WEBVTT 00:00:18.150 --> 00:00:20.286 Well, good morning, Valley View. 00:00:20.286 --> 00:00:23.256 It's great to start with an emphasis on the goodness of God. 00:00:23.256 --> 00:00:30.564 What a powerful thing to emphasize as a church, especially given these last few weeks and how we've seen him move. 00:00:30.564 --> 00:00:38.671 I know last week if you were here, we talked about how God had really shown up in a miraculous way to help direct us to Lynn Murray in the woods. 00:00:38.671 --> 00:00:40.506 And I just want to update you on him. 00:00:40.506 --> 00:00:44.310 He's progressing every day, getting a little bit better. 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:50.417 Come in a little bit back to where he was. 00:00:50.517 --> 00:00:51.685 Keep praying. 00:00:51.685 --> 00:00:54.954 Keep praying for him. 00:00:55.054 --> 00:01:08.936 One of the things we also have going on this week, we have the weekend, which is next week, when I hear some of the students shouting out, we used to call it when I was here as a kid, Disciple Now Weekend, that was one of my favorite things we did for students. 00:01:08.936 --> 00:01:11.037 I loved going to that. 00:01:11.037 --> 00:01:12.506 It was utter chaos. 00:01:12.506 --> 00:01:15.843 That was part of what I liked about it at that time. 00:01:15.843 --> 00:01:17.977 Not now, but then. 00:01:17.977 --> 00:01:19.813 That was something I just loved. 00:01:19.813 --> 00:01:21.915 What we did as students here. 00:01:21.915 --> 00:01:23.483 There was that there was camp. 00:01:23.483 --> 00:01:24.986 I think I lived for camp. 00:01:24.986 --> 00:01:28.088 That was my whole year was either pre or post camp. 00:01:28.088 --> 00:01:31.058 Everything was defined by camp students. 00:01:31.292 --> 00:01:38.566 Here's one other thing we did that looking back in hindsight, I think, why did we do that the whole all night lock ins thing? 00:01:38.566 --> 00:01:41.269 Has anybody ever been a part of that? 00:01:41.269 --> 00:01:52.013 Once again, I lived for it, but I can't imagine any of the leaders did who wanted to stay up all night with a bunch of seventh grade boys who were hyped up on sugar and pizza. 00:01:52.013 --> 00:01:54.281 And that's just a crazy recipe. 00:01:54.281 --> 00:01:57.218 In fact, I do remember this one instance. 00:01:57.218 --> 00:02:06.227 We were at an all night lock in, and of course I was perfect and angelic and had no wrong behavior through that time. 00:02:06.227 --> 00:02:12.099 And all of a sudden, out of the blue, I'm standing over near the bleachers, down in the gym, and I'm there with two buddies. 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:17.872 One of them Yanks open the girls bathroom door, and I don't think he was identifying differently. 00:02:17.872 --> 00:02:22.043 He was just for a moment trying to be difficult and the other two guys run off. 00:02:22.043 --> 00:02:29.584 I'm standing there and the door is swinging shut as the leader of the whole thing looks up at me and he goes, Look, you're out of here. 00:02:29.584 --> 00:02:31.819 I've had enough of you tonight. 00:02:31.819 --> 00:02:33.587 What? What are you talking about? 00:02:33.587 --> 00:02:34.923 I'm perfect. 00:02:34.923 --> 00:02:37.192 I haven't done anything wrong. 00:02:37.192 --> 00:02:45.032 And of course, in that moment, I'm thinking you're falsely accusing me of opening this door ready to run me off. 00:02:45.032 --> 00:02:54.008 But yet, of course, we know there probably were a hundred other things that came before that that led to that breaking point, even though I may have felt falsely accused. 00:02:54.008 --> 00:02:56.044 There was a lot going on. 00:02:56.044 --> 00:03:07.855 But I thought of that moment and I thought, I bet all of us can think of times where we felt falsely accused in the moment and times where we see a hand being raised right here. 00:03:07.855 --> 00:03:16.664 I think times where we felt like, look, even if there was other stuff in the background that that wasn't me. 00:03:16.664 --> 00:03:18.334 I didn't do that. 00:03:18.334 --> 00:03:21.169 And by the way, that leader said said, you know, I was mistaken. 00:03:21.169 --> 00:03:22.638 I got that wrong. 00:03:22.638 --> 00:03:24.205 And I'm like, well, you probably didn't. 00:03:24.205 --> 00:03:27.042 There's probably a whole lot else going on. 00:03:27.042 --> 00:03:44.759 But even if they won't acknowledge that, it may have been a teacher, maybe a coworker who accused you of something that wasn't true, maybe someone you thought was a dear friend comes at you with an accusation. 00:03:44.794 --> 00:03:46.829 Those things hurt, right? 00:03:46.829 --> 00:03:48.897 They hurt deeply. 00:03:48.897 --> 00:03:52.568 How do you move forward when that happens? What do you do? 00:03:52.568 --> 00:03:53.735 How do you handle that? 00:03:53.735 --> 00:03:56.138 How do you process that? 00:03:56.138 --> 00:03:57.806 Well, today we're going to look at a passage 00:03:57.806 --> 00:04:01.911 19, transitioning into John 19. 00:04:01.911 --> 00:04:09.151 We're back in the book of John took a break last week or continuing to progress towards wrapping up the book of John this year. 00:04:09.151 --> 00:04:16.225 I promise probably within the next month or two we will work through the book of John and wrap it up. 00:04:16.225 --> 00:04:26.702 But John, 19, we see here the only perfect person to have ever walked on the earth. 00:04:26.702 --> 00:04:36.312 Even if you're perfect being falsely accused, we're going to see, in fact, four false accusers here, see four false accusers here. 00:04:36.312 --> 00:04:46.723 And as we look at that, we're going to look at how Jesus was falsely accused, how he responded, and then see what we can draw from that in terms of how we deal with false accusations as we go. 00:04:46.723 --> 00:04:52.928 So, John, chapter 19, that's on page might be on the screen here in a second. 00:04:52.928 --> 00:04:55.798 Seven something in the church Bible. 00:04:55.798 --> 00:04:59.002 If you don't have a church Bible, we have those out in the connection corner. 00:04:59.002 --> 00:05:04.240 851 We'd love to put those in your hands and you can turn there and follow along as we read. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:06.942 I want you reading from a copy of God's Word. 00:05:06.942 --> 00:05:11.882 You can keep that Bible by reading it on your own, continuing to get to know God's Word. 00:05:11.882 --> 00:05:14.418 But John, Chapter 1819. 00:05:14.418 --> 00:05:25.995 Look at verse chapter 18, verse 38, and this is where we'll start repeating what we looked at last week, verse 38 Pilate said to him, What is truth? 00:05:25.995 --> 00:05:32.502 After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him. 00:05:32.569 --> 00:05:37.408 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. 00:05:37.408 --> 00:05:42.146 So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? 00:05:42.146 --> 00:05:43.880 They cried out again. 00:05:43.880 --> 00:05:47.718 Not this man, but Barabbas. 00:05:47.785 --> 00:05:51.488 Now, Barabbas was a robber. 00:05:51.555 --> 00:05:56.226 So we're going to see here one of the four false accusers. 00:05:56.226 --> 00:06:01.197 But notice first, as a reminder, last week, Pilate had been interrogating Jesus. 00:06:01.197 --> 00:06:09.072 You remember there was this whole back and forth exchange between them where they're answering questions with a question, kind of this dialogue of madness. 00:06:09.072 --> 00:06:15.680 You're wondering where it's all going in Pilate ends the conversation abruptly with that question What is truth? 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:17.113 What is truth? 00:06:17.113 --> 00:06:19.416 And we talked about some different things that might mean. 00:06:19.416 --> 00:06:35.899 But notice as soon as he says that to Jesus, he turns around and he goes back out to talk to the Jews about the situation and talks to those who are and this is the first accuser we see in this list of accusers - the Jews. 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:41.605 They're the ones who are first and foremost accusing Jesus of wrongdoing. 00:06:41.706 --> 00:06:43.875 And we've talked about some of those accusations. 00:06:43.875 --> 00:06:46.444 We'll see some of those as we go. 00:06:46.444 --> 00:07:00.557 But what's interesting here is and as you any time you're reading in the book of John, you also want to look across the other gospels in Matthew and Mark, it says that Pilate knew they had brought him out of envy. 00:07:00.625 --> 00:07:01.959 It's interesting. 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:07.365 He was savvy enough to see that what they were doing, it didn't have a basis. 00:07:07.365 --> 00:07:16.708 There wasn't justice involved really at the heart of what the Jews were doing was their own darkened, envious hearts that cared more about power. 00:07:16.708 --> 00:07:23.814 They were envious of the attention that Jesus was getting, that they should be getting, the influence that he was getting, that they felt they should be getting. 00:07:23.814 --> 00:07:28.052 That's what was driving their accusations. 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:33.725 And Pilate could see he could just see through that a hint. 00:07:33.791 --> 00:07:37.196 And so that's why he comes out to them and what he says to them. 00:07:37.196 --> 00:07:40.199 I found no guilt in him. 00:07:40.432 --> 00:07:46.504 You really have no basis for accusing him. 00:07:46.504 --> 00:07:47.805 Let me make a side note, though. 00:07:47.805 --> 00:07:59.184 Just I've said it before, but I think it's important to remind us at times when it says the Jews, that's not just referring to all Jewish people in general. 00:07:59.184 --> 00:08:18.336 The Bible isn't anti Jewish inherently, okay, Because what he means here and we talked about this, I showed you the context of where John primarily when he says the Jews is referring to the self-righteous religious legalistic leaders over the Jewish people. 00:08:18.336 --> 00:08:24.343 That's who he's talking about, the self-righteous, religious, legalistic Jewish leaders. 00:08:24.410 --> 00:08:30.382 They were the ones in their self-righteousness, in their legalism, in their envy. 00:08:30.382 --> 00:08:34.787 They are the ones who are accusing Jesus. 00:08:34.854 --> 00:08:41.860 And we can say that with confidence because we looked at last week the fact that Jesus is in complete control in the midst of this. 00:08:41.860 --> 00:08:50.669 It's not like he's hoping that maybe he can figure it out and get through it and and these people who are accusing him won't put him to death. 00:08:50.669 --> 00:08:53.472 No, he knows exactly what's going to happen. 00:08:53.472 --> 00:09:05.184 He is in complete control and in fact, when he's hanging on the cross, what does he say to his accusers, Father? 00:09:05.184 --> 00:09:08.187 Forgive them. 00:09:08.321 --> 00:09:10.557 Forgive them. 00:09:10.557 --> 00:09:20.567 He gives forgiveness to those who are doing wretched things to him now, forgiveness is a whole nother topic, a whole nother sermon series. 00:09:20.567 --> 00:09:23.035 We talked a lot about it on Wednesday night. 00:09:23.035 --> 00:09:38.317 But the reality and the important thing for us to realize here is that Jesus is in absolute control, even in the midst of these accusations, of these false accusations from the self-righteous religious, legalistic leaders. 00:09:38.384 --> 00:09:47.594 Now, notice, though, how Pilate tries to engage with them around this verse 39, he says, You have a custom that I should release one man for you. 00:09:47.594 --> 00:09:51.831 So Pilate knows they're envious, and so he tries to meet them where they are. 00:09:51.831 --> 00:09:53.366 Let me give you a way out. 00:09:53.366 --> 00:09:55.869 Part of that's a wise thing to do. 00:09:55.869 --> 00:10:04.177 John F Kennedy talked about in the Cuban Missile Crisis that whenever you are negotiating, you shouldn't back someone into a corner so tightly that they have no way out. 00:10:04.177 --> 00:10:07.914 You should give them a way out, a way to save face. 00:10:07.914 --> 00:10:11.085 And so he's saying here, look, I know you're envious. 00:10:11.085 --> 00:10:14.288 There's no guilt for this man, but there's this custom. 00:10:14.288 --> 00:10:16.389 Here's a way out. 00:10:16.456 --> 00:10:19.559 And we don't know exactly where that custom is rooted in. 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:23.264 Some believe it's probably connected to the exodus. 00:10:23.264 --> 00:10:27.934 Because of the exodus, the practice was LAMB would die on behalf of the first born. 00:10:27.934 --> 00:10:29.602 His blood would be spilled instead. 00:10:29.602 --> 00:10:35.475 And maybe this is a picture of that someone would take the place of someone else. 00:10:35.708 --> 00:10:39.013 But he said, Here's this custom. 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:40.181 Take this offering. 00:10:40.181 --> 00:10:43.049 Here's a way out. 00:10:43.049 --> 00:10:44.585 Now look at how they respond. 00:10:44.585 --> 00:10:45.485 Look back at verse 40. 00:10:45.485 --> 00:10:49.923 They crowd cried out again, not this man, but Barabbas. 00:10:53.326 --> 00:10:55.028 They won't even say his name. 00:10:55.028 --> 00:11:01.034 They won't acknowledge that he called him King of the Jews is just simply this man. 00:11:01.101 --> 00:11:09.977 I mean, that shows hardness of their heart towards Jesus, the decay of their heart, this man. 00:11:09.977 --> 00:11:12.846 But also here's who they call for. 00:11:12.846 --> 00:11:16.116 In the midst of this, they call for Barabbas. 00:11:16.116 --> 00:11:23.658 And notice if you have the ESV describes him as a robber, some might say an insurrectionist. 00:11:23.758 --> 00:11:28.263 The context around this word is it's pretty intense. 00:11:28.263 --> 00:11:39.740 In fact, here's what it says in Mark chapter five when he describes Barabbas, he says it this way A rebel who had committed murder and the insurrection. 00:11:39.841 --> 00:11:44.178 This isn't just some pickpocket robber. 00:11:44.245 --> 00:11:51.785 This is a guy more like John Wilkes Booth, who says, I'm going to use murder to bring about a revolution. 00:11:51.785 --> 00:11:57.125 I'm going to take it into my hands and do it my way, not just some pickpocket. 00:11:57.125 --> 00:11:59.260 In fact, here's the irony. 00:11:59.260 --> 00:12:08.636 They're asking for the very guy that Rome should be most worried about --a guy who is actually committing murder, a guy who is actually trying to overturn the government. 00:12:08.636 --> 00:12:17.111 They're asking for that guy to be released instead of Jesus, who they find no fault in. 00:12:17.178 --> 00:12:26.822 This just points to the hardness of their heart, the fact that they are committed to see this through no matter what. 00:12:26.889 --> 00:12:31.125 And I think for us, we need to hear that and take pause. 00:12:31.192 --> 00:12:35.197 I mean, there are times in your life where, you know, you are right. 00:12:35.197 --> 00:12:38.500 That person is so wrong no matter what. 00:12:38.567 --> 00:12:42.705 And I'm going to see this through to persecute them no matter what. 00:12:42.770 --> 00:12:49.945 And those are the times you just need to pause and take a big, deep breath and talk to someone else and pray and get some perspective. 00:12:49.945 --> 00:13:01.590 Lord, am I right in this or am I just seeing this through because of my own envy, my own sin, my own accusation because I felt slighted. 00:13:01.590 --> 00:13:02.591 That's an important thing to do. 00:13:02.591 --> 00:13:05.494 So first accusers, the Jews. 00:13:05.494 --> 00:13:22.745 But now let's look at the next accuser that we see here looking verses one through three in chapter 19, Pilate took Jesus and flogged him and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 00:13:22.745 --> 00:13:31.386 They came up to him saying Hail, king of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. 00:13:31.453 --> 00:13:35.057 This is incredibly confusing. 00:13:35.158 --> 00:13:36.259 Pilate just said. 00:13:36.259 --> 00:13:37.793 I find no guilt in him. 00:13:37.793 --> 00:13:39.729 I find no fault in him. 00:13:39.729 --> 00:13:42.465 And yet he flogs him. 00:13:42.465 --> 00:13:43.700 There's different ways to view that. 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:46.702 It probably was incredibly violent. 00:13:46.903 --> 00:13:51.673 You don't normally beat an innocent person. 00:13:51.673 --> 00:13:53.076 That's not the response. 00:13:53.076 --> 00:13:55.511 Why does Pilate respond that way in this moment? 00:13:55.511 --> 00:14:06.121 In fact, I think we can confidently say Pilate is the accuser in this moment Pilate who says there is no guilt delivers punishment to Jesus. 00:14:06.121 --> 00:14:09.359 Why would he do that? What is going on? 00:14:09.458 --> 00:14:13.462 I'm going to take a little diversion here and give some background information on Pilate. 00:14:13.462 --> 00:14:16.533 This will help us understand why he would act that way. 00:14:16.533 --> 00:14:18.701 Why would Pilate do this? 00:14:18.701 --> 00:14:25.274 We tend to think of people in the past, Roman rulers in particular as just this person who's autonomous. 00:14:25.274 --> 00:14:28.312 They can do whatever they want without any recourse. 00:14:28.312 --> 00:14:30.080 But it it wasn't that way. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.381 Politics are always at work. 00:14:32.381 --> 00:14:44.094 Anybody who's been a part of politics always know there's many layers of things that you're trying to accomplish and Pilate at this time was already seen as a weakened ruler. 00:14:44.193 --> 00:14:46.330 And so that's in the background. 00:14:46.330 --> 00:14:48.097 Some of his leadership had been challenged. 00:14:48.097 --> 00:14:53.303 Some of the guys he reported to were questioning his leadership because of a few instances. 00:14:53.303 --> 00:14:56.105 And I've stacked these three books up here. 00:14:56.105 --> 00:14:57.206 They're big books. 00:14:57.206 --> 00:15:03.346 They're heavy books, but I want you to see them because these are books of history from that time. 00:15:03.413 --> 00:15:05.850 Josephus and Philo are the first two here. 00:15:05.850 --> 00:15:10.287 They'll flash up screens of the copies of those books on on the screen. 00:15:10.287 --> 00:15:18.662 Pictures Josephus and Philo were both Jewish historians that were contemporaries of Jesus, and they wrote gigantic books. 00:15:18.662 --> 00:15:27.337 I mean, these are tiny print in here, kind of like a Bible print would be page after page after page of Jewish history all from around that time. 00:15:27.337 --> 00:15:30.640 Josephus, Philo, Eusebius is this bottom one. 00:15:30.640 --> 00:15:33.277 And he was a Christian historian from a couple of hundred years later. 00:15:33.277 --> 00:15:48.259 But we have thousands of pages of historical context for- and the point of this point of view, seeing that for historical faith, it's not like someone just made this up out of the air, wrote it all down. 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:51.863 There is a gigantic amount of supporting history. 00:15:51.863 --> 00:16:00.504 And in these books, each of these writers talks about Pilate and gives some additional background stories around Pilate’s life. 00:16:00.504 --> 00:16:02.105 And one of these stories is so interesting. 00:16:02.105 --> 00:16:14.152 So Pilate was known, in fact, I think it was Philo said he was known as kind of this haughty, arrogant, self-focused leader, cared more about his power than anything else. 00:16:14.251 --> 00:16:18.389 So the first time he comes to Jerusalem, he comes with this agenda. 00:16:18.389 --> 00:16:25.297 His agenda is to abolish all the Jewish laws, the ceremonial laws, all the laws that they have. 00:16:25.297 --> 00:16:30.302 I'm going to come I'm going to get rid of those, put them completely under Roman rule. 00:16:30.368 --> 00:16:35.407 And the way he decides to do this is he comes into Jerusalem and he sets up these images of the Roman ruler. 00:16:35.407 --> 00:16:39.577 At the time they called them effigies, sets them in place. 00:16:39.577 --> 00:16:44.982 And Josephus says in particular, this was contrary to our law. 00:16:44.982 --> 00:16:53.892 It set people into an outrage and it's hard to get our minds into that time and to understand why that would upset them so much. 00:16:53.892 --> 00:16:57.428 It goes back to do not make a graven image. 00:16:57.428 --> 00:16:59.831 Some of that was at play. 00:16:59.898 --> 00:17:09.340 Try to imagine if this morning when you came into the church, we had taken down the cross back here and instead put up a picture of the president. 00:17:09.340 --> 00:17:14.278 Now, whether you like the president or not, if the president were Billy Graham, that would still be inappropriate. 00:17:14.278 --> 00:17:17.982 You understand You don't put the president up instead of the cross. 00:17:17.982 --> 00:17:18.651 Not not here. 00:17:18.651 --> 00:17:21.019 We don't worship any political leader. 00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:23.855 We worship Christ. 00:17:23.855 --> 00:17:30.930 And so for them in that moment, amen. 00:17:30.996 --> 00:17:36.501 They were completely upset about this and Pilate knew this. 00:17:36.634 --> 00:17:40.138 So here's what Pilate did he went and sat on the judgment seat. 00:17:40.138 --> 00:17:43.476 We're going to see him do that in this in our story today as well. 00:17:43.476 --> 00:17:46.679 He went sat on the judgment seat waiting for the protesters to show up. 00:17:46.679 --> 00:17:52.417 He had Roman soldiers hiding on the perimeter ready to attack those protesters that show up. 00:17:52.417 --> 00:18:00.859 The protesters show up, The Roman soldiers come out and he said, you better disperse or there will be consequences. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:04.262 And listen to how Josephus said they responded. 00:18:04.262 --> 00:18:05.832 I just copied this page out of the book. 00:18:05.832 --> 00:18:10.869 These are the words that they said in that moment when he was threatening their lives. 00:18:10.869 --> 00:18:23.950 They threw themselves upon the ground, laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very willingly rather than the wisdom of their law should be transgressed. 00:18:24.017 --> 00:18:26.486 They called Pilate’s bluff. 00:18:26.486 --> 00:18:29.722 He backed away. 00:18:29.823 --> 00:18:31.657 I'm not going to slaughter all these people. 00:18:31.657 --> 00:18:39.766 He removed those images from Jerusalem, and that was the first hint, challenge to his leadership. 00:18:39.766 --> 00:18:44.971 There's a couple of more stories of decisions he made that did not go well. 00:18:44.971 --> 00:18:46.272 What's the point of all this? 00:18:46.272 --> 00:18:51.310 If you're in Pilate's shoes, you got to wonder if your leaders aren't going, what is the deal with Pilate? 00:18:51.310 --> 00:18:53.446 Why can't he get control of these people? 00:18:53.446 --> 00:18:57.517 Why is he letting them tell him what to do and run over him? 00:18:57.517 --> 00:19:01.855 His political power was threatened. 00:19:01.954 --> 00:19:06.425 And so when I say Pilate was accusing him, it's an indirect accusation. 00:19:06.425 --> 00:19:15.935 But Pilate was more worried about his power, about how he appeared to others, about his reputation. 00:19:15.935 --> 00:19:19.038 He was more worried about that than justice. 00:19:19.038 --> 00:19:22.009 And Jesus is the one who took the brunt. 00:19:22.009 --> 00:19:28.115 Jesus is the one who got the beating because of his own sin. 00:19:28.182 --> 00:19:30.084 Once again, we need to take pause. 00:19:30.084 --> 00:19:42.695 If I find myself more worried about my reputation than than doing what's right, pause, pray, Ask others, Am I seeing this right? 00:19:42.695 --> 00:19:45.132 Is my heart in the right place? 00:19:45.132 --> 00:19:55.710 I don't want to be more worried about my reputation than Christ, but I think it's a temptation we've all faced at times. 00:19:55.776 --> 00:20:01.816 Now we also see in this interaction with Pilate a third accuser, it's a little less obvious. 00:20:01.816 --> 00:20:02.782 It's a little more hidden. 00:20:02.782 --> 00:20:06.753 But let's look at this next group of verses. 00:20:06.753 --> 00:20:08.855 Look at verse four. 00:20:08.855 --> 00:20:18.098 Pilate went out against again and said to them, See, I'm bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in him. 00:20:18.098 --> 00:20:20.701 So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns. 00:20:20.701 --> 00:20:32.913 The purple robe Pilate said to them behold, the man, when the chief priest and the officer saw him, they cried out, Crucify him, crucified him. 00:20:32.980 --> 00:20:38.553 Pilate said to them take him yourselves, crucify him. 00:20:38.619 --> 00:20:41.855 I find no guilt in him. 00:20:41.923 --> 00:20:42.824 The Jews answered him. 00:20:42.824 --> 00:20:49.396 We have a law and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God. 00:20:49.396 --> 00:20:55.569 And when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 00:20:55.636 --> 00:21:00.541 So here we have a Pilate bringing Jesus out to them, and he says twice, I find no guilt in him. 00:21:00.541 --> 00:21:03.244 And he even again, is trying to meet them where they are. 00:21:03.244 --> 00:21:04.445 He doesn't call them king. 00:21:04.445 --> 00:21:07.449 Now, he says, this man, behold the man. 00:21:07.648 --> 00:21:10.484 He takes away the title of KING. Look at him. 00:21:10.484 --> 00:21:12.086 Look, he's bloodied. 00:21:12.086 --> 00:21:14.189 He's got a fake crown on. 00:21:14.189 --> 00:21:15.824 He's got no power or authority. 00:21:15.824 --> 00:21:17.459 What are you afraid of, Jews? 00:21:17.459 --> 00:21:20.295 What are you afraid of? 00:21:20.295 --> 00:21:22.431 He's just a man. 00:21:22.431 --> 00:21:28.703 He's trying to meet them where they are, trying to give them a way out as best as we can know. 00:21:28.869 --> 00:21:30.705 And their reaction is. 00:21:30.705 --> 00:21:32.240 No, no, no, no, no. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:37.578 This man has gone against our law as well, claiming to be the son of God. 00:21:37.679 --> 00:21:52.627 Now, Pilate’s reaction in this moment is going to show us who this third accuser is, because it says in this moment he was even this is verse eight, even more afraid. 00:21:52.694 --> 00:22:06.208 The word more implying he was already afraid may have been because he had fear for his own power, but more afraid, why would he now suddenly be more afraid when they say this man is claiming to be the son of God? 00:22:06.275 --> 00:22:11.614 Well, we need a little more background information to do that, turn to Matthew, Chapter 27. 00:22:11.614 --> 00:22:13.382 Matthew's the first book in the New Testament. 00:22:13.382 --> 00:22:17.486 The page number should be up on the screen for a church Bible. 00:22:17.486 --> 00:22:26.162 And again, this story, the story of Jesus's crucifixion, shows up in all the Gospels and you can read them together and kind of piece together the broader story. 00:22:26.162 --> 00:22:33.236 Each writer is highlighting specific things that they thought were more interesting or more important to pull out. 00:22:33.336 --> 00:22:45.147 But in Matthew chapter 27, starting at verse 17, we get just a glimpse of another side of the story here of what was going on and why Pilate might have been more afraid in the moment. 00:22:45.248 --> 00:22:48.116 Let's look at verse 17 to begin with. 00:22:48.116 --> 00:22:57.826 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, Who do you want me to release to you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? For He knew that it was out of envy. 00:22:57.826 --> 00:22:59.429 Here's that envy I was talking about earlier. 00:22:59.429 --> 00:23:02.565 It was out of envy that they had delivered him up. 00:23:02.565 --> 00:23:03.566 Now look at verse 19. 00:23:03.566 --> 00:23:04.968 This is where we get some of this background. 00:23:04.968 --> 00:23:21.585 Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. 00:23:21.651 --> 00:23:27.289 The Romans in general were very superstitious people. 00:23:27.289 --> 00:23:34.530 They had a God to follow for everything and had sacrifices to make, to make sure that the divine was satisfied. 00:23:34.530 --> 00:23:41.605 And many believe in this moment, Pilate was more afraid because he's wondering, is this guy really divine? 00:23:41.605 --> 00:23:43.673 I've heard the stories. 00:23:43.673 --> 00:23:47.577 Could this be that I've stepped into something that I really should be worried about? 00:23:47.577 --> 00:23:52.615 I don't want to be the guy that puts someone who is divine to death. 00:23:52.715 --> 00:23:56.118 That would strike fear. 00:23:56.220 --> 00:24:05.561 And some have said, you know, probably what is going on here with this dream that his wife is having being tormented in the background. 00:24:05.561 --> 00:24:18.308 And some have said that third accuser, probably what's at play is likely the accuser in the background, Satan himself. 00:24:18.308 --> 00:24:24.714 The devil is at work through others himself, accusing Christ. 00:24:24.714 --> 00:24:27.718 He is-- one of his names, his accuser. 00:24:27.951 --> 00:24:30.921 It's what he loves to do. 00:24:30.921 --> 00:24:33.990 And I want to be careful not to see the devil behind everything that happens. 00:24:33.990 --> 00:24:41.164 If you're TV glitches while you're watching a rerun of The Cosby Show, that may not be the devil trying to persecute you specifically in that moment. 00:24:41.164 --> 00:24:41.731 Right? 00:24:41.731 --> 00:24:45.336 Don't look for him behind everything but he is real. 00:24:45.469 --> 00:24:47.305 He is at work. 00:24:47.305 --> 00:24:51.241 He does accuse, he does deceive. 00:24:51.308 --> 00:24:55.078 He's the father of lies. 00:24:55.179 --> 00:24:59.683 We need to be aware of that, not be naive to that. 00:24:59.683 --> 00:25:09.928 And he's at play here at a lot of different levels, bringing these accusations against the one wholly pure one there is. 00:25:10.028 --> 00:25:11.261 That's the third false accuser. 00:25:11.261 --> 00:25:16.601 Back to John, Chapter 19. 00:25:16.667 --> 00:25:20.038 There's a couple of other things we need to look at here before we get to the false accuser. 00:25:20.038 --> 00:25:25.777 Look at verses nine through 11, because we're going to see how Pilate responds to this fear. 00:25:25.844 --> 00:25:27.144 Pilate was more afraid. 00:25:27.144 --> 00:25:28.747 Here's what he does. 00:25:28.747 --> 00:25:35.686 In his fear, he entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from? 00:25:35.787 --> 00:25:37.154 But Jesus gave him no answer. 00:25:37.154 --> 00:25:40.959 So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me. 00:25:40.959 --> 00:25:46.998 Do you not know that I have the authority to release you, authority to crucify you? 00:25:47.097 --> 00:25:49.067 Jesus answered him. 00:25:49.067 --> 00:25:53.605 You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. 00:25:53.605 --> 00:26:00.278 Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. 00:26:00.345 --> 00:26:09.488 So Pilate's immediate response in the midst of fear is to come to Jesus and ask, Okay, where are you really from? 00:26:09.488 --> 00:26:12.891 Are you divine or not? 00:26:12.990 --> 00:26:17.296 And notice that Jesus doesn't even respond. 00:26:17.395 --> 00:26:24.169 Now, there's two things in this passage I want to address that are important, that I think have been misunderstood at times. 00:26:24.169 --> 00:26:29.273 This is kind of a side note, a side conversation from what's happening in this passage. 00:26:29.273 --> 00:26:33.545 But I've seen people use this fact that Jesus remains silent in this moment. 00:26:33.545 --> 00:26:40.586 I've seen pastors, I've seen counselors do this to tell someone being abused, that you just need to take it. 00:26:40.618 --> 00:26:41.519 Jesus took it. 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:43.955 He remained silent when he was being abused and accused. 00:26:43.955 --> 00:26:46.959 And you need to as well. 00:26:46.959 --> 00:26:51.997 That is a misunderstanding of this passage, a grave gross misunderstanding. 00:26:51.997 --> 00:26:53.798 By the way, I'm pro counselors. 00:26:53.798 --> 00:26:55.768 I'm pro pastors too. 00:26:55.768 --> 00:26:58.269 Some people get it wrong. 00:26:58.336 --> 00:27:00.038 That is a misunderstanding. 00:27:00.038 --> 00:27:08.980 And I want you to hear today, if you're being abused, do what it takes to get safe. 00:27:09.048 --> 00:27:12.117 Jesus didn't stay quiet the entire time. 00:27:12.184 --> 00:27:13.986 We're going to see him responding in just a second. 00:27:13.986 --> 00:27:20.859 He's quiet in this moment because he's already addressed what Pilate is asking and Pilate didn't want to hear it earlier. 00:27:20.926 --> 00:27:25.330 There's a time to speak up and there's a time to be quiet. 00:27:25.330 --> 00:27:30.068 And if you're being abused, do what it takes to get safe. 00:27:30.068 --> 00:27:33.839 Do what it takes to get safe. 00:27:33.906 --> 00:27:36.643 And let me also speak to the other side of the coin. 00:27:36.643 --> 00:27:42.315 If you are abusing someone, first of all, I'm glad you're here. 00:27:42.382 --> 00:27:52.925 What better place to get healthy, But do whatever it takes to stop, confess to someone, find someone to share that with. 00:27:52.959 --> 00:27:53.859 Don't continue. 00:27:53.859 --> 00:27:56.496 You've abandoned the gospel and your pattern of behavior. 00:27:56.496 --> 00:27:59.098 You're walking down a dangerous road. 00:27:59.098 --> 00:28:05.872 Be the one to take the initiative to get that other person safe. 00:28:05.971 --> 00:28:15.082 And let me also say to you, I know that behind that and this isn't to excuse what you've done, but I know that hurt people hurt people. 00:28:15.082 --> 00:28:28.561 And more than likely something was done to you as a child, and that's what you learned, not excusing it, but you got to deal with that you’ve go to press in to that, to change that life, to change that behavior. 00:28:28.561 --> 00:28:30.998 But it starts with the cross. 00:28:30.998 --> 00:28:38.105 It starts with coming to Christ, coming to him and say, help me get free. 00:28:38.172 --> 00:28:42.308 I know that's heavy, but I think it's important to address. 00:28:42.342 --> 00:28:44.644 The second thing here that brings some confusion. 00:28:44.644 --> 00:28:55.088 If you look back in the passage he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin is that phrase he uses in verse 11 greater sin? That can be confusing. 00:28:55.088 --> 00:28:56.155 What do you mean, greater sin? 00:28:56.155 --> 00:28:59.326 There are greater sins and lesser sins. 00:28:59.425 --> 00:29:01.929 At one level, all sin separates us from God. 00:29:01.929 --> 00:29:09.369 Every single sin, no matter how small or great however you scale them, separates us from God. 00:29:09.436 --> 00:29:17.278 And yet I've heard my wife Julie say this in parenting classes, and actually I heard Darryl Strawberry say it recently. 00:29:17.278 --> 00:29:18.746 The baseball player. 00:29:18.746 --> 00:29:23.049 The guy was one of the most talented baseball players to ever live. 00:29:23.049 --> 00:29:26.820 He got derailed on drugs, but now he's an evangelist. 00:29:26.887 --> 00:29:28.955 And I heard him say this. 00:29:28.955 --> 00:29:32.993 You can choose your sin-- can anybody complete it? 00:29:32.993 --> 00:29:35.997 You can't choose your consequences. 00:29:35.997 --> 00:29:41.102 You can choose your sin, but you don't get to choose your consequences. 00:29:41.169 --> 00:29:45.440 Meaning, sure, at one level, all sin separates us from God. 00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:51.211 But yeah, some sins have much greater consequences for ourselves. 00:29:51.278 --> 00:29:53.847 Our lives can be radically changed because of a decision. 00:29:53.847 --> 00:29:58.318 We've made a sinful decision to run from God, but also for others. 00:29:58.385 --> 00:30:03.758 The decisions we make affect the faith of others. 00:30:03.825 --> 00:30:10.597 And look, I know probably every one of us in this room could say, Yeah, I think I've hurt the faith of someone else. 00:30:10.597 --> 00:30:21.910 I know there are people that because of decisions I've made, may have caused their faith to struggle. 00:30:21.977 --> 00:30:23.010 That's a weight to carry. 00:30:23.010 --> 00:30:25.146 That's an important thing to be aware of. 00:30:25.146 --> 00:30:27.015 But look, either way, here's the reality. 00:30:27.015 --> 00:30:29.017 Either way, great or small. 00:30:29.017 --> 00:30:31.019 The call is the same. 00:30:31.019 --> 00:30:35.656 Come to Christ, confess your sin, bring it to him. 00:30:35.656 --> 00:30:38.660 Seek forgiveness, Seek repentance. 00:30:38.759 --> 00:30:45.067 There may be a lot of consequences as a result, but either way you come to him. 00:30:45.133 --> 00:30:53.407 Two challenging issues in this passage that I want to make sure we talk about and address that are important for the church to know about. 00:30:53.407 --> 00:31:01.916 But all this is leading to our fourth accuser. Pilate dealt with the accuser -Pilate himself was accusing out of his own sin. 00:31:01.916 --> 00:31:04.420 The Jews were accusing. 00:31:04.420 --> 00:31:10.192 Look, in this next section, who we see accusing verse 12 through 16. 00:31:10.291 --> 00:31:17.132 From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. 00:31:17.132 --> 00:31:21.636 Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. 00:31:21.703 --> 00:31:31.446 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement Aramaic gabbetha. 00:31:31.446 --> 00:31:33.481 And it was the day of preparation of the Passover. 00:31:33.481 --> 00:31:39.989 It was the sixth hour, he said to the Jews, Behold your king. 00:31:39.989 --> 00:31:45.294 And they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. 00:31:45.394 --> 00:31:49.298 Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? 00:31:49.298 --> 00:31:51.733 The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar. 00:31:51.733 --> 00:31:55.137 He delivered him over to be crucified. 00:31:55.238 --> 00:31:57.673 You see how things are ramping up here. 00:31:57.673 --> 00:32:04.079 In fact, over the course of this whole passage, we've seen Pilate in one way or another four times say he's not guilty. 00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:05.914 It's time for him to go Four times. 00:32:05.914 --> 00:32:08.750 He calls him king of the Jews. 00:32:08.851 --> 00:32:11.253 And we see four accusers. 00:32:11.253 --> 00:32:16.058 In fact, the accuser we see here again, it's kind of hidden. 00:32:16.058 --> 00:32:23.500 But notice in verse 15, they cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. 00:32:23.566 --> 00:32:24.901 Matthew, Mark, 00:32:24.901 --> 00:32:32.107 11, where it says the leader stirred up the crowd to call this out as well. 00:32:32.107 --> 00:32:34.176 And so number four the fourth accuser we see. 00:32:34.176 --> 00:32:36.779 Here is the crowd. 00:32:36.779 --> 00:32:41.384 The whole crowd is at play accusing Jesus. 00:32:41.384 --> 00:32:48.924 And I bet there have been times in your life where you feel like the whole crowd is against you. 00:32:48.924 --> 00:32:52.729 In fact, there are times where the crowd gets stirred up. 00:32:52.729 --> 00:32:55.265 They don't even know why. 00:32:55.265 --> 00:32:58.567 I bet most of this crowd doesn't even know why they want him crucified. 00:32:58.567 --> 00:33:02.571 They might not even know who Jesus is at this point. 00:33:02.673 --> 00:33:04.407 And it's easy to go along with the crowd. 00:33:04.407 --> 00:33:07.076 It's easy to feel like the whole world is against you. 00:33:07.076 --> 00:33:12.249 In the midst of that, what do you do? 00:33:12.249 --> 00:33:13.549 We've seen these four accusers. 00:33:13.549 --> 00:33:14.417 What do you do? 00:33:14.417 --> 00:33:16.787 How do you respond to these accusers? 00:33:16.787 --> 00:33:19.088 I want to talk about six action points for us. 00:33:19.088 --> 00:33:21.491 Six ways to respond to our accusers. 00:33:21.491 --> 00:33:23.861 What do you do in the midst of accusations? 00:33:23.861 --> 00:33:25.596 How do you move forward? 00:33:25.596 --> 00:33:26.630 Let's look at these six ways. 00:33:26.630 --> 00:33:31.669 Number one, fear God not man. 00:33:31.734 --> 00:33:34.805 Start there, Jesus. 00:33:34.805 --> 00:33:46.083 We don't see him shivering in his boots, afraid of Pilate, afraid of the Jews, afraid of Pilate ‘s wife in a crazy dream, not even afraid of the accuser or the crowd. 00:33:46.083 --> 00:33:50.755 He is in complete control and he knows that his father is in control. 00:33:50.855 --> 00:34:00.196 The apostles in chapter five, which that passage was just on the screen, once again, the leaders, the rulers, the self-righteous religious rulers are saying, you got to stop preaching. 00:34:00.196 --> 00:34:04.902 And they say, we’ve got to obey God, not man. 00:34:04.969 --> 00:34:26.757 number one, fear God not man. Number two, know that if you take a stand for anything, you take a stand for anything at all, you'll have people who become your accusers, people who go against you, become your opposers, maybe even your abusers. 00:34:26.858 --> 00:34:29.726 And so what do you do? 00:34:29.726 --> 00:34:38.001 But just never take a stand for anything, never say anything that would be difficult. 00:34:38.101 --> 00:34:43.208 Just go along with everyone else, make--be as agreeable as possible your whole life. 00:34:43.208 --> 00:34:48.445 And I'm not talking about being the loud- I say it like it is-- jerk. 00:34:48.545 --> 00:34:50.114 You know what I'm talking about. 00:34:50.114 --> 00:34:53.717 There are things in life worth taking a stand for. There are. 00:34:53.717 --> 00:34:56.153 Even if it means your lives are at stake. 00:34:56.153 --> 00:35:01.726 There are things we're taking a stand for, and that's okay. 00:35:01.726 --> 00:35:08.300 And if you do that, there will be plenty of people who don't like that. 00:35:08.300 --> 00:35:12.336 That's part of the call. 00:35:12.403 --> 00:35:16.807 Number three, when you're falsely accused, don't trust the crowd. 00:35:16.807 --> 00:35:18.909 Don't depend on the crowd to be there for you. 00:35:18.909 --> 00:35:20.177 Don't trust the crowd. 00:35:20.177 --> 00:35:29.288 And I would say when you're trying to figure out who Jesus is in your life, don't trust the crowd because the crowd is going to paint a false picture of who he is. 00:35:29.288 --> 00:35:31.789 They're going to put a false crown on him. 00:35:31.789 --> 00:35:35.027 They're going to stand him up and say here's the man, here's the one that you follow. 00:35:35.027 --> 00:35:37.429 Here's what he's really like. 00:35:37.496 --> 00:35:39.797 No, get to know him. 00:35:39.797 --> 00:35:40.932 Get to know him in his word. 00:35:40.932 --> 00:35:48.139 Get around people that you can help you understand who he is instead of just some false picture of him that's been painted. 00:35:48.139 --> 00:36:02.353 You know, I don't know what perspective of church and Christianity you're coming from, but get in his word and get to know him there. Number four, when accused-- and this one's real important-- understand the difference between accusation and godly conviction. 00:36:02.420 --> 00:36:04.389 There's a big difference. 00:36:04.389 --> 00:36:09.762 Satan accuses, the Holy Spirit brings godly conviction. 00:36:09.829 --> 00:36:21.673 Satan brings accusation which creates confusion and shame and guilt and despair and leave you feeling like I can never be good enough. 00:36:21.673 --> 00:36:23.342 I can't do anything right. 00:36:23.342 --> 00:36:24.943 I got to figure it all out on my own. 00:36:24.943 --> 00:36:27.579 That's accusation. 00:36:27.646 --> 00:36:43.463 Godly conviction brings hope, brings peace, brings a desire for change, brings freedom from sin, brings release, brings joy. 00:36:43.563 --> 00:36:46.398 That's what comes with conviction. 00:36:46.398 --> 00:36:49.268 And there's a big difference between the two. 00:36:49.268 --> 00:36:51.971 Know the difference between the two. 00:36:51.971 --> 00:37:13.994 Number five, when falsely accused remember, there will be a day when the roles are reversed because Pilate sat on the judgment seat, judging Jesus and there's a day there will be a day where Jesus is on the judgment seat. 00:37:13.994 --> 00:37:15.128 He is the one judging. 00:37:15.128 --> 00:37:16.528 And here's what's going to happen in that moment. 00:37:16.528 --> 00:37:23.769 Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, every single one, and that day will come. 00:37:23.769 --> 00:37:26.773 It may seem distant, it may seem far off. 00:37:26.972 --> 00:37:30.577 There will be a day. 00:37:30.643 --> 00:37:39.152 And then lastly, number six, don't settle for a substitute savior. 00:37:39.219 --> 00:37:46.293 To understand this one, we need to go back to Barabbas because his name sums up so much of what's going on here. 00:37:46.293 --> 00:37:51.798 Barabbas, you hear in here ‘Bar Abba’, Abba father, son of a father. 00:37:51.864 --> 00:37:53.867 And here's the irony at play. 00:37:53.867 --> 00:38:00.907 The Jews are saying, release the son of the father so we can persecute the true son of the father. 00:38:00.907 --> 00:38:02.976 Give us a substitute. 00:38:02.976 --> 00:38:07.481 Give us someone who can't save us. 00:38:07.547 --> 00:38:09.516 But here's the beauty. 00:38:09.516 --> 00:38:13.954 They're actually doing the very thing that Jesus came to do. 00:38:14.021 --> 00:38:17.023 Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. 00:38:17.224 --> 00:38:23.197 Jesus takes the place of the guy who had actually done the crime. 00:38:23.197 --> 00:38:31.706 In this picture, we get an illustration of who Jesus is and why he came. 00:38:31.706 --> 00:38:36.143 And I think each of us at times are tempted to pursue a substitute savior. 00:38:36.143 --> 00:38:40.914 What is this thing that will relieve my guilt , my shame, my sin? 00:38:41.014 --> 00:38:43.184 Come to Christ instead. 00:38:43.184 --> 00:38:46.954 Come to him. 00:38:47.021 --> 00:38:49.389 He is the LAMB of God that takes away the sin of the world.