taxes to Rome.
They were implying that He was in reality setting Himself up as a King and trying to lead a revolt against Rome.
To refuse to pay tribute to Caesar was tantamount to refusing to pay your income tax to Rome and would be considered insurrection and rebellion.
Here was a rival to Caesar and a dangerous revolutionary.
He remained calm and completely in control of himself to the very end.
1TI 6:13 “Christ Jesus, who has testified the honorable confession before Pontius Pilate,
Pilate tried to evade the responsibility.
Pilate thought more of expediency than principle.
Pilate had the discernment to observe the innocence of Jesus, but not the character to free Him.
The Jews USED the law, but they did not execute the law.
The reply of the Jews was an admission that they did not desire a fair trial for Jesus, but only His death.
HEB 12:2 “for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,”
They would have stoned Him. Crucifixion was not a Jewish punishment.
The Jewish people did not use a cross or a tree for capital punishment, therefore consider the odds of The Lord Jesus Christ having to die on a cross by the hands of the Jews.
The first question by Pilate implied both ignorance and distress when he said “Are You the King of the Jews?”
This second question was one searching for information, when he said “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You up to me; what have You done?”
The kingdom of Christ on earth awaits the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
In the meantime, He has a kingdom of regenerate people, known as the Church or Body of Christ.
JOH 17:16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
Those who are the recipients of the truth of salvation, believers in Jesus Christ, hear the voice of the Son of God. Spiritual blindness and lack of a human spirit make spiritual phenomena impossible to absorb (1CO 2:14).
1CO 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
I FIND IN HIM – IN JESUS – NO FAULT!
COMPLETELY INNOCENT!
In this manner, Pilate sought to avoid the pressure from the religious crowd to kill an innocent man.
The fifth trial before Herod found in LUK 23:8-12.
MAT 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”
Hoping for some entertainment, he attempted to persuade Jesus to perform one of His miracles.
Herod’s soldiers were “men of war,” and his body guards, and they not only tortured Jesus, but they threw a magnificent robe around Him and mocked Him.
The sixth and final trial before Pilate, LUK 23:13-25.
Realizing that Jesus was innocent, Pilate would make it possible to release an innocent Person, get himself off the hook, and help the religious leaders save face.
It was the custom of the passover for the Roman government to release to the Jews some notorious prisoner who had been already condemned to death.
It backfired when the crowd demanded the release of Barabbas, one of the worst gangsters in Jerusalem.
“Don’t release unto us the most wonderful Person who ever lived … release unto us Public Enemy Number One – Barabbas!”
The Greek indicates that he was an habitual professional criminal, possibly the Number One man of the crime syndicate in that area.
In the Aramaic, Barabbas means “son of the father.”
This dream was probably of Satanic origin, as Satan did not want Christ on the Cross to bear the sins of the world, but wanted him stoned to death as prescribed by the Jewish Law, thereby frustrating the Plan of God.
To be so close to Christ and yet reject Him, is to be far away for all eternity.
The custom of washing hands indicated that this person was innocent and therefore if he’s executed, it is a judicial murder.
Even under Jewish law this meant innocence, DEU 21:6-9.
It’s interesting because some 30 years later on the very spot on the pavement on which he washed his hands, the Romans crucified 36,000 Jews.
Little did the Jews realize what they were saying when they said in MAT 27:25 “His blood {be} on us and on our children!”
In His third attempt, Pontius Pilate steps out on the balcony of his praetorium, he once again had discussed the whole thing with our Lord because He was innocent and he knew it.
They stripped and they scourged Him….which means they took all the skin off of His back.
Pontius Pilate chose expediency and cowardice and he goes down in history just that way.
In fact, to the Roman’s the voice of the people didn’t mean a thing, the Roman’s had a saying which said in effect “the voice of the people is idiocy.”
The rise of the news media as a propaganda agent for Satan means the public is constantly inculcated with false concepts.
VOX POPULAE VOX DIABOLUS, “the voice of the people is the voice of the devil” said the Romans
Public opinion never has the facts or the truth; it is irrational, irresponsible, emotional, and arrogant.
Christian tradition went even further than the Gospels in the direction of exonerating Pilate, in some cases even suggesting his eventual repentance and conversion to Christianity.