The Third Roman Trial - Jesus Before Pilate part 1

Well, if you would take your Bible, turn back with me to John chapter 19. I think I said earlier that we will be dividing verses 1 through 7. We're still in our series through the Gospel of John. You know that we've been in this series for several years. We've got a little ways to go. I can't wait to get to what I see just a few pages over, really just a few lines over. But you know the title of this series is Christ the Son of God Believe and Live. And all along we've been seeing the deity of Christ, the person of Christ revealed through these pages. And we know that through Christ and in His words we can have life. We can have life.

Now if you've kept up really well with where we are, you know that last week we completed the first of the Roman trials. By now you know there were three Jewish trials and there were three Roman trials or civil trials. Jesus went before Pilate, the governor who was over the region. And in the first half of this Roman trial we saw that the Jewish leaders were accusing Jesus before Pilate. This started off in verse 28 and went on down to verse 32. And then we saw Pilate take the center stage. The Jewish leaders seemed to fade a little. And Pilate starts this examination of Jesus starting in verse 33 down to verse 40.

This was again this first of the Roman trials. Now in chapter 19 we find ourselves at the beginning of the third Roman trial. Now for some of you you might say well where is the second Roman trial? We know that all of the gospel stories come together to give us one story. John does not give us the second of the Roman trials. We can go into Luke's account, Luke chapter 23 starting in verse 7. And we see where Jesus goes before Herod. Pilate sends Jesus before Herod to pass this situation off. So in your own time I would challenge you to go read how Jesus goes before Herod in the second of the Roman trials.

Now in our introduction last week I stated that we are seeing a contrast. A contrast between the humble Jesus and the proud Romans. Of course Pilate represents all of Rome. It was the Bible commentator Leon Morris that gave us some language that I've held on to. He describes Jesus in this lowly majesty. I like that. We're going to use that some this morning. We see this lowly majesty of Jesus in contrast to the proud majesty of Rome. And again Pilate represents Rome. I want to pick that back up here this morning in our introduction.

I want to reveal more of this humble and lowly majesty that we have been seeing and we will continue to see as we progress into chapter 19. Now all along in these trials we've seen Jesus humbly submitting to the will of God the Father. Brother Keith sang about that earlier. It fits right in with where we are. Way back in John chapter 4 verse 34 Jesus told his disciples there when he was in some area that his food or his nourishment was to do the will of the Father and not just to do the will of the Father but to accomplish that great work.

The Father's will was for Jesus to be betrayed and to suffer at the hands of sinful men and then ultimately to die as that substitutionary death. So we see this continuous humble obedience even in these trials. All along in these trials we've seen Jesus humbly submitting to sinful men. On one side of the coin he was submissive to these vile Gentiles. The Romans were not his people. They were outside of the covenant of God. The Jews viewed these people as Gentile dogs. On the other side of the coin he was submissive to his people, the Jews. They rejected him and they reviled him. The covenant people of God rejected the promised Messiah of God.

The Creator, Jesus, humbly submitted himself to these sinful men. And here this morning in our verses we will see Jesus humbly submitting himself to accusations, abuse and violent torture. This bloody torture ultimately led to death. This was the plan before God in the beginning. As a matter of fact the prophet Isaiah speaks of these events and Isaiah 53 he prophesied of this abuse that Jesus would experience at the hands of these very sinful men. Jesus willingly and humbly submitting himself to this abuse, this torture and this death. And then as we continue we will see Jesus humbly submit himself to the cross of Calvary.

His ultimate destination was the cross. Now a question here. What did Jesus experience on the cross? You might say humiliation and shame and rejection. Well that would be a correct answer. You might say pastor he suffered physical pain and suffering. That would be a correct answer. Some of you could say separation from God the Father. That would be a correct answer. But yet it is so much more. We must see that on the cross Jesus suffered the wrath of God. God's holy wrath was poured out on Jesus as the payment for sin. And Jesus humbly submitted to this wrath, the wrath of God the Father on the cross.

So all throughout these events we've seen the Jewish leaders. They have center stage. Now we see Pilate. He is at center stage. And of course at the center of this stage and all of human history is Jesus. We have seen and we will continue to see His lowly majesty on display throughout these verses. Let's go back to the verses that we read earlier if you would. Starting at the middle portion of verse 38. Pilate has been confronted with truth in the form of Jesus. He's rejected that truth. And then John picks up here. And when he had said this, this was Pilate. He went out again to the Jews and he said to them, "I find no guilt in this man.

But you have a custom that I should release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish then that I should release for you the King of the Jews?" Of course we know that verse 40. The Jews rejected Jesus. They wanted Barabbas. Now verse 1. Verse 1 of chapter 19. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and he scourged Him. And the soldiers, they wove a crown of thorns and they put it on his head. And they arrayed Him or dressed Him on a purple robe. And they began to come up to Him in a continuous manner and saying, "Hell, the King of the Jews." And to give Him blows or strike Him in the face.

Pilate once again said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him. This is Jesus out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in Him." And Jesus therefore came out to the Jews, to the crowd, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the man." And when therefore the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, "Crucify, crucify." And Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him. For I find no guilt in Him." And the Jews answered Him, "We have a law.

And by that law He ought to die because He made Himself ought to be the Son of God." Now I think that the title of the message is rather simple and obvious to you. We're looking at this third Roman trial. Jesus is before Pilate. Again, this is the third Roman trial. Now I have before you three major truths, this is how we will divide all of chapter 19, but I wanted you to see that we're only going to cover the first major truth here in this message this morning. So in your notes, just write down number one in your outline. Pilate's futile plans. Here at the end of chapter 18 and chapter 19 verses 1 through 7.

We do want you to develop the habit of taking notes. We want to be good stewards of what the Lord gives us. We want to study in our own time. And we want God's Word to find its way in our minds and our hearts, our thinking, and ultimately to affect us and inform us into the people that God wants us to be. So again, I said we're going to divide our first major truth in our outline this morning. Truth number one, Pilate's futile plans. Pilate and his futile plans. Now some of you noticed that we went back to chapter 18 and that might sound strange for you. We went back and grabbed a few verses that we covered last week.

Now last week we saw how Pilate, he declared Jesus as innocent before the Jews. He appealed to this custom. We know little about it other than the gospel accounts. But the crowds demanded the release of the insurrectionist, the terrorist, the rebel against Rome, this Barabbas. But we need to see that these last couple of verses in chapter 18 are connected with chapter 19 even though there's a gap with the second of this Roman trial. I want to go back and I want to touch on the verses. And in touching on the verses, I want you to see a pattern in Pilate's behavior. We will see his futile plans. Go back, what does he say in 38?

And when he had said this, he went out to the Jews and he said, "I find no guilt in this man." Then if we continue on down, verse 1 of chapter 19, Pilate therefore scourged Jesus, the soldiers, they mocked Jesus, they put the crown on him. And then they abused him. And then verse 4, "And Pilate came out again and said to them, 'Behold, I am bringing him out to you, and I find no guilt in him.'" And then as we continue, we see later on in verse 6, he even tries to get them to take the matter of Jesus on themselves. In other words, we see a pattern of him declaring him as innocent and then even trying to get the Jews to do this dirty work.

Now I want to take the time to examine Pilate's futile plans. There are four observations I want to make here, but within these observations there's a lot of truth that I want us to get. I'll say this regularly, if you have difficulty following me, I would rather you get the notes later. I'd rather you follow with your ears and your mind and your heart. But I want us to take our time because there's a lot of truth that we need to see. So in dividing these verses, we're going to look at four observations. There will be some sub-points here as well. So first notice, Pilate tried to release Jesus. Pilate tried to release Jesus.

We see this in verse 38. We see this in verse 40. He appeals to this custom. He desires to release Jesus. Now I know this is reviewed, but we need to see Pilate was taking very concrete steps to try and release Jesus. He declares his innocence. He appeals to this custom that all of these Jews would have known. He's wanting to pardon Jesus. We saw last week that Pilate's efforts were not enough to sway the Jewish leaders or the crowd. Pilate tried, but to no avail. Now the second observation, notice Pilate had Jesus scourged. Pilate had Jesus scourged. Again, this is after the second of the Roman trials. What does it say?

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged Him. Now all of this takes place at the beginning of the third trial after Pilate attempted to pass Jesus off to Herod. He was forced to do something more than he had been doing, but it did not work. Now a couple of questions here for us to ponder. Why would Pilate have Jesus scourged if he was trying very hard to release Him? I said earlier that he's taking concrete steps to release Jesus. Another question, if Pilate thought Jesus was innocent, why would he punish Jesus in this way? Now I have challenged us to study the other gospels.

And if we study Luke's account, we may see a clue for the answers to those questions. Luke tells us that after Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate, Pilate had it in his mind to punish Jesus and to release Him. We see that in Luke 23, 16. It seems that Pilate is trying to convince the Jews that Jesus has been punished enough by the scourging and then he should be set free. But no matter his motive, no matter what was in his heart, it will become increasingly clear that Pilate is running faster and farther down this road, this trail of total injustice. Now I want to examine these events in verses 1 through 3.

Still dealing with Pilate having Jesus scourged. First, the scourging itself. What is a scourging? The scourging tool was a short wooden handle with several very long leather straps, much like a whip that we would be familiar with. On the end of these straps were jagged pieces of metal and bone that were attached. The Roman scourging was a very brutal and a very bloody punishment. The victim was tied to a block or a scourging block or a post and he was scourged or whipped or lashed. The result could be horribly torn flesh, even bones were exposed and internal organs were exposed.

And there is plenty of extra biblical writing that tell us of these events. Historically, it's documented. Now this punishment was so terrible that generally Roman citizens were exempt from such punishment. Paul alludes to this in Acts chapter 3 starting in verse 37. Now in examining the Roman practice, the Romans had three forms of scourging or they were three levels of this scourging. The least severe was meant for less serious offenses of the law. They would have been scourged and released. Now the next level or second level was meant to bring the victim to a place of submission but without execution.

Again, it was harder, it was more difficult, but yet they were released. This is along the lines of this language 39 strikes or 40 minus 1. But then the third was extremely violent. The third level sometimes, most of the time, brought the victim to death even there on the block. Whether death came at the block or later it did not matter because death usually came from this third level of punishment or scourging. Now a question, which scourging did Jesus receive? The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John do not give us any clear indication. We do not know concretely, but we do have some clues in the Scriptures.

Mark's account tells us that Jesus' scourging was connected to the crucifixion. We know that Simon of Serene, he had to carry Jesus' cross because he physically could not carry the horizontal beam. As a matter of fact, some Bible scholars refer back to Isaiah's prophecy. Isaiah 53 seems to indicate that Jesus' lashing, his scourging would have been very, very severe. Now although the opinions vary, it would seem that Jesus' scourging would have been very close if not the third or severe of the lashings. So Jesus was scourged and this would have been very brutal. This would have been very, very gruesome.

Now in continuing, still looking at this scourging, notice this crown. Go back to the verse. The soldiers, they wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Now what is this crown of thorns? One of the commentators I referred to this week called this crude horse play by the Roman soldiers. I think that's a good way of putting it, but it's more than crude horse play. This is sheer mockery. The crown, it was meant to imitate the reeds that were worn by Roman dignitaries at times and even Caesar at times would wear a crown. But unlike Caesar's crown, this crown was most likely woven from a plant that was called the date palm.

These thorns could reach upwards to 12 inches in length. And this would have inflicted Jesus with very physical, serious physical pain. But this crown was no crown of honor. This was a crown of mockery and humiliation. But then notice the robe. Go back to verse 2, "So the soldiers, they wove this crown and then they arrayed him or dressed him in this purple robe." Now opinions differ as to the source of the robe. Some speculate that this was one of the soldiers' robes. We really do not know. Simply they were giving Jesus a royal robe that would have been meant for a king. Purple was seen as a color for imperial and very important figures.

This was along the same lines as the crown. This was nothing more than mockery. Again, crude horseplay, but yet much more. They were mocking and they were trying to humiliate and torture Jesus. But then as we continue, notice this homage. This is in verse 3. Verse 2, "The soldiers, they wove the crown of thorns. They put it on his head. They dressed him in that purple robe." And in verse 3, "And they began to come up to him and say, 'Hail, king of the Jews.'" This is a homage that they are paying to Jesus. Here we see that they came to him and they cried, "Hail." Now the King James and the modern translations that we use use this same word.

This word was a normal method of greeting for royalty. Now interestingly, the phrase "come up to him" is another layer to their actions. In its construction, it indicates a continuous action. This means that they kept coming over and over and over, exclaiming, "Hail, hail, king of the Jews." Of course, this was mockery. The soldiers meant to humiliate, mock, and ridicule Jesus in this homage. And then notice the beating, the end of verse 3, "And to give him blows in the face." Here at the end of verse 3, we see that the soldiers kept striking Jesus, just like they kept paying him homage. Over and over and over, these events continued.

Matthew and Mark, their gospel accounts tell us that the soldiers, they struck Jesus on the head with a reed. That would have simply been a staff as a part of this mockery. The soldiers, they put a staff in Jesus' hands as a makeshift king's scepter. And then they beat him over his head in the face with this scepter in mocking over and over. And this was a blended of mockery and physical abuse. So we see this scourging. This was more than a lashing. This scourging would have brought Jesus close to death and all blended together with this mocking and more beating. This is the scourging of Jesus. Now let's backing up.

Let's notice our third observation here. We notice first, Pilate tried to release Jesus. Then second, Pilate had Jesus scourged. And then third, Pilate presented Jesus. Go back to verses 4 through 5. And Pilate came out again. This seems to indicate that he was in there in the Praetorium while all of this abuse was going on. So he came out again to the Jews and he said to them, "Behold, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I found no guilt in him." Jesus therefore came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the man." Here we see Pilate goes out to the Jews.

He did this earlier in chapter 18 verse 29. Now this language appears to mean that Pilate went out alone and he announced that he would be bringing Jesus out to them. Now in these two verses we see that Pilate presented Jesus in two ways. First he presented him as an innocent man. Verse 4, what does he say? "I find no guilt in him." This is a broken record from Pilate. Again, this would seem to indicate that Pilate thought that the scourging would satisfy the Jews and then possibly secure a release. But then the second way he presents Jesus is wearing the crown of thorns and wearing the royal purple robe.

This would have made Jesus out to look ridiculous and an obvious, obvious no threat to any power, much less Roman power. Pilate's words, what does he say? "Behold the man." Would have added to the situation. This is no doubt a very sarcastic and even a contemptuous introduction of Jesus to the Jews. So he presents Jesus to the Jews. And then this fourth observation, the Jewish reaction. When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out saying, "Crucify, crucify." And Pilate said to them, "You take him for yourselves.

You crucify him, for again I find no guilt in him." The Jews answered, "We have a law, and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the Son of God." If Pilate sought to defuse the situation by bringing Jesus out in this manner, he was wrong. Rather than satisfy the Jews, this enraged the Jews. The Jews were more violent in their reaction. Now there were three reactions here in these verses. There's a reaction from the Jews, there's a reaction from Pilate, and then there's a reaction from the Jews again. First the Jews, they immediately, repeatedly called for Jesus to be crucified. Go back to the verse. What do we see?

Crucify, crucify. It is interesting to note that this is the first time the word crucify has been used in all of this ongoing drama. But notice who this is coming from. Not just the Jews, but from the Jewish leaders. Verse 6, "When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out." So it was the religious leaders who were crying out, "Crucify, crucify." This second reaction from Pilate, again verse 6, what does he say? Take him yourselves, crucify him yourselves. I find no guilt in this man. Again he tries to push the situation back on the Jews. He's trying to get rid of this bad situation.

He calls for them to crucify him. We see that he gives them permission. He states he's innocent, but you crucify him. And then third, again the Jews and their reaction. What do they say? We have a law and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the Son of God, which was blasphemy. Here they reveal their accusation again. They are accusing Jesus for blasphemy because he claimed to be the Son of God. Now in summary, what do we see in these verses? Right here verses 1-7, even these verses in chapter 18. We see Pilate in the futility of his plans. He tried to release Jesus instead of Barabbas.

He tried to satisfy the demands of the Jews for Jesus' life by giving them his blood in torture. He tried to reason with him again stating his innocence in verse 4 and again stating his innocence in verse 6. He even tried to pawn off the execution. He tried to pawn it off earlier on Herod. Now he tries to pawn it back on the Jews again, just like he did in chapter 18. So we see the futility of Pilate's plans. So in summary, we see a prolonged plan from Pilate to release Jesus, but ultimately it did not work because his plans were futile. Now I'll pause here in the progression of our verses on purpose.

I know there are quite a few more verses for us to cover. We'll cover those second major truths next week in our part 2. But I want to make another observation in Pilate's actions. This will be the conclusion and yet I will make application out of these verses. Now in examining Pilate's actions, we see a weakness in Pilate, but also a stubborn pride. His weakness is coming out as he faces the demands of the Jewish leaders. But he is remaining stubborn and prideful by not standing up to the Jews. He had the power. He had the authority. This is the proud majesty of Rome on display. And this leads Pilate to another terrible, terrible mistake.

Last week we saw one of Pilate's terrible mistakes. Remember he tried to stay neutral. He tried to stay in the middle. He did not want to upset the powers of Rome. He did not want to upset the delicate balance between Rome and the Jews. He is staying neutral and he is rejecting Jesus by staying neutral. This week I want us to see that Pilate made another critical mistake. This mistake revealed his true nature as well. And this mistake put him on the wrong side as well. Now what was this other critical mistake? He was trying to placate the Jews. Now what does this word placate mean? It means to smooth over. It means to make concessions.

It means to appease. It means to pacify. Pilate was giving in to the Jews at the expense of Jesus. He was sacrificing Jesus to placate or appease the Jews all for self-preservation. He did that in his neutrality and he is doing it right here and pacifying the Jews. It's all about self-preservation. Now some of you might not realize it but there are people today in the life of the church who do the very same thing. People come to church. They might be under the word of God. They might be surrounded by God's people. Even the great workings of the church.

That they can be placating or pacifying everything and everyone in their lives at the expense of Jesus and all for self-preservation. I'll give us some examples that will help us here. Sometimes today people placate family at the expense of the word of God. Some of us might say things like this. You know it's really hard to stand up for truth in your own family. You know it's really hard to stand hard and fast on what the word of God says when you have moms and dads and brothers and sisters who engross sin.

See what happens is there are people who will placate their family because listen they don't want to upset things in the life of the family and they do that at the expense of God's word rather than standing up for God's word. They placate family. Sometimes people placate their family at the expense of the work of the church. Sometimes people placate family at the expense of the work of the church. There are people who allow moms and dads and grandparents and things going on in their family to pull them away from the work of the church and that's just placating family. You might say pastor aren't you raising the bar a little too high?

You got to remember the Lord raised the bar this high. I'll give you a verse for you to study on your own. Back in Luke chapter 14 starting in verse 25 Jesus gives us the standard for being a true disciple. A true disciple, a true born again Christian. We're not talking about this cultural Christianity. And what do we see starting in verse 25? All the great multitudes were coming along and he turned to them. What does he say? If you're going to follow me, this is my standard.

Verse 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and sisters, yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple." Now Jesus is not teaching hatred. What he's saying is this, if your love for me is it so great that it makes your love for your family looks like hate, you can't follow me. What is he saying? You can't placate your family and follow me. Now what am I trying to show you? There are people in the life of the church, they revere family more than the Word of God, they revere family more than the work of God. Now I'm not against family, that's not what I'm doing.

I'm showing you that people can placate family. Sometimes people placate their hobbies at the expense of God's money the time. You might say, "Pastor, oh you're meddling now, you're getting in people's pocketbook." There's some men in the life of this church that would say, "I don't do it enough." But there's sometimes people placate their hobbies at the expense of God's money. Now God's taught us that the base standard is just a tie and we're supposed to give way above and beyond that. Sometimes people placate their wants at the expense of funding God's work.

Let me go back to our passage in Luke, verse 26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, his wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes even his own life." And there are people who cheat God in the tie. They cheat the work of God by spending money on themselves. And what am I showing you? We can placate our hobbies and our own wants and God's work suffers. Sometimes people placate lost friends at the expense of brothers and sisters in the church. Yes, sometimes we can placate lost friends at the expense of brothers and sisters in the church.

Sometimes people placate lost family at the expense of brothers and sisters in the church. What did we learn back in John 13 starting in verse 34? Jesus says, "I'm giving you a new command that you love one another, the brothers and sisters as I have loved you and then the lost world will know that you're my disciple." Did you know that brothers and sisters in the faith could suffer because you are placating lost friends and lost family? See we must realize that the brothers and sisters need us. Brothers and sisters in the faith need you. Sometimes people placate every cause, every agenda at the expense of the work of the church.

I think you see where I'm going here. And sometimes we do these things. Now here's a question. Do we do these things? Do you do these things? You might say, "Pastor, listen, I love the Lord. God has saved me. Pastor, I think you're dealing with lost people." No, this is a sin that can even creep in to the life of a Christian. And it's all about self and it's all about self-preservation. And when we're neutral like Pilate, we reject Jesus. And then when we placate everything around us above and beyond Christ, above and beyond the work of God, we are about self-preservation. And we're just like Pilate.

I stated earlier that Pilate placated the Jews. I've said it over and over. And we see some unusual things in him. We see weakness. We do. He just refuses to draw a line and say it to the Jews, "This is the way it's going to be." He fluctuates back and forth. He keeps putting it back on the Jews, sending it to Herod. He keeps putting it back on the Jews. So there is weakness, but yet he is very stubborn. He is very prideful. He even ignores a warning from his own wife. And it's all because of self-preservation. He wanted to preserve power, position, and prestige. It's all about self.

And we need to see that when we placate or pacify anything above Christ, above His Word, above the work of the church, it is self-preservation and is rejecting Christ much like Pilate. So in closing, taking the time to look at the end of Chapter 18, verses 1 through 7, these futile plans of Pilate. Are we more of a placating people than we know? Let's pray.