Introduction
Speaker 3:There'll be seven preachers there. Don't worry. Each preacher only gets five minutes. So it's going to be good, it's going to be fine, and it won't take all day. And then of course, Easter Sunday. Now Easter Sunday, our schedule is a little bit different than normal because we have to accommodate all the folks. So we have a traditional service at nine o'clock with choir in brass and uh, 10 15 traditional service with choir and brass and child care. We'll be at that service, not at the nine o'clock. Then at 1130 is our contemporary service. And that also has childcare infant through fifth grade. So if you need childcare, come to 10 15 or 1130 and if you want traditional comes in nine or 10 15. If you want contemporary, come to 1130 it's going to be great. And we can't wait for you to join us. And now without further ado, here we go with the next installment, 24 hours that changed the world.
Speaker 4:We're in our series 24 hours. That changed the world as we journey to the cross by drilling down into the last day of Jesus' life and what does that mean for us here and now? What did it mean at the time and why does it matter? I always thought it was kind of strange that in our Apostle's creed, we have Pontus pilot who was a Roman governor in the Christian creed. He was the one who had his under his authority that that we crucified, that they crucify Jesus. Why in the world did he show up in that creed? We're going to be talking about that today, but as a way of kind of leaning into the sermon, I want to ask you a question. It's very important question. You know how like can you remember what you're doing like like when some major thing happen in your life. Okay. Can you remember the first time that you saw HD television? This is a very important moment in my life. When I saw the difference between HD and SD standard Def and high Bev, it was that it was at a friend's house and I saw the national football league on HD and when I saw that and I could see like the blades of grass on the field, I swear I can see the blades of grass. Like I see everything. You see the whole field. I can see how the defensive backs were lining up on the field. I mean this was a big moment. What is this? It was incredible. The clarity, the beauty that the colors of the picture. When I saw HDTV, it absolutely ruined me for my 26 inch Sanjana in my living room and then from that point, Oh my God, how do I get, how do I get an HGTV? My wife can attest to that. I love sports, but when it came out, I don't know if you remember when HDTV first came out. Not everybody liked it and here's why. If you were an actor, a news anchor or anybody who showed your face, you did not like HDTV. It showed every wrinkle, every blemish, you looked much better in SD and, and it, you know, they had to kind of figure out, you know, how do we, how do we do a little more cover up and make everything nice and perfect for you to be on TV. And I remember there's a big thing going on was sit-com sets. So apparently on a sitcom set, um, when they would have like cans of food in the kitchen, they wouldn't say anything or they would say prop or there was it. Cause in SD you couldn't tell what the cans said. But in HD you could tell everything and so they had to scramble, make sure even the labels of the cans in the kitchen in their set said but it was supposed to say, so not everybody loved HD. H D I think in a way can provide painful clarity because you can see everything. I get it, I get it. Listen, I just celebrated a birthday. I like looking in the mirror in SD. I'm just going to say I look great with the lights real low does the I like, but what is, I mean, look in the mirror and it's like, Oh my goodness, that's really cool. I like, I prefer backlit mirrors. Not front lit mirrors, right? I want the light moving away from me. I wasn't viewed as kind of a mystery at what you're looking. I don't need all of that front light that exposes everything and this isn't just true with us in mirrors. This is true in life, isn't it? It's true in life. You're always trying to put your best foot forward. He come to church, everybody thinks everybody else has their act together, not so not so, but you think that because everyone's putting their best foot forward, that's that's the day that you're going to say hallelujah and amen and you're going to pass the piece and you're doing that stuff and you think, Oh my gosh, I just got to pretend to be like everybody else, but really I don't have my act together. It's like going on a first date. It's like, well, if I go on a first date, you know, and I start off with, let me tell you how broken I am, that's not going to go really well. I'm trying to put my best foot forward. I'd want to make sure that I'm attractive and and funny and smart and basically somebody else and because I want them to like, man, that's just going to start opening up about all the issues that I have and why do we do that? Well, it's because we're trying to hide the wrinkles, right? We're trying to hide the blemishes in our life and I think this gets down to why Jesus made so many people so uncomfortable because I believe Jesus was like staring into a front lit HD mirror where every single wrinkle, every single blemish, everything was exposed and it made people so uncomfortable. In John eight 12 Jesus says, I am the light of the world and Ephesians five reminds us, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible. Jesus is like that front lit HD mirror where everything is exposed and all throughout scripture. When we see Jesus and the way people interact with Jesus, something happens to them. As a result, we see this time and time again that people's experienced Jesus and something about gazing into the eyes of Jesus, change them or made them uncomfortable. And that's just it. When we truly fix our eyes on Jesus, we see ourselves for who we really are and sometimes it makes us want to switch back to the backlit mirror. We don't need that much clarity. We'd rather hide a little bit from who we really are. So let's jump in. Today we're into our story Mark chapter 15 and we're talking about Jesus interaction with ponchos pilot very early in the morning, the chief priests with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin made their plans so they bound. Jesus, led him away and handed him over to pilot. Are you the King of the Jews as pilots? You have said so Jesus replied, but chief priest accused him of many things. So again, pilot asked him, aren't you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of? But Jesus still made nobody, PLI and pilot was amazed. Let's pause there for a second. Pilot was amazed. Why was he so amazed with Jesus? Why was, I mean, it could be like Jesus was putting out the God vibe, right? Maybe that's what was going on, but I think, I think it was because every time this is probably happened with pilot and this did happen from time to time where the Jewish leaders would bring a prisoner that had to, a death sentence had to be carried out. And uh, I'm sure every other time that person was trying to talk their way out of getting executed. I'm not guilty. And here's why. Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy up with carefully crafted arguments. And what does Jesus do? He says nothing in his defense. And pilot is amazed. He's like the, they're just handing you over. You don't have anything to say. Verse six, now it was the custom at the, at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. This is really important to understand. Why would this custom exist? You've got to understand what's going on with punches pilot. So the way that the Romans worked was that they would conquer a foreign people but they wouldn't just like kill them all. It was much better for them if they stayed where they were and kept being productive, happy people and the way to keep them productive and happy as you leave the indigenous leadership in place, but you make sure that your Roman governor has control, but you don't want to deal with the everyday needs of your foreign people. You just conquered. So you leave it to them and then if they have a big issue then you come to us, then you come to us. And so it was really about how can we keep them happy so they keep paying more taxes to Caesar and one way you keep them happy is every year you have this great fun where you release a prisoner and everybody cheers for you and thinks you're great. A man called Barabis was in prison with the insurrectionist who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked pilot to do for them. What do you usually did? Do you want me to release to you? The King of the Jews as pilot knowing it was out of self interest that the chief priest had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priest stirred up the crowd to have pilot release Barabis
Speaker 5:instead,
Speaker 4:it's clear something's going on right away with pilot. He's, he's kind of leading the crowd, right? He's saying, do you want me to release him and what is it? What do we know about him? Well, he was the governor and he was the one in charge of that area. And so the Jewish ruling council, they didn't have the authority to put Jesus to death. That was only an authority that could come from Caesar. So he on behalf of Cesar, could carry out death sentences. So they needed pilots. The Jewish leaders needed pilot in order to do what they wanted to do with Jesus. He was the only one that had the authority. But here's another thing. There was no reason for a pilot to, to be sympathetic to Jesus's argument anyway. I mean, why upset everybody? It would be highly unlikely that he would ever overturn what the Jewish leaders said should happen. Right, and so all they had to do was to come to pilot and you see, like they, they worked on an argument[inaudible] they're running up the crowd. They're trying to figure out a way so that they can stack it in such a way that it seems very clear that Jesus ought to be put to death. But watch how this goes down. Verse 12 what shall I do then with the one you call, the King of the Jews. Pilot asked them, crucify him. They shouted,
Speaker 5:okay,
Speaker 4:why? What crime has he committed as pilot? But they shouted all the louder. Crucify it. I find it odd that pilot is so hesitant. Why is that? I think I really believe it's because when he stared into the HD front lit mirror of Jesus Christ, it made him squirm. It made him uncomfortable. He clearly thinks the people have chosen wrong, which is really unusual for pilot to think. And there are also other accounts in other versions in other gospels that talks about pilot's wife had had a vision, had a dream about how he wasn't to put this man Jesus to death in it. It freaked her out and then it freaked him out. We don't know exactly why. Maybe pilot also. Um, maybe he was afraid that Jesus was going to become a martyr and he didn't want to see that happen. I don't know, but I really don't think it's sad. I think that when he looked at Jesus, something happened to him.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 4:And it made them uncomfortable. Now in this moment, pilot had a choice to make the authorities his. He doesn't have to seek counsel from anybody. He can decide and it feels like as we read the story, we think pilot, he might just do the right thing here, but yet in the face of that front lit mirror of Jesus Christ, he chose to, I'm going to go back to the backlit mirror. I washed my hands of this. It's on you. You've already decided. I'm just giving the authority to do it and then we get to verse 15 wanting to satisfy the crowd and that's really what it came down to, wanting to satisfy the crowd pilot release Barabis to them. He had Jesus flawed and handed him over to be crucified. I think pilot was wrestling
Speaker 5:[inaudible]
Speaker 4:and we never know what becomes of them. I wonder when the stories of the resurrection happened when pilot heard that. How did he react?
Speaker 5:Wow.
Speaker 4:I wonder as he watched the church in a short amount of time explode into all the region to grow and grow.
Speaker 5:What he was thinking,
Speaker 4:wonder what kind of regrets he had. Did he have any, you see, I love that pilots in our Apostle's creed. I think that the cool part about that is that it grounds the Christian faith in actual history. This isn't just a myth. This isn't a legend. This is verifiable. Verifiably happened in history. There was a Jesus Christ. He was given the death sentence. His believer said he Rose again from the dead. They could not find his body. It grounds it in history. I love that, but I think more than that, the reason I love pilot being in the Apostle's creed is because we are a pilot. I am pilot. You are pilot. Pilot is us. We gaze into the HD mirror of Jesus Christ and we could either put him to death or we can praise him as King and we have that choice to make every single day. Are we going to live a life in the front light or the backlight? I remember when I was first kind of exposed to this idea that I'm saying yes to Jesus meant stepping into the light. It meant stepping into this new way of living my life and I was very scared of that. And you might be too.
Speaker 6:Yeah,
Speaker 4:cause my thing, well what happens if I do that?
Speaker 6:[inaudible]
Speaker 4:am I going to lose this life that I've built around me? Am I going to lose things that I'm hoping for? Is it going to have a negative impact on my life somehow? I understand those fears, but here's some encouragement for you.
Speaker 5:Living life in the front light
Speaker 4:is one thing I have never regretted.
Speaker 5:Never.
Speaker 4:In fact, I can't think of anybody who has chosen to live that kind of life. Who has ever regretted living in the light.
Speaker 6:Okay?
Speaker 4:I dunno, you might be a numbers person. Those are good percentages. Never even people who have been persecuted for what they believe, do not regret it. See, here's the thing. Neither will you. You know why? Because once you experience the HD life, you're never going to want to go back to standard. Once you experience the beauty and the clarity and the wide openness of wife of faith, you're never going to want to go back. It is just a dim reflection of what Jesus has given you to live. You're going to crave the HD life and all you're going to do is show your friends so they could be ruined too. You never want to go back to that old you. You already know that story. What if you could start living into the picture that God sees for you, the life that he has carved out for you and planned for you and he's got plans. Believe me, he's got plans,
Speaker 5:okay?
Speaker 4:It's the 24 hours to change the world. Let it change yours.
Speaker 7:[inaudible]
Speaker 2:[inaudible].