In today’s sermon, Pastor Babij examines Mark’s account of Jesus’ trial before Pilate. Pastor Babij explains:
- Pilate wanted to save Jesus but instead gave into the crowd’s demand to release Barabbas.
- Faith sees salvation in these events; Christ had to die to win.
- God used the power of evil to bring about its own demise.
- All people everywhere must decide rightly what to do with Jesus to avoid a hellish eternity.
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okay let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to the gospel of Mark chapter 15 The Gospel of Mark like to remind everybody remember next Sunday is Resurrection Sunday so that is an excellent time to be inviting someone uh that would not normally come to church to come to church on that Sunday uh because the gospel of course is going to be preached and um they may not come any other time so that’s the opportunity we have to uh just convince them that they ought to be there especially if they haven’t been coming in a long time and uh so that’s going to be next week let’s pray as we uh begin this morning let’s pray father we come before you in the Name of Christ Jesus our lord lord um we are humbled by the fact that especially Lord by what it took for us to be saved we thank you Lord for your obedience to the father we thank you Lord for your humility in your first coming we thank you Lord that everything that you said you would do has taken place and Lord now we can freely preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saves and I pray Lord that we would always consider that to be a awesome privilege as Believers and that we would not be silent about it to our family our family our friends our neighbors we would always be talking about the Lord in some way give us opportunities of the Divine appointments that we can actually give the gospel to someone in holy we pray you convict them of of sin of righteousness of judgment and bring them to yourself like you brought us Lord I pray that we would rejoice in others people come to know Jesus does Sav and I pray this in your name this morning amen all right we are in chapter 15 of Mark and of course uh today we’re going to be looking at well let me just back up for a second uh it is uh in the week the fion week it is Friday morning it’s about 5 or 6 a.m. in the morning where this is taking place uh all the way up until 9:00 in the morning the Sanhedrin of course that’s the ruling body of Israel uh had condemned Jesus in a night trial but they had to wait for dawn for the sun to rise to convene an official uh trial and to endorse for their decision and that decision was to condemn Jesus to death the members of the Sanhedrin once they had that trial started to mock Jesus to beat Jesus and to abuse the Lord and so Jesus was led uh from the Jewish leadership to this next second stage of uh and then of course the third stage to his Tri in this third stage again Friday morning shortly after Dawn Jesus is formally condemned by the Sanhedrin with the backing of the Roman Court uh and so Jesus will be Tried by a Roman court and that’s this morning we’re going to look at the Roman trial of our servant Savior Jesus Christ so let’s pick it up today in today’s narrative in chap 15 and notice verse number one it says early in the morning Mark 15:1 early in the morning the chief priest with the elders and scribes and the whole Council immediately held a consultation and binding Jesus they led him away to be deliver to deliver him to Pilot now these religious groups have come together as one unit for the sole purpose of legitimizing their Night Court verdict the Sanhedrin needed the second Council to pass a verdict of death because they could not pass a verdict of death themselves legally they weren a to actually take and complete that they actually had to have the Roman government do it so the Jewish leadership wanted to move quickly as quick as possible to obtain a formal confirmation and they wanted to do it early in the morning before anyone took notice so they bound Jesus like a common criminal and delivered him to the Gentiles it says there in verse number one they led him away and delivered him to pilate now pilate was a judge who heard cases around between 6:00 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the morning so the Jewish Council wanted Jesus to be on the docket as early as possible actually Jesus had already told his disciples that this would take place that was back in Mark 10:33 where Jesus said to him his disciples that I will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes and they will condemn me to death and will hand me over to the Gentiles so the Lord already told them probably in the second year of his ministry that that was going to take place so this group uh wanted pilate to condemn Jesus to death based on the evidence of their night trial now being the good politician that he was uh would not accept their uh this at all uh but conducted his own investigation uh now Mark doesn’t record that but the Gospel of John does record that and I so I want you to turn over to the Gospel of John chapter 18 and verse number 29 and then we’ll turn back to Mark and we’ll be going back and forth from Mark to John because John kind of fills in the blank for us the blanks for us concerning what’s going on here but I want you to see it uh because pilate doesn’t really accept their verdict he wants to do his own investigation and so in John chapter 18 notice verse number 29 it says therefore pilate went out to them and said what accusation do you bring against this man they answered and said to him if this man were not an evil Doer we would not have delivered him to you verse 31 so pilate said to them take him yourselves and judge him according to your law the Jews said to him we are not permitted to put anyone to death to fulfill the word of Jesus which he spoke signifying by what kind of death he was about to die and so therefore pilate entered again into the into the pratorum where often he held trials and sometimes he of course did it in a first a private way and then in a more public way now considering that the the first century account of the person of Jesus Christ is just as radical today as it was among the Jews in the fir in first century Palestine radical because the testimony of the Gospel of Mark and the other gospels push against any preconceived expectations about who Jesus actually was whether he was the Messiah or whether he was someone else in other words there is always a danger in misrepresenting the truth about Jesus and the essence of what real Biblical faith is and so that’s why we’re given the gospels we’re given the gospels so we can have a clear view in a clear understanding about who exactly Jesus is now turn back to Mark chapter 15 and notice here that there’s really going to be two things that we’re going to be looking at this morning one of is is the identity question and secondly it’s it’s what do you do once you have concluded your understanding about who Jesus is what do you do with that right so the question who is who is he has reverberated all through the gospel of Mark back in chapter 4 remember people would say who then is this that even the wind and the S the sea obey him and then of course the people would say uh Jesus would say to them who do people say that I am some say you’re John the Baptist some say you’re Elijah others say one of the prophets and Jesus of course always said to his disciples well who do you say that I am and of course Peter gave that awesome answer that he got from Heaven Thou Art the Christ you are the Messiah so the gospel of Mark moves us Beyond precon conceived Notions of who Jesus is supposed to be to actually who he is and so the question who do you perceive Jesus to be becomes the most important question that you will ever answer it is the most important question you will ever answer and the reason why is if you get it wrong you get eternity wrong if you get it wrong you get almost everything wrong so here we come in our passage to the identity question about who Jesus is a person person a person’s choice or rejection of Jesus Will indicate if that person understands who Jesus is and as taught from the scripture as taught from the very mouth of the Apostles and the Lord himself so let us look at the identity question because this is pilate’s inquiry pilate in a private examination in the pratorum notice what he says in verse number two P pilate this is Mark 15:2 pilate questioned him are you the king of the Jews pretty short direct question see pilate was not concerned about the charge of blasphemy his concern was if Jesus would be found guilty of treason so hence Pilot’s specific question are you the king of the Jews so he was trying to find out from Jesus is Jesus going to mount a hospit takeover of the Roman government and replace it with his own government that was pretty much why I was asking that Jesus does answer in verse number two he answered him and what did he say it is as you say that’s it it is now that’s that’s how Mark records it and Mark remember is always record in it to move things quickly through the narrative he’s not stopping and giving details he is just moving us through the event so we feel like we’re there now again take your Bibles you might as well keep your hand there in John chapter 18 John chapter 18 because John again fills in some of the blanks and I want you to notice that Jesus expands on his answer to Pilate because what he really says to pilate In this passage is that my kingdom is not to be thought of specifically as a political Kingdom look at in John chapter 18:33 it says therefore pilate entered again into the pratorum and summoned Jesus and said to him are you the king of the Jews Jesus answered are are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me pilate answered I am not a Jew am I your own nation and the chief priest delivered you to me what have you done Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews but as it is my kingdom is not of this realm verse 37 therefore Pilate said to him so you are a King Jesus answered you say correctly that I am a king for this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears my voice and of course right after that what do pilot say ah what’s true I mean even in his day people didn’t know what truth was couldn’t Define it couldn’t nail it down today it’s even worse truth I don’t know what truth is truth is anything you want it to be right whether it’s can be factually proved or not doesn’t matter whatever you want to Pro that’s the truth is today no truth is something that is can be substantiated can be proved as to its truthfulness so back to Mark chapter 15 sorry about this but we’re going back and forth a little bit so the chief priest priests must have been an earshot of what Jesus was saying because their reaction was harsh and accusatory by giving a list of charges against Jesus now notice what it says in Mark 15:3 the chief priest began to accuse him harshly then pilate questioned him again saying do you not answer see how many charges they bring against you now what are some of the charges they could have brought against him that Mark does not record well from the rest of the Gospel of Mark the destruction of the temple right blasphemy political threat to Rome that he does things by the power of the Els above or demons that he’s a revolutionary Zealot right that’s what they could have the list would go on with them and they just were accusing him because they did not want pilate to change his Direction on where he was going with this they wanted to direct and guide everything he was doing so yes Jesus affirms that he is a king and a short answer and then he just remained silent of course this is the second great Silence of Jesus um where the Fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 53 comes in that he didn’t open his mouth uh when he was brought before the shearers he kept silent but in spite of this pilate did not act like pilate did not think Jesus acted like a king nor did he speak like a king see so pilate did not see a threat in Jesus to overthrow the government of Rome again in Mark uh John 18 don’t turn there but verse 28 says and pilot said to him what is truth and when he had said this he went out again to the Jews and said to them I find no guilt in him this guy is innocent from my perspective now in legal proceedings in Rome under Roman law they centered on three things when they actually examined someone first of all what are the charges right that’s a good way of place to start start right second secondly what’s the accused response to the charges and thirdly then we can make a decision but the problem is is that Jesus gives no response specifically to their charges he had satisfactory answered the question to pilate that he was a king and his kingdom wasn’t of this realm pilate was satisfied with that I don’t see any I don’t see he doesn’t have any armies with him he doesn’t have any uh you know any weapons with him doesn’t look like he’s never been a revolutionary from his understanding there’s no pass charges against him from any part of the government so the guy must be innocent so what is Pilot’s response to Jesus silence notice in verse number five of of chapter 15 but Jesus said made no further answer so pilate was amazed now pilate knew the charges against Jesus were false yet Jesus was content to endure the contradiction of Sinners against himself he was innocent of all charges and yet made no defense but submitted himself to the groundless accusations made against him without complaint without murmur and without argument so Pilot’s response was he was amazed at this because listen if you were innocent and all these charges were brought against you and then someone in the government said that you were innocent what you what would you be doing being silent no you were you listen to reasons why you are innocent right J silent he is silent of course this is all fulfilling prophecy too because it says in Hebrews for consider him who has endured such hostility by Sinners against himself so that you will grow not will grow weary or lose heart so here’s a really a good lesson to learn from our savior’s example to learn to suffer patiently and not Grumble and complain in whatever God sees fit to bring into our lives that we would not that we really would not sin with our tongues that we would not sin with our tempers but patiently endure for we know nothing in the Christian character really satisfies or glorifies God so much as patient suffering it was even remember Mark is using Peter’s uh witness of to write this gospel and so Peter records for us in First Peter chapter 2 about this particular thing and it says but if when you do what is right and suffer for it patiently and patiently endure it this finds favor with God for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example for you to follow in his step so this is part of following in the steps of Jesus to have a conduct for whatever God brings into your life life a conduct of bearing it with patience bearing it without complaint bearing it without grumbling bearing it where we know how to hold our tongues and know how to hold down our tempers for the sake of bearing something patiently for because it pleases the Lord it the Lord finds favor in that kind of conduct and when we do so we act like our Lord himself and that’s what displ ought to do they ought to be acting like Jesus so so take notice of this second thing in the narrative the choice based on one’s answer to the identity question of who Jesus is is he King is he Messiah is he criminal is he evildoer what is he well we’re going to find in this next section of the Gospel of Mark that the innoc is actually rejected in the place of the Lawless one and notice uh in our text now listen if if someone is convinced of another of another’s innocence what would he do well what does pilate do pilate was trying to delay and Sidetrack the Jews and possibly uh to obtain Jesus AC quiddle and to satisfy his own conscience of course so he what does he do he makes a counter offer and I want you to notice the counter offer starting in verse six it says now at the feast he used to release that’s pilate for for them any one prisoner whom they requested so obviously there was this thing uh called the Pascal amnesty uh where a Roman judge could part par the accused based on the crowd’s insistence it had to be practiced during a feast and usually it was done at Passover and this is Passover all right and the Roman law could either you could either acquit somebody be before trial or you can actually acquit someone after trial either one so the this Festival custom was a uh a way to satisfy the crowd and POS a possible way to get Jesus released that’s what was in pilate’s mind pilate’s uh custom was to release and the people’s custom was to beg him to release a person of their choice that was the deal it was more like to me a game that they were playing because there’s only two names on the docket remember he can choose one name Jesus is on the docket Jesus was not found to be guilty by the Roman Court he never was actually and then on the docket is also verse number seven the man named barabus has been imprisoned with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the Insurrection so who do we have here we have barabus who is a notorious criminal a robber a murderer and an insurrectionist so it’s either barabus or it is Jesus well you know barabus is Name Bar Bar ABA you know ABA you know we say Aba meaning father right or meaning son right so his name actually meant bar son of the father uh some people some old manuscripts has Jesus bar uh Jesus bar uh parabus right that’s probably not in the text and anything that I looked at it wasn’t uh there in any kind of major manuscripts all right but it’s ironic that the true son of the father will die in the place of the wicked son of the father so it’s kind of like a play here uh maybe with this name and so what happens at this particular time is now that this is out there and pilate has had announced to the crowd what he was going to do the crowd of course were were was to make a choice but who’s in that crowd look at verse number eight the crowd went up and began asking him to do as he had been accustomed to do for them so obviously they knew about this custom but the crowd here assembled with the intention of demanding the release of barabus so then they were probably in fact a most of them would be a mob of barabus supporters that were in that crowd so what was pilate’s offer again in verse number nine pilate answered them saying do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews now if you notice pilate seemed to think that he could get Jesus released and play the people against the Sanhedrin and by custom pilate could deliver to the crowd one whomever they wanted but he keeps Jesus in the Forefront he doesn’t mention barabus at all and so he also knows this about what’s going on behind the scenes notice in verse number 10 and remember there’s always motive that’s going on notice in verse number 10 when he was aware of the chief priests and he was aware that the chief priest and had handed him over because of Envy all right so pilate was Discerning enough to know that it was Envy of the chief priests which really moved them to deliver up Jesus Jesus had been too influential with the common people so there was a jealousy among the chief priests which fueled their motives against Christ against Jesus and so the counter offer by the chief priests were was quickly ignored actually because notice in verse number 11 the crowd is is stirred up to jealousy it says but the chief priest stirred up the crowd to ask him to release barabus for them instead so the high priests were determined to influence the outcome of the vote by preferring barabus over Jesus now why did they do that because at least barabus tried to overthrow the Roman government but failed that’s why he was an insurrectionist an insurrectionist is someone who tries to overthrow a government all right he was also barabus was sick of the oppression the Romans were putting on the Jews and so he tried to do it he got caught he he got put in prison and in the end he also murdered somebody in the process so Jesus they thought as the Messiah would have overthrown the Roman government and established the Messianic Kingdom but here Jesus stood silent passive and helpless so to them he was nothing like the Messiah they were hoping for and so the crowd was easily being influenced by this jealous group of high priests and rulers of Israel and so pilate again is trying to hold it off he doesn’t want Jesus uh to be crucified he does not want Jesus to do that so notice in verse number 12 here’s the pilate’s offer again pilate it says answering again pilate said to them then what shall I do with him whom you call King of the Jews see pilate is is willing to release Jesus if that was the wish of the crowd now even though Mark does not record this and Matthew records this right at that particular Point what happens he gets a memo from his wife he gets a message from his wife and pilate’s wife exhorted him not to allow the execution of this one called Jesus and listen what it says in Matthew it says while he was sitting on the Judgment seat his wife sent him a message saying have nothing to do with that righteous man for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of him so you see that everything was being uh put forward to a pilot not to go forward with it and so what happens is that the mob mentality takes over and the crowd really had no good will towards Jesus at this particular point and it says in verse number uh 13 they shouted back crucify him and verse 14 and pilate said to them why what evil has he done but they shouted all the more crucify him so pilot is saying listen this man is innocent and no one has proved to me any evil evil that he has done no one’s proved to me anything there was no evidence so pilate tries to reason with the crowd because he saw the injustices in their cries uh and especially the cries of an unhinged mob there’s no reasoning in a mob a mob just goes goes uh goes with the flow and whoever is leading they follow that leader and of course the leader here was the chief priests and the elders because it even says uh in in the word of God in in Matthew that the chief priest and Elders persuaded the crowd uh to ask for barabus to put Jesus to death so see the vote comes in loud and clear but they shout all the more crucify him crucify him so Jesus is not condemned by the Roman Court he is never condemned by anybody he is found innocent on all charges as far as pilate is concerned instead he is offered up by some festable custom and by a crowd persuaded by a jealous religious body who just wanted Jesus dead at all costs so how did they choose how did they choose in this case when they came to their own understanding about answering that question the identity question about who Jesus actually is well they chose in accord with their own sinful and wicked heart they chose a law breaker instead of Jesus they chose a man of blood instead of the prince of peace they chose hatred and violence instead of the mercy and love of God so Jesus and barabus stood for two different ways Jesus way of Mercy Grace and love and barabus is way of hatred bitterness and War but have you ever ever considered the constant patterns that bombard Us in the news every single day headlines are filled with with really pretty much the same basic things violence destruction death right that’s what sells the news I can’t predict the headlines of this following week but I am sadly confident that the themes will not change the themes will be the same violence destruction Deb there’ll be some other country that someone needs to bomb there’ll be someone who will be killed and beheaded there’ll be some someone who shoots another person right the violence is just rampid all over the place almost you almost get to the point where you’re sick of hearing it yet that is reality sometimes we wonder how long the depressing catalog of evils in this world will continue but they will in fact if you ever read a that’s a Old Testament minor prophet he had some questions for God in this particular vein such as why does God tolerate wrong why is the world as it is why does God allow evils that stalk the world in which we live today well here is abac’s profound question and let me read to you from habc 1: 2-4 but just listen what he says it says how long O Lord will I call for help and you not he I cry out to you violence yet you do not save why do you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness yes destruction and violence are before me Strife exist and contention arises therefore the law is ignored and Justice is never upheld for the wicked surround the righteous therefore Justice comes out perverted man that passage just sounds like today’s news what’s going on right now you know why it’s never it’s not changed the heart of man has not changed the motives driving governments have not changed we should never depend on any of those things armies are not going to produce what God can produ just imagine picking up the Jerusalem Tribune newspaper after sun the sun goes down on the Sabbath during this time you would find news about what violence destruction dead oh here’s the title A would be king crucified on golgatha outside the city of Jerusalem that would be the news now saying that the Bible is the revelation of God and it tells us about his plan for the world see the Bible tells us that the world belongs to God and the that he has his reasons for tolerating evil for a time God has his reasons for to ating evil for a Time see God tells us that in the end evil will be brought to nothing and the whole world will be filled with the glory of God that’s what the scriptures tell us and that will happen someday well in Christ’s day it was still hard to get Justice which was now in the hands of a politically motivated judge named punches pilot now I want you to notice in verse number because look and see what really how the matter concludes pilot cowers and caves in and what does he do well you know it just shows you here he’s just a good politician when it comes right down to it I’m going to do what the people say so I don’t mess my position up right look what it says in verse number it says wishing to satisfy the crowd pilate released the rabus for them and after having Jesus scourged he handed him over to be crucified so see pilate is willing like a good politician to satisfy the people’s wishes and then of course it tells us in Matthew that he washes his hands of the matter to clear himself of the responsibility for the death of Jesus if that was take place and then what does he do he releases the criminal barabus and he Scourge has has Jesus the innocent scourged now he hoped that possibly the scourging might might avoid crucifixion and the people would feel sorry enough for Jesus to release him but there was a prophecy in this here because it says in mark 10:34 that he will be they will mock him and spit on him and Scourge him and kill him and three days later he will rise again the scourge was a long leather thong really studded with uh sharp pieces of metal and Bone and it literally tore a person’s back to Ribbons many of the Jews were not allowed to give more than it had to be less than 40 lashes because they knew after 40 people would just die they would go into shock they would go unconscious some would even go mad because of of the the severity of the treatment it was no light punishment Jesus was already beaten uh been beaten for three hours already and so there was a lot of stuff going on here and and Jesus the Guiltless one is handed over for crucifixion he is handed over to crucified on the cross now just think again what’s happening here a couple of false Witnesses take the stand in court and tell lies in an already pre judged jewelry why would God allow that soldiers stand in a circle around a man whose hands are tied and they strike him and spit spit upon him they place a a crown of thorns on his head and it looks like violence and destruction to me why would God allow that an innocent man is nailed to the cross he dies in agony he cries out my God my God why well here’s why because God allowed evil to have its day and use that evil to accomplish his own purpose in the words of Professor colen Smith he said this God takes the power of evil and uses its own momentum to bring about its own downfall Satan’s end becomes God’s means see God used evil if there was no evil then all these things could not happen against Christ if there was no death then Jesus couldn’t die so see God used evil to accomplish what Christ was going to do on the cross for what for us so we learn a lesson from barabus barabus was barabus the guilty is set free and the innocent is put to death barabus is spared and Christ is crucified now let let us remember what we are we’re corrupt we’re evil we’re miserable that’s how God sees us we are all by nature in the position of barabus we are guilty Wicked worthy of condemnation but here is our hope it is God who Pardons and justifies the ungodly he does it because Christ has suffered in our place we deserve Eternal death but a glorious savior has died in our place may we never rest until we can save by faith Christ is mine I deserve hell but Christ has died for me and believing in him I have the hope of Heaven I have the hope of eternal life so that’s where this All Leads When Faith looks at the cross it sees more than terrible evil Faith Sees God at work and believes his promise Faith sees that it is that is why Christ came into the world faith reckons that if God has said Christ will save his people from their sins then even death must be for that purpose and it was and if he did not die we could not be saved and that has been the problem all along in the gospel of Mark is how can a messiah who’s supposed to be a deliverer and a conqueror die but he had to and of course after the resurrection we will see that becomes very clear to the disciples so today have you answered the question of who Jesus is correctly and responded appropriately that is to Believe In Christ Alone repenting of your sin and trusting in Jesus for salvation because that is the only correct response and if that response is yours then you can rejoice in that response if that response is not yours then you need to take your eternity seriously and consider that someday you will stand before this Jesus and a Christian will give an account but those who are unbelievers will also be judged by him and so it’s better to have Christ as your savior than Christ as your judge and so that’s where the gospels bring us what are you going to do with Jesus because it could turn out like this it can turn out just like this I pray it doesn’t and I pray that the young people may come to a place where they trust and believe in Jesus Christ that parents would be able to share the gospel with their children so their children can genuinely come to know Jesus Christ and that we would not be silent about the message of the gospel of Christ and share it with others so they too can be saved how are they going to know unless you tell them they going to know preacher all right without somebody proclaiming it well you’re the proclamation you to your family your friends your co-workers you so I pray this morning as we consider these things that all the injustices and the things that our our Lord went through for the very purpose for him to go to the cross in order for us to be saved that is trth cannot forget it’s a truth that we should never allow to become that we’re complacent and just take it as nothing or just a story that’s way more than that let’s pray Lord this morning I I do very much thank you Lord that your grace to us and mercy to us has been available and made available to us and is still made available to us every day I pray Lord that you consider it seriously thank you Lord Jesus that you fulfilled prophecy in everything that took place and that you accomplished all that the prophets had said that would happen to you as the servant Savior and you took it in a way that you laid the groundwork for salvation you the second Adam did what the first Adam could have never done you completely obeyed the father and accomplished everything so we can be saved thank you Lord for that and we praise you in Christ’s name amen